Kauser Kanji
VOD Pro
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The World Cup starts today – 48 teams, 104 matches, 39 days, and by our count, the fifth tournament of the streaming era. So this week, Lydia and I look at what five tournaments of streaming have taught us, and what to expect this time round.
We dig into the numbers behind how the BBC and ITV have grown their live streaming audiences across the last four tournaments – and have a go at forecasting what those numbers might look like this time round. We also get into the technical challenge of streaming live sport at this scale, and why some of the most memorable failures aren’t always down to the broadcasters themselves.
Then there’s shoulder content – and one company in particular that’s built a serious business around the World Cup without owning a single live match. We also look at the BBC’s plan to put match highlights on YouTube, and ask whether that’s smart audience strategy or something else entirely. And we touch on Netflix’s curious pivot back toward live sport and linear TV – just as everyone else went the other way.
We finish with a look at what the World Cup means commercially for ITV, the perennial challenge of turning occasional viewers into regular ones, and a small diversion into bracketology – including my entirely delusional predictions for how far England might go.
As ever, feel free to reach out to me or Lydia on LinkedIn with any thoughts.
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction to the World Cup Discussion
01:59 The Streaming Evolution of the World Cup
05:02 Analysing Past World Cup Performance
10:53 Forecasting Future Streaming Numbers
17:07 Challenges in Streaming Live Sports
23:57 User Experience and Commercial Strategies
28:15 Monetisation Strategies in Streaming Sports
29:29 The Future of Streaming vs. Traditional Broadcast
30:36 Technology Challenges for Broadcasters
31:40 Understanding Shoulder Content
32:57 Rights Holders vs. Non-Rights Holders
36:00 The Impact of World Cup on Ad Revenues
48:01 Viewer Engagement Beyond Major Events
54:01 The Rise and Future of Sports Documentaries
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ABOUT KAUSER KANJI
Kauser Kanji has been working in online video for 20 years, formerly at Virgin Media and NBC Universal, and founded VOD Professional in 2011. He has since completed major OTT projects for, amongst others, A+E Networks, the BBC, BBC Studios, Channel 4, DR (Denmark), Liberty Global, Netflix, Sony Pictures, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation and UKTV. He now writes industry analyses, hosts an online debate show, OTT Question Time, as well as its in-person sister event, OTT Question Time Live.