![\"A](\"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/SportelSocial-300x200.jpg\")
A panel of experts at Sportel last week discussed the role social media plays in the sports landscape.<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cYouTube has grown to attract different types of creators,\u201d he said. \u201cSome build complete businesses on shoulder content with no in-match footage. And the clubs, like Chelsea and Arsenal, are making the most of interviews, coverage of training, and more.<\/p>\n
Google\/YouTube is at the center of many streaming efforts and the company does provide information like when a piece of content is viewed, how long people watched, and what advertising was served against the content.<\/p>\n
William Field, Prospero Strategy, partner, said that while social media is currently seen as a way to engage with fans and make content more relevant the rights holders are beginning to recognize that monetization via social media lies ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they really want is monetization but if you take something like football there is a complex picture with leagues and clubs and there are tricky boundary issues,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Rights owners, he added, are relaxing some restrictions for live rights to allow for use on social platforms closer to the live window. Social media is here to stay so the attitude, increasingly, is allow properties to invest in the platforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a lot of content owners and sports properties a revenue share from YouTube is a very good way to get some value,\u201d he said. \u201cBut others are thinking differently, like Bleacher Report which went down the route of branded content.<\/p>\n
Francois Vasseur, marketing director, Federation Francaise de Football, said that the FFF first launched on Facebook in 2011 and its primary objective at the time was marketing and to tell stories without the need of the media.<\/p>\n
\u201cFive years ago our relationship with the fan involved having to talk to the media,\u201d he explained. \u201cAnd now we have insider content that our fans love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vasseur said that YouTube is perfect for telling longer stories as people don\u2019t switch away while Facebook is ideal for short-form programming.<\/p>\n
As for whether or not social media platforms will ever become primary and exclusive outlets for live sports content Field says the possibility is there as rights owners will sell the rights to whomever pays the most.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe elephant in the room is brands as tier two or three [sports and brands] can go online and have an ad revenue share,\u201d said Field. \u201cBut I am not sure the brand community has done enough and woke up enough to social media.\u201d<\/p>\n
A perfect example of the power of social media and sports is \u201cTie Break Tens,\u201d a new tennis format that features 10 first-to-10 point tiebreaks. Recently held in Vienna, Gareth Capon, CEO, Grabyo, said the event was streamed live on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram and nearly 750,000 people watched it on Facebook.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the page it was on only had 2,000 people liking it and that shows the potential of social platforms for distribution,\u201d said Capon. \u201cThe value of different types of content is changing and increasing. But more importantly someone can tell someone else about the content while there is nothing inherently viral about TV.\u201d<\/p>\n
The big issue is still the disparity between TV and digital revenues. The music industry went through a massive transition to get to a point where digital is the primary driver of music sales. But for sports larger events, like a Super Bowl or Olympics might need to be ad supported while other sports would look to pay TV. Smaller sports, without an installed fan base, will quicken the pace of change with respect to revenue models.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are entering a period of huge uncertainly and volatility as OTT is a threat to the traditional TV business model and social platforms will continue to take a lot of attention away from sport,\u201d added Field. \u201cThe key thing is that it is becoming harder and harder to keep people\u2019s attention. The real battle is for attention and using the tools to do that and feed the money machine that is sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
One issue with respect to digital advertising is that brands will quickly disengage from certain streaming sites when audiences wane.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe brands go elsewhere because the conversation is elsewhere,\u201d said Heimes. \u201cUnderarmour, Nike, and others are creating their own content because they have better relationships with the players and can shoot their own content and get it on YouTube. They are not waiting for the Federation. Adidas, for example, is one of the biggest brands on YouTube.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Social media\u2019s role as a primary distribution platform was the topic of discussion at a panel session at Sportel earlier this week. And while it seems that platforms like YouTube […]\n More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":107045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8899,9248],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107044"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107044"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107046,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107044\/revisions\/107046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}