The NBA is continuing to mull changes that could make the future of the league competition look like European football, with tournaments that take place during the season along with league games

Commissioner Adam Silver mentioned everything from shorter games to a shorter season (currently 82 games) as ways the NBA could make its future product better for players and fans.

The Associated Press reports:

“The format we have in place now – I’m a traditionalist on one hand, but on the other hand it’s 50 years old or so, presenting an 82-game season, and there’s nothing magical about it,” Silver said.

“I think it’s on the league office to always be challenging the way we do things, to be paying attention to changing viewer habits, a changing marketplace, a new world of the way media is presented, often on smaller devices, less on screens, people having shorter attention spans, and saying, `This is an incredible game, it’s never been more exciting, the athleticism has never been greater, fantastic players coming from all around the world, but what’s the best way to put the season together?”‘

Silver also mentioned the possibility of trimming games from 48 minutes to 40, which is the length of college and international games.

Silver has focused on player health as commissioner, opening the regular season earlier to reduce the frequency of back-to-back games, and lengthening the All-Star break.

But players are still sitting out games throughout the season – either by their choice or because their teams are requiring it – often for reasons being listed as load management.

“I think a fair point from fans could be if ultimately the science suggests that 82 games is too many games for these players, maybe you shouldn’t have an 82-game season,” Silver said. “I accept that, and that’s something we’ll continue to look at.”

Fewer games could mean less revenue, unless they could be replaced by something that would generate as many or more viewers. Tournaments could be an answer, even if 82 games remains the format.

Silver has pointed to European soccer as something that could bring new interest to the NBA by offering teams more opportunities to win something, instead of just having one champion.

“That’s why I’m particularly interested in looking at different kinds of formats — at midseason tournaments, for example, play-in tournaments — because even accepting that players have so many miles on their bodies, there may be better ways to present it,” Silver said.

“Assuming guys are going to play 82 games, maybe there should be a certain number of games in the regular season and then there should be two tournaments throughout the season.”

He acknowledged that model would require a change of thinking in American fans, who are used to only caring about the winner of the NBA Finals.

He cautioned that none of the changes he discussed after the league’s Board of Governors meetings were close to being implemented, and would continue to be studied within the league, perhaps for a few years.

“Part of it is just the formality that they need to be negotiated with the Players Association, but even if the Players Association came to us and said, ‘You guys know best, what is it you want,’ I wouldn’t know how to answer it,” Silver said. “I think it’s going to require a lot more research, a lot more thoughtfulness on behalf of the teams, players and the league working together.”

World Rugby has appointed Strive Sponsorship, the sport and entertainment marketing consultancy, to evaluate relevant opportunities within the video gaming and esports industry.

Video gaming and esports has enjoyed notable participation and viewership growth, and demonstrated impressive engagement rates, despite the battle for people’s attention intensifying.  All Ears Group’s FIFA TribeAllTruth report showed 56% of FIFA gamers had played for over 47 hours in the first seven months of 2018 alone, as long as a regular football season.

As the traditional media landscape fragments, engaging fans across multiple touch points grows in complexity and priority.  Tapping into the digitally native gaming and esports industries could offer unique opportunities to address these current challenges.

Tom Hill, Chief Commercial Officer at World Rugby, said: “We’re keen to better educate ourselves in the world of gaming and esports prior to making an assessment of what opportunities may exist in helping us achieve our objectives.

Strive’s intrinsic understanding and strong track record in sport, esports and gaming – and their intersection, gives us the confidence that we’re getting the best advice to make key strategic decisions.”

Malph Minns, Managing Director of Strive Sponsorship, said: “Gaming and esports is a multifaceted and ever-evolving landscape, evidenced by the fact we have has seen 14 different operating models adopted by sports organisations in esports to date. We’re thrilled to be working with World Rugby to help educate them on the space and explore potential opportunities that play specifically to their objectives, key target audiences and territories.”

The goals are as straightforward as they are ambitious. To make London the most physically active city in the world, and to get one million Londoners more active by 2020.

Being the driver in making it happen is the role of London Sport, which was created in 2014 with the support of Sport England, London Councils and the Mayor of London, to help physical activity and sport to work better in London.

Research released last week shows The increase in activity levels in London over the past 12 months stands at 2.2%, the largest increase in the UK during the period.

Technology plays a big part in promoting sports participation and Alex Zurita, London Sport’s Specialist Advisor, Technology for Participation, explains how in this wide-ranging interview with iSportconnect TV.

One of the most important initiatives has been the creation of the Sport Tech Hub, empowering and scaling early-stage tech start-ups to encourage more people to embrace a physically active lifestyle.

Iain Edmondson, Director of the International Association of Event Hosts, interviewed Alex at the House of Sport, which was opened in 2017 and now brings together under one roof 30 different organisations, driving transformation for London and beyond.

Enjoy the interview, which is full of valuable insights for cities tackling the practicalities of encouraging sport.for a healthier population.

The rearranged 2019 World Para Swimming Championships will take place in London from September 9-15, World Para Swimming has announced.

The London Aquatics Centre, located on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, played host to the swimming events at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, and will once again welcome the best in the world later this year.

Around 600 swimmers from 60 nations are set to compete in the Championships which is a qualifier to the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

Channel 4, the UK’s Paralympic broadcaster, intend to show the World Para Swimming Championships live this September.

The decision to stage the event in the British capital follows the International Paralympic Committee’s decision earlier this year to strip Malaysia of the right to host the event.

The Malaysian government failed to provide the IPC with the necessary guarantees that Israeli Para swimmers could participate, free from discrimination, and safely in the Championships.

London 2019, a key qualifier for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, will be the ninth edition of the World Para Swimming Championships and marks the second time the event has been staged in Great Britain following the 2015 edition in Glasgow.

IPC President Andrew Parsons said: “I cannot thank the Mayor of London, UK Sport and British Swimming enough for their outstanding efforts stepping in to stage and support this Championships, a key Tokyo 2020 qualifier, at such short notice.”

“We appreciate that the dates are not identical to the ones we had originally planned in Malaysia and these new dates will have an impact on the performance programmes of Para swimmers. However, following the cancellation of Malaysia and the opening of a new bidding process it simply was not feasible to organise a new event for the end of July and early August.”

UK Sport Chair Dame Katherine Grainger said: “We are thrilled that we have been able to step in at very short notice to host the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships. The UK is now a true world leader when it comes to hosting sporting events and our innovative approach to staging competition combined with our passionate fans will ensure this is a fantastic edition of the World Championships.”

Maurice Watkins CBE, Chairman of British Swimming, added: “This is fantastic news for both swimming and the Para sport movement, and I’m delighted that London has been able to step in to host the Championships at such short notice. Whilst there is a lot to do between now and September, I have no doubt that everybody involved will work tirelessly to put on a great show for athletes and fans alike.”

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I’m delighted London will host yet another world-class sporting event and that we will once again be able to show our support for the Para sport movement.”

 

French broadcasting group TF1 will show all 48 matches of the 2019 Rugby World Cup on free-TV.

The entire tournament from September 20-November 2 is being made available on free-TV for the first time, with matches on the main TF1 network (the French market leader), TMC and TFX.

TF1 acquired exclusive rights to the competition in March 2018. In in the past, it shared the French market coverage with pay-TV company Canal+.

TF1 has enjoyed success with the Rugby World Cup in the past, most notably in 2011, when New Zealand’s home victory over France in the final drew 17.8 million viewers with an amazing market share of 87%.

A Spanish court has ruled that the Prisa group must pay €51 million to Mediapro for damages in a long-running dispute over Spanish football rights.

The Audiencia Provincial de Madrid said Prisa, former owner of Canal Plus, acted illegally in blocking Mediapro’s access to the signals of matches for free-TV and international distribution in 2007.

Prisa, which owns leading daily newspaper El País, was in a contractual dispute with  Mediapro at the time.

In a statement, Mediapro said: “The sentence reconfirms the good name of Mediapro in what became known as ‘the football war’ and the illegality of Prisa’s claims, which, after almost ten years of litigation, have been penalised by the Courts time and time again.”

The Toronto Wolfpack club of the Rugby Football League has renewed its partnership with global payment and risk management solutions specialist AFEX.

AFEX has been involved with the Wolfpack from the team’s inaugural season and will continue as the Official Foreign Exchange Partner in 2019.

The partnership sees AFEX managing all foreign currency exchange between the UK and Canada throughout the season  ̶  a necessity for the world’s first transatlantic sporting team.

Martin Vickers, Toronto Wolfpack UK Business Development Manager, said: “Toronto Wolfpack are in a unique position in world sport and AFEX provides us with peace of mind when it comes to currency transactions. Their support and expertise is of huge value to our team and their fast, reliable transactions keeps our operations running smoothly and problem-free.

“Promoting transatlantic trade lies at the core of our values and that desire is strongly shared by AFEX. We are thrilled to have them on board for the 2019 Season.”

ESPN+, Walt Disney Co’s sports video streaming service, could attract between 8 million and 12 million paying subscribers by the end of the fiscal 2024 year, the company said yesterday.

Disney’s forecast for significant growth in paying customers in the next few years was disclosed in a presentation of its streaming video strategy to Wall Street.

Reuters reports:

Operating losses for ESPN+ are expected to be $650 million annually in both fiscal 2019 and 2020, Disney’s chief financial officer, Christine McCarthy, said during an investor day webcast presentation. But the service, which launched one year ago, should reach profitability by 2023, she said.

“I view this positively because I think that they need to illustrate the subscriber growth to validate the investment. They’re putting out some very strong number guides to the market,” said Patrice Cucinello, a director at Fitch Ratings. “They’re going guns blazing at direct consumer.”

As cable and traditional media companies lose subscribers to the likes of Netflix Inc, they are building new streaming video businesses that appeal directly to consumers.

Disney launched ESPN+ a year ago as a way to test its streaming services and distribute additional sports content directly to fans, for a monthly or yearly fee.

Since then, ESPN+ has drawn millions of subscribers, inked sports rights deals, and seen its mobile app rise in popularity. Disney is also moving forward with its larger plans for Disney+, which will stream its trove of new and classic blockbuster movies.

As for current paying sports fans, Disney said the number was currently over 2 million, or roughly what it disclosed in February.

Disney’s own estimates about ESPN+ growth seemed slightly higher than analysts, though its time frame was longer.

Morgan Stanley analysts expect 2.7 million people to be paying for ESPN+ access by the end of fiscal 2019 and 3.9 million by the end of fiscal 2020. By 2022, it could have 6.7 million, Morgan Stanley said.