The recent acceleration in ESPN’s subscriber decline has prompted speculation in the press that in five years’ time, ESPN will not be able to recoup the investment from buying its existing sports rights portfolio through its subscription revenue. So, if not broadcasters like ESPN, which businesses will be in a position to buy sports rights in the future?
We are witnessing a shift in power away from the businesses that built the sports rights market towards those with distinctly different models – digital platforms. Step forward Amazon, Facebook, Google, Apple and Tencent.
Only tech giants own the customer
In these times, nobody truly “owns” the customer in the same way digital platforms do.