THE MEDIA STRATEGIES OF SPORT COMPETITIONS: HOW CONTINENTAL EUROPEAN FOOTBALL LEAGUES ARE DEALING WITH A CHANGING MEDIA MARKETPLACE

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Abstract

Aim and Research Questions The global sport media rights marketplace is experiencing a historical rupture, threatening the commercial future of middle tier and minor sports competitions. Our research aims to map the responses of medium and lower tier European football leagues (according to UEFA coefficients) in a dynamic media system and accompanying shifts in consumer behaviour. Accordingly, our research questions are: - What are the most important strategic challenges for medium and lower tier leagues in the new media environment? - Which approaches have medium and lower tier leagues adopted to sustain their media income? - What are facilitators and barriers for implementing new approaches for media exploitation? Answering these questions will allow us to create a clearer picture on how these leagues perceive the future media landscape and their distribution solutions. Theoretical Background and Literature Review Sport and media have a symbiotic relationship that was formed throughout the neo- liberalisation of the television market. Within the ‘media sport triangle’, two viable sport media business models emerged via linear television - a free-to-air advertisement driven model, and a lucrative pay-tv model driven by subscriptions and advertising (see Rowe 2003). However, shifts in technology and consumer demand disrupted the traditional business models. The environment, best coined by the phrase ‘digital plenitude’ (Hutchins & Rowe, 2009; 2012), has forced sports to reconsider their media delivery models and media driven financialisation. It is a perfect storm for some sports. As broadcasters are facing pressure to maintain audiences, they are increasingly turning their attention to the major sports like the English Premier League (EPL). Viewers have more choice in media than ever before and younger audiences watch less live sport than generations in the past. As a result, the most lucrative football competitions garner greater international media rights revenue, which in some case is more than the local domestic leagues media rights revenue (e.g. Norway). European football leagues face an uncertain future and must navigate this significant change. Many niche sports are already experimenting with new sports media business models (e.g. handball, WRC) (Meier et al., 2019; Tickell & Evans, 2021), but medium and lower tier football leagues have, so far, received little attention in academic literature. Our research utilises Hutchins et al. (2019) approach for understanding sports media portals, whereby we investigate how medium and lower tier football leagues are coping with ‘digital plenitude’, and how this is affecting their rights marketplace and content delivery models. Research Design, Methodology The research questions are addressed with a comparative case study of medium and lower tier European football leagues. The leagues were sampled to reflect a variety in population size, GDP per capita, and sporting quality. To address our research questions, expert interviews and document analysis techniques were utilised. Expert interviews offer an effective means of exploring new areas of research that may not have been previously defined. A semi-structured interview technique was used, where pre-planned questions guided the interview, but allowed opportunities for exploring other interesting and relevant areas. The baseline issues included: media rights ownership, the (current) marketing of media rights, the relevance of distribution channels in terms of coverage and revenues, perceptions of the competitive environment, and future broadcasting marketing strategies. It allowed for a contextualised understanding of how key decision makers are perceiving, and reacting to, real world and ongoing threats to the financialisation of their sport. The interviews were coded via pattern coding and inductive coding to create a narrative report, before a more deductive analysis that was guided by our theoretical framework. Findings and Discussion The research found that the football leagues investigated all noted significant threats to their media rights models with the current round of contracts possibly being the last under previously understood models. The strategic challenges faced were not exclusively technologically driven, rather included external influences from competitors (i.e. the EPL) and audience behavioural changes that all served to reduce attention, coverage, and media revenues for domestic leagues. The sports managers interviewed stated that there was a clear business relationship between sport and linear television broadcasters, but this path to media driven financialisation would change in the short-to-medium term. Therefore, the shift in media driven financialisation will result in a fragmentation of business models as sports find solutions. Conclusion, contribution and implications Our research advances the understanding of media sport theories, like the media-sport triangle, in this crucial period of change. Moreover, it shows how these football leagues are creating the business models of the future and guiding media sport financialisation for the next generation of content delivery. The implications for sport management are two fold. Firstly, managers must find a way to secure media-based revenue as the linear television market changes. Secondly, managers must find ways to increase local interest to combat interest from globally dominant leagues. References Hutchins, B., Li, B., & Rowe, D. (2019). Over-the-top sport: Live streaming services, changing coverage rights markets and the growth of media sport portals. Media, Culture & Society, 41(7), 975–994. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443719857623 Hutchins, B., & Rowe, D. (2009). From Broadcast Scarcity to Digital Plenitude: The Changing Dynamics of the Media Sport Content Economy. Television & New Media, 10(4), 354–370. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476409334016 Hutchins, B., & Rowe, D. (2012). Sport Beyond Television: The Internet, Digital Media and the Rise of Networked Media Sport. Routledge. Meier, H. E., Hagenah, J., & Jetzke, M. (2020). Aggregation as the Remedy for the Decline of Niche Sports Broadcasting: A Case Study of the European Championships. International Journal of Sport Communication, 13(4), 719–743. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsc.2020-000 Rowe, D. (2003). Sport, Culture & Media: The Unruly Trinity. McGraw-Hill Education. Tickell, S., & Evens, T. (2021). Owned streaming platforms and television broadcast deals: The case of the World Rally Championship (WRC). European Journal of International Management, 15(2/3), 266-282. https://doi.org/10.1504/EJIM.2021.10032581

Speakers from the University of Münster

Tickell, Samuel Charles

Professorship for Social Sciences of Sports (Prof. Meier)