Meet the Member: “The sport has had to evolve, but its DNA has always remained the same”

For this week’s interview we sat down with Yasser Hefny, Head of the Athletes Committee for Modern Pentathlon, to discuss his own journey to the Olympics as an athlete and the way the sport is evolving.

So Yasser, to kick us off please take us through your journey in sport?

I had a bit of an interesting journey into sport. I was always playing a lot of different sports growing up. Despite the fact we weren’t a sporty family, my parents were always keen on me doing a lot of different sports. 

I didn’t know about Modern Pentathlon until one of my teachers at school introduced me to it. Despite it being five different sports rolled into one I really enjoyed it and had a fair amount of success straight away. I joined the national team and ended up competing at the Olympic Games in London in 2012. 

I have really had some amazing experiences in sport, both as an athlete and as an administrator, I really can’t imagine doing anything else.

Do you think your experience as an athlete has helped you in your current administrative role?

I think it really has because it means the sport is in my heart, I care so much about it and I am not just saying this, I really do. I can also sympathise with and understand some of the problems that athletes face and the potential impact the changes we make to the sport will have on our athletes. 

What makes the Modern Pentathlon event so special?

I think the variety of sports and disciplines involved in the event is what makes it so special. It also has a great link all the way back to the founder of the Modern Olympic Games, Pierre de Coubertin, who picked the five disciplines that make up the sport in order to find the most ‘complete’ athlete. 

As an athlete it is brilliant because you get to practise so many different sports all the time, which for me was something I really enjoyed. I also think one of the strengths of Modern Pentathlon is that it is a mirror of real life in some ways because you can be struggling in one of the events but doing really well in another. You have to try and get all five on form at the same time which is a real challenge.

How has the event evolved over the years?

While we have always had to evolve to keep up with the changes in the world so that the sport keeps its appeal, the DNA of the sport has always remained the same. Originally, the competition took five days with an event on each day, now it is just 90 minutes per event. In 2009, we changed from pistol to laser shooting, we also then started including running and laser shooting together. The latest innovation is the introduction of the Obstacle discipline. 

It is clear that Obstacle will provide a huge boost both to our sport and the Olympic Games. There’s over 20 million obstacle athletes worldwide, and these are the young people that the IOC needs. Ninja Warrior and Obstacle shows also produce millions of social media engagement. In a world focused on sustainability, Obstacle will also help reduce operational costs at the Olympic Games because it is many times cheaper than horse riding. It will transform Modern Pentathlon.

It is in the sport’s nature to evolve which is what I think is a real strong point of it because we do need to adapt as the world changes. Some events will never change and that is also a part of their charm in a different way, we will always have the 100-metre sprint.

And looking forward past Paris, how do you think the sport will continue to evolve in Los Angeles 2028?

We are still really building towards Paris 2024 at the moment and making sure that the changes we implement there are going to be as successful as they can be. Like I mentioned in the previous answer, we are cutting down the time of each event to 90 minutes, this is specifically designed to try and both engage new fans of the sport and retain the ones who are already in place. We are now just under a year away from the Games and it is such an exciting time for the sport in general.

An American Ninja Warrior-style obstacle course in LA28 is the evolution our sport and the Olympic Games needs. Millions of young people around the world will fall in love with our sport. 

If you could work on one other Olympic sport what would it be and why?

I would like to try working in football, because I think you would have a lot of fun. But in terms of an Olympic sport, I would love to have a go at triathlon. I really love working in multi-event sports, just because it gives you so many options in terms of the different disciplines both as a competitor and an administrator.

Member Insights: Who’s in charge? Why tech can’t provide all the answers when it comes to officiating

In this week’s Member Insight piece, our Content Manager, Alex Brinton, looks into how, despite the many advances in technology that have helped officials, the power to make decisions must lie at a human’s door.

Don’t worry this isn’t going to turn into a rant about VAR and its use in football, but we will touch on that later. Instead, we start with a sport where technology in officiating isn’t new; it has been a part of the experience since 1992. 

We start at Lord’s. Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few days you will have seen the controversial dismissal of England batsman Jonny Bairstow. For those few that haven’t, I will do my best to explain: Bairstow walked out of his crease at the end of an over and Australia’s wicketkeeper Alex Carey threw the ball at the stumps, hitting them with Bairstow yards out of his crease.

In the Laws of the game Bairstow was out, but cricket being cricket things are not that simple. There is another element to this  which is the spirit of the game. What followed were some less than savoury scenes in the Lord’s pavilion with MCC members confronting the Australian players as they left the field.

Fury has erupted on both sides of the globe and has led to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak  jumping in to support England while his Australian counterpart returned fire, telling Sunak to “stay in his crease”. 

Could a controversial stumping lead to an Australian republic?

What could have stopped all this? Well the Aussie skipper, Pat Cummins, could have retracted his appeal, but you can’t blame him for not. But for me the fault lies with the umpires. They could have defused the situation very easily by deciding the ball was ‘dead’ because it was the last ball of the over. As England captain Ben Stokes pointed out, they had begun to move to their positions ready for the next over..

For me, this comes back to the fact that cricket umpires at the highest level have become overly dependent on technology to help in the decision-making process, and lack the confidence to make the common sense, human decisions that they are still needed for. It is almost like they have had the power of independent thought removed and now find themselves shying away from tough decisions. 

Run outs are a  great example of this. Some run outs are close and need to be checked, using technology, by the third umpire – this I have no problem with. But over the last few years the umpires have become so scared of making a decision they push the responsibility onto the technology everytime, no matter how far out the batter is.

That does mean that they are all correct (which seems an odd thing to moan about) but it leads to this over reliance on technology that has caused problems such as Sunday’s Lord’s stumping. Officiating needs a human touch, in some respects cricket has lost that, and I am desperate for other sports not to go the same way.

VAR. Yes, we were always going to get to VAR eventually weren’t we? It is a struggle to get through a Premier League weekend without some controversy around it, but it is working and we are seeing more correct decisions which is a win for everyone. I do think that while the rules around offsides are not great and we all hate it when they start drawing the dreaded lines on the screen, they do seem to work more of the time then not. 

But football officiating is so often subjective and at the moment referees are often sympathetic to the rhythms of the game and different referees have different styles. It is what makes the role of tech in decision making a difficult one. This is where I think we need to be careful and make sure our referees keep their independence and autonomy. 

Tennis is another sport where tech plays a massive role in the decision-making process. Hawk-Eye has become a big part of the game and the way players use their challenges is a real artform. Thanks to line-judges and the technology, the umpire now occupies a position of managing the players and using his or her experience and common sense to make sure the game runs as smoothly as possible. Admittedly, when Nick Kyrgios is on court that can be pretty challenging. 

There are some things humans can do that just can’t be substituted by any sort of technology so refereeing jobs are safe for now.

Photo credit: Ben Sutherland

The House View – A recap from the last two days at SEG3

As I write this we are just reaching the conclusion of this year’s SEG3 London event, it has been a busy couple of days with panels, workshops, interactive experiences and more than a bit of networking. 

Like last year, I have learnt so much over the last couple of days through listening to the panels, speaking to delegates and most importantly interviewing speakers from all across the Web3 landscape. Asking Aardman’s Commercial Director what Wallace and Gromit would have made of Web3 was a particular highlight. 

For those of you who didn’t manage to attend this year’s event, here is a selection of my favourite quotes from the last two days.

Marc Mathieu, from Salesforce, provided a big-picture overview of the intersection of Web3 and Generative AI. While Web3 continues to await the use cases that will drive the technology towards mass adoption. We may see that this push will come from the need to develop a ‘trust layer’ for Generative AI. He said: “Web3 is almost a philosophy of decentralisation. Generative AI is an enabler that can make it easier to turn creative ideas into reality.” 

He added: “Generative AI will enable us to learn more about the things that we don’t already know.” In other words it is not just about predicting future behaviour based on past behaviour. 

Andrea Berry, from Theta Labs, said: “We often hear about the importance of owning your own audience, but it isn’t easy to put that into practice. Rights Owners that try to distance themselves from the big platforms in order to own data often find that they are at the mercy of third party providers as they build “frankenstein’ sites combining Web2 tech solutions with Web3.”

Nizzar Benchekroune, from Berexia, said: “Web3 is the beginning of the internet. You have been surfing the internet for 20 years, now you can be inside it.” 

“One of the biggest changes will be the transformation of the relationship between brands and consumers. People walk around today wearing clothes that advertise brands. In the future they will be paid by brands for promoting them. Brands will need to give more to consumers as expectations rise.”

JP Morgan’s Tyrone Lobban, added: “He pointed out that Brussels is already working on making a trusted ‘digital identity’ accessible to everyone in Europe and that the momentum to create a blockchain-based ecosystem may come from governments and financial institutions rather than entertainment. Though sports, entertainment and, especially, gaming will play important roles.

LaLiga’s Keegan Pierce said: “Monetising needs to be done as a natural outgrowth of fandom, not an imposition”

Martin El-Khouri, from Bertelsmann Investments, said: “The content side and the advertising side are merging. This is what NFTs will embody moving forward.”

Make sure you are following the SEG3 socials and website to keep up to date with all the latest news, views and content.

Member Insights: How AI and technology is enhancing the whole tennis experience

In this week’s Member Insight piece David Granger, Content Director for Cinch, looks into how tennis is embracing the future through technology.

With AI commentary, virtual reality line judges and keeping online trolls off players’ feeds, tennis is truly embracing technology, while keeping the spirit of the sport alive.

The news that tennis is to get AI commentators at Wimbledon this year is… no great surprise. We’re going to see a lot of artificial intelligence experimentation over the next 12 months as both sport and spectators establish how to embrace or reject the march of the machines.

How will it work? Having been trained in the “unique language of tennis”, IBM’s Watsonx will be tracking data from the ball, from players and analysing shots to generate audio and text commentary on the Wimbledon app. 

And tennis is the perfect partner (#SorryNotSorry) for AI. Despite its (occasionally refined) reputation the sport has always has a voracious appetite for new technology. Hawk-Eye is now used across a range of sports from snooker to Aussie Rules, but has been a mainstay in tennis for 20 years. It took over the role of chalk dust (copyright Mr J McEnroe) as the final arbiter of whether a ball was in or not. And if anything, unlike VAR in football, Hawk-Eye has added to the spectacle of professional tennis. It’s difficult to image a game without a virtual reality AI replay request.

Side story. 

At the cinch Championships this year, one of the highlight moments was a line judge’s astute call on a ball which was out by millimetres. And when Hawk-Eye confirmed her decision of that exceptionally close out, the crowd cheered, the umpire gave her a virtual fist-bump and she became internet-famous for the week. Fascinating that everyone will now accept technology’s decision over human, but celebrate a correct human call.

The AI commentary for Wimbledon will allow access to both aduio and text commentary. According to IBM. “Fans can add AI-generated spoken commentary to Wimbledon highlight reels, hearing play-by-play narration for the start and end of each reel, along with key points. Fans can also turn on closed captions to further enhance accessibility, a key consideration for All-England Lawn Tennis Club.”

There are those who might argue that some commentators (not necessarily from tennis) would be little missed if replaced by robots. And some who sound robotic at the best of times.

AI has also been assisting the well-being of tennis players. In a sport where your mental state plays such an important part of the game, social media’s intrusion is not always, well, not often, going to be welcome. 

Players at the French Open they were able to filter their feeds thanks to an app provided by tournament organisers. 

Bodyguard.ai is more than just a way of blocking unwanted words or phrases. It can consider who the post is aimed out and the meaning behind any message. Matthieu Boutard, Bodyguard.ai’s co-founder, told npr.org. “AI is a lot more complex in a sense that it understands context,

“Tennis is an individual sport. So if you lose a game, that’s your fault. You’re very exposed because a lot of people are actually betting on sport and tennis specifically, which means a lot of haters going after you if you lose a point, if you lose a set or if you lose a game.”

We shall wait and see how the AI commentary works at Wimbledon, whether it adds to the experience, decreases or increases fan understanding or play or is a technological distraction. Perhaps technology’s involvement/enhancement is best summed up by Jérôme Meltz, Chief Information and Data Officer, Fédération Française de Tennis (FFT) in an interview with the BBC last year. Meltz maintains AI will be a powerful tool to help us enjoy sport – but that’s all it ever will be. He said: “Human and emotional factors remain a priority and the main element that fuels the drama.”

The debate over AI and its future is at the heart of the Generative AI for the Creative Industries’ Summit which takes place in London, September 12-13. There’s a more than impressive line-up of speakers and topics being covered, including industry experts from Amazon, the BBC, Adidas and Meta.

You’ll find ticket details here

The rumour that the cinch Championship line judge is one of the surprise guest speakers? That’s still under review…

Photo credit: Neil Hall/Pool via Reuters

Modern Pentathlon with Obstacle will boost the popularity of the Olympics according to YouGov survey

Nearly half of young people in the United States are more likely to watch and follow the Olympic Games once Modern Pentathlon has introduced Obstacle to the programme, a new survey has found.

A poll of 1,500 US citizens undertaken by YouGov, the global public opinion and data company, found that 45% of Generation Z (born in 2000 and later) and 41% of Millennials (born between 1982 and 1999) were more likely to watch the Olympic Games on TV if it featured a Ninja-style Obstacle race. Taken as a percentage of the US population this would equate to nearly 45 million more people watching the Games.

The survey also found that 42% of Gen Z and 41% of Millennials were more likely to follow the Olympic Games on social media if it featured a Ninja-style Obstacle race, with one in two Gen Z and Millennials surveyed stating that they watch Obstacle racing shows.

As displayed in the graphic above, when asked ‘How much would the addition of a Ninja-style Obstacle race make you more or less likely to watch the Olympic Games on TV or online stream?’, 12% of Gen Z respondents said they would be ‘much more likely’ to do so and 33 % said they would be ‘more likely’. A higher proportion of Millennials (18%) answered ‘much more likely’ with 23% saying ‘more likely’.

When asked ‘How much would the addition of a Ninja-style Obstacle race make you more or less likely to follow the Olympic Games via social media?’, 10% of Gen Z respondents said they would be ‘much more likely’ to do so and 32% said they would be ‘more likely’, while 16% answered ‘much more likely’ and 25% ‘more likely’.

A new Obstacle discipline is currently being integrated into Modern Pentathlon at junior and youth levels, and senior athletes will fully adopt the change after the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. More than two-thirds (37%) of survey respondents said they would be more likely to watch the new-look Modern Pentathlon at the Olympic Games, and 46% of those cited enjoying Ninja-style Obstacle races as the reason, with 34% describing the reason for their answer: ‘I think the Modern Pentathlon needs to embrace change’.

Obstacle shows were also considered highly entertaining, engaging and challenging by survey respondents – outscoring both the Olympic Games and Modern Pentathlon on these keywords.

UIPM has proposed a transformative Modern Pentathlon comprising Fencing, Obstacle, Swimming and Laser Run for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, following a request from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to demonstrate how the sport can be more compatible with the criteria for inclusion in LA28.

FIBA and ESPN agree broadcast partnership for FIBA World Cup 2023

FIBA and ESPN have announced a rights agreement for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023, with all 92 games available on ESPN platforms, including ESPN2 and ESPN+.

The global event tips off on August 25, and continues through to September 10. Six games will air exclusively on ESPN2, including three in the first round featuring Team USA.  All other 86 games will be carried by ESPN+ while also being available on FIBA’s official streaming service, Courtside 1891. 

FIBA will produce a dedicated USA broadcast feed for the linear games on ESPN featuring specialist US commentators and US-dedicated content and analysis in order to deliver a highly engaging broadcast experience for fans in the USA.

Team USA is aiming to return to the top and will start their World Cup 2023 campaign in Manila, Philippines, when they take on New Zealand on August 26.

“ESPN is excited to once again partner with FIBA and showcase this global event as well as all of the tremendous international talent,” said Ashley O’Connor, ESPN Sr. Director, Programming and Acquisitions. “We’re proud to serve basketball fans with live event coverage of the sport on a year-round basis.”

Most recently, the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 saw ESPN distribute the entire Women’s World Cup. Six games were aired exclusively in the US on ESPN2 and ESPNU, which was the most Women’s World Cup games to ever air on live television in the USA, resulting in viewership tripling across the country.

Frank Leenders, FIBA Media and Marketing Services Director General, said: “This is excellent news for basketball fans in the USA. We are excited to join hands again with ESPN with this partnership that will showcase all 92 games of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023. This will bring with it more new synergies that will make basketball more accessible and enjoyable for fans leading up to our biggest event that is to be co-hosted for the first time across three countries this August and September.”

Additionally, with this agreement, all FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 games will also be available on the ESPN App.

DAZN announced as broadcasting partner of Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 in Canada

From the start of the 2023-24 season, DAZN will be the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2’s official broadcasting partner in Canada after Bundesliga International agreed a three-year deal with the global sports streaming service.

The deal, which includes the top two divisions of German football, as well as the German Supercup and the all-important relegation play-off matches each season, covers both English and French language broadcasts, local broadcast sponsorship and advertising rights, and will run until the conclusion of the 2025-26 season, where Canada will then host the 2026 FIFA World Cup, alongside the USA and Mexico.

Following the likes of Bundesliga champion and back-to-back CONCACAF Player of the Year Alphonso Davies, DAZN will showcase all the twists and turns of the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 throughout the coming seasons. In addition to showing at least six live matches a week, DAZN has the rights to broadcast all matches, as well as access to a wide range of shoulder programming, and will provide fans throughout Canada with the best coverage of one of Europe’s most exciting leagues.

Peer Naubert, Bundesliga International Chief Marketing Officer, said: “Football is booming in Canada: after the national team made their second FIFA World Cup appearance last year, the country now looks forward to hosting the next edition. It is no wonder football is Canada’s fastest-growing sport. 

“The appetite for the Bundesliga is just as strong, and research highlights that we are the fastest growing international league in Canada since 2020. Our history as the home of North American talent, coupled with working with a worldwide powerhouse broadcaster like DAZN, means we are excited to see how German football can inspire the next generation of players and fans.”

Norm Lem, SVP, DAZN Canada SVP said: “We are thrilled to partner with the Bundesliga for the next three years, cementing DAZN’s place as the destination for football fans in Canada. The Bundesliga is one of the premier competitions in world football featuring a host of stars including one of Canada’s favourite sons Alphonso Davies. We have some incredibly exciting plans in place as part of the deal moving forward and we cannot wait to share them.”

Football Association announce partnership with Google

Google Pixel has announced a new long-term partnership with The Football Association (The FA) as Official Mobile Phone and Earbuds Partner. The deal marks Pixel’s first step into football sponsorship in the UK, with the brand looking to work with both the senior men’s and women’s teams to help bring fans closer to the sport they love.

Pixel are also working with Lionesses star Lauren James, who will front Google’s “Football on Pixel” campaign throughout the summer and beyond. As one of the most exciting young players in the world, Lauren will be using her platform and the Pixel range to inspire the next generation of talent to pick up the game.

Throughout the partnership, Pixel will use its best-in-class camera and AI-powered technology to give fans fresh perspectives on their favourite players. This includes a new ‘Pitchside, Presented by Pixel’ content series that will take fans into the heart of the action, as well as fan-led stories showcasing the magic of England match days. Longer-form storytelling will take fans behind-the-scenes as the England teams compete on the international stage.

Pixel will also work with The FA to help increase visibility for women’s football, by delivering more, and higher quality women’s football content, with the aim of inspiring more girls and women to get involved in the sport, and help move the game forward.

Finally, Pixel and The FA are also committed to co-developing brand new experiences throughout the term of this partnership, leveraging Google’s AI-powered technology with the promise of enhancing fan’s experiences in Wembley and at home. This will begin during this Summer’s tournament,where Google will launch new ways to access information about the tournament – from match schedules to athlete highlights and more – through Search.

The partnership deepens Google’s existing relationship with The FA, following the announcement of Google Cloud as the official cloud of the England Teams in 2019. Google Cloud works with The FA to help deliver meaningful insights from data to benefit The FA both on and off the pitch.

Eileen Mannion, Vice President Marketing at Google UK, said:

“Football is more than just a sport in the UK, it’s deeply rooted in our heritage. It’s not only part of our vibrant and diverse culture; it brings people together, generating excitement and building strong communities. We are proud to be partnering with the Football Association (The FA) to help fans create memories together.  Phones are such an integral part of the modern sports experience, and we’re thrilled to work with The FA to get fans closer to the action of our incredible men’s and women’s teams more than ever before.”

FA Commercial Director Navin Singh said: “We’re delighted to welcome Google Pixel on board as our official mobile phone and earbuds partner. We’re passionate about connecting our supporters with our England teams, and this partnership will bring fans and players closer together through content delivered by leading technology. We thank Google Pixel for their support.”

As the only phone engineered by Google, Pixel brings together the latest AI breakthroughs and puts them into a device you can hold in your hand. This personalised help adapts to your needs and preferences, helping you save time and get more done, as well as powering Pixel’s leading features such as Night Sight, Magic Eraser, Real Tone and Live Translate.

Meet the Member: “A thousand things have changed in sports, but it is still sports. The greatest reality TV show on earth”

Timm Chiusano started his sports journey working at ESPN, but in his forties he has become a TikTok creator whose day in the life videos have helped him pass 1 million followers on the platform. In this interview we cover AI’s potential impact on sport, what broadcasters can learn from his content and much more…

So Timm, take us through your journey in sport?

I was born and bred a New York sports fan. In New York, you choose Mets or Yankees, Giants or Jets, and then the Knicks and Rangers are straightforward. That goes back generations, so you’re indoctrinated into rooting for these teams at birth. 

As a kid, my first job was being a caddy, and I worked at driving ranges for most of high school. I played golf from as early as I can remember, and I had dreams of playing hockey at the highest level possible. I played well in golf at a fairly high level, and then I got drawn into Canada with the delusion I could play junior hockey. It was pretty uncommon for a kid in New York City to drop everything and move to play hockey up there, but I had an amazing year playing junior B hockey.

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When I left school, I knew I wanted to do something creative in sports, and those were the only two boxes I wanted to check. So, I took every piece of crap job I could get my hands on. I worked part time at terrible hours as a grip, which is production speak for doing whatever the hell the producer needs you to do. I worked part time at CBS and ABC sports just to get anything underneath my belt I could. 

It took three years actually to break into a full time job with ABC sports as a production assistant which wasn’t even guaranteed to last more than 5 months. I was doing college football and PGA tour golf on the live sports production side of things. There was almost a five year journey between leaving school and having a full time job in sports which took patience just waiting for a door to open. I was also very cognizant of the fact that nothing was owed to me once that door opened.

I worked for ABC sports for 5 years and realised that chasing live sports across the globe 36 weeks a year was glorious, but not for my plans of being a married man. So, I reinvented myself as a marketer, and convinced people I was the right person to come up with creative ideas to sell to brands despite no specific marketing background. For example, I did starting lineups brought to you by a brand or halftime sponsored by someone  for ESPN and their major sponsors. I did that for seven years and then sold my soul to the cable company, where I’ve been for 10 years. 

Looking back on your career in sport, what was your personal highlight?

That is an easy answer. It was the 2005 Open Championship at St. Andrew’s, where Jack Nicklaus played his final major and Tiger smashed the field. We won an Emmy for that broadcast and just the opportunity to be St. Andrew’s soaking it all in was amazing. I did five Open Championships during my time and it was amazing being able to live in the UK for about a month since we had the men’s, women’s, and seniors all in different locations. That was unbelievably fun, but that Open Championship at St. Andrew’s certainly stood out. 

I would also say at ESPN being able to bring completely differentiating ideas to the table so brands could exist on something like SportCenter. I was reinventing what the billboard looks like, so it wasn’t just SportCenter brought to you by Verizon, but instead somebody holding a Verizon phone with SportsCenter in the background. It was something that was more endemic to what the consumers were used to rather than just shoving a logo in their face. 

How has sport changed since you left ESPN in 2013?

I like that I can say not a lot. I mean, yes, a thousand things have changed but it’s still sports. It will forever be the greatest reality TV show. The technology on billboards, the flashing stuff on the sidelines, who has logos on what, the pieces of equipment do not matter. It’s still a bunch of people who have worked their ass off to get to a single moment, and you don’t know what’ll happen next. There’s storylines, subplots, and all sorts of surrounding things happening. Today, the purity of what the game actually is still remains. The desire to win and what it means to people that accomplish what they set out for is still there. There’s countless things I could point to, but at the same time not a damn thing has changed because it’s still sports. 

Talk to us about your journey and growth on TikTok?

I have no idea. It’s been the weirdest thing. It started as, “Oh this interesting let me start doing this” then became oh people are starting to watch. I just love the process, and if I don’t do it, I feel awkward that I haven’t done one for the day. I go out there and do what I like to do, but once I realised my TikToks might be helpful and I started to get feedback I was like “Ok cool there’s things that resonate with people here”. I appreciate that there’s helpfulness in leaning into the 45-year-old narrative because I’m still the same dumbass 25-year-old at the core. People often ask, “what would you tell yourself now ” but I’m still the same person. 

In the same sense as sport, when you genuinely love the process, and you do it for the right reasons, amazing things can happen. My God has it wildly exceeded any expectation that I’ve had which was zero. Everyone’s got a story to share, so if you’re authentic about it, willing to keep trying, willing to repeatedly make yourself cringe, and willing to put in the work then completely unexpected things might pop out of the clear blue sky.  

What do you think sports broadcasters can learn from the success your content has had?

It’s about repetition and authenticity. When it doesn’t feel real, it doesn’t do well, and when I wear my heart on my sleeve it does well. People want a connective tissue in this digital world. Everyone can post the same highlight or talk about the same stuff. People can be bombastic, over the top, and just yell at the camera, and it doesn’t work. My opinion is, when people are trying too hard to be something they’re not, it flops. However, when it’s who you actually are, people love to see it. 

There’s a guy who does Trainspotting videos, Francis Bourgeois, who is one of the greatest examples of authenticity. How many people thought, “how awkward is that” when it has the camera angle stuck right in front of his face. He has unusual content but he communicates pure joy. When people take their own perspective and lean into the authenticity piece that’s when things get magical.  

What has worked for me is that people trust me. I think it because they know I dont give a fu*k, and I am just going to be honest and sincere and wont do anything negative or harmful in any capacity. Authenticity allows your joy to shine through, so don’t be afraid of doing the things that other people are afraid to do if it feels right for you. If you mix that together and put it on repeat and really, really cool things can happen.

How do you see AI having an impact on sport?

It can totally destroy everything or it can lead to reinventing the way lineups are created, salary caps, and just the way we look at teams. Part of me doesn’t care. I just want to keep leaning into the purity of sports and why we fell in love with it in the first place. 

My gut tells me the biggest impact is going to be in data mining and then the mining of that data. This will tell us how to make cars faster, lineups better, and more. It could help teams analysing combines, saying “it doesn’t matter that this person ran fast because combined with this metric that’s ineffective”. So, it could take the Excel route as just a better way to aggregate and utilise information, or it could go the mischievous path and totally fu*k things up across the board. Hopefully it’s very subtle and helps people make smarter decisions but leaves the rest for human beings to continue to do their thing. 

If you could run one sports organisation for a month, which would it be, why and what would you do?

This is a difficult one because it’s so close between the Mets and Rangers, but I’ll pick the Rangers since hockey is what I played most as a kid. 

I would take them over and put an incredibly heavy focus on getting fans closer to what it’s like being on the ice. I don’t think that the speed and the ferocity of the game comes across to the people that are not necessarily in and around it on a day to day basis. I mean, dudes do 20 to 25 miles an hour on skates on an enclosed surface. Whether that would be through video communications or online, I would want to give fans the sensation to actually participate. Every other sport has a far easier barrier to cross where you can just pick up a basketball and shoot it or play catch with a baseball. 

Yes, there’s street hockey but that’s so grossly different. You can make similar arguments across all sports but professional hockey is a bigger extreme. Through that as well, I would want to build human storylines about the players to build a deeper connection. Where they come from and why they can do certain things will blow peoples’ minds. It’s not like the Rangers are hurting to sell season tickets these days, but I think it would be an interesting way to sell the game to a broader audience.

The View From Asia – The rise and rise of OTT in Asia

In his View From Asia column, Unmish Parthasarathi, the Singapore-based Founder of Picture Board Partners, the Strategy, Innovation & Venture Development boutique, reflects on why, how & who is making OTT more mainstream. 

Content is King, but Distribution is clearly the Queen as OTT in post-pandemic Asia has come on par, and, in some places, is beginning to exceed audience share compared to traditional television.

Asia is expected to add a billion consumers online in the course of this decade. There was another billion who preceded them – but took thrice as long. Both these large swathes of human adoption have benefited greatly from three macro trends, amongst others, which don’t see any signs of abating:

1. Population that is young, especially in South and Southeast Asia. Depending on the country, between a third and half are below the age of 35. Most are a growing presence in the workforce and a source of purchasing power;

2. Connectivity that is affordable and accessible. The consumption of video content in ever higher volumes – from short form on YouTube to long form movies and live sport – has let telcos to grow 4G from mid to mass market proportions; and, 

3. Entertainment alternatives at the price or convenience, such as sports events, theme parks or the cinema, are few. Coupling this with long, daily commutes and per capita dwell time quickly aggregates up to a third of the waking hours. 

More than fifty years ago, a Stanford professor called Roy Amara is said to have famously observed that we overestimate the impact of a new technology in the short run, and underestimate it in the long run. What timeline is deemed ‘long’ was left to us by the long-time Head of the Institute of the Future. 

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Depending on the global macroeconomic cycle of boom & bust, the consensus is that ‘long’ can be anywhere between a decade and two. What also shortens this trend are adjacencies or concurrent trends that happen in parallel with the one in our focus and provide it with tail winds. 

OTT surpassing TV has benefitted as much from Amara’s Law as from adjacencies such as cheap smartphones, digital payments, a supply of new/next generation content, good connectivity – and, sadly, also a pandemic.

A decade ago, Sport OTT was seen, at best, as a nice to have that was a catch up service or enabled multiple court coverage at a Grand Slam. At worst, however, it was seen as a threat to your next TV channel subscription renewal. 

In keeping with the Age of Listicles, below are my ‘Top Ten Trends’ to explain the coming of age of OTT in Asia. Most of these, again unfortunately, share COVID-19 as a milestone that’s created the most material change in content consumption for half a century, since the onset of television in the 1970s: 

1.) Consumer behaviour is changing at scale. A new generation has begun to announce their arrival. They keep a smartphone by their bedside. They have multiple digital payment wallets. And, they shop and socialise online three-times as much or as often as they do offline.  

2.) Connectivity maturing to ensure the utilitarian nirvana of 100% uptime. Few instances of outage by telcos or cable operators during the pandemic when millions home schooled, made umpteen video calls and logged on at work from home is an under recognised but real achievement.  

3.) Migration to cloud infrastructure that began before the pandemic and accelerated through 2020 as the virus spread from East to West. Moving off-premise coincided with the largest human migration of workers in a very short time and was helped by a drastic cut in response time to provide scalable, remotely accessible backend infrastructure.

4.) The rise of new, more ‘intelligent’ technologies such as Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Neuro-Linguistic Processing, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence. These have enabled OTT services to evolve from their original roles as online aggregators of video content, to digital merchants trading attention or personalised preferences with dynamic pricing served through a privacy compliant segmentation. 

5.) Major sports events such as the Tokyo Olympics, FIFA World Cup and the IPL remain key milestones. Both drove sizable capital investment by their media licensees who had twin TV-OTT platforms such as Viacom Sport-Jio Cinema in India, Astro in Malaysia, EMTEK Vidio in Indonesia, and Foxtel/Kayo and Nine/Stan in Australia. 

6.) Regulation on first part data and a citizen’s rights to privacy has changed the way Personal Identifiable Information (PII) is collected. The simultaneous deprecation of third-party cookies has elevated the value of platforms who have first-party data. Enter OTT services that have location, payment and profile details of the consumer.  

7.) The successful deployment of addressable advertising by OTT platforms comes at a time when marketers are seeking alternatives to brand spend on search or social. Astro Malaysia exemplifies this – combining online inventory with on-air spots on television and radio, as well as on-ground activation entitlements from its owned and/or operated events. 

8.) Content investments in additional/alternative programming for next-generation demand had been rising prior to the pandemic. This was even before the limitations of the back catalogue, whose origins and vintage were in traditional TV, were revealed. Old wine in new bottles, not! 

9.) The creator economy helped solve new programming needs. Content commissioners have access to new genres and proven formats. Both come with a sizable, loyal (and increasingly addressable) audience. And best of all, the brand ambassador comes with a proven marketing channel. 

10.) A sharpening of the ‘awareness-intent-purchase’ demand funnel through OTT interfaces is creating new opportunities for ‘shoppable content’. YouTube pioneered app downloads using  graphic overlays over a video with users encouraged to click a link. The ecommerce potential to combine emotive moments in sport or drama with ‘flash offers’ seem limitless.  

In conclusion, the origins of OTT in Asia were as a set top box-enabled, on-demand service, operated via a remote control and fulfilled by return-path data and a local head-end. Thankfully, trial & error, new technology, capital, and executive (and shareholder!) angst has enabled OTT to find a product-market fit that is increasingly optimal and promises much for the next age of story-telling. The ‘Martini Moment’ – Anytime. Anyplace. Anywhere. – has arrived in Asia. Cheers to OTT!