The Business of TV Sport
Professional sport has experienced an economic boom that few other sectors
of industry can match. Competition among media companies has led to
significant year-on-year increases in the value of sports media rights, while
the huge expansion of sports coverage has underwritten an increase in the value of sponsorship and marketing rights.
The global value of sports television rights in 2010 will be over US$27 billion, an increase of over 70 per cent on the US$15.85 billion spent in 2003. The value of sponsorship, merchandising and other commercial revenues is set to reach US$54 billion in 2010, from just under US$31 billion in 2003.*
The Business of TV Sport: Values and Strategies for Television and New Media Rights, a new report from the publishers of the highly acclaimed TV Sports Markets newsletter, looks at the strategies, business models and trends behind arguably the most lucrative revenue stream in sport.
Despite the current economic crisis, there continues to be headlinegrabbing deals for the major global sports events and for the top sports leagues across the world. However, the deals for elite sport don’t tell the whole story. For many sports, securing exposure and rights fees is a struggle.
In order to develop a successful media-rights strategy, sports-rights holders need to understand how media markets work and how the valuations that operators place on sports content are determined by the operator’s underlying business model. Having a better understanding of why broadcasters, internet operators or mobile operators want sport, and what kind of sport they want, will enable rights-holders to adapt their sports to meet the demands of a competitive market.
The major rights-holders – Fifa, Uefa, the IOC, the Premier League and Formula One – have been at the cutting edge of rights exploitation for the last two decades and much can be learned from studying their responses to changing media markets. At the same time, many smaller rights-holders, sports rights agencies and entrepreneurs have been coming up with creative solutions to enhance the media coverage of sport and drive revenues.
The Business of TV Sport report is an analysis of how the media rights to sport are exploited, beginning from definitions of what media rights are and who owns them, and building step-by-step to an in-depth assessment of the methods and strategies which have been used to create value for rights-holders. The analysis is supported by a series of detailed cases studies which provide an ‘up-close’ insight into how the industry works.
The book examines the myriad factors used in the valuation of rights and the different strategies available for maximising that value for television and new media rights, including the ways in which Invitations to Tender (ITTs) are constructed and how rights are packaged according to different market conditions. The book also explains the impact of regulation on the sale of rights. Rights-holders for many second-tier and minor sports have to give their rights away to obtain exposure and in some cases they even have to pay the television production costs. Many have looked to new media, especially broadband internet, as a salvation and while the medium is full of possibilities, finding the right business model to make the most of them has proved elusive.
For the synopsis of this unique resource please contact our team on infoteam@sportbusiness.com or +44 (0) 207 954 3514.
Published Date: 6th August 2009
NB: THIS REPORT IS ONLY AVAILABLE AS A PDF
* PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Entertainment and Media Outlook, 2008 to 2012