Speaking Sensis

To watch sport on television is a sacred Australian past time. The relationship between sport and television is symbiotic, forged the moment Ron Clarke lit the cauldron of the 1956 Olympic Games at Melbourne’s very own MCG. Mainstream professional television had only been launched weeks before and sport has been the cornerstone of content ever since.

But a new player in the sport broadcasting arena stands to break this marriage that is quickly nearing its emerald anniversary.

While argument rages about whether pay TV should be able to bid for sports traditionally reserved for free-to-air audiences (a decision is due at the end of the year) the internet is emerging as the elephant in the room. The internet has grown from the broadcasting of live scores to parallel broadcasting of sporting events. Telstra currently holds the AFL mobile and internet rights. While no live broadcast is available, you can watch full replays and highlights soon after the game has finished.
While this may not seem to be much of a threat yet, it will only take a cashed up internet giant to decide it wants to host major sporting events. It wouldn’t take much for a cashed up internet giant, perhaps Google, to waltz into International Olympic Committee HQ in Switzerland and claim the worldwide rights to televise the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

Sound crazy? Not when Google has signalled its desire to head down a sports broadcasting path. In January this year it announced it was going compete against other media organisations with their broadcast of the Indian Premier League Twenty20 for the next two years. Google will provide live and exclusive coverage through its YouTube website to all 60 matches this year’s competition. And it’s tipped to provide mobile coverage as well. A check of the site shows that before the event has begun, nearly 10,000 subscribers are set to fly once the tournament begins.
For Google, it’s all about advertising. Through its relationship with users Google knows what they watch, what they share, what they buy and where they live. 
This provides advertisers with more targeting opportunities than TV broadcasting and the more targeted the advertising, the more likely that ads will be looked at and clicked. And it’s that small click that drives the revenue. The IPL deal suggests that Google is taking YouTube from a video site that houses people’s videos to a broadcast medium not too different from television.
So with the next Olympics TV rights expected to exceed $2 billion, what is to stop Google stumping up the worldwide dollars. It has the internet distribution so it will still be free to watch and it is increasing its mobile phone reach. By 2016, who knows what else they might own. But who wants to watch the Olympic Games on a PC or mobile screen I hear you say? Well Google might have already thought that one through. Only this week it has been rumoured to be releasing a set top box that can tap into TV content and internet content and bring it together in your lounge room on your TV.

This all proves that content is king and while we argue over whether AFL games should be on Pay TV or FTA, traditional broadcasters should be paying more attention to the multi-coloured elephant in the room.