Stephen van Rooyen

The spiralling cost of sports rights, the rise of women’s football and the threat that big tech companies pose to traditional broadcasters were some of the subjects covered in a lively session on the sporting media landscape.

Kicking off the discussion, session host Ade Adepitan asked whether the cost of sports rights had peaked? “We are facing intrinsic rights value headwinds,” admitted Warner Bros. Discovery Sports executive Andrew Georgiou, not least the concerns about the impact of increasing competition.

Broadcasters no longer battle just each other in the bid for growth. With expanding options in leisure and home entertainment, and consumers reeling from the cost of living crisis, the competition has broadened. Now, it includes other leisure pursuits as much as traditional rivals.

This battle for consumer attention was the focus of the second convention session, “Follow the eyeballs, follow the money: winning in the attention economy”.