The Masterclass Can There be Such a Thing as Too Much Sport? featured IMG Media’s Adam Kelly who pointed out that the idea of too much sport is often confused with a push for greater value in a crowded and difficult market.
“The question of quantity is about the growing complexity of the battle for people’s attention. With so much activity and so many new entrants in the sector, maximising returns for the stakeholders is all about market share, and that in turn is about understanding fans and their habits,” Kelly said.
Eurovision Sport’s Glen Killane agreed: “There isn’t too much sport, but there are challenges with promotion and distribution, especially for second and third-tier sports,” he pointed out. “There is such a massive difference in profile and audience size between the big, popular sporting events and the rest, that the best way for less popular sports to grow their audience is to take advantage of the scheduling of the big events. There needs to be much more coordination”
FIBA’s Frank Leenders agreed with Killane, and posed a very relevant question: “Is it a case of ‘less is more’ or ‘more is more’? It’s just like if you eat caviar and truffles every day, they stop being special, it’s the same with the big sporting events. Do we need more top flight football, or the Olympics happening more often? I don’t think we do, but we do need to find better ways to offer the right sport at the right time.”
IMG Media’s Kelly pointed out the importance of analysis: “For any sport to resonate with viewers, you need to get the fundamentals right. You need jeopardy, and you also need to add value and relevance. And that’s why at IMG Media we analyse much more detail then previously.”