Over the years, the sports and entertainment sectors have become one in the same. These two fields have merged as the ethos of the American pastime. Together they’ve formed big businesses that radically influence mass audiences as institutions in their own right. By 2015, the global sports market is projected to hit revenues north of $145 billion. That’s the depth and power these verticals have on society.
There’s one underlying factor that has disrupted these industries more so than anything else: technology.
Variety’s Sports Entertainment Summit, in association with Sports Video Group, will delve into the future of these synonymous entities tomorrow in Los Angeles. The leading executives across marketing, television, mobile, and new media will be on hand to discuss a sundry of hot topics affecting sports business now and going forward.
Last year, some of the talking points elaborated by these executives still resonate today.
“Sports is the content the consumer wants most and they want to get it when and however they want, and there are effective ways to do that. So we are working with content holders for the rights to get consumers the content they want; and we are working hard to do that from an authentication basis, so they can have content available for streaming 24/7,” said David Rone, President of Time Warner Cable Sports.
Rone’s statements are relevant a year later as the broadcaster outbid for the most lucrative property in the Southern California area, the Los Angeles Lakers, which has served them as the pillar to establish a regional sports network. And owning these particular rights should enhance their leveraging standpoint besides their 12 million subscribers nationwide.
Meanwhile, HBO has found success in the digital age but haven’t capitalized on their sports programming lately, specifically boxing, compared to their other properties. This reality is unfortunate when one takes into consideration the overall equity the HBO Go app has in the marketplace.
“It’s really complementary. It brings interactivity to the programming and gets younger people more involved in the way they watch,” said Ken Hershman, HBO’s President, at the time.
This year, though, the most compelling panels revolving around technology are TV everywhere, companion mobile devices, and cloud-based workflows within the production aspect.
“Can We Score with TV Everywhere and Sports Programming?” panel will feature executives such as Jonathan Wilner, VP of Product at Ooyala, Christen Harris, VP of Digital Video Distribution at Disney and ESPN Media Networks, and Albert Lai, Brightcove’s Chief Technology Officer. They will assess whether fans’ accessibility needs can be matched and the road to get there.
The “Beyond the Game Programming Technology – Companion Mobile, Social, and Online Experiences” panel will be highlighted by Tyler Slocum, Director of Mobile at NFL and Ken Fuchs, VP of Sports, Games, and Entertainment at Yahoo!. They will elaborate on how mobile’s impact filters fan engagement through storytelling on these platforms.
And “Touching the Cloud: How Cloud-Based Workflows are Changing the Sports Postproduction Landscape” panel with the likes of John King, Sr. Sales Engineer at Aspera and Greg Estes, NVIDIA’s Technology and Media Marketing Executive, will gauge the pros and cons of these technologies as it pertains to their daily practices.
Similar to the tech-based subjects that will be addressed tomorrow, Variety and SVG promise to host an event worthy of one filled with knowledge and progressive discussion on the sports and entertainment frontiers.