Twenty First Century Fox Inc.’s (FOXA) Fox Sports, which holds the exclusive English broadcast rights to the 2018 World Cup, has announced several content partnerships that will expand their coverage beyond the television screen. FOXA announced plans to stream exclusive digital content on Twitter, Inc. (TWTR), including 27 live shows (30 minutes per) and near real-time highlights of every goal scored. On Snapchat (SNAP), the broadcast network will create “Publisher Stories” using video, text, artwork and motion graphics to comprehensively document every day of the tournament. SNAP will also produce FIFA World Cup “Our Stories”, featuring highlights and exclusive fan reactions. The 2018 World Cup, hosted by Russia, runs from June 14th through July 15th.
Howie Long-Short: To boost advertiser interest, Snapchat commissioned a recent study (using internal data and insight from Nielsen) on the company’s “unique audience”; users more active on SNAP than they are on other social platforms. The study focused on a subset of users interested in sports and sports-related content. It found SNAP users are more likely to be sports fans (i.e. watch, attend, stream games) than non-users, are more active on their smartphones at sporting events (important to activate and connect with fans) and “feel a stronger connection to sports” (i.e. spend more on officially licensed products). That sounds like a platform all sports leagues might want to explore.
Fan Marino: Twitter is reportedly exploring the concept of implementing micro-payments that would enable sports fans to watch the endings of close games; think iTunes for sporting events. I don’t see it. Fanatics (or gamblers) who would care about the ending of a close game, already have access to the out-of-market packages. The casual fan will simply continue to catch the highlights as soon as the game ends, for free. Proponents of this idea point to video games and the success in-game micro-payments, but gamers are engaged. I don’t believe that’s a valid case study.
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