TORONTO – Change is in the air at Rogers Sports and Media’s Sportsnet.
In the span of about a month the network relaunched its Sportsnet Now app, launched a new multiplatform audio content strategy, debuted a new interactive studio (above) and hired an executive producer of sports betting content.
“Our mission really is to serve the fan and allow them to consume the content they want when and where they want,” said Sportsnet president, Bart Yabsley in an interview with Cartt.ca. “That’s a complicated question in today’s world, and that’s why we’re making the changes we want to make, but serving the fan is a priority for us.”
While the rollouts of new developments at Sportsnet have happened in quick succession, they have been in the works for a while now and, as Yabsley put it, it was “very much time for investment.”
He talked about launching Sportsnet Now in 2016. “So, that was… over five years ago,” he said. “We built a studio downtown for the new NHL national rights hockey deal eight years ago. That’s a long time in today’s world.” (Prior to the debut of the new studio this year, the Sportsnet team worked out of a studio built in 2014 at Toronto’s CBC headquarters.)
The recent developments are “part of our strategic plan to invest in our sports assets,” Yabsley said. The timing of everything rolling out was set to coincide with the start of the NHL and NBA seasons.
It is relevant to highlight innovation is happening both for their linear broadcasts and on new platforms. The network is “trying to strike a balance” between serving fans who want to consume content in a more traditional way, and those who want to consume it on new platforms, Yabsley said. “There are many different consumers, and we need to make sure we are distributing our content on multiple platforms where they want to consume it.”
“We’re off to a great start – new packaging, new pricing, new features, and functionality in our Sportsnet Now, amazing new studio, with rights I think are very much in demand by sports fans, and we’re tying all of those things together in an aggressive way to serve fans, but also advertisers,” Yabsley said.
And there is still more change to come.
As Cartt.ca previously reported, the intention has always been for the relaunched Sportsnet Now to continue to develop and roll out new features over the next year or so. But it is not only Sportsnet Now that will evolve, Yabsley said, “it’s absolutely everything we do, whether it be our linear programming lineup, whether it be our studio, whether it be Sportsnet Now – absolutely everything we’re trying to build for the future so that as technology enhancements come along, we are there for the fans, as advertising opportunities come along for our clients, we are there delivering the best possible product.”
Fans are a major driving force behind the changes happening at the network. “It really comes back to the overall changing of the media landscape,” said Yabsley. “Technology is driving that change, but fans are also driving that change.”
He said fans have an appetite “to know more about the games, know more about the players.” Fans are saying “they want to know more and we’re going to take them deeper.”
With the new studio, for example, “you’re going to see real time stats built into our broadcast as we evolve over the course of the season like we haven’t been able to do before because the technology is now allowing us to do it.”
Sportsnet’s new audio strategy is also built around adapting to changes in what fans want and what technology now allows. As announced at the end of the September, Sportsnet’s audio strategy is designed to provide flexible programming that caters to the personal interests of fans.
“We’ve gone to a very personality and season driven strategy where we’re going to be talking about teams in the cities where we have stations, we’re going to have personalities front those teams, and all of our shows will be podcast available,” Yabsley explained. “It’s just another example of how we are adapting to how the consumer wants to consume content.”
With an eye to the future, Sportsnet is also considering how the legalization of single event sports betting in Canada will play into what fans want and how the network will deliver on it. “We have to see… how it rolls out across Canada, but sports betting is something (that), as you can see on networks in the U.S., is being integrated into broadcast. I expect it to be similar here,” Yabsley said.
It is clear Sportsnet is preparing for this since Cabbie Richards was hired in September as executive producer of sports betting content. “He will do more than betting, but initially that will be his focus,” Yabsley said, noting that even if you are not a betting fan, “he’s tremendously entertaining.”
While Sportsnet is not ready to announce any specific plans around sports betting content, Yabsley did indicate that, as with everything else, they will “contemplate it from a fan perspective.”
Photo borrowed from Rogers’s website.
