When we think of sports associated with media, we tend to think about game broadcasts and usually forget about a huge deal of content that can be monetized. But around the games themselves, there’s a whole world of potential content just waiting to be exploited, from pre-game interviews to fan reactions, even cheerleading (when applied) can make for a world-building experience designed to combine the experience of sports and OTT.
Whether you’re in front of a team or managing a league, you need to be able to engage with your fans or even capture the attention of those not that readily aware of your product. This is especially true in an age where attention span is significantly reduced when you compare it to ten years ago. We’ve gone from an MTV mindset, referring to quick editing and short-form content to a YouTube mindset, which applies to all of the above characteristics, plus the connected content and navigational aspect of things. So, if you want to maintain a brand, a brand you already think has people engaged, think again, your full potential is yet to be explored.
Let’s make an exercise and take soccer as an example. What goes into the coverage of a live event? The cameras, the lighting, the people operating the cameras, the commentators and last, but certainly not least, the players. If you have all of these already at your disposal, why not make the best of it? Create a whole world of programming around your subject and explore all your options, not only for fan engagement but also for monetization.
This “programming world” is easily achieved with minimum increased investment. If you have the means, there is. And for the sake of argument, let’s say you do. Well, you can have pre-game countdowns, building the story of the match; you can create pieces on the players, personal and related to the sport; you can have talk shows leveraging already established members of society and their constant need for exposure; you can even do entertainment shows, either seeking out fans and their connection to the subject matter or have players, coaches and such personalities outside of their environment, having, for example, a cooking show with each one presenting a recipe each week.
If you already have a Linear TV channel dedicated to your subject, you’re no stranger to this kind of content and it’s even easier to make the move to OTT. You can even flex those PR muscles and present a good narrative to your audience for making the move. Offering their favorite content on demand whenever they want it, it’s sure to boost those engagement metrics you were craving.
These are just a few examples of the options an OTT platform can open up. But what about that sweet monetization? Can subscriptions alone match the rights you sold or rented out to a third party network? Can they match the advertisement bought on your linear TV channel? The answer is a resounding yes, based on the multiplication of options alone.
With linear TV, if you haven’t sold or rented your rights, you can basically only monetize through ad space, but on the other hand, with OTT you can monetize from subscriptions, from ads on the platform interface, ads on the content itself, from multiple subscription tiers for premium content, from users paying not to have ads shown, and all of this with a significant key advantage: you can get to your audience through multiple platforms, wherever they are.
The multi-platform presence of OTT services has opened up a floodgate of opportunities, which linear TV simply can’t address. By establishing an OTT service, your audience is able to take your content with them at all times, through computers, smartphones, tablets or even smartwatches. This provides them with notifications for new content and scheduled events, as well as the opportunity to casually show your content to friends and, in the process, become informal ambassadors to your brand. What this also does, is to increase the potential for ads to connect with the user, significantly increasing your value for ad space buyers.
Of course, not every sport is the same, they may not even have leagues or championships, but what was said before is also true to those examples. If you plan to open a fitness service, there’s a lot more than just the training videos, you have the trainers themselves, which can be marketed with a whole lifestyle content basis, there’s the health angle, which can be exploited from food videos, and you can even do weekly shows answering subscriber questions. In each of these contents, you can even introduce product placement.
Product placement has been around for a long time, so OTT isn’t breaking new ground, or is it? While product placement, or any kinds of ads, are a staple of Linear TV, with this new platform you are now able to know viewing habits, pinpoint demographics and all other sorts of valuable information to use as leverage when selling ad space, this way increasing your value as a whole. So, even if you already have a 24 hour a day linear TV channel with your content, your revenue from OTT would only increase, not just because of the aforementioned reason, but because you can also keep that channel for live event’s sake and increase your brand world, with content suited to a new service.
The OTT ad market beat expectations in 2018, growing to nearly $2.7 billion with a 54% year over year growth rate, and is expected to surge to over $5 billion by 2020. In other words, it’s supposed to almost double in the next 18 months. There are more people watching ad-supported OTT programming, and according to a recent report from IPG’s Magna Global, they have a 3.8 times higher retention rate for ads shown via streaming services. The study found that not only are OTT ad messages retained better, but they also create more emotionally engaging experiences, especially for younger audiences.
To know more about how you can maximize your business potential with an OTT platform, contact us. Here at WeTek, we’ve been at the forefront of this revolution for some time now, and we have the tools that will take your company to the next level.
