The Streaming Wars Might Be Renamed The Platform Wars
And this is where sports will be redefining its content and monetisation models in the next decade.
Netflix may have won in the first era of SVOD with their combination of scale, user experience and original content, but if you look past them and look at Nielsen's Gauge report you just can't ignore YouTube, the creator-led platform juggernaut that is for me the future of sports media consumption for future generations.
It's not as if it isn't obvious in terms of YouTube's might:
YouTube is growing its share of US TV viewing faster than all other platforms combined (Nielsen Gauge). BTW Netflix's has plateaued.
It dominates kids content, podcasting, and gaming content - three verticals that Netflix is moving into (strategic diversification by Netflix, or a defence?)
It offers a content spectrum like nothing else, from MrBeast to Channel 4, from Roblox gameplay videos to channel aggregation via YouTube TV (in the US)
And it’s free. At global scale.
"But what about monetisation?" is always the question. Well, it's not as simple an answer as "Sell media rights for a big cheque for a defined period" but the graphic above goes some way to explaining how YouTube monetises video.
It's by Omdia but I found it via Jen Topping's newsletter and it is one of the best visual representations to help sports rights owners reorient their thinking around monetisation. And the potential is significant.
As sports starts to think about the value of attention, of how we package content to engage young sports fans across their favourite video platforms, and how the heck we monetise them when they're there - this feels like a useful chart.
