doing Ligue 2. If it’s available for elite teams, it’s also available for other segments.” SPORTING DECISION Producing a sports match for television is nothing new. The option to do it at anything other than the very highest levels is unprecedented. “It unlocks fantastic opportunities for lower-level leagues, sports which weren’t able to find a model to finance traditional production,” Bergeaud enthuses. “If you include cameras, trucks and people, even if it’s only two or three cameras it adds up to a lot of cost and many leagues have no stream revenue to finance that. It’s a bit chicken and egg. Until they have media exposure, they can’t find money. We can give them media exposure, and they can find sponsors, advertisers, subscribers – many different models.” Those models have proved popular worldwide. “In Israel, we’ve done basketball,” Bergeaud reports. “Now all the leagues, both men’s and women’s, are covered and have been able to find new sponsors
– they wouldn’t have been able to do it without media exposure. The broadcaster for South Africa realised that the average age of their subscribers was becoming older and older – 60 plus. This broadcaster realised they needed to engage with a younger audience, and so launched SuperSport Schools on OTT.” “It was so successful,” Bergeaud reports, “that they actually launched a new linear channel called SuperSport Schools. The old model of traditional TV is coming back thanks to the technology of AI and automated production. We’re creating engagement for the community – not only the player, but their family and fans. In the US, for instance, we have a very large project for high schools. When people were stuck at home due to Covid-19, they wanted to see their kids play. Now we have a partnership with PlayOn TV, and with an app that people can subscribe to and watch their kids play in the high school. We have a million people subscribing at $20 a month.”
UNTIL SPORTS HAVE MEDIA EXPOSURE, THEY CAN’T FIND MONEY
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