Sara Guaglione of Digiday examines the recent push by media companies to cover sports business news.
Guaglione writes, “These verticals spotlight the economics behind sports, such as sports media rights negotiations, investment in sports, ownership structures, valuations and betting and prediction markets. Though niche publishers like Front Office Sports and Sportico have covered this space for years, major news and business publishers are now investing in covering the business side of sports to try to reach a valuable audience, according to four media buyers Digiday spoke with for this story.
“It may not be a complete white space, but sports business is an area where large publishers may be able to grab the attention of a professional audience interested in sports – and a new mix of advertisers, they said.
“‘Sports viewership and attention is at the highest levels we’ve seen. The Super Bowl is setting records for audiences, NBA ratings are accelerating, even the MLB is gaining ground after years of difficulty,’ said Harry Browne, vp of TV, audio & display innovation at media agency Tinuiti. ‘I’m not sure this represents a true white space opportunity – platforms like ESPN and The Athletic have had this beat for a while – but insofar as it helps retain audiences who are already on places like Yahoo and WSJ, it helps keep those platforms relevant in the evolving media landscape.'”
Read more here.
