LOGOS: PR NEWSWIRE / NEWSCOM The Future of Sports Media What do the fans want? Sports teams, leagues, and marketing professionals are turning to a growing array of media to capture the elusive customer. There is probably no better place ate, and viewers—i.e., fans or cus- to examine the media landscape in tomers—will have unprecedented the next decades than the sports access to information on numerous arena, especially the first big players and yet-to-be-determined distribu- in this highly lucrative, multibillion- tion channels. By Irving Rein, dollar worldwide industry. We are In the United States, today’s now seeing a massive readjustment sports-media model was pioneered in what has historically been a syner- on television by ABC’s Wide World of Philip Kotler, and gistic relationship between the Sports, NBC’s coverage of the sports leagues and teams and the Olympics, and CBS’s Sunday after- media. In this transformation, new noon football. This relationship was Ben Shields alliances will be formed, media clear: The sports properties sold giants will be sorely pressed to oper- their rights to the media, who then ©2007 World Future Society • 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 450, Bethesda, MD 20814, U.S.A. • All rights reserved. 40 THE FUTURIST January-February 2007 www.wfs.org Reinventing Sports Media Pipelines New technologies are trans- forming the sports media land- scape. Today, a single team like the English soccer club Manches- ter United is accessing all the pipelines of traditional sports me- dia channels such as ESPN, as this table illustrates. In the future, we will continue to see teams, leagues, and even stars develop and manage their own media companies. ESPN Manchester United MANUTD.COM SCREEN CAPTURES Television ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, MUTV ESPN Classic, ESPNDeportes, ESPNU Radio ESPN Radio MU Radio Magazine ESPN the Magazine UNITED Internet ESPN.com Manutd.com Mobile Phone ESPN Mobile MU Mobile Restaurant ESPN Zone Red Cafe Manchester United isn’t just the world’s most popular football team; it is also a major business enterprise, branching into publishing, mo- bile communications, and financial services, among other industries. PR NEWSWIRE / NEWSCOM sold the sports content to advertis- communicates with its ers, who gained audiences and po- fans through every distri- tential customers for their products. bution channel imagin- The model was primarily built on able. From its flagship network television and was largely television network, the responsible for turning professional company has spawned and college sports into multibillion- other networks (ESPN2, dollar businesses. Over time, this ESPNEWS, ESPN Classic, model began to change as cable tele- ESPN Deportes), syndi- vision networks entered the sports cated radio stations rights fee arena and, because of cable (ESPN Radio), a maga- subscriptions revenues, began com- zine (ESPN the Magazine), peting with network television and an interactive Web site fragmenting what was once a with streaming video, scarcity-driven market. audio, insider informa- The best example of a current win- tion, and fantasy games ner is ESPN (Entertainment and (ESPN.com), a mobile Sports Programming Network), the phone content provider Major League Baseball’s MLB.com Mosaic offers on- synergistic sports-media brand that (Mobile ESPN), and line real-time simultaneous viewing of a several games. www.wfs.org THE FUTURIST January-February 2007 41 sports is America’s National Football Texas Hold ’Em in Sports Television League (NFL). For most networks, the NFL is sought after not only for its high ratings but also for the pro- In 1976, the major networks Major Networks: A fourth major motional lead-ins to the rest of the played in their own game and had network has been added to the network’s schedule and as a compet- all the chips. mix, FOX, which has invested itive asset in the television content heavily in sports programming to wars. Major Networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) build its media brand. Despite their league’s television Regional Sports Networks: This rights monopoly, the NFL has been group comprises team-owned building its own television channel, channels, such as the YES Net- the NFL Network, which competed work and Altitude Sports & En- against ESPN with its own NFL draft tertainment, and regional cable show and broadcast eight regular networks, such as the Comcast season games in the 2006 season. Sports Net Chicago or Fox Sports Rather than selling its Thursday and Net Pittsburgh. Saturday night television package to Cable Networks: Cable tele- other networks, the NFL is investing vision created new opportunities in its own media brand, using the for sports programming. ESPN Dealer network as a backup plan for the was the avatar of the 24-hour Three decades later, the table is time when or if television networks sports network and has since been crowded, with more chips and won’t pay the rights fees. The NFL followed by OLN. Superstations more players. Network has also bought the rights such as TBS and WGN have also to several college bowl games, covers integrated sports into their pro- Major Networks the league’s teams all year round Single gramming. Cable from the draft to training camps, and Sports Single Sports Channels: Leagues Networks builds the legends of the league with Channels and specific sports have devel- its popular NFL Films content. For oped dedicated channels to their the traditional sports media, the NFL sports. Examples include the NFL Network—along with the National Network, Fuel TV, and the Golf Basketball Association’s NBATV, the Channel. Regional Baseball Network, and other team- Satellite Satellite TV: Leagues now offer Sports only channels—is redefining sports TV Packages subscriptions that give the viewer Networks, television and transforming the Team-Owned access to almost any game. Ex- once-reliable sports rights infra- Channels amples include NFL Sunday Dealer structure. Ticket and Cricket Ticket. The Internet is another area in sports media where rules are being rewritten and the marketplace is rap- idly changing. Major League Base- sports-themed restaurants (the (the Red Cafe), and interactive Web ball (MLB), for example, through its ESPN Zone). Throughout most of site (Manutd.com) with streaming Advanced Media division, has built the cable network’s history, if a sport video, audio, insider information, a substantial Internet infrastructure wasn’t covered by ESPN, it didn’t and a fantasy game. Outdoing for streaming live video of baseball exist. ESPN, it even has its own financial games throughout the season. For a In the next stage, sports leagues services, including car insurance, one-time subscription fee, fans can and teams, because of technological credit cards, and mortgages; a ManU watch almost every baseball game of innovations, are beginning to com- lottery; and a host of other attrac- the season on their computer. municate differently with fans. For tions. As an English football club The streaming video business has the first time, the content providers outside of London, Manchester been a substantial revenue generator are developing pipelines directly United has transformed itself into a for the league, and it is defining the aimed at their fans. A leader in this global lifestyle brand through inno- ways that leagues and teams broad- transformation is Manchester vative partnerships and new media cast sports on the Internet and make United, the billion-dollar English communication strategies. a profit in the process. When the Na- football (soccer) club, which has The signals of this future trend are tional Collegiate Athletic Association adapted and expanded ESPN’s blue- everywhere. Sports properties are decided to stream the Final Four col- print to its own one-city team. It has becoming their own media compa- lege basketball tournament, it turned a television channel (MU TV), radio nies, interacting directly with their to MLB because it had the capacity station (MU Radio), magazine consumers without the filter of and skill to do so. MLB has become (United), mobile phone service (MU traditional media. For example, the one of the benchmarks for integrat- Mobile), team-themed restaurants most valuable television property in ing new technology into its commu- 42 THE FUTURIST January-February 2007 www.wfs.org nication strategies to meet the is the canary in the coal mine for the ing, and for the stakeholders, this changing expectations of fans, and future of media. It’s only a matter of means constant monitoring of MLB’s current success only means time before the professional sports change and a commitment to inno- that other sports properties will be- model becomes the standard in col- vation. ■ gin emulating and reconfiguring lege and high-school sports. The Big their formula. Ten Conference, for example, has A final indicator of the changing plans to begin a satellite channel to sports-media relationship is the provide content to its fans. Other en- increasing amount of fan-driven con- tertainments such as film, fashion, tent on the Internet. A good example and music are also developing their is Deadspin.com, a sports news Web own content and media pipelines to site that is operated out of the New reach targeted fan bases. York City apartment of the site’s It’s fair to say that the media land- founder. Deadspin covers sports scape over the coming decades will Rein Kotler Shields news like any other newspaper and look considerably different than it magazine, provides forums for fans does now. Moreover, the storytellers About the Authors to discuss the latest sports controver- and strategists who formerly worked Irving Rein is professor of communication sies, and is sometimes the first me- in these media channels will increas- studies at Northwestern University. dia outlet to break a story. Dead- ingly find employment with the con- Philip Kotler is the S.C.