The Broadcast Sport Podcast

England Netball chief commercial officer Mark Foster talks to Broadcast Sport editorial director Jake Bickerton about the federations new broadcast rights deal with Sky Sports and the BBC, which sees one live match a week across the regular season of the Netball Super League (NSL) streamed on BBC iPlayer and on the BBC Sport website and app. Another live match will be broadcast on Sky Sports’s YouTube channel. The season opener, semi-finals and grand final will all be shown both on linear TV through Sky Sports. Matches will also be made available on the global netball OTT platform, Netball Pass. This consolidates games from the three major domestic netball leagues around the world in one platform. As well as its recent rights deals, which focused on the value of a mixed rights portfolio including pay-TV, free-to-air and an OTT D2C platform, Foster talks about the role of athlete-led social content in helping attract a new audience to netball, and the value of the data and insights in driving and growing audience engagement. He also explains what highlights packages are most appealing to fans of the game, and how these are distributed to fans.

This episode of the Broadcast Sport Podcast sees Broadcast Sport senior reporter Max Miller speak to Olympic Broadcasting Services CEO Yiannis Exarchos about the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Exarchos reveals how the host broadcaster will be promoting women’s sport, as well as women within sport broadcasting, in an effort to reflect the gender parity on the field for 2024. Broadcast Sport also spoke to Mary Byrne, editor-in-chief of Olympics.com and the Olympics Channel about how the IOC’s content will be aim to do the same last month. ​ Among OBS’ initiatives is boosting the number of women in its technical hubs, and a scheme for young people to take paid roles in the broadcast of the Games. In addition, Exarchos speaks about some of the technical innovations that will be in use for the Games, which include a virtualised OB van, broadcasting through the cloud, and more. He spoke about the AI technologies that will be used at the IOC’s AI Agenda event this month, which you can read about here.

Lawrence Duffy, founder and CEO of Aurora Media Worldworld, talks to Broadcast Sport editorial director Jake Bickerton about the production of electric racing events. Aurora produces Formula E, Extreme E and now also the E1 electric boat racing series. We talk about the different approaches to covering electric racing, the need to make production sustainable and the future of electric motor sports.

For this edition of the Broadcast Sport Podcast, senior reporter Max Miller spoke with ECB head of digital and content for The Hundred, Rob Johnson, ​Little Dot strategy director for sport and brand, Fiona Wood, and Dizplai commercial director Peter Cassidy. The trio all played key roles in turning The Hundred’s 2024 digital draft into a digital first production. The draft took place at The Shard on 20 March, streaming live to YouTube and TikTok and drawing over 100,000 viewers. The ECB and Little Dot reveal the strategy and production that went into the move to digital, in which graphics provided by Dizplai played a key part. The trio speak about how the broadcast was planned and executed, with tips on how to appeal to online audiences and tailor streams to younger audiences.

This edition of the Broadcast Sport Podcast sees senior reporter Max Miller speak to Lorton Entertainment CEO and founder Julian Bird about upcoming boxing docuseries Stable and the wider sport documentary industry. Stable will launch on BBC1 and iPlayer from Saturday 30 March, and follows the McGuigan family boxing gym, where Shane McGuigan, son of International Boxing Hall of Famer Barry McGuigan, trains the fighters alongside assistant coach Josh Pritchard, and Shane’s brother, Jake McGuigan, manages the majority of the eight boxers.​ In addition, Bird speaks about how Lorton approaches financing its documentaries, having come from a banking background before moving into media and entertainment. He also gives insight into the future of sport documentaries, what he sees as the future for Lorton, which he founded in 2014, and where the company’s priorities lie.

EBU executive director of sport, Glen Killane, speaks to the Broadcast Sport Podcast about its new D2C streaming service, Eurovision Sport. He discusses how plans for service were created, its aims for viewership and other areas, and strategy to achieve these. He also outlines how the platform hopes to put gender equality at its core, with bringing audiences to women’s sport a major aim for the organisation, and how the EBU and service will work alongside the organisation’s member broadcasters. The EBU launched a D2C streaming service earlier this month, Eurovision Sport. The platform aims to complement coverage from EBU members, and is free-to-air. Its focus will be on Olympic sports such as athletics, gymnastics, skiing, swimming, and more, streaming World to European Championships, multi-sport events and national championships outside of the Olympics itself.

Broadcast Sport senior reporter Max Miller speaks to Box To Box head of sport and factual Warren Smith about how to create behind-the-scenes docuseries, and the future of the format. Box To Box is the company behind some of the most well known series of this type, including F1: Drive To Survive, golf's Full Swing, tennis' Break Point, and many more across various streaming services.

Sue Anstiss has been a pioneer in women’s sport for over 30 years. She’s an author, podcast host and entrepreneur, who was a founding trustee of the Women’s Sport Trust and co-founder of the Women’s Sport Collective. Sue is now CEO of Fearless Women, which drives positive change for women’s sport, having received an MBE for her services to women’s sport in 2018. This episode of the Broadcast Sport Podcast is a recording of the keynote speech at the Broadcast Sport Summit 2023, and focuses on Sue’s role in helping to grow women’s sport and, specifically, her influential and well-received book and Netflix documentary, Game On : The Unstoppable Rise of Women’s Sport. Anstiss explains how and why she made Game On, how she got it distributed, and the impact of both the book and documentary in helping shape a better future for women’s sport. She also talks about her award-winning Game Changers podcast and addresses what now needs to be done to capitalise on the substantial increase in the fanbase and interest in women’s sport over recent years. Speaker: Sue Anstiss MBE, Director and Producer of the Netflix documentary Game On & CEO - Fearless Women Chair: Rachel Stringer, Sports Broadcaster and Producer

In this episode of the Broadcast Sport Podcast, senior reporter Max Miller speaks to IMG's senior vice president and managing director of digital, Lewis Wiltshire, about its recently released Digital Trends Report 2024. Among the predictions for the next 12 months is the rise of women's sport, the growth of personalised content, AI's impact on digital content, and plenty more. This is the sixth iteration of the digital trends report, which features insights and analysis from IMG’s global team of digital experts (formerly known as Seven League). This time round it also ranks the 10 most important third-party media platforms for the global sports industry, for the first time, with TikTok coming out on top, followed by YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp.

Building up a fan base for a new sport means navigating a complex maze of options to successfully distribute both live sports and on-demand insights and documentary content around the sport. In each global territory, the content mix includes going D2C, utilising dedicated streaming sports platforms, free-to-air TV, pay-TV, social media platforms, YouTube, Twitch, fan-created content, and so on. There's no right or wrong way to do this, but certain combinations of rights deals bring proven results. This is demonstrated in this podcast episode, which features content specialists at new sports federations explaining how they have utilised different distribution channels to find and grow their audience. The podcast includes Abner Aceves, Global Content Director at SailGP; Ria Walia, Marketing Manager at E1 World Championship; Laura Watts, Executive Producer at Aurora; and Ali Russell, Managing Director at Extreme E. It is moderated by Jake Bickerton, Editorial Director at Broadcast Sport. The podcast is a recording of one of the well-received speaker sessions from the Broadcast Sport Summit held at Lord's cricket ground on 1 November 2023.

This ​week’s edition of the Broadcast Sport Podcast sees Made Of Steel: Wheelchair Rugby’s Fiercest Rivalry’s co-directors Nick Mattingly and Emma Everitt speak to senior reporter Max Miller about how they made the BBC Storyville documentary. Available on BBC iPlayer now, the film examines the rivalry between the England and France teams at the recent Wheelchair Rugby World Cup, and delves into debates around the sport and society. It was produced by Noah Media Group. Mattingly and Everitt explain how the film was created, and navigating production around two sides that were in fierce competition. The pair also discuss wider subjects such as the importance of continuing to make documentaries about lesser-known subjects, how to ensure competing views both get a fair airing, and working with teams in competition.

An in-depth interview with Warner Bros. Discovery Sports head Scott Young, by sports presenter Rachel Stringer, recorded at the sold-out Broadcast Sport Summit, held on 1 November 2023 at Lord's cricket ground. The Global Sport Leaders sessions are a series of one-to-one fireside chats with European broadcast sports leaders. In each session we drill down on business issues, rights deals, how they are responding to the changing market, innovations in fan engagement, the biggest success stories of the last year and the key challenges and opportunities of the year ahead. In this insightful interview, Scott Young talks about Warner Bros. Discovery's acquisition of BT Sport under a joint venture to roll out TNT Sports in the UK, with a string of high-profile sports rights. Young reveals the future plans for the wide range of brands in the Warner Bros. Discovery portfolio, including TNT Sports, Discovery+, Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, Eurosport and HBO Max. He also talks about how the organisation has increasingly brought production in-house or has changed production partners for key sports, as well as its plans for future sports rights acquisitions.

Director Max Mannix and producer Nick Wood speak to Broadcast Sport's Max Miller about how they made The Brighton Miracle, a film about Japan's famous victory over South Africa at the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Conversation topics include getting talent on board, the use of dramatisations, and how to appeal to audiences outside of sport.

Broadcast Sport speaks to broadcaster and writer Nat Coombs, who has worked extensively on the NFL and is currently host of NFL show The Nat Coombs Podcast. Coombs delves into how the game has grown in the UK, how best to approach growing a sport outside of its domestic market, and what could be done to continue the NFL's success.

Kahlen Macaulay, senior manager, international sports partnerships at Snapchat joins the Broadcast Sport podcast to provide invaluable insight into sports content opportunities on Snapchat. The visual messaging social media app is now 12 years old and focuses on bringing people together, providing "intimate connections with real friends". It reaches a user base of 400m people every day, the majority being Gen Z and Millennial audiences, with 90% of 13-24 year olds reached in 20+ countries. Snapchat's sports partnerships therefore serve the next generation of sports fans, through "communication, camera and content". It's a very closed network – there are no followers, likes or public comments. The sports content is varied, so for the Women's World Cup, for example, Snapchatters could virtually try on team kits, watch match highlights, follow athlete content creators, and catch up with the latest news and views on the 'Offside Special' twice-weekly series. In this podcast, Macaulay talks to Broadcast Sport editorial director Jake Bickerton about what's different about Snapchat; how the company works with sports partners, athletes, clubs, federations and sports content makers; how to monetise content on Snapchat; and how to make the best content for the users of the app.

Bubble Agency MD Louise Wells speaks to Atlas Film director/produder Samuel Davies, Cut Media CCO Scott Marshall, and LadBible Group senior creative producer for sport originals Connor Suckling about how to make a YouTube hit. The group cover how to work with athletes and brands, creating new formats, how to get viewers to your videos, and more.

This summer sees both men's and women's Ashes taking place over June and July, with The Hundred still to come in August. Sky Sports' head of cricket and NFL, Bryan Henderson, spoke to the Broadcast Sport Podcast about its plans for the competitions. The broadcaster is bringing a number of tech innovations to its broadcasts, as well as producing both Ashes series with net zero carbon emissions and a focus on promoting women in sports broadcast. In addition, Henderson speaks about the current situation with The Hundred, amid reports that the ECB is considering the short-form competition's future.

Recorded at the Broadcast Sport Content Summit 2023 at dock10 Studios, this episode features BBC Radio Five Live commissioning editor Richard Maddock, Crowd Network creative director Tom Fordyce, IMG Productions head of audio Steve Tebb, and Voiceworks Sport managing director Sophie Hind speaking to Broadcast Sport senior reporter Max Miller about how to plan and produce a great sport podcast. The conversation covers the podmaking process from start to finish, including creating a format, reaching your audience, building on a successful product, and more.

The International Hockey Federation and Lawn Tennis Association have had a successful 12 months across their social media channels, growing followers, views, and the former even substantially growing subscribers to its direct-to-consumer streaming platform, Watch.Hockey. Speaking at the Broadcast Sport Content Summit, held at dock10, Salford on 23 March, Paddy Sloane, director at Curveball Digital, and Katie Matthews, partnerships director at Little Dot Studios, explain to Broadcast Sport editor Jake Bickerton how they approached their campaigns with the FIH and LTA respectively.

AFTV and DR Sports co-founder Robbie Lyle speaks to Broadcast Sport about social content, how broadcasters could better reach fans, and the latest technology he is looking to bring in with his Global Fan Network company. Hear about how Lyle began with AFTV, how he's grown GFN beyond football, and what broadcasters could learn from fan-created content. He also reveals what he thinks will be next for online content, with innovations such as the metaverse and near-live highlights among his tips for the future.