How is UFC doubling media rights revenue whilst killing off pay-per-view?

In this episode of StreamTime Sports, co-hosts Nick Meacham and Chris Stone break down how UFC's evolving media strategy could signal the end of traditional pay-per-view.

They break down Paramount’s big-money move for UFC rights, why ESPN stepped aside, and what this shift means for niche sports, bundling, and the future of global broadcasting. They also look ahead to what’s next for Fubo and Hulu partnerships in the U.S., and whether piracy could shape the future of bundling in Europe.

Key Points:

• What does ESPN’s sports-only bundle mean for UFC content?
• Could the UFC’s deal with Paramount mark the end of pay-per-view?
• How are sports media dynamics shifting in the U.S.?
• Will piracy influence how bundling evolves in Europe?
• What’s next for Fubo and Hulu partnerships in sports broadcasting?

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the next episode of
Streamtime Sports. My name is Chris Stone.
I'm the community lead, joined as always by our CEO, Nick
Meacham. Now, Nick, there's been a hell
of a lot of news and we're goingto cover it.
Spoiler warnings. We're going to talk about the
UFC and their deal with CBS. But as part of that deal, Nick,
you know, we're going to talk about is this the death of
pay-per-view? So the question I have is there,

(00:25):
can you remember the first pay-per-view fight you bought or
the 1st pay-per-view sporting event that maybe is memorable to
you? I know for me the 1st
pay-per-view fight I ever purchased was in 2007 and I had
to go to Google to remember that.
I didn't remember off the top ofmy head, but it was the Oscar De
La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather fight.So that was the first
pay-per-view purchase that I ever made.

(00:46):
Was me a group about 10 bucks. Everyone just throws in a tenner
and you go back to business and you watch the fight.
So that's the first pay-per-viewfight I ever bought.
Do you do you have any of that stick out to you?
Well the first one that sticks out to me I just have no idea.
I can't remember if I'd paid forit or if I actually watched it
live. But it dumps to mind was the
Tyson Holyfield pay-per-view where all the controversy around

(01:09):
the the air bite that happened as well.
But I don't actually know. I think it's just like a memory
that's etched when you talk about pay-per-view.
But like I might not have actually even seen it live.
I can't remember the the one. The one that does stick out to
me was in when I was in my 20s and I had AI was sharing with a
bunch of mates a flat and I can't remember exactly which

(01:29):
boxing match it is. I think it was a big fight in
Australia, so not big worldwide,but there was a fighter who was
actually a rugby league star. I think he played for Australia
played he's one of the best in Australia.
And he just switched to boxing midway through his career at the
peak, Well, right, the peak of his his career, one of the best
in Australia rugby league. And then he became one of the

(01:51):
Australia's best boxers. And I think it was with his name
was Anthony Mundine. And I think it was with Paul
Green who was the fight. And it became quite a big story
because they, you know, they built up the tension, they built
up the hype. He was this kind of figure that
wasn't unanimously supported. He was quite what's the word,

(02:12):
not controversial but but more like abrasive I guess is
probably it like. Sure, yeah.
Wasn't didn't hold his didn't have much of A philtre so he
basically had people that loved him or hated him.
I mean, people will love him today.
Yeah, yeah. And I remember that because we
we set it all up. We we wanted to go to the big
screen. So we had a project, got a

(02:34):
projector and projected the gameonto this, onto a wall in our
flat, which we end up having like 10-12 fourteen people over
to watch it. So that was quite a cool
experience. But what happens after a few
drinks and things get a little bit long, as these these sort of
fight cards tend to be, is the wall just ended up getting

(02:55):
saturated with her beer and things getting thrown at the
screen because you know, you could throw stuff on a wall.
Like what? There's not no damage to be had.
So it afterwards was absolute utter carnage that we never
bought a quiver view fight againafter that.
But let's start that one's extrain my mind about the event based
experience on pay-per-view and the importance of being able to

(03:17):
afford a cleaner. Yeah, to be fair, we I had a
similar experience back when I was a younger lad and being my
friends. Every year we did a destination
draft for fantasy football. So the winner of the previous
year got to pick where we were going to go.
And one year we went to Brussels, had an incredible
time. Those have not been to Brussels.
They are, they are famous for having very strong beers.

(03:38):
And we met some locals one night, just had a grand old time
with them, a lot of fun. And it was the same weekend that
there was the Conor McGregor, Floyd Mayweather boxing match.
So they went and invited us to their flat like 2 days later to
go watch the fight based on whenthat was.
Basically, that fight started at7:00 AM pretty much local time
in Brussels. So like we'd been out the night

(03:58):
before, maybe got like 3-4 hoursof sleep, went over to their
house. And then Nick, as you say, a
little bit of alcohol involved. And basically it ended like with
eight in the morning. One of the flatmates was from
India and we ended up doing kabadi like somewhat drunk,
somewhat hungover from the nightbefore, like 8:30 in the morning
in the middle of the yard, like waiting for the fight to go on.
So that might be my most memorable pay-per-view

(04:20):
experience. That winds I would kabaddi is a
is a fun sport to watch. I have never done it in person
though, and I still don't reallyunderstand the rules either.
But that is a heck of a way to start your morning.
Where do you go from there? Like what do you is it basically
it's all downhill from there? Or do you just keep it's an
endurance? It goes to marathon now and
you've got to like, persevere through the rest of the day.
Or do you crash at 9:00 and thengive up on the rest of it?

(04:42):
Well, the thing was, is that waslike the last day of the
holiday, like we were all getting the Eurostar back.
So like, I think we were all just basically pretty hurt
between playing kabaddi and justthree days of non-stop drinking.
But yeah, like I said, it is allabout the pay-per-view vibe.
The good thing, though, is when you're in Europe purchasing
American sports fights, the the,the, the pay per view's a bit
cheaper because like, they know you're not, you know, prime time

(05:05):
audience and stuff like that. But yeah, so both my most
memorable pay per views, both involved Floyd Mayweather.
And look, you can have a great time in places like Belgium.
The Belgian beers will super tasty, but my gosh, they sneak
up on you fast If you are don't check what alcohol percentages
you have in those beers. But anyway, yeah, I've had a

(05:26):
little bit good at times in in Belgium over the years.
It's very good. But Nick, we'll now we'll now
segue into the big news itself and pay-per-view is going to be
a part of this and we're going to talk about the UFC and the
partnership that they've just signed with CBS and Paramount.
That deal is 7 years, $7.7 billion, which if I've done my
math about right, Nick, that's pretty much double what they

(05:48):
were making with ESPN previously.
A. Little bit, maybe even a little
bit more I think, depending on the exchange.
Yeah, So quite a significant jump.
You know, we, we talked a littlebit about where the UFC would
potentially go next. I mean, we've, we've talked
about Netflix because of the TKOpartnership and WWE being
already transitioned over to there.
I don't know if there was a tonne of smoke that Paramount

(06:11):
Plus would be there, but you know, maybe that's us not paying
enough attention. But it is a significant deal in
terms of the increased money that the UFC is going to make
off the back of this, which is significant itself when we've
been talking about our sports rights plateauing, flattening,
clearly not the case for the UFCat this stage.
But the other really interestingpart of this is all of the

(06:33):
fights are going to be streamed on Paramount Plus.
And then some of the major events they talked about could
just be put directly on CBS, thelinear broadcast channels.
So hey, Nick, there's the side of, you know, had UFC found a
new partner, they significantly increased the revenue from the
broadcast rights. But then there's a whole other

(06:54):
side that they've come out and said nothing's going to be on
pay-per-view, which UFC has famously been involved in and,
you know, combat sports in general.
You know, we've talked about, we're sharing stories that are
nearly 20 years old now, Nick, about payment.
And it goes back even further than that.
Hell, the Tyson fights maybe 30 years back now.
It's scary. It's probably not 30, but it's
not far. It's closer to 30 than 20, I

(07:15):
think, Nick. Yeah, yeah.
I don't know if you want to admit that, but like it might
be, I'm still. Scared to look it up now to
confirm how long that that was ago, but yeah, but.
Yeah. So there's a few ways to go
through and tackle this. I mean, maybe before we get into
the paper 90. 79796 they had twofights, 96 and 97.
The bite fight was 97. There you go.

(07:37):
So. Closer to 30 than 20.
Yeah, yeah, that's, that's worsethan I expected.
Yeah. So let's let's tackle this in
two parts. The first part, let's talk just
strictly the business side of things.
UFC finding a new partner. Yes, ESPN we've talked about is
a great partner because of all the side pieces they can do.
Is is a media outlet, but it's not like CBS doesn't have a

(08:00):
sports background with some of the other entities it works with
with college basketball, the SECand college football, the NFL.
It's not like they're not a a sports media entity at the same
time, but it does. It is.
It is a change, you know, but big money involved with it.
So I see it as a win win. Well, I think it is a win win

(08:20):
for the two parties that have done the deal.
The money is extraordinary. I think taking a step back,
you've got to look at all some of the other other pieces that
have sort of played out, all thethings that have happened
alongside this. You had the Skydance merger
valued at 8 billion and then immediately there's a deal for
equivalently almost equivalent amount of money to do some rides

(08:42):
deal with the UFC, which is let's just pause there for a
second. Think about this.
These two of the biggest names in media, Skydance and Paramount
come together and their collective value is about the
set of one set of major sports media rights for a number of
years. So licencing rights for a few
years is value the value equivalent to these

(09:04):
organisations. It's quite extraordinary to
think about how how that perception of value or just how
that value is manifested. But anyway, I digress.
I just thought those numbers were you're really close to each
other and the timing was really close.
Then you marry up ESPN and the NFL deal happening.
There's a reportedly a commitment of a couple of extra

(09:24):
billion dollars going towards the NFL from ESPN for those of
the ability to have the red zoneand NFL Network licence and so
forth. And then you have WWE
announcement ESPN is also the WWE.
So those things are connected. Now what was the chicken and egg
in that situation is difficult to assess.

(09:47):
And then you have to think about, OK, well, they've been
running this approach, ESPN, they've been running this
approach for quite a while now where a lot of fights are on
pay-per-view. They've been using ESPN Plus as
well as a core channel. Well, ESPN Plus is basically
wrapped up into the ESPN flagship product by and large.
And we know pay-per-view is a isa dying source.

(10:08):
We've given a bunch of examples on that.
You've got the Netflix story, you've got BBC and Boxer.
I'm not sure if we've covered that, but that's quite a big
news story. Then going to Freeway there and
taking those rights from from Sky.
Yeah. And all Netflix like basically
being available to all subscribers for free.
And now this, those are pretty significant shifts of an

(10:30):
industry approach that I think sort of set the scene for this
to be almost inevitable to happen.
And you layer in that UFC has added a lot of fight nights.
Now they have loads of fights going all, all the time.
That's inevitably not going to be really solid for pay-per-view
in the long run by having too many moments, like it's an
events based experience. You don't think you want to pay
pay-per-view every other night or every other week, right?

(10:52):
And that that wasn't the approach they took.
But that that's I thought that gives the sense of like why
pay-per-view is a difficult prospect if you don't have the
right players or athletes lined up.
So I think it is a bit of all those things coming together
made another deal almost inevitable.
I would have thought that the ESPN will be quite comfortable
spending the money on those rights if they thought they

(11:14):
could get the value out of them.But with the NFL and with the
WWE deal, there's probably just too much crossover value there
to to then for pay 100 and whatever percent increase in
media rights on top of that. If the NFL deal wasn't going to
happen and if WWE wasn't going to happen, I would have probably
bet they would have made a pretty competitive bid to keep

(11:36):
the UFC on their channels, even if it wasn't taking the
pay-per-view model. But inevitably that's how it's
paid played out and Paramount have hit this old, this new
business, this new entity has hit the market with an absolute
bang securing the last. Well, not I keep saying the
last, but like the biggest set of rights right now.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The biggest set of rights
available to date on in in 2025 S yeah, I love to digest and I'm

(12:01):
just curious to see how far paramount go with it now.
Is it going to be just about doubling down on the US and
trying to get market share in a super competitive market or will
they really push into international?
Not that this deal really helps that, but because because I've
been marketing themselves globally like you think with F1,
they are one of the major sponsors.
They're they're brands everywhere on some on the

(12:22):
billboards like what's the play here?
I'm really interested to see what's going to manifest from
here. Well, I remember they were the
ones that got in trouble with the Premier League because they
wanted to sponsor Chelsea and you remember as a front of
jersey sponsorship, the Premier League said that was anti
competitive with sky. I forget what the the
terminology was, but essentiallyI'm doing let that that go
through BA it. It is interesting.

(12:43):
What I what I'd be curious to get your opinion about Nick is
are you surprised by how quick it's happened?
Because we, we've sort of talkedabout like, oh, we've seen
Netflix dabbling in it a little bit.
There's been the re add seasons,talk about switching to a
subscription model. Are you surprised?
Well, I guess there's multiple layers to this as to whether we
think pay-per-view is officiallydead.
But like let's before that just sort of say, like, are you

(13:03):
surprised how quickly this shifthas occurred?
Oh, completely, I mean that happened so rapidly and it's
like it's almost like I said a Domino's right from the first
one to the the 4th announcement.I forgot about the re add the
zone one. That's four major platforms
announcing they're moving away from pay-per-view in the in the
a period of what, 6, less than six months, maybe three or four

(13:25):
months, something like that. Feels like it's all been this
calendar year. Yeah, yeah, probably even
probably three months at most. So I think yeah, it is.
It's in, it's in crazy. I mean, like you can everyone
could tell some probably sorry, everyone could easily point to
you. Oh, this, the writing's been on
the wall for some time, etcetera.
Yeah, maybe that's maybe that isthe case, but you rarely see
things actually happen that way.You hear them talking about, but

(13:46):
not at that pace of line in the sand.
We're now moving away from that model.
And obviously piracy is probablythe the number one reason for
all this alongside consumed consumption habits and alone.
But the ease of accessing pay-per-view fights, I mean
pay-per-view fights is the the Holy Grail for pirates, I
imagine, given the price point of those those rides.

(14:07):
So yeah, pretty insane to happenso.
Quickly. Well, let's talk about
monetization a little bit. Great, great topic.
We know that this is it's going to be a subscription based
model, but it also feels like, you know, one of the things
we've talked about with football, soccer, hard to
necessarily always do advertising because it it's such
a flowing sport, not a lot of stops, whereas quite the

(14:29):
opposite of, you know, combat sports, you know, it's however
many rounds, 3 minutes and you've got your time in between
each round. Now, I know you always want to
get feedback between those rounds, but like, do you
imagine, you know, they're goingto be selling lots of inventory
space? Because I know with
pay-per-view, you typically don't, You might get some ad
placements and some ad reads, but you don't, you're paying for
that. You don't necessarily get the

(14:49):
traditional ad models you would get in an NBA or an NBA, NFL,
Major League Baseball game. Do you anticipate to make sure
they maximise the value off that$7.7 billion investment that you
know we might have a new updatedexperience and incorporate some
of that advertising? It could well be the case.
I, I remember seeing a bunch of boxing matches with, with

(15:10):
particularly the second tier, third tier, where they have like
a logo after logo on their shorts and they try and maximise
every, every dollar they can. And with the technology that's
coming, we're going to hear a lot about that at the media
summit in Madrid November, whereadvertising is one of the core
focuses on this. How, how, how, how to basically
sell it, how to deliver it because it is the hottest topic
and hottest touch point of the streaming industry right now is

(15:32):
how to maximise that value, particularly around live, live
sports. So I think you're going to see a
different experience. I think they will find the right
balance that these are smart operators.
You'll probably see a lot more overlay ads.
So basically they won't necessarily go away from what's
happening, but you'll see them on the screen in different
places. There's a lot of great companies
that do that type of technology.Now we've had transmit on the on

(15:54):
the pod who are one of the ones who can do that type of
technology and work with a lot of major platforms.
There's others as well that can do that.
So I think that's inevitably a baseline of how they're going to
get more value and think betweenbetween rounds, it's just gold
dust. There is a there is a pause in
play. They will be able to find time
to have a break. And we've seen that those

(16:15):
commitments with things like theNFL have led to the NFL being
absolute gold dust for media rights in that approach.
So given there's breaks between fights, could you see the
extensive ad breaks in them if it's pay, if it's free, if it's,
you know, or included in the subscription package?
Absolutely that could be the be the case.
And then if you couple that withsubscription revenues, then the

(16:36):
the monetization does become a little bit more healthier.
But you might see that they do change that viewing experience
somewhat to to adopt, either by adding ad breaks or just adding
more overlay branding throughoutthe fight.
So I guess that leaves the second question is, does that
now mean pay-per-view is dead? I think one of the things you

(16:57):
talked about like UFC, one of the the benefits of pay-per-view
is it it's an event based business.
So you can drive mass attention to that.
The struggle with it is, is if you become the UFC and you start
doing so many regular events, a becomes quite a lot of marketing
to have to constantly be marketing to drive those
pay-per-view sales. And then also as a consumer,
like you're going to pick and choose which ones you want to go

(17:19):
to. They might be a victim of their
own success that now they have so many frequent events and no
longer works on them to do that.Does that mean the pay-per-view
is necessarily dead? You know, if we finally in the
UK, the fight we've all been begging for, we finally get
Anthony Joshua verse. Oh my gosh, how have I forgotten
his name? The Gypsy King.
Oh, plus and Fury. Yeah, everyone's been begging

(17:40):
for that fight. If that fight finally happens, I
can understand why pay-per-view would make sense for that.
So I guess sort of, Nick, with what we've seen over the last
few months and all the examples we've just talked about, is
pay-per-view dead or is it just dead for maybe the current
iteration of this model? Oh, I would say the easy answer
is oh it's not that it's going to live on.

(18:01):
I reckon it's pretty dead for now.
I would say for now not going tobe too many organisations
looking at it actively unless there's legacy issues and
reasons for it. The effort will therefore be
working with partners who can monetize through multiple
facets, basically through subscription and through
advertising and sponsorship of the content.
Netflix took that approach actually as well with the fights

(18:23):
they've had on on online. The only ones that I can think
of, the only types of fights that I think of that could
actually draw the interest to maybe make pay-per-view
worthwhile was as recently as was at last year.
You had Jake Paul and a bunch offights and those creators who
can get that real inertia from an audience to like, we're going
to back you and support you by buying your buying your bout.

(18:46):
I think that could still have a play if it's entertaining enough
that's going to pull those typesof audiences otherwise.
And that that is a potential I could easily see now that
someone like Jay Paul, if he wasgoing to continue to do those
fights, would just try and do a deal with some of these big, big
platforms instead. That gives them, gives him much
more visibility if the price tagis is right.

(19:09):
And he certainly can pull an audience for those things.
So I think it's dead for now. I think inevitable we'll come
back. I think you'll see people doing
it still. But inevitably you don't see
four of the biggest players in the industry move away from it
in quick succession that there'sa real reason behind it.
And is that your opinion specifically for we'll call it
combat sports? Because I could think is
something like like the side mencharity football match.

(19:31):
It happens once a year or on a much smaller scale.
We've talked about one full actually, I don't know.
I think they did it on YouTube, isn't it?
I think they did YouTube. I'm not sure.
I mean, they built their lives on, they built their careers on
YouTube. I kind of, I mean, they might
do, but I would imagine that is that is a YouTube player.
I mean we can work it out prettypretty quickly.

(19:52):
I, I, I think in general, it's there's going to be exceptions.
There's going to be ways to do it.
There's going to be the time where it can be useful is if
there's fights that basically don't have like the gravitas
that pirate, like the grav, the gravitas are the big events, but
still need to find a way to go to market and drive revenue.

(20:13):
Maybe the die hard boxing fans that maybe want to get access to
some of those fights that aren'tthe big tickets, that aren't the
draw cards. I could still see them
potentially using pay-per-view as a model for the near.
Future because they won't get itbecause they won't get a
financial deal from any of the other major players if they're
not Neil movers. That could continue, but other

(20:33):
than that, I struggle to see it living on in the near future.
Now things could change, piracy gets resolved better, who knows,
But for now I think it's going to be tough.
Yeah, interesting. I mean, I think of things it's
not pay-per-view in the sense, but you got things like in the
UK, like now TV where you can pay a 24 hour pass, which as far

(20:54):
as I'm concerned is basically when you're doing it on a one
day, it's kind of a pay-per-viewwhere there's a big football
game I want to watch, I can justpay for the one off.
I think there could still be smaller, yeah.
That's a fairpoint. I think the the again my, I said
it used to. I'll keep looking at it through
the lens of fight sports and combat sports.
But I think your point about like making stuff accessible
that wouldn't be accessible otherwise from a whether it's

(21:15):
pay-per-view, whether it's AT VOD or whether it's just, yeah,
an anecdotal payment to get access to it.
Like I think 1 footballer have done a really good job with that
dropping that friction access for lower tier football matches
that wouldn't probably ever be pirated that wouldn't be
available otherwise. Yeah, I think that still has
legs at the right price point. But that's different to the

(21:36):
pay-per-view, the traditional. Paper view Yeah, it's.
Dozens and dozens of dollars or pounds, whatever you want to
whatever currency you want to work with to be a much more
incremental Rev share. It's so incremental.
Anything. I guess anecdotally less than a
cup of coffee I think is probably up for grab still.
Yeah, no, that's probably a a fair way to to look at that and

(21:56):
think about that. But yeah, it's hard to see that
changing in. Not to go on a tangent, that's
why I think piracy is such an interesting conversation because
it came up in the the Sky Premier League kick off talking
about the 3:00 PM blackout. You probably are right.
Probably part of the reason they're going to paramount is
how much money are we losing to these one off pay-per-view
fights that, you know, maybe andin the first round we got no

(22:17):
chance of ever shutting down thepirated streams.
Like I don't know if you'd ever be able to put a specific number
if you're looking at the pie, how what percentage of the pies,
you know, due to piracy. Like it feels like it's got to
be a part of it and we're seeingsome of the the impact of that.
And probably the the UFC in thisinstance is probably a victim of
their own success and their frequency.

(22:38):
Like if you have a real 10 pole moment, I reckon what you would
probably find that that wasn't coming around very often.
Like there might be a chance if it's a legit I must must see TV,
then you probably have a lot of fans that wouldn't risk trying
pirated and getting a shot down mid fight if it was big enough.
But if it's a regular cadence ofwhat UFC offers, then probably

(23:01):
people are like happy to give ita crack on piracy and see see
what what plays out. So small thing, but I think it's
an important part of it for sure.
And then I actually don't know enough about this.
Nick, you, you may know more than me is how that's ultimately
going to impact the fighters. You know, Dana White's come out
and said, you know, the fightersare going to get a pay raise.
But I know that's also one of the benefits of pay-per-view.
And it's also one of the reasonswhy you just tend to get some

(23:22):
ridiculous pre fight interviews is to draw that if all the
sudden, you know, there isn't necessarily the impetus that I'm
the the main card fight. And I'm pretty sure they
typically have in their contracts.
Hey, we're going to split the the pay-per-view 6040 depending
on who's the bigger fighter, whether that changes the sports

(23:43):
or not. I mean, I'm sure they'll have
some sort of bonus scheme in there.
But that is, it feels like that is a part of the fight business,
right? Is, is you have the, the show,
the stare downs and things like that, You know, is there is much
of an impetus on that when there's not an, you know, a
necessity to drive the pay-per-view numbers.
Yeah. So I think it's a it's a great
question. I, I, I would say my, my view on

(24:05):
it is that when you go from pay-per-view to working with a
major platform, in this case Paramount, there's like a
baseline of visibility that you basically guarantee for just
being on those platforms, right?That basically the boxers don't
have to do much. It'll just be a point of
viewing. People will watch it because
it's on. They weren't really look into
who's going to fighting beforehand to make a decision
because they don't have to make a conscious purchasing decision.

(24:27):
They can just go check it out. And therefore, though I think
you will see consistently numbers obviously skyrocket with
no pay-per-view barrier to it. And therefore the baseline of
consumption will be pretty much flatter, I think as a result of
that. But monetization particularly
around advertising will still bearound those temple fights is my
guess. So I think you might see a much

(24:48):
like more flat line distributionof revenue I would expect.
I mean, they they this is going to be a tricky time for UFC to
work through this since it's such a unique situation to be
and how, given the shifting fromthat per view that is so
tangible to measure. OK, you've you've basically had
led to build bringing in a thousand 1000 pay per views.
You can get X of that. That's that's an easier sell

(25:10):
versus just from a pure ratings perspective because there are so
many other factors at play when you're just part of the mix of
the ecosystem, bigger audiences,but maybe not as needle moving
and like your personality might be not as a key metric in there
to draw audience, if that makes sense.
So I think it is going to mean they're going to have to take a
very different approach. I've got I don't think it could

(25:32):
just be even just on ratings alone.
They might do, but it might evenchange the way they struck they
construct, what do you call themthe cards basically that the
that all that type of thing might change now as a result,
perhaps who who knows? Yeah, well.
We will see. It'll be interesting if that
deal doesn't technically, I think officially starts till
2026. So we're not going to see any

(25:54):
fights there in the coming months.
But I'm sure it'll be something when we get to the start of the
new year, we're going to come back around and keep an eye on
how some of those first couple of events go.
Yeah, for sure. I think two things that I'll
wrap on here is 1 is it will be super interesting to see what
ESPN now do for this next 12 months.
Will they continue with the pay-per-view model will because

(26:15):
of the the relationship's ending.
So will they try a different approach?
Will they wrap it in, take away that pay-per-view barrier and
just actually bring those fightsonto the platform to see if you
create an inertia for subscribers?
Could be a nice acquisition toolon the new flagship product.
And just with this deal in place, just important to
emphasise that this could reallypush UFC and combat sports into

(26:39):
the mainstream way more than ever now That's really
significant. So if they get it right, and UFC
will have to be smart about thisbecause they might have to get
more focused again on building up the personalities in the
sport. They need another Conor McGregor
or two. Those those really those, those
names and those figures that transcend fight sports to be

(27:00):
just a personality. I want to see fight.
If they can find a couple of those to hang their hats on,
back them, support them. Then in a few years time, as
this deal plays out and you havethe storytelling of Skydance
perhaps wrapped around this to tell more stories around the
UFC. I mean, yeah, UFC itself as a

(27:20):
competition and combat sports and MMA could be in a whole
other stratosphere if this all plays out the way they wanted
to. Yeah.
Well, so we'll, we'll definitelykeep an eye on it as things go.
One of the things you mentioned,Nick through there little little
side note was around the advertising forum taking place
at sports Real Madrid. And you know, it's something we
we've briefly touched on. We did an episode reviewing one

(27:41):
of our stream time connect events, But I think it's just
worth giving the people an update on how that is, you know,
the the stream time membership, which is obviously off the back
of the stream time sports podcast.
So you're all listen actually it's time on the podcast
anymore, Nick, We're doing full blown video.
It's the. Show sports.
It's a. Show.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not a, it's not a podcast.
It's a show at the moment, Nick,if my my master, right, we're up
to 19 members now, so just shy of 20.

(28:02):
That numbers continuing to grow as we go along.
We had our first event at the Snap offices in London.
We've got future events coming up.
We will have an event at IVC, you know, far as I'm aware, one
of the largest broadcast shows in the world annually.
There will also be the VIP dinner taking place at Sports
Pro or sign the OTT summit, the Sports Pro Media Summit.

(28:25):
Nick, you know the times are always changing.
You got to get it right, which we host annually, Madrid.
There's also already a date booked in February of 2026 to be
hosted. Maybe I'll keep that a surprise,
a secret, but I don't know if it's official official yet,
Nick, but we know it's happeningin February 2026.
But quite a few things from a stream time, member perspective,
people getting on board. Like I said, IBC event will be a

(28:47):
great one just where that's being hosted at.
But just giving people a little bit of an update on where we're
at with that, Nick. Yeah, absolutely.
We've got plenty of things happening.
We probably don't talk enough about what we're doing behind
the scenes around connecting ourcommunity around these types of
things. The fact we've reached as many
members as we can. Now for those that aren't
familiar with it, these are company members.
So they aren't individuals. So they're companies that we are

(29:08):
having as part of the membershipcommunity and we are limiting
the number of this. I don't know unless we'll have
to reshape the the membership offering if we keep signing up
too many more members. So something for us to keep
focused on. But our our effort and our
energy is around building a community that really is a
connective tissue of basically sports properties and platforms.

(29:29):
Connecting with people who are in around the technology and
service aspects of the industry and creating a real place where
they can come together and buildrelationships, share learnings
in a much more intimate gathering then your big massive
trade shows like the Ibcs and Nabs of the world that are many
of the the the real technical people focus on what we want to
blend obviously business and tech like we we do with all of

(29:51):
our events as well. So really happy with that, how
that's shaped up. We may have to look to evolve it
soon, whether it's adding more events or doing other things
around the side of it. But we've had a really great
response from from the audience to this point.
And if anyone has any ideas and wants to share what we should do
from a content perspective supplementary to what we do from

(30:13):
the podcast, do reach out to us because we are being toying with
some ideas. But the more feedback we get
from you, the easier it is for for us to make sure we're
serving you better. So thanks everyone for your
support so far and lots more to come on that front.
Absolutely. And you know, if you become a
member, I am essentially, you know, it's not my I'm the

(30:33):
community leader. I lead it off with every show.
But for all intents and purposes, I will be your account
manager. So if you enjoy the podcast,
you'll enjoy being an account managed by me even more.
Join your dulcet tones more thanjust on the on the podcast
airwaves. Absolutely.
So Nick, moving on to the next story, again, one of the things
I found really interesting and like, maybe it's just I didn't
pay enough attention in the past, or maybe our contents

(30:56):
evolved a little bit. It's just these these stories to
continue to to kind of play out.And we've been following Lego
and it seems like at least the last two years, trying to figure
out where exactly they were going to go with their their
tender, you know, former partners in Canal Blues pulling
out the deal with the zone coming apart.
And it's just an all over the. Media story of the decade maybe.

(31:18):
Feels like anything, any any single sports property that's
had a a rod like they have. I can't now.
I can't think of anyone else. Yeah, well the the crazy thing
Nick, as of recording this, it is Friday, August 15th.
Lagoon season starts today and Ithink we've only just got a news
earlier this week about a distribution deal with Amazon

(31:40):
Prime and cutting the margins quite fine in terms of, you
know, being able to roll these things out.
And I'm sure Amazon to some degree has some white label
principles that they can probably fairly easily, you
know, stick some stuff in and play it.
But you know, Nick, the stories continue to play out.
We we've cut we you literally couldn't cut it any closer
really to the start of the season.

(32:02):
What do you make of this with Lego and Plus being launched as
a streaming service? Is Amazon Prime actually kind of
the white knight coming in at the last second to save them?
Is it you know, on a scale of 1 to 10, how relevant is this?
Look, I don't think it's as big a deal as that people might
think it is to see Amazon pop out, because they've got to

(32:23):
remember that what is happening is that Ligon has created its
own platform and product poweredby Endeavour Streaming or Delta
Trade now, whatever, whichever. Yeah.
However, they're working together now, basically powered
by Endeavour, Streaming is the base and they're creating a
product and now they're, what they're doing is they're getting
distribution deals to have that product as many places as
possible. Now Canal Palouse has still said

(32:43):
no to working with them for the moment.
They didn't like the economic agreement that I'm sure there's
some political tension still existing there that's led to
that. But Amazon, for those that
followed, have followed this journey for a number of years or
those that haven't is Amazon actually came in and quote
unquote, saved the day when the media pro disaster happened for

(33:04):
them and picked up the bulk of the rights the previous cycle
and had them on the prime channels.
Then they stepped away from having the the that deal in
place and that went to the zone last year and obviously now
that's played out. So now League UN has gone proper
solo and here we are now. So Amazon are basically doubled
down their focus on being aggregator.

(33:25):
So they're just adding another product to their offering.
We'll probably make sure that there's some extra marketing
behind it to give it extra visibility and awareness.
But ultimately it's just a distribution deal with probably
a Rev share component to those subscriptions and that's the
basically and that's basically it.

(33:46):
So I don't think it's that big adeal and because it's not a
media rights deal, it's a distribution deal, I would have
been shocked if they didn't workit out.
And if they hadn't worked it out, I would have looked really
much more towards the LFP and said, hey, guys, like, what are
you expecting from some of thesepartners if you can't get a deal
with these companies? They're actively trying to be
aggregated as I, I don't feel like Prime would be the top of

(34:09):
organisation that would absolutely hold a gun to their
heads and say you have to take it or leave it in a way that
they probably did to others along the journey.
So I've not been close to any ofit.
I haven't heard first hand, but I just can't imagine like I, I
think the timing on this is weird, a bit bit late in the
day. However, it could be strategic,
but it could be that that we want to wait to announce it the

(34:31):
week. Of.
So we get more interest and awareness with the launch to
come and come to Prime to accessthe subscription maybe because
what's going to happen is when aproduct like this launches and
you've got the seasonality of itand there's kick off today, 95%
of you who are going to be a subscriber by the end of the
15th, we'll do it on the 15th probably, yeah.

(34:53):
So waiting, being patient on when you announce it is probably
a little bit of a move to make sure there's more, more inertia
behind the people that forget they've got it.
Yeah, well, to your your paymentpoint, The Zone has now failed
to renew my NFL Game Pass subscription.
For about the 14th day in a row,I woke up with a notification

(35:15):
from Monzo. Those who don't know Monzo,
basically 3. It's it's great if you're a
traveller because basically you can put money in your domestic
currency, you can travel abroad,no sort of trans fees for
exchange rates, things like that.
So I switched it to my Monzo card Nick because last year they
took my renewal and I wasn't quite ready for and I was like I
was going to buy it anyways. I just would have liked to plan

(35:36):
when I wanted the 180 lbs to leave my wallet sort of thing.
But to your point, I will renew my my NFL game pass subscription
but I probably just won't do it until like the Saturday before
the 1st Bengals game sort of thing.
So I agree with you and I think it is worth noting with the the
League Boom Plus service is basically it's not true to some
of them what Dezone offered lastyear.

(35:57):
The only difference is they basically kind of slash the
price in half. I think last year Dezone it was
around £30 a month. If you're going on a monthly
basis. Now it's about £15 a month or
EUR I should say using the rightdenomination and Amazon
basically. But they've come.
I don't know if this is what Amazon has said or if what Lee
Gun has said about their, but their goal is to have 1,000,000
subscribers by the end of the first year and targeting 2.2 to

(36:20):
2.5 within the first four years.So I don't know how realistic
those numbers are. I don't know if that was Amazon
saying that was the number they were trying to hit or if that
was Lagoon saying what they weretrying to hit.
And I think also, if I read correctly, Nick, you do not need
to be an Amazon Prime subscriberto access Lagoon Plus via
Amazon. Yeah, that's correct.
So look, I don't think Amazon's going to have too many

(36:42):
expectations on what they're going to achieve and, and bring
in, you know, because ultimatelywith your platform like Prime
Video, you can dial up the visibility and dial down the
visibility. So they can have quite an
impactful, impactful impact. Let's go with impactful impact
to the success on their platform.
But remember, this product will be available in a bunch of other

(37:02):
places. It's going to be on through
orange, through a bunch of the the telcos bought what SFR and
also free is another platform. I don't know what that is, but
basically it's going to be available in a bunch of places
for subscription. So I don't think Amazon's really
precious about how well it performs.
I'll make it available. They can then test and see who's
willing to buy. It is interesting that it's not

(37:24):
part of the Prime or it's not anadd on for Prime members.
I thought that was quite a surprise to see that you didn't
have to be a Prime Video subscriber.
But again, that would be linked with the type of deal that
they're trying to trying to orchestrate with LFP.
But remember, like Amazon's, Amazon's frictionless experience

(37:45):
or near frictionless experience on like one click purchase and
one click subscribes is really their secret sauce, right?
So even if you're not a prime member, you still could be able
to buy and subscribe with one click of the button versus the,
the process I've been through a bunch of subscribers is
horrendous where you're going tojump between phone to smart TV,
back to phone and then you're bunching through web browsers

(38:06):
and apps and it can be a nightmare.
So if they can just make sure that is the same as possible,
they make it as easy as anyone can to access the platform, that
is really a pretty big win for them.
But the the key thing out of allthis that we got, I don't know
where what sort of numbers we'regoing to see along this journey,
right? I think there's going to be some

(38:26):
hopefully good reporting done, let's say around this.
But the price point is so low, like it is now the best priced
major European league to watch by country mall to any other of
the major top five leagues that exist.
Is that price point, that low price point when you slash, like
you said, it's half of what the zone were asking.

(38:47):
Is that enough to get people to go look, actually, I'm not going
to watch it through piracy rather means that I am going to
commit to this because it is what is it only €15?
And they even have an under 26 offer as you saw as well there.
That's that's pretty unprecedented.
I'm not seeing people actively target that at at the the big
league level. So I really hope that this works

(39:10):
because it's a bit of A and if it works, it will work out a bit
like a classic tech company where we'll have a low price
point. We'll probably try and get
people a little hooked and enjoying the experience.
And then it'll probably inch itsway up over the over the coming
years like like any good media platform or I just hope it
really, really hope it works forthem and for and for the
industry in many ways. Yeah, and following this story

(39:32):
for the last couple years, like this won't be the last time we
talk about it. So we'll see how things go.
We'll check it out this weekend.Like I said, the season kicking
off to see how smoothly that transition is.
Because we know you can't take for granted when you launch a
new platform or you have a new broadcast partner, you know, you
think back to the zone with Syria and Italy.
You know, I feel like we've gotten better with our products

(39:54):
these days, but you never know. So we'll definitely hopefully
not have to come back and tell astory about how the product
launched in its first week. And hopefully we can give a
little bit of time to have the small victory of having a
successful first weekend. I really hope it works.
I've got, you know, a productionpartner that's pretty solid, but
I don't think has a strong background in sports.
They've got good, they're in good hands with Endeavour
streaming most likely there. But we know that there's so many

(40:17):
factors that can curve curveballhere that if it goes as well as
I hope it good. They need so many systems to
work well. The subscription systems, the
payment system, the CDNS, like everything in the mix there has
to deliver for them. So I'm crossing my toes and
fingers that they are having a good weekend at the time of this
recording and I'll come out the other side with quite a

(40:40):
watershed moment for them. Hopefully so moving from one
European Football League to another.
We'll talk now about La Liga, who have extended their
broadcast deal with Premier Sports in the UK and Ireland.
I think just for context, we talked about on our bonus pod
with Sky Sports in the Premier League that they were going to
show a minimum of 215 games. We talked about that being a

(41:01):
really impressive number of Premier Sports.
If I, if I've done my research correctly, they're going to show
over 340 La Liga matches. So like, you know, we've talked
about, you know, in international markets, you can
be, you can deliver a little bitmore, you can have those all in
package. But like they're delivering the,
the, the kitchen sink is a proverbial phrase.
But the other part of this storythat I found interesting, Nick

(41:21):
or I think stands out is that Disney Plus has come in to get
a, is it a prime time Saturday game?
Once a week, I believe is what it is, where they get their
choice of a, of a prime time game.
And I find this interesting because of all these little, I
guess you say that the culmination of different moves

(41:42):
Disney Plus is seeming to do in the European market with just
these kind of small hand picked rights.
Because I'll be honest with you,like it's Saturday night.
I don't have anything else to watch.
If you know, I can go watch Laminia Mall on Disney Plus, I
might go do it. It's not something I would have.
It didn't have great stumble ability for me.

(42:03):
We're going to we're going to drill that word into the
people's normal use of phrases, Nick.
But like, it's definitely not a.Dictionary.
I could, I could, I could say that yet.
Yet yeah, it might be in the Urban Dictionary.
Maybe. Yeah, yeah.
But so, Nick, what do you, what do you think about this in terms
of, you know, I feel like the premier sports is, is relatively

(42:25):
straightforward. I think it's a positive, just
the, the sheer amount of contentthat's there.
But like I said, I I find that the Disney Plus angle, even
though it's a very small set of rights, I just, I find it
interesting how Disney is continuing to pick little
things. Yeah, really interesting.
I I just guess they're testing the waters in every market to
see how much they can move audiences from one place to the
other. But it's just tricky when you do

(42:45):
it with a lower T sport to see if they get any meaningful
inertia off the back of that meaningful insight.
What what's interesting with theLiga as it relates to the UK is
they have a couple of really topplayers, top English players who
play there. In Madrid.
You've got Drew Bellingham and Trent Alexander Arnold and is it

(43:07):
Connor Gallagher plays at Athletico Madrid as well, I
think, yeah. So I'm not sure if there's
anyone else there that I'm missing, but my point is making
sure that those games are accessible and easy to get to, I
think will be really important focus, should be a really
focused, important focus point for La Liga because if they do

(43:27):
it, they will definitely get a lot of people following them.
I'm sure if you said, oh, Drew Bellingham's going to be on on
Saturday night. People are going to tune.
In to Disney Plus and see him inaction, particularly if they're
that Saturday night lineup is regularly one of the bigger
teams and you're really only talking about Barcelona, Real
Madrid. Maybe I'll let it go again if
Connor Gallagher's playing from Auk perspective and obviously

(43:50):
there's different layers of fansand someone will tell you this,
the league has got beautiful football etcetera.
We'll be talking in the in on the masses here.
Reality is there's a big a big tear on a big threshold, right
And do they have to cover? So I'm all for it.
I don't think I think it's a no brainer now.
It's a no brainer for both the Liga and Premier Sports I think

(44:11):
because if people do get a chance to access the Liga
through Disney Plus, which is a mass consumer subscription
service and they like what they see, that they might go on to
Premier Sports and subscribe if they really want to watch more
and more of that action. So for Premier Sports, I don't
think it would be something thatI'd be disheartened by by seeing

(44:31):
that their content's being made available on other channels and
let's face it, it is only one game a week anyway.
I still think that the the Liga have to try and be patient, but
find a premium partner for El Classico and those broad big
marquee shops. It feels like such a missed
opportunity. I'm sure it's good for Premier
Sports that they're probably their acquisition driver.

(44:53):
That's probably what they're paying for.
But we know Premier Sports is isnot going to wait behind it.
Some of the other major platforms do.
And if they did have Sky or TNT in particular, seems the one
that jumps to mind for me as part of that, then I think that
would be given some much needed visibility outside of Premier
Sports as their core partner. So then if that's going to

(45:15):
happen or what not, but I think that's what they need.
They should be focusing on as a as a like a, a result perhaps of
the Premier Sports and Disney setup.
And they can still keep that relationship with Premier
Sports. They don't have to do all 340
matches with them, but they haveto just really find other ways
to get more visibility. I think though, they are very,
very good on YouTube. That's what they're largely
going to get a lot of credit forthrough a lot of different

(45:37):
channels, is their visibility ofhighlights.
What I was going to say, Nick, for anyone that's ever watched
La Liga coverage, don't know if you have, La Liga had invested a
tonne of money on the productionside, akin to sort of what DFL
Digital was doing for the Bundesliga.
I'll tell you right now, it is some of the most aesthetically
pleasing football in terms of like the production value, like

(45:59):
they've, they've gone all in with, you know, the, the AK
cameras, all that stuff, like interms of the way the game's
presented, don't know if you've ever watched anything.
They do a phenomenal job. It is beautiful to look at on
the screen like they've, they'vedone a really good job on the,
the, the display of it. And that's someone that's used
to the NFL having all the spidercams and all that kind of crazy
stuff. Well, Liga does an excellent job

(46:21):
on the actual production. Side Interesting.
I mean, everyone tells you that Spanish football is more
beautiful to watch aestheticallyas well.
So it's nice that they've married up those 22 parts of it,
the production and the on on field experience.
So I'm really not sure where theleague is going to go to.
I'm I'm being perplexed. Like in a lot of ways they've
been really good at building audiences and visibility through

(46:45):
YouTube, through social. They seem to be really good at
creating content. Obviously they've got that CVC
deal, which was a cash injection, which is built around
digital transformation or so they said.
They're pretty well managed on cost control through the the
rules and regulations of La Liga.
Where did that? It feels like in markets like
the UKUK is a bit of a weird one.
Like Syria had to go the different approach, Lagoon had

(47:08):
to take a different approach. The Liga, they've had to take
very obscure approaches. And my guess is that Sky is like
sky being the the big monolith that it is.
And basically like, well, we don't need these rights.
We've got so much football content, we just don't need to
pay pay for those things. And the others don't really see
the value of basically buying them from an acquisition

(47:30):
perspective. So and then you layer football's
challenges around advertising integration.
There's not many ways of drivingmonetization out of football if
you don't have a real subscription acquisition play
there. So I'm just curious to see what
La Liga and these others do in markets like the UK where this
feels like there's such a missedopportunity for more visibility

(47:51):
and more people with more eyes on it, basically.
Yeah, we'll, we'll see. Be interested.
Maybe we need to get someone from South America back in again
because language I think does matter.
But again, Real Madrid, famous for all that's, you know,
different Brazilians that it's always had in, you know, messy.
Being from Argentina. I'd be curious to know if they

(48:11):
do better in markets like Latin America, South America, where
maybe the language is an issue and obviously commentary like
they do in English. It's not like that's a foreign
concept or anything like that, but I'd be curious to know how
they do in different markets outside because you said that
the UK it seems primarily Barcelona, Real Madrid,
everybody else kind of that's the the general take.

(48:32):
I wonder what it's like in different markets.
I don't know. I have seen some data on that
before and La Liga is massive inLatam like they are, they are in
a really good place there. So they definitely the the
Spanish connection is. Is.
Really strong there. So whilst they might not be
strong in other markets, I wouldhave expected more visibility.
I think they're pretty, they're doing pretty well in a bunch of
other markets and their deal in the US is, is still really

(48:54):
significant. Whether they can continue that
is up for question. You know, with basically messy
not being there when they did that deal, Ronaldo's left, you
know, when they did that deal many years ago.
Can they keep the momentum and excitement around the Liga?
Potentially if the the Latin American market, which is, you
know, a strong subset of the population of the US is still

(49:15):
really into that, then maybe it's still got some serious legs
there. Yeah, so last story of the day,
we're going to cover Nick again is another story that is
seemingly dragged on. I don't want to say dragged on,
but it's had multiple chapters in its story.
And it seems like we're going tofinally get an ESPN Fox Sports
bundle. If we go back in time, it was
the two of them plus Warner Brothers Discovery.

(49:37):
They were looking to launch Venue Sports, which eventually
legally got shut down. However you want to phrase that
cancelled whatever largely in. Part, you know, did I have I
told you that we were involved or we had were used in the court
proceedings. I think you mentioned the David

(49:58):
Gandler Fubo discussed. It offline, he had mentioned
that mentioned that to me that basically he came up in in the
court proceedings and actually then I looked on I went on
watched the YouTube and I watched the listens and there
was a big spike around that time.
They use a transcript from the interviews that he did with us.

(50:19):
I think in that case so long obviously that's long settled
now since but there you go. So I'm not sure I'd say that
didn't really lead to a big massive ongoing bump of audience
for us. I don't think a bunch of lawyers
are really a core target market unless they're working in sports
media, the rights. But yeah, nice little shout out
for us in the I know, Supreme Court of the US or wherever it

(50:42):
was. There we go.
There you'll love to hear it. But you know to that point the
that venture, that joint venturedid not come together.
Some of that might have to do with Fubo being acquired where
that might end up, but nonetheless, ESPN and Fox Sports
are still going to come togetherwith a bundle package.
ESPN, we know earlier this year is going to launch their their

(51:03):
flagship digital pro digital platform.
So it's been talked about for a long time.
Interestingly, Fox is launching Fox 1, which Fox has really been
a late mover. When we think about streaming,
they're really the one US major broadcaster just hasn't really
touched it at all. They're officially going to go
and launch their product ahead of the, you know, primarily the
college football season kicking off.

(51:24):
So we're seeing both of these massive platforms in the US
launching the streaming platforms and they're also going
to do a bundle package all together.
So a lot of things happening this fall, Nick, with both of
those sides. And now we finally have some
sort of conclusion on a bundled package.
Yeah, I mean, I sort of work outwhat the bundle would actually

(51:45):
work out to be because they're two different media companies.
I'm guessing it basically just means you get a code or
something and you put it into the new app they've launched and
you get access to both platforms.
That makes obviously the cost point much lower.
It's a pretty media set of rights that they get to access
because Fox are pretty solid andESPN obviously are solid as
well. I mean, when we saw the venue

(52:07):
announcement at the time, when we saw Warner Brothers Discovery
there, that was and then the NBAdeal dropped.
Obviously that was a pretty impactful loss of rights out of
that mix that Warner Brothers were also bringing to the table.
I mean, it doesn't have the excitement or other stand alone
platform. It still means you have to
subscribe to basic different plat, two different platforms

(52:28):
completely. And I'm, I'm guessing then also
that still makes the the trickiness of like dancing
between platform, the platform still really prominent.
So you need to know what's goingon where you know what I mean?
Like in terms of like the calendar calendar of events
where it's not all in one app experience, which just makes it
a bit clunky. So I think it's a it's a nice

(52:50):
for them to bring out a discounted offering to the
market, hopefully gets them somemomentum on sales.
But I think it's just a bit of apoor man's venue, which not not
even a poor man's venue. Sports.
And what's the two major plays come together?
I don't think it makes that muchof a difference really.
I think that your, but your point around like what Fox have

(53:13):
done today, I think just it's, it's, they've been one of the
ones that as you've pointed out,like they basically sat, sat
tight, followed focus on their business.
They basically did the numbers and said, look, we're not going
to lose hundreds and hundreds ofmillions of billions on
monitoring streaming services trying to grab market share.
We'll wait, keep using advertising revenues, keep doing
our thing and they've probably netted the best out of everyone

(53:35):
as a result of that. But they are late to the party.
So can they grab market share along with all the others being
so late? That is the question when
there's so, so many subscriptionoffers out there that I just
don't know they'll be able to get cut through, except for all
those fox lovers out there in the US where there is a certain
type of demographic that I'm sure that will, will, will buy

(53:55):
what they've got to sell. What I've what I find
interesting is the actual launchdate.
Both Fox and ESPN are launching in late August, which will
coincide with the start of the the college football season.
I'm super excited about Nick. Maybe other people, Texas and
Ohio State playing each other Week 1 is going to be a
phenomenal way to start off the college football season.
But both of them launching theirplatforms in the beginning of

(54:16):
August, this joint platform, this joint offering isn't
launching until early October. So there's a part of me, it's a
bit sort of how successful is itgoing to be?
Because I imagine you've probably already paid for your
subscriptions and I imagine you're not going to get a refund
later on if you've already paid for both.
So I am a little bit curious just to know how successful will
be at the offset. Maybe I'm just not looking at it

(54:37):
from the correct angle, but yeah, it does feel a little bit
weird, yeah, Like there's some reason.
Yeah, yeah. Basically, they want to get that
initial influx of people who arewould subscribe at any price,
get them on board and then see if they can use that as a hook,
one to two initial wave to get them to sign up.
I'm sure it's very intentional to do that.
And look, as I said, I don't think it's one platform.

(54:58):
I think it's two different platforms and you just get
access to both somehow. They'll manage that service.
So I think it's just a bit of a a bit of a strategic play to
make sure that they've got another marketing bump basically
to to help with acquisition oncethey get that initial wave of
people that that would just buy at basically any price.
Yeah, and it is worth mentioning, it is a note that

(55:19):
this particular bundle does not include Disney Plus or Hulu
within it. The other ESPN flagship digital
part, I believe does include that or there is a maybe an
extra price you can pay to incorporate that.
This is strictly just a sports bundle, which for some people,
we've talked about this before, if you're a you're a parent, you

(55:40):
know, one of the benefits of, you know, the ESPN side of
things is you can justify it, say, oh, hey, there's some
children's content there on Disney Plus as well.
Like this is strictly just the sports offering.
There is no other additional theentertainment which we know Fox
has a tonne of, we know ESPN being part of the Disney
platform has a tonne of. This is just strictly sports.

(56:00):
Maybe that'll be the next step on this partnership.
If it works, then we have to seewhat happens with Fubo and Hulu
coming together as well because obviously with that, with that
relationship. So still lots of things just
happened there. It never seems a dull day,
particularly in US sports media transferring it to Europe.
I'm just wondering if we'll eversee more of these bundle
partnerships happen with more competitors.

(56:21):
There are types of relationshipslike that, but not to this
level, not this, not this clear.Here's 2 products.
You get 2 for the price of 1. They're wrapped in other stuff
going on so that I'm fascinated to see how much of that
transfers over. Here, Yeah, because we said you
can access TNT Sports via Sky Sports.
They're more than happy for you to have that subscription, but

(56:44):
you go through the Sky OS systemto to go and do that.
But it isn't. It isn't a bundle deal.
Who knows, Nick, maybe we were talking about the impacts of
piracy. Maybe piracy will push them to
do something like this. And that's not me saying I hope
that piracy is successful. Of course not.
Who knows, maybe it'll be the next unintended consequence.
Maybe we'll have to wait and see, but I do.

(57:04):
There's not as many players obviously in those markets, so
that makes it a little bit less needed to do so.
But there is a few countries in in Europe that could potentially
benefit from taking this type ofapproach.
We'll have to wait and see. Absolutely.
Well, everyone, thank you for joining us for another packed
day of news. Pleasure as always to be with
you Nick and I hope you have a great weekend.

(57:26):
Cheers mate. Thanks.
Thanks and same to you. Thanks everyone.