Europa League Ignites RTL’s Nitro

German free-to-air channel Nitro (owned by RTL) boosted its profile with live coverage of a key Europa League match last night, doubling its usual market share.

The clash between Celtic and RB Leipzig pulled 1.31 million viewers and a 4.3% market share for the first half, rising to 1.6 million and 6.8% in the second half.

The market share for Nitro (launched in 2012 as RTL Nitro), which targets a male audience, is normally under 2%.

The group game was also streamed on OTT service DAZN.

DAZN was the only German window for the Europa League matches Apollon Limassol versus Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen versus FC Zürich.

Champions League Wins For Italian Public TV

Italian public broadcaster RAI kicked off its contract as the new free-TV home of the UEFA Champions League action in style last night with a big audience for the match between Juventus and Manchester United.

The game on RAI 1 pulled easily the biggest of the day in Italy with an average 6.269 million viewers and a 24.1% share.

RAI has a sub-licensing deal with Sky Italia to show the best Champions League match featuring an Italian club on Wednesday evenings.

In The Netherlands, the Champions League topped all other programmes, including the 8 p.m. news (which is unusual). Ajax versus Benfica on Veronica averaged 1.952 million viewers and a share of 32.1%.

Barcelona Tops Atlético In Pay-TV Ratings

In Spain last night, the audience for FC Barcelona’s match in the Champions League led pay-TV viewing, beating out Atlético Madrid’s game in a head-to-head ratings match-up.

Barcelona versus Inter Milan on Movistar Plus drew 945,000 viewers and scored a 5.3% market share.

Atlético versus Borussia Dortmund pulled 221,000 with a 1.2% share.

In The Netherlands, Champions League action drew Tuesday’s biggest audience (other than the evening news). Tottenham versus PSV on Veronica averaged 1.783 million viewers with a 29.8% share.

CASE STUDY: Solving Canada’s Olympics Travel Challenges

Since 2017, ATPI Sports Events have been the Official Ticketing, Travel and Hospitality Partner of the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC). The COC came to ATPI with the request to develop a tailor-made hospitality programme for the senior executives of their top Marketing Partners for the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.

Challenge:

This programme needed to incorporate educational elements seamlessly into the hospitality programme. While it was important to the Canadian Olympic Committee to create a once in a lifetime experience for these guests, it was also top priority to include ‘behind-the-scenes’ experiences to educate the guests on the role of the COC onsite during the Games. This created a demand for a very robust schedule.

As the level of guest who would be invited on the trip have high-pressure roles, it was also key to develop a programme which did not require the guests to be out of the office for too long. The travel time from Canada to the Republic of Korea is 14 hours plus a 14-hour time change, resulting in one night being ‘lost’ during travel.

The class of hotels available in the Host City were not as deluxe as the guests on the programme would be accustomed to staying in. With the limited availability, the COC asked for ATPI’s support in enhancing the hotel experience for the guests while still keeping costs within the existing programme budget.

Solution:

To provide guests with a smooth and enjoyable itinerary, educational components were built into the programme and paired with meals or other activities when possible. An International Olympic Committee information session took place during a special lunch at the exclusive ‘The Olympic Club’ venue.

Networking with the COC Chief Executive Officer and Chief Marketing Officer took place within the dedicated COC ‘Be Olympic Lounge’ within the programme hotel where no additional travel was required.

ATPI Sports Events developed this custom-designed and branded ‘Be Olympic Lounge’ exclusive to guests of the programme.

It was located within the programme hotel and offered light snacks and beverages from 7:00 am-2:00 am. The space was also used for buffet lunches and post-event nibbles. Providing this space within their hotel allowed guests a quiet space to network, relax and catch up on work while being out of the office for an extended period.

To enhance the hotel experience for the guests, ATPI Sports Events found savings in the programme budget to arrange for guest room improvements, including upgraded bathroom amenities, reed diffusers, mattress toppers, florals, throw blankets and slippers.

Result:

ATPI Sports Events worked closely with the COC team to develop a seven-day, five-night, full-service programme over a weekend to include: flights, accommodation, meals, Olympic tickets, special events, educational components, gifting and cultural excursions.

The guests of the COC programme experienced a very exclusive side of the Olympic Games. ATPI Sports Events developed a programme itinerary to highlight the special behind-the-scenes experiences that the Canadian Olympic Committee were able to secure through their partnership with the International Olympic Committee.

The guests on the COC programme enjoyed special dinners at Canada Olympic House, visited the exclusive Olympic Club venue for lunch and had a tour of the Athletes Village.

A Canadian Gold Medal Olympian hosted the group and provided in-depth knowledge to the athlete experience at the Olympic Games. In addition, ATPI Sports Events secured event tickets which allowed the guests to be there to celebrate as Canada won several medals.

ATPI arranged passes to Holland Heineken House for guests who were interested in attending.

The trip was rounded out with fine dining, a Korean barbeque experience, a tour of a palace with a local guide, and leisure time for guests to shop, sightsee, or attend additional Olympic events.

All of the guests who completed the post-event survey indicated that the trip provided them with greater knowledge of the COC Games Operations and that they would be interested in attending again.

ESPN International Chief Shifts To OTT

ESPN international chief Russell Wolff has been named Executive Vice President and General Manager of OTT service ESPN+.

ESPN+ was launched in April 2018 by The Walt Disney Company’s Direct-to-Consumer International (DTCI) division in collaboration with ESPN and surpassed one million paying subscribers in just five months.

In his new role, Wolff will be responsible for managing ESPN+ and will also collaborate on the overall management and commercialization of ESPN-branded digital products.

Most recently, he served as Executive VP and Managing Director of ESPN International, where he was responsible for all of ESPN’s international businesses.

The regional general managers of the ESPN International businesses will now report directly into DTCI’s regional leadership outside of the U.S.

ESPN International’s content, programming and production leaders will continue to report directly into ESPN.

Announcing the appointment, Michael Paull, President of Disney Streaming Services (to whom Wolff will report), said “ESPN+ is off to a fantastic start as the fastest growing consumer sports streaming service in the market and Russell’s deep understanding of the ESPN brand and experience across all aspects of the media landscape will bring even more velocity to the service.”

Wolff said:  “ESPN+ is in the first inning of a very long game. There is a tremendous opportunity to grow the service and expand our position as the leading streaming service and provider of digital products for sports fans.”

ESPN+ offers fans thousands of additional live events, on-demand content and original programming not available on ESPN’s linear TV or digital networks, along with premium editorial content.

Study Shows Football Ownership Lacks Transparency

Football club ownership around the world shows a general lack of effective oversight and due diligence and a weak regulatory framework on club ownership and investment, according to the first phase of a global study jointly undertaken by the International Association of Lawyers (UIA) in partnership with the ICSS INSIGHT and the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA).

While eight out of 10 countries have an obligation under national legislation to disclose club owners/investors’ identities, only the UK, Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland have some kind of structure/process with a role to monitor and control.

The UK and Italy are the only two countries that have a “fit and proper person” testing requirement in place for club owners or investors. The majority, 70% of countries surveyed, do not have such a validation process in place.

The preliminary survey results show a considerable lack of transparency across all levels of clubs with details of exact ownership and investment virtually invisible at the lower leagues and club levels.

Other preliminary findings show publicly available information regarding full ownership and investment structures is only available in Belgium, Ukraine and in the UK.

Only five countries (Brazil, the UK, France, Portugal and Ukraine) require by law the obligation to fully disclose club owners/investors in both professional and non-professional football clubs.

Only three countries (France, Italy and Switzerland) have a dedicated registry body to deal with club ownership.

The second phase of the three-part study involves an analysis of the financial aspects followed by integrity and will be announced soon.

The study is part of the Financial Integrity and Transparency in Sport (FITS) Global Project, an initiative launched by ICSS INSIGHT (formerly ICSS EUROPE) in November 2014 to identify and address the emerging threats facing the financial integrity and transparency of sport and bring together stakeholders from all areas of the sports industry to drive long overdue reforms.

“From my days as CEO of the European Leagues and World League Association, it was clear to me that, when it comes to football club ownership, there is a lack of a robust international regulatory framework and scrutiny,” said Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros, CEO of SIGA. “This facilitates a promiscuous and permissive environment, exposing the beautiful game to unwanted criminal infiltration.”

“We know all too well the devastating effects when club ownership falls into wrong hands.  The preliminary findings of this study vindicate my belief that reform in this area is not a nicety, but an urgent necessity. SIGA’s Universal Standards on Financial Integrity tackle the issue heads on and provide the map towards greater transparency and proper due diligence to protect the integrity and reputation of sport.”

For more information on SIGA, including its vision, mission and reform agenda, please refer to the website: www.siga-sport.com.

ASOIF Announces New Governance Support & Monitoring Unit

The ASOIF (Association of Summer Olympic International Federations) Council announced that a new Governance Support and Monitoring Unit (GSMU) is now operational to help federations steer towards better governance by 2020.

Composed of the ASOIF President and three external experts, the GSMU met for the first time this week. It aims to help IFs evolve from the adoption of principles and rules to tangible performances in good governance.

ASOIF President Francesco Ricci Bitti said: “Our unit will be very pragmatic and focus on recommending concrete action, especially to IFs having difficulties introducing governance reforms. We will share with them best practice and offer solutions customised to their size, resources and context.”

Established in 2015, ASOIF’s Governance Task Force (GTF) helps IFs to promote and ensure a culture of good governance within their structures and has conducted governance reviews of each of its members.

The second governance review, published in April this year, demonstrated that progress has been made but there remains much more to do in order to tackle some huge variations in IF governance.

The new unit will help to close some of these gaps and has the declared objective of seeing at least 26 of the 28 full ASOIF members score 120 (out of a maximum of 200) or more in the governance assessment by April 2020, using the 2019-20 questionnaire.

The Council members were also updated on another important, ongoing ASOIF project. “The Future of Global Sport” looks at the speed of change impacting sport from political, social, technological and economic influences.

The objective is to enable IFs to have an adequate understanding of what the future may look like when they take decisions with long-term impacts and ASOIF interviewed key people from the government sector, the business world and sport organisations.

The project also examines the evolving role of IFs and will draw up recommendations how IFs can remain fit for purpose. ASOIF aims to publish the full report in early 2019.

ASOIF Executive Director Andrew Ryan spoke to iSportconnect TV about the initiative at the Lausanne Summit in September.

Bose Backs Boston Overwatch Team

Leading headphone brand Bose has signed a sponsorship deal with the Boston Uprising franchise in the esports Overwatch League.

The team is owned by Kraft Sports + Entertainment, which also controls Gillette Stadium, the New England Patriots, New England Revolution, Kraft Analytics Group (KAGR) and Patriot Place.

The Bose deal is the second with a major non-endemic brand for the Uprising. The esports franchise has also signed a deal with Gillette.

In 2017, the Kraft family purchased the rights to bring one of the first Overwatch League teams (there are 12) to Boston. Overwatch is published by Blizzard Entertainment and connects over 35 million players worldwide.

FC Wacker Innsbruck Appoints Infront

Austrian Bundesliga club FC Wacker Innsbruck has named Infront Austria as the exclusive marketing and sales partner for all commercial rights of all club teams.

The long-term agreement includes marketing aspects for both the squad and the 17,000-seat Tivoli-Neu stadium.

FC Wacker Innsbruck, recently promoted to the country’s top-tier league, was formed in 2002, following the bankruptcy of FC Tirol Innsbruck.

Club president Gerhard Stocker said: “Healthy growth is part of the club’s entrepreneurial strategy. We want to provide Tyrol with unforgettable football experiences and we need the financial means to do so. With Infront Austria and their long-term experience, we are confident we can fulfil our ambitions.”

“I am pleased that we can now add FC Wacker Innsbruck to our numerous traditional clubs in Germany and Italy, working with a team with a great history,” said Stefan Krauß, Managing Director of Infront Austria.

“It is important to remember that whilst Austria is traditionally regarded as a winter sports haven, there is a passionate football fan base here and that is why we want it as part of our portfolio. Our aim is to contribute to FC Wacker Innsbruck’s success as they establish themselves as a fixture in the Bundesliga.”

World Series Ratings Drop

Television viewing of the MLB World Series which ended on Sunday dropped significantly in the USA from 2017 despite the involvement of famous teams from major markets.

Over five games on Fox, the series between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers 2018 averaged 14.3 million viewers, a drop of 23% versus the average of 18.7 million over seven games (Dodgers versus the Houston Astros) on the same network in 2017.

The digital streaming audience averaged overall 198,000 per minute, up 9% from 2017’s average of 182,000.

This year’s broadcast average audience was the lowest since the San Francisco Giants and the Kansas City Royals averaged 13.9 million viewers over seven games in 2014.

The Red Sox victory to claim the baseball championship in Game 5 was the most-watched in 2018, averaging 17.6 million viewers.