Sports Media Rights in the Age of Streaming and Platformisation

Against a backdrop of increased online distribution of media, this book provides an in-depth analysis of how the platformisation of television is both shaping and being shaped by the changing sports media market.

Beginning by looking at the business models and strategies of the major stakeholders involved in the ’sports broadcasting value chain’, the authors go on to focus on the challenges and opportunities posed by the growth of OTT delivery for the regulation of sports broadcasting in several key areas, including copyright law and piracy; competition issues linked to the buying, selling and distribution of premium sports content; and legislation designed to safeguard coverage of certain national and international sporting events for free-to-air television. Key areas of continuity, such as the persistence of national/regional markets; the importance attached to premium sports rights by rival delivery platforms as a source of ’market power’; and the need to update key areas of policy and regulation in order to address challenges posed by the use of OTT delivery, are also discussed. This book makes use of a range of international and regional examples and case studies, not least the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup, and identifies different strategies employed in the buying, selling and distribution of sports rights for all major parties in the sports media value chain, including new entrant OTT players, traditional pay-TV operators, public service broadcasters, and a range of international sports organizations.

Providing a complete assessment of the relevance and future effectiveness of key areas of policy and regulation in sports media distribution, this book is recommended reading for advanced students and researchers of Sports Media, Sports Management, and Media Industries.

Tom Evens is Associate Professor of Media Industries at Ghent University, Belgium and a senior researcher at imec-mict. He specialises on the political economy of digital media markets. He is the author of The Political Economy of Television Sports Rights (2013, with Petros Iosifidis and Paul Smith) and Platform Power and Policy in Transforming Television Markets (2018, with Karen Donders).

Paul Smith is Associate Professor of Media and Communication at the Leicester Media School, De Montfort University, Leicester, United Kingdom. He has published widely on sports rights, including a previous book (with Petros Iosifidis and Tom Evens): The Political Economy of Television Sports Rights (Palgrave, 2013). He is also author (with Vincent Campbell) of The British Media Industries: An Introduction (Routledge, 2023).