Creating a sports content marketplace
for leading broadcasters
Ludus Artis Media (LA Media) was incorporated in April 2017, after radical developments in the sport broadcasting industry in Asia, in addition to the changing landscape of UK media staffing – with a significant percentage of media professionals now employed as freelancers, as opposed to full-time staff.
Utilising our network in the UK, and Asia, our access to sports stadia and venues makes it possible to create bespoke content for different demographics and audiences. Due to these factors, LA Media has a competitive advantage – reducing the costs broadcasters based in Asia would have to incur, in order to send a crew to the UK, to cover, for example, English Premier League matches – which have a substantial viewership in the aforementioned territories.
Additionally, it affords Asian broadcasters localised content – which they critically lack at this stage. Most of the aforementioned broadcasters do not have a UK-based crew and instead simply broadcast the world feed, with production outsourced to organisations such as IMG for instance, in a process informally known as ‘plug-and-play’. Therefore, there is no customised content for international viewers, even though the industry acknowledges that localisation and customisation of television sports content are crucial drivers of growth (Nicholson, Kerr and Sherwood, 2015). We believe that LA Media being London-based actually positions it as a far better suited production set-up, when compared to the internal production teams at Asian broadcasters.
High quality, bespoke sports content for linear and digital platforms
We have an extensive network across sport and broadcasting in Asia, Europe and North America.
Our London HQ gives us unrivalled access to UK and European stadia across football, cricket, rugby and F1.
We have been able to create multiple full-time positions, fixed-term contract positions and internships for UK talent, looking to work in sports media and broadcasting.
First, the agency will provide freelance producers, editors, graphic designers and sound engineers to leading broadcasters based in the UK, through the founder’s network in sport broadcasting, having already secured clients such as BT Sport, CNN International, Sky Sports News, IMG-SNTV (Sports News Television), and the Vumero Institute.
The second, and perhaps more crucial aspect, is the production of bespoke sports content for the burgeoning Asian sports broadcast markets – particularly India and China. Having secured both India, and South Asia’s largest Sports broadcaster – Star Sports, as well as, ESPN India, LA Media has successfully pitched, validated, and monetised its business proposition. The vision is to create a marketplace for media freelancers, almost akin to the ‘Uber Model’ of matching supply and demand.
Through the aforementioned developments, a business opportunity was identified - to utilise the upsurge of freelance talent in the UK market and create bespoke sports content for the Asian market. As more and more sport broadcasting is shifting from linear (TV) to over-the top (OTT) platforms, content customisation, and localisation are being looked at as crucial elements for gaining traction, and enhancing viewership. An example of an OTT platform is Netflix; no such equivalent exists for sport. However, UK-based Perform Group’s venture DAZN is pitching itself as the ‘Netflix of sport.’
Sports content, and the demand thereof is higher than ever (Rankin, 2017), and the UK pay-tv football market has seen unprecedented growth, on the back of Sky and BT’s £5.13 billion deal to secure the TV rights of the Premier League (This was followed by another £4.5 billion deal in 2018). The trend is not exclusive to mature markets like the UK. Large Asian markets such as India have seen massive investment and experienced rapid growth – with $3.2 billion injected by 21st Century Fox alone since 2013. Utilising the fledging UK freelance market, which has grown 25 per cent since 2009 to an estimated turnover of £109 billion per year (IPSE, 2016). In terms of Asia – a seismic shift occurred in 2013, when Rupert Murdoch-owned 21st Century Fox bought out Disney’s shares ESPN-Star Sport, which was by far the largest broadcaster in India (Financial Times, 2013). The ESPN name was dropped and a new organisation was established, simply called Star Sports. Our founding team had the chance to work at Star Sports, almost immediately the joint-venture with ESPN had come to an end. During their time with the organisation, they observed first-hand, how the broadcaster established new domestic sports leagues, while acquiring the TV rights to international leagues and tournaments. The reason behind such rapid expansion was the massive financial outlay – over $3 billion (Times of India, 2013) from the new owners.
Creating a sports content marketplace for leading broadcasters
