The Sports Entrepreneurs Podcast by Marcus Luer
Episodes
Thursday Feb 25, 2021
Bernard Stewart, "ESPN - An Insider's Story"
Thursday Feb 25, 2021
Thursday Feb 25, 2021
Enjoy our deep dive into the world of ESPN the "worldwide leader in Sports" through Bernard Stewart's eyes and stories.
Bernard has had an illustrious career at ESPN for 30 years, from the early days of the truly first Sports Network in the world to overseeing its expansions globally and many other roles. Learn how ESPN started, expanded, the challenges and growth stories told by a true insider.
Key Highlights
Coming out of College and Air Force teaching Film and starting independent projects in TV & Movie Production
Start working at a Capital City company, WTNH TV New Haven – first break and being taught the world of “Broadcast Politics”. Created Program called “First Edition”
ESPN – the start of the first Sports Network (1979) - father and son founding team (Bill and Scott Rasmussen) - RCA’s first Satellite helps to distribute the channel across the US, start-up funding from Getty Oil (US$ 10 million)
ESPN = Entertainment Sports Programming Network, original programming from Tractor pulling to Softball (only 6 hours a day), major sports still at the big traditional broadcasters
ESPN Sports Center – iconic show, first time stories beyond the action and beyond the 3 min News highlights on traditional TV
John Malone (Liberty Media), true leader in Cable growth and expansion and support of ESPN (the content piece) – meeting with ESPN and Malone group, game changer in revenue share model
Getting into the big League sports, MLB and NFL – didn’t come cheap – ability to pay purely because of large and growing cable fees (affiliate fees)
A reflection on market reported numbers - ESPN in 2020, US$ 11 billion Revenue, US$ 8.6 billion in Affiliate fees versus US$ 2.3b in advertising (only) – game changer
His producer Role – creating “stories” and working around broadcast embargos, etc - 1984 Olympics in LA and Sarajevo
1983 America’s Cup – first time the US teams loses the Cup in 132 years – Bernard had a crew at event from the start to capture the drama while its unfolding, big success
Short sting at WBZ TV Boston before Round 2 at ESPN as Director Program Planning – it’s a monster to plan (war room to map out two year worth of programming), together with Program Acquisition team
Shaping the sports world through smart programming and connecting different parts of the industry
First overseas action – Australian group showed up, trailer in Parking Lot, recording content and shipping tapes to Australia - syndication by tapes at that time
TV Conferences and Conventions – big part of the push for ESPN going global - new Sandbox to play in – develop international division (syndicating US content globally)
Sportel history - Monte Carlo, Monaco early days – reminiscing on how it all started and ESPN’s – “the worldwide leader in Sports” role to shape the industry
Moving to Hong Kong as VP & GM of ESPN Asia Pacific – the opportunities and challenges to take the brand globally – understand, listen and being sensitive to local differences, get a seat on the table first - Disney buying ESPN in mid 90s and leaving it mostly alone
ESPN/Star Sports (ESS) world – ESPN & Murdoch JV in Asia – his view as a Board Member – how it started (my view) and his inside stories
The challenges of how to make it work and Marcus recent discussion with a Senior executive in the new ESPN/Disney lead Fox Sports Asia – Bernard’s career in a nutshell, creating opportunities - History of Cricket program example
Look at the current world of Sports Media Rights and Cable industry vs OTT dynamics – reverse world – shrinking Cable subscriptions
Disney+, ESPN+, Netflix and big growth of OTT
ESPN+ USD 5.99 in the US - cannibalization of business model? Is the House on fire or not discussion?
Value for money philosophy ingrained in Disney and how that shapes their decision making – price vs value – and change with the times
Disney & ESPN doubling down by purchasing FOX Sports channels globally (over US$ 70 billion transaction) - his view, it’s about repositioning by Murdoch
SPACs – 60-70 launched over the past 12 months, new directions and new opportunities for the big players
Wrapping up with Bernard’s current roles and projects, back at writing scripts and film making, working with family offices raising funds for slate of films (AJE3 Studios – www.aje3studios.com)
E-Zero – Ecological Zero idea
About
Bernard Stewart was a member of the original creative team that started SportsCenter and ESPN. During his extended career with ESPN, Bernard's senior executive roles included the development and management of long-term strategies for ESPN’s International family of networks. He was the company's most senior executive for all of Asia including India; Oceania (Australia, NZ); the Pacific (Japan), and the Caribbean.After a lengthy career with the Walt Disney Company/ESPN, Bernard founded an entertainment, lifestyle, and production company. AJE3 Studios has a very active list of projects that include Family Office advisory, Film and Television, digital platform development, website design, and Branding Marketing.Bernard's content development and acquisition experiences include directed high profile rights negotiations for premier world events including The FIFA World Cup, The Olympics, and The UEFA Champions League. He was a program executive involved in the development of the ESPY's; launched international versions of SportsCenter and an Emmy nominated producer, and have created or developed over 30 original series and multi-platform program concepts for network, digital, and syndication distribution.Bernard is recognized as a featured international industry speaker with appearances that include Renmin University, The Peoples Republic of China; International Trade Specialist for the United States at The Bahamas Copyright Stakeholder Summit; the Jamaica Sports Business Summit on Global Brand building, and a featured speaker and Advisor to the Jamacia International Fim Festival.Author of the business management and life coaching book, “Fifty50 - A Guide to a Successful Work-Life Balance”.
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Thursday Feb 11, 2021
John Gleasure, "Sports Media Distribution - from Betting to OTT"
Thursday Feb 11, 2021
Thursday Feb 11, 2021
John Gleasure has been on the forefront of sports media distribution from his early days in BskyB to the dotcom boom days of Sportal to launching 3G applications for Hutchison Whampoa. And then starting Inform with a group of fellow sports executives 15 years ago which turned into PERFORM and now DAZN (the leading Sports OTT platform globally). Incredible journey and learning along the way.
Key Highlights
Playing some decent football can get you a good job, ask John. His early days at EMI Music
BskyB, learning the ropes in the cable industry, Marketing Manager for Sky Sports, Sky Digital, his true University in business and sports
Dotcom days, Sportal – interviewed by Andrew Croker, incredible team of people, launching various websites (portals) for sports properties, wild ride – dotcom crash
Leading to role at Hutchison Whampoa, Head of Sports – 3G rollout, video clips, etc – learning, it takes a lot longer than you expect for technology and consumers to pick it up (as example, the company didn’t use the Premier League rights for 1.5 years because they were not ready to deploy it)
Inform Group – ventured into Entrepreneurship together with Simon Denyer, Stefano D’Anna and Mike Ingram
First business model didn’t work and then stumbled into the Live streaming for Betting websites space, started to work with Premium TV (Oli Slipper)
Business started to take off and grow, merger with Premium TV to create Perform Group – mutually beneficial for both sides, bringing in Access Industries (Ukraine born, UK/US Billionaire, Sir Len Blavatnik)
Lots of opportunities to grow internationally for a mostly UK based business at the time
Took role as MD APAC and moved to Asia – acquisition of content, driving new digital revenues which were not there before for rights holders, building partnerships
Key to Performs success was ingesting huge volume of content at the right cost and driving new revenue streams from it – betting revenue, PPV, other subscription services (first look at OTT)
IPO in 2011, raised GBP 168 million in process, looking for growth – buying Goal.com, Opta, Livesport services, etc
Going from B2B to B2C business model and the challenges along the way
De-listing in 2013 (GBP 700 mil valuation), market didn’t appreciate all the new business areas the management was exploring, including OTT – safer to be private
The start of the DAZN idea, in 2014 – OTT is much more than streaming on the web – radical change of business model
Two distinct businesses, Perform B2B and DAZN B2C – clear focus on growing DAZN and Perform needed its own home to continue its growth
Divested out of Perform, Goal.com, etc – kept equity stakes – New partnership now known as "Perform Stats"
How the DAZN launch markets were picked, DACH (German-speaking region) and Japan – similarities in PayTV markets and opportunities to buy strong content for a reasonable price
Launching across multiple platforms from native Apps (Android & IOS), web, smart TV, consoles, Pay TV boxes, etc – find DAZN everywhere, anytime
OTT and beyond – 60-75% watch DAZN on TV in Germany – certain events over 1 million streams – watching through traditional TV still the largest viewership (surprising for me)
OTT goes way beyond traditional linear TV coverage in terms of fan engagement and user interactivity
But the “old” arbitrage model is still there and pure subscription model is tough to make work, advertising still plays an important role and other revenue streams
DAZN’s global boxing offerings – US$ 1.99 per month (test price) – purchased big rights globally
Multi-sport focused, different offerings across the world. Scale is a big differentiator, better rates, etc
F1 in Spain, Bundesliga and Champions League in Germany – lots of new rights coming on stream and new management firepower
Partnership model vs straight forward rights sales model – current tough times might help in a positive way if we all learn from it
About
John Gleasure is DAZN Group Executive Vice Chairman. In this role, he works on the company’s long-term strategy and focuses on key priorities including key global business partnerships, new ventures and diversity and inclusion. John is a member of the DAZN Group executive committee management team and is a founder of DAZN and Perform Group. With more than 25 years of experience within international media, rights, marketing and distribution, John previously held leadership roles at Sky Sports, EMI Records, Hutchison Whampoa and Sony Pictures.
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To get in touch, please email us at podcast@marcusluer.com
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