“Sports will be the biggest driver of consumption for online video and advertising, not subscriptions, will generate the lions share of revenue from OSV,” (online sports video), said Screen Digest, an analyst firm, in its Online Sports Video: Rights, Revenues and Forecasts report, released Feb. 20.
The number of OSV streams will grow from 5.2 billion in 2007 to 10.8 billion by 2012. OSV accounted for 35 percent of all streams in the U.S. last year.
OSV includes live online simulcasts, delayed game coverage, highlights, clips, sports news and other sports programming. It is being played by ESPN, Sky Sports, Yahoo!, YouTube and Joost, the report said.
Revenue from OSV in the U.S. will increase from $762 million in 2007 to $2.3 billion in 2012. The revenue comes from advertising and subscriber fees with advertising accounting for 41 percent and subscriber fees 39 percent in 2012. Increasingly, broadcasters are “moving towards offering online propositions as a mix of free value-add to their existing pay-TV sports customers, or free ad supported content to the entire domestic market,” the report said.
The introduction of new forms of TV may change the picture. “With the development of broadband-enabled living room devices which can provide online content direct to the TV set, such as the Playstation 3, the future becomes very uncertain,” the report said. “In this scenario, the consumer will effectively have the clear choice of viewing sports regardless of whether it’s delivered via broadcast TV or the Internet, or if it’s served by a broadcaster or the sports rights holder directly, all on the same living room screen.”
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More