LONDON: Demand for premium content tied to the massive spending power the five digital giants from the US – Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft – and China’s Alibaba and Tencent, collectively enjoy will continue to drive up the value of sports broadcast rights, argues Martin Sorrell, CEO of global media and advertising behemoth WPP.
“There is tremendous disruption and change taking place… These are half trillion dollar companies. They are all going to be demanding and bidding for content,” Inside World Football quotes Sorrell as stating during his address at the Leaders Sports Business Summit in London.
“Demand is going to be so strong and so varied. Live events will become more premium and in general content demand will exceed supply.”
Sorrel pointed to the 2026 World Cup in the Americas and the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles as a “fantastic opportunity” being driven by changing “trends in media, production and distribution”.
The emphasis from Sorrell was that sport has “to change its thinking” and “to think carefully about proving value and return on investment”, the website reported.
Sorrel noted that “pricing will rise faster for rights holders that will find better ways of activating brands”.
Sorrel also argued that the the activation spends allied to sports sponsorships would also have to increase significantly.
In terms of sponsorship activation where brands on average need to spend $3 on activation to every dollar on sponsorship (in India it is 2:1), “brands may have to go further”, perhaps as far as doubling that activation spend.
