August 15, 2025 • 46 mins
Gary Hughes, Director of Football at Sky Sports, sits down with StreamTime Sports for an exclusive interview, revealing the expanded coverage and new features coming to Premier League fans this season. Co-hosts Chris Stone and Nick Meacham also take audiences behind the scenes of the Sky Sports Premier League Kick Off media day.
Key Points:
- Why has Sky Sports significantly increased its Premier League coverage this season?
- What new features and content will fans get this year?
- When might the 3pm blackout rule finally end?
- How Sky Sports plans to deliver 1500 live football matches this season.
- Why is Sky Sports committing more resources to WSL and EFL coverage?
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Hello everyone, and welcome backto the next episode of
Streamtime Sports. My name is Chris Stone, the
community lead, joined as alwaysby our CEO, Nick Meacham.
And I'm Nick. I'm excited because today the
rules are reversed. Usually you're the guy that's
been out on adventures, but today, at least for this
episode, I'm the one that went on adventure earlier this week,
so I get to share my experiences.
I have to say, I'm pretty jealous.
(00:25):
It was like a pretty cool experience.
You got what you got to see and check out on the ground and I
saw a lot of people posting about it.
So definitely keen to hear more about what you heard, what you
saw, maybe what you learned along the way.
Well, before we do that, Nick, Ihave a brief story to tell that
would have almost thrown this entire episode into the void.
And if it had ended a different way, I would not be sharing this
(00:47):
story at the moment. Steve McCaskill, our technology
Admiral, Tubs, the only two people that know this because
they were at the event with me. Our video producer, Dana, when
he edits this in about 30 minutes, would be very upset
with me. Manny, our multimedia director,
is going to have something to say to me.
So I went to Sky Sports on Tuesday, went to the studios,
did an interview with Gary Hughes, who's the director of
(01:08):
football. The day before that interview, I
had to go in the sports pro offices and pick up all the
multimedia equipment. So multiple phones, multiple
microphones, all these differentthings.
Probably couple $1000 worth of, you know, equipment.
So I'm taking the tube home. I'm on the DLR and very crowded,
so I had to put stuff underneaththe seat, including my backpack
and including this bag of stuff.So I get off the DLR, I'm
(01:30):
walking up to my house in about 10 minutes and I'm like, oh
shit, I've forgotten the recording stuff.
So I Sprint back down. Fortunately there's a lady
working there. I'm like, hey, about 15 minutes
ago, I let this bag on here. Like I know it's a one in a
million shot being in London. Is there any chance someone's
found it? So she starts bringing out her
(01:51):
phone and starts calling. People aren't walkie-talkie.
And then about 10 minutes later,she looks at me and she's like,
what's in the bag? It's like it's a black
drawstring bag. There's two iPhones, there's two
this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
It's all right, we found it. Wow.
So shout out shout out to Anne Marie and Nadine working for the
TfL on the DLR in particular. They're massive listeners of the
(02:13):
pod, definitely the listeners ofthe.
Pod. Yeah, they're like the the DLR
train's currently a popular. It's gonna be an hour until it
gets back. She's like love.
There's a pub just around the corner.
Go sit down, have a pint, relax and I'll have it for you in an
hour. So had a pint, came back.
So yeah, I want to share that story.
If story had gone otherwise don't know what I would do with
the interview, but it's all worked itself out and we're
(02:35):
we're going to have something totalk about today.
It's nice to hear good stories of things actually being handed
back because everyone you have to hear a lot of negative,
particularly in London late withthings getting stolen and so
forth. I've heard some bad stories of
friends in the time so. Nice to hear.
That was resolved, and no wonderit didn't get mentioned to me
because it was all resolved withpart of that message having to
(02:56):
make its way to Sweden. But good, good to hear that it
all worked out in the end. That's amazing.
So we did. It worked out.
I actually, I had a bird take a shit on me while I was walking
my dog the day before. And I'm told that it's supposed
to be good luck. So I'm assuming that is that is
that good luck to roll it over Scientifically proven that.
Yeah, scientifically proven. So we're back on.
(03:17):
I came back from Sky Sports Studios, gave the equipment to
Dano to me. He said I no longer want the
responsibility. I'll explain later.
He's going to find out when he edits his podcast.
Oh, that's hilarious. I think even better than dad is
going to find out the boy by listening into into this.
Well, it's either that's really good luck or bad things happen
in threes. So it was going to be one way or
the. Other.
So yeah, good luck it. Is ever worked out?
(03:39):
So now that we we, we've gone over there because it had to
share the story. I had the opportunity to go out
to Sky's campus on Tuesday. They were hosting a pre season
Premier League kickoff event. A little bit of setting the
scene. These are some of the things we
accomplished last year and theseare some of the new things we're
going to roll out this year. All the the, the senior leaders
were there. Jonathan Lynch, the managing
(04:00):
director of Sky Sports. I may have messed up his job
title there, but he he's the topdog when it comes to Sky Sports.
I mentioned Gary Hughes, Chief Sports.
Officer is Jonathan Lee. Sports officer, There you go.
Yeah, I love that one. It's going to.
Be just chief. Great title.
Great title. I think the of Sky Sports, like
it was chief sports officer of Sky would get it, but I think it
says chief sports officer of SkySports.
That's a bit of a mouthful. I'm not going to try that freak
(04:21):
out last. We had Gary Hughes, who I
interviewed and you'll hear fromlater in this episode.
The director of football also had sort of the head of product
there kind of talk about some ofthe new features, the Sky OS
system, Sky glass and rolled outsome of the features there.
And then Steve Alford, who's thedirector of Sky Sports News,
Basically they all gave a rundown of different things that
you can expect this year. And even though she didn't
speak, the group CEO of Sky was there.
(04:44):
So big, big dog in the house. And they also had Michael
Richards, Gary Neville and JamieCarriger.
You know, they're they're they're head talent when it
comes to commentary. We're all there to do a separate
session. Got to go into the actual
studios where they recorded everything.
I don't think anybody will be shocked to hear.
Really incredible experience, very professional.
Everything was super well done. And given it was probably one of
the hottest days of the year, thankfully the air conditioning
(05:06):
was on super high blast, which they say is intentional because
of all the lights. It gets really hot in there.
So yeah, it was really good. Lots of things going on.
Have you ever been to the Sky Campus before?
What do they call it? It's like it's it's known as
Siberia because it's so far. That's what Steve said, yeah.
No, I haven't. I've driven past it before and
I've always been intrigued to see what it's like.
(05:27):
You just don't know with studio setups like that, you know,
we've, we've been to like TurnerStudios in the in the US and
sometimes it's just a big lot. Sometimes it's like no frills.
And other times you can be to goto a place like that and it's,
it's in a really impressive setting or somewhere in between.
So I know I haven't had the chance to go out there.
I've always, always wonder what it looks like.
Yeah, I mean, I only saw a smallportion of the campus because
(05:49):
the the sports sections kind of got its own dedicated building
and studios. But obviously Sky is a not only
just broadcaster, they have the whole telecoms business.
So there's different areas there, the research and
development centre. So I only got to see the one
small portion of it. But like I think there's
something like over 5000 people on that campus in terms of how
many people are working there. So yeah, it was really
impressive. Everyone there, super
(06:10):
professional, super well spoken.So yeah, I was just today, this
is actually going to be a bonus pod.
The Premier League kicks off on Friday, August 15th.
That's when this pod will kick off.
So just a little bit of a preview on things you'd expect
from a Sky Sports perspective, because they did share some
numbers and those that haven't been following, it is going to
be kind of a monumental year forSky, at least in terms of the
(06:32):
sheer amount of content they're going to be delivering this
year. Yeah.
Yeah, it's a, it's a super interesting time for a number of
reasons around what the Premier League's doing.
It's the new kick off, sorry, the new rights cycle kick off.
And with Sky is the primary partner for that and to see how
they bring all that content to life.
Because obviously one of the bigthings and we've talked about it
(06:53):
before, but for those that are new to it, is the UK is so
unique with its 3:00 PM block out that black out that it has
for all those games and what they've done as a result of a
couple of reasons. But what they've done is they've
moved loads of games off the EPLcalendar and schedule out of
that 3:00 PM slot to make them available through Sky, mainly
(07:13):
through Sky out of all partners,which completely transforms the
the ability to watch the PremierLeague where it was four years
ago. And also might be a precursor to
that inevitable blackout being taken away or the the 3:00 PM
back out inevitably being taken away, depending on how you want
to phrase that. So it is a really interesting
point in time in the the historyand the relationship between Sky
(07:36):
and the Premier League in the Premier League itself, because
just all built around this blackout situation more than
anything. Yeah.
Well, in terms of just starting kicking things off, the big
number to come up with this in the new deal is they are going
from broadcasting 128 games to aminimum of 215 games.
So you're talking about quite a significant increase in games.
(07:57):
And the reason I say minimum, and this feeds into some other
things, is that historically, those that don't follow
football, if a team is playing in a European fixture in the
midweek, the Premier League won't force them to go play on
the Saturday because there's notenough turn around time.
So those games, have they been historically been scheduled on
Saturday? They've been quote unquote
displaced into the Sunday schedule.
(08:18):
And then we're just never shown on TV because of the way, you
know, the broadcasters get to select games.
Those games just aren't in the pool this year.
Those displaced games will all now be shown on what they call
it's Super Sunday. But they kind of jokingly called
it Super Size Sunday because nowall the sudden you could have
four to five games kicked off inthat 230 window on a Sunday that
(08:39):
historically never would have been there before.
So that's why it's the it's 2:15with an asterisk, because that's
just the minimum that number could go up.
And we'll kind of see where thatends up, depending on how many
European games get displaced from the Saturday schedule.
Really interesting that they've done that.
I don't think I've ever seen a contract or set of terms with
one of these major rights deals that has that flexibility in it
(09:00):
built built into it because of these X Factor with with the
3:00 PM blackout, whereas those games could be not broadcast at
all or they could be sitting in this this multi game window.
It's interesting you brought that up because obviously one of
the things that they did talk about and show was the fact they
are going to have a multi view experience made available, which
you're probably going to talk about.
But I was wondering, it turns out, why does that matter?
(09:21):
Because you know, you almost never have a game going against
another match up. But this is obviously where it
can come to life. And that's exactly it.
They they talk about the introduction of multi view this
year. Gary speaks about it with me
later on as well. And they almost referred to it
as an NFL red zone light. Obviously the packages are a
little bit different in the sense of football's stop and go.
(09:43):
You can more easily go in and out where football's a little
bit more fluid, but they also won't have someone like a like a
Scott Hanson that's going to be a singular voice kind of going
back and forth. It'll be pulling in the audio
and the commentary from each individual games.
And they'll have someone that will see, hey, if there's a
penalty kick up, we need to bring this up on the big screen.
So it's not going to be an apples to apples remake of the
(10:05):
Red Zone, but it's going to be avery similar package where
either you have the choice to goacross the multiple different
sky channels and focus on one game or you can have the option
do the multi view. So yeah, that's exactly where
they're going to roll that package out is on the Sundays
when they have those displaced games, which we know inevitably
that is going to happen given how many Premier League teams
happen to feature, whether that's Champions League, Europa
(10:26):
League, Europa Conference and soon.
Who do you think should be the Scott Hanson of the Premier
League if they were going to do one in the UK and which so it
could be really viable next cycle if those those caveats
come into place, They release 3:00 PM, remove the 3:00 PM
black out or put more games backinto that slot.
Who do you think will be best placed?
Best placed, or who ought to be most entertained by?
(10:48):
I'll both. Give us either or.
I'll take either. I've got no.
Idea. To be honest, I've got
absolutely no idea. Probably.
Probably Roy Keane, just becausehe's just just hilarious.
Just to hear I'm just kind of yelling and giving a saying.
So like keep my favourite just 'cause like I just find him to
be hilarious even though I thinkit is intentional.
(11:11):
He also does a really good job of delivering in an
unintentional way. I can't remember the guy's name.
This is probably a more boring answer.
Well, I'll give you a boring answer and a a more entertaining
answer. Oh, the entertaining answer
would be Micah Richards. I just think he'd be absolutely
all over the place and he's quite comical.
He he'd just bring the energy every time something was
happening. The two obvious ones that stand
(11:32):
out are Jeff Stelling, who was does Super Saturday or did Super
Saturday. I don't know who does it
anymore. I haven't watched it in years
and obviously Gary Linico, but his Match of the Day background
would be, would be an absolute professional step into that.
Just as long as I've got the yeah, depending on what rights
and stuff are available. But I don't think that's good.
We won't see if that happens. We'll see if that happens
(11:54):
anytime soon. I've never seen the MLS version.
Of neither have I that. And I think I would love to see
some video of that. If anyone has access to that or
has equipped somewhere that theyare listening, please send it
across. Otherwise I might do do some
searching after this. Yeah, so that's going to be
rolled out as a new product. One of the other things that the
the they were talking about froma product perspective, I think
is interesting. Not that it's necessarily ground
(12:18):
breaking, but it's good to see him introduce is a they'll not
have features if you if you showup late that you can start from
the beginning so you don't miss anything.
But the other thing they said they were going to commit to is
having full game replays available within minutes of the
match finishing, which I've spoken about before for me with
zoning, NFL Game Pass, one of the biggest features for me is
having access to full game replays.
(12:40):
So the fact that they said they're going to commit to that
and you know, kind of do it, they said really within minutes
of a game finishing. I think it's just a nice
feature. You know, particularly they,
they used a great example for parents who are going to be busy
on a weekend, something like that, being able to have that
replayability. It's a little thing, but I think
it is something from a viewer perspective, it is really
positive. And then the other thing worth
(13:01):
mentioning, we know Amazon is nolonger doing the Christmas
coverage that they used to do around Boxing Day, which is
obviously a very impact schedule.
They don't have exclusivity overthe games around the festive
period, but they do have the return of Boxing Day and other
games around there. So you're going to see more
footage or more coverage around that period.
So that's always, I think been a, a nice block of time to to
(13:22):
have. And obviously they'll also be
driving people the World Darts Championship.
So it's just sort of continuing to house more and more content
around that festive period. And also it'll be the first time
match week 38 for those that don't know, the last game that
week of the season, the Premier League, all games kick off the
same exact time. So that way you can't sort of
try to strategically play your way into the final spots.
They're actually going to broadcast all those games
(13:43):
individually and you're going tobe able to choose which game you
want to watch. And that'll be a first time
feature, which, you know, I think would be great for
everybody just given how crazy that is to think that there's
that many games played and only one of them is going to be
featured. Now you can watch any game you
want on the last game week. Sounds interesting.
Definitely making a lot of changes from from season to
season by the sounds of it. So it'll be interesting how they
can pull this off. 215 games is extraordinary number to be made
(14:07):
available through primary broadcast production.
That's the thing, like sometimesmore games are available and
this sometimes is lost on people.
But to have that full breadth ofbroadcast, the Sky Sports touch
on those broadcasters means it'sa pretty major investment.
And that's probably why Sky was able to push back on also on the
EPL, which is what I expected tohave happened, and not pay a
(14:28):
correlated increase in meteorites fees because they're
going to have to put a lot into production on this.
I think one of the interesting things now with this, with this
change is that the, the I had my, my theory is that Sky didn't
really want or need more games to their package and to their
offering because they had, they had the core, they had, they had
(14:51):
the what do you call the core rate?
The, the, the majority share. So if you are a football fan,
you will buy Sky Sports in that market, no question.
But more games probably wouldn'tlead to more subscriptions for
them. They had such a, a stronghold of
that. So now that they are opening up
all these games and adding all these extra investments into
producing more ways of interacting with it, I'm just
(15:12):
curious to see how much the actual impact it can have with
subscriber numbers. Normally if you saw a
broadcaster take on so much morecontent, you would do it under
the guise that we would expect an uplift in subscriptions and
so forth. But here I don't think it's
really under the same guise. Well, interesting.
That question did come up and Jonathan Lynch did answer it,
(15:34):
which was basically around there.
And he, he explicitly said Sky is a growth business when asked,
you know, is the acquisition of all these rights about retaining
existing customers or is it about trying to attract more
subscribers? And he explicitly said Sky is a
growth business and we are looking to grow the business and
we see football as a core part of our strategy to do so.
(15:55):
And that's not to he didn't say that as a way to negate the
impact of retention, but he was also very clear on saying like
this is a growth business and what they're trying to achieve.
Well, it make I mean it makes sense now because I think what
would have taken some time for them to work out with EP with
the EPL is the right mix. Because now by moving so many
(16:15):
games out of that 3:00 PM slot, it also means that more games
will be available in non traditional windows.
Which means that those fans are perhaps always a season ticket
holders to Championship League One, League 2 competitions.
Teams might also have a higher interest in buying subscriptions
now because they are able to watch more games and have access
(16:36):
more games than they were in thepast.
So I don't think there's a, there's a subscription up tick
play here. But they haven't had to invest a
lot from a rights perspective tohave that opportunity.
Instead, they've made investments in perhaps adding
more interactivity, more value to a subscriber.
Well, Speaking of that, we we'vetalked about the uptake of
Premier League games. It's actually nothing in
comparison to the uptick in games from the ELF, which is the
(16:57):
Championship League One League 2, which are going to show over
1000 games this year from the EFL.
And at minimum, each team will be featured at least 20 times.
So there's going to be, you know, talk about that value add
to make sure everyone's going toget an opportunity to be able to
watch your teams. Not all this will necessarily be
on Sky. Part of it will be on Sky Sports
Plus, which is the app that theylaunched last year and they said
(17:18):
really positive statistics on last year where they said 75% of
all Sky Sports subscribers also stream content by Sky Sports
Plus. So I thought that was an
interesting statistic to talk about consumer behaviour in
terms of how they're doing that.There's also going to be 90% of
WSL games are going to be shown.So in total, they're looking at
showing around 1500 football matches this year between the
(17:40):
Premier League, Scottish PremierLeague, EFL and the WSL.
That is a pretty extraordinary number blows blows me away.
I'm not sure it could go down a Segway here, but I was thinking
about this. I was going to write something
about this in some stage, but just I was thinking after this
ESPNNNFL deal, like who else would possibly be someone that
(18:01):
could this type of deal would deal could come about with?
And it's got to be the got to beSky and EPL like they are.
So their success and failure, particularly in the UK is all so
synergize together that if they if the 3:00 PM blackout is
removed, I could definitely see a play like that happening and
playing out because they just, they're already, they're already
(18:24):
proving themselves that Sky can deliver at scale to the scale
that is unrivalled probably in the world for for the amount of
matches. So interesting to see what
happens with that. But cool.
Wow, that's a big number. Yeah.
And Speaking of the 3:00 PM blackout, the question really or
the common came more around piracy, just the threat that
exists out there. And Jonathan Lynch spoke about,
(18:45):
you know, we do know the 3:00 PMgame is a more attractive option
for pirates to be involved because it's simply just not
available. And there was mentioned multiple
times, even Gary and Micah mentioned it when they were just
talking about football. But it got brought up, you know,
you can go to the US and watch every single game.
And whether that needs to changenow, I didn't, I didn't take the
common as they're explicitly going to make the 3:00 PM games
(19:07):
all the sudden broadcastable. I don't know if that's weird,
but more of they've talked aboutwe're going to put more games on
Friday, more games on Monday. So I don't know if it's
necessarily this is just completely me kind of having to
think is less about opening up that window and more about
potentially shifting around the schedule a little bit.
Well, I think it's important to delineate.
I'm not exactly sure who's actually responsible for that,
(19:29):
but it's not Sky and it's not the EPL either.
It is a like regulation that's in place preventing that.
So even if they want it doesn't mean they'll get it anyway.
Although I think where we're at today now it has to be done at
some stage and the sooner the better for I, I would have
thought most parties. Now the, the, the challenge
again to Sky from Sky's point ofview is they don't really have
(19:49):
much benefit for themselves to open up that floodgate,
particularly if those, if those rights are therefore made
available to buy for anyone. Because that just dilutes the
value of their current rights package.
If we think they're at a relative critical mass of
subscribers, they're not going to get meaningful value out of
it. And they would hate to have
another competitor come up and mop up those 3:00 PM rights.
(20:11):
So that's the tricky balance, that Sky won't want it and
they're paying billions for the rights to the EPL.
The EPO has to be conscious about upsetting the apple cart
too much with their main partner.
So guys in the in the driver's seat there.
And we've seen they've been in the driver's seat with a lot of
different types of negotiations and partnerships in, in, in, in
the past that they won't be in arush to make that move.
(20:32):
But I can imagine, I can imaginethe EPO would probably want to
do it if they knew that they could see a correlated uptick in
revenue and engagement etcetera.So inevitably it must have some
impact to Sky's subscription numbers.
If people know they can get through through pirated means,
surely a. 100% but that's also part of the reason between the
uptick in games available, not just at the Premier League level
(20:54):
at all other lower levels, having that the new Super Sunday
with the multi view option to just try to make as much
available as possible. And one of the other things that
I thought was interesting that they brought up, Nick, a couple
different people brought up in different angles and given we
just talked about sort of renting our own in your
audience, audience and YouTube, things like that.
Jonathan Lynch mentioned it's a big point of emphasis for them
to grow their youth audiences aseveryone's trying to do.
(21:17):
They've talked about they've seen their broadcast numbers in
terms of viewership almost double over the last four years
for under 30 fives in the UK. But one statistically get
brought up was not just what they're doing on broadcast but
also on YouTube. I'm assuming the statistic comes
from usage in the UK, but they've said that the number one
sports publisher on YouTube reaching 5 million under 30
fives every month. So I'm imagining most of the
(21:37):
other stats were UK focused, butI thought the fact that they
felt the need to make that a point of emphasis, you know,
they're talking about some of the other bits.
And then Mark Alford from Sky Sports News talked about it was
a really high number, Nick. It was something like 2/3 of all
mentions of the Premier League on Twitter included the handle
Sky Sports News, which I'm sure has to be people are quote,
tweeting things, responding to things.
(21:59):
It was a really high number. And I think it just goes to talk
about sort of this renting versus owning.
Does everything have to be on your own platform?
It seems like Sky is very comfortable with saying we know
there's stuff happening off our platform that we want to be
around, particularly for those younger audiences that.
Yeah, good. That's very some very
interesting numbers there. Nice work, Chris.
Say the the whole youth thing, Ithink it's always a bit of a,
(22:24):
what do you call a metric that keeps getting talked about for
different reasons. Like a broadcaster wants to show
that they're reaching younger audiences.
From an advertiser perspective, they want to show that they are
viable and relevant to all sortsof different potential consumer
brands to work with. And also monetization through
YouTube, you can sell ads directly to platform.
So I know that many broadcastersare looking at actually
(22:47):
monetizing YouTube more effectively now by actually
selling direct to advertisers, not just through their own
channels. So that might be why they're
talking a bit about that in thatsort of setting, I would
imagine. And then the last bit just to
flesh it out because it's not just all about live sports.
And we talk about some of the stuff there on social.
Sky Sports News is expanding their coverage.
There's going to be the introduction of new shows.
They're going to take place across the week.
(23:08):
One of those includes the Premier League Friday show,
which will be hosted by Roman Kemp.
Those that don't know a famous radio DJ for Capital FM.
So definitely comes from a different football background,
but I think that is also intentionally part of the
strategy of attracting A newer, younger audience.
They're also introducing a Sky Sports fan club TV show where
they're now going to have content creators from all the
(23:30):
different clubs. Basically.
I think they now have a content creator from all 20 clubs
that'll be able to come on, givefeedback.
So again, this is more this creator LED approach and they're
also partnered with a company called Phenalisys, which is
basically a platform people can engage directly with, give
player rankings, give confidenceratings on the manager's
decisions. And some of that feedback from
(23:51):
finales is going to be brought into some of those different
shows. So even they're trying to flesh
out what they do on the non gamedays and they're taking a little
bit different approach with somenew hosts that don't necessarily
have all haven't historically always been in, you know, in the
mainstream broadcast for sports.And then bring it in the
analysis app along with the fan club show, changing up some of
the content they're doing. So it's as much as it's easy to
(24:14):
focus on the sheer amount of games that are being covered.
They've also made a total recommitment to the amount of
coverage that they're going to do, the different types of
content they're going to do throughout the week.
So they're going all in, let's put it that way.
They sure they sure are. Wow, great work mate.
That's a lot of good insight packed into about 20 minutes
there before we jump into the the conversation that you you
(24:36):
had on on the ground. I think what I'm really
interested to see just how things evolve not only from now
from Sky's perspective, but alsowhat we see other league, other
teams do, the teams themselves, whether they do continue to grow
on platforms like YouTube and other social media channels and
double down on that. I saw some interesting stats the
day from WC Sport in the report that they produced and obviously
(24:57):
they are helping clubs, teams that have rights holders,
publishers, etcetera create content and it's like a 76% jump
in vertical videos year on year.Like that's an extraordinary
number and nearly nearly 1,000,000 videos generated
around the EPL coverage for those that have rights to it.
(25:17):
So there seems like a huge increase and boost in that off
non live array of content also being are generated at the same
time. So with all that alongside this
extra exposure of more matches lead to a real big increase in
fandom. Because you think Premier
League, it's pretty much the pinnacle of fandom in in many,
(25:40):
many countries in terms of how it's followed.
Can it go even further with all this extra content being pumped
out or is that just correlated with what expectations are for
audiences these days? Like is is the expectation,
there is just more more more. Yeah, I didn't get the statistic
written down. They did also mention your point
new vertical highlights because they talked about, we know our
(26:00):
users do not like to flip the phone sideways.
So they've even talked about this year they're going to
introduce more vertical video highlights.
So it's all included in there and let you say after this,
we're going to hand things over to myself with an interview with
Gary Hughes as the Director of football.
We kind of talk about the relationship, particularly in
this last round of negotiations,sort of was it Sky or was it the
Premier League pushing to have more games?
(26:21):
How collaborative is that approach?
Who really one of the games out there.
We talk about their improved coverage and investment in the
WSL. We, you and I spoke about the
other day, their move to that noon Sunday slot.
Gary gives his view in terms of how they work for the league to
do that talk about Sky Sports Plus and just a general overview
of what you're going to see fromSky this year in in terms of
that new agreement going forward.
(26:43):
So I was really glad Gary was able to take some time out to
speak to us and hopefully we'll give you more direct insights
from, you know, Sky themselves. I'm very excited to be joined by
Gary Hughes, the director. Of football for Sky Sports.
And we're actually want to startGary.
I. Know I have some business
questions, OK. But for me, just on a day-to-day
work basis, yeah. How exciting is it to be able
(27:04):
to, this is my first time ever at the Sky Sports Studio, so how
invigorating is it to get to walk in and see the studio?
Because I imagine you're a football fan, so just being able
to sit in there every day. It's pretty special.
I've been at Sky for 30 years now.
I worked in Sky News, Sky SportsNews and now doing the role I am
in Sky Sports football, having produced some, some fly football
(27:25):
before, Champions League and some Premier League and other,
some of our shoulder programmes as well back in the day of
Sunday, supplement goals on Sunday, et cetera.
So I've been been here a fair few years, but I still still get
a buzz every day I walk in the building.
Obviously the campus has evolvedlike sport has evolved, like the
Premier League has evolved, likeour rights deals have evolved.
But yeah, it's a fantastic placeto work, lots of good energy.
(27:48):
Obviously the football team are full of football fans and we
have great debates and, and, andevery day around who's going to
be signing for who and who's going to win what.
And it's just a really good energetic place to work.
And I hope you got that sense coming to Sky for the first time
today. 100% totally got that vibe and it's just wasn't all my
list of questions, but it's justthe sort of thing that when
(28:09):
you're here, it's a bit infectious.
So just kind of want to hear first hand how your experiences
were just being able to walk in day-to-day.
We always talk business, but we don't always talk about some of
the more just enjoying life sortof things.
The classic it's not work if youenjoy what you do thing right.
Exactly. And I love my work, so there we
go. Awesome.
So today we we managed. There's a presentation from you
and different members of the team.
Yeah. I'm also got to hear from some
of the key talent. Yeah, really big summer, really
(28:31):
big season upcoming as we're recording this.
It's Tuesday before the kick offon Friday.
Yeah. One of the big things from Sky
Sports is the expanded coverage of the Premier League and you
went through some of the statistics on the increase.
You know, we're looking at a minimum 215 games this year.
Just talk about that process, what it means for Sky to really
sort of establish further establish, I should should say
(28:52):
its dominance in the UK as beingthe number one broadcaster for
sports. I'm glad you were listening and
mentioned the minimum 215 exactly.
Listen, I think I think this is our, it's our biggest and
biggest ever Premier League deal, 215 games minimum of going
into next season. It's a four year deal, which is
(29:13):
different to other cycles which have always been 3.
So it gives us that opportunity to really plan and that extra
year does make a big difference.What it does do, the four year
Premier League deal, it's sort of aligns all our football.
So we've got a four year deal with the Premier League starting
this Friday. As you say, we've got four years
left of our of our five year EFLdeal.
We've got four years left of ourfive year SPFL deal and we've
(29:35):
also got a new WSL deal as well.I think what what our strategy
has been and where we've been very successful, it's full in
recent years. It's locking down the key
rights, the ones that are important to us up until the end
of the decade. So obviously all those football
rights are locked in alongside F1, ECB, cricket.
We've got long term tennis rights and other cricket rights
as well. So what it does mean, it gives,
(29:56):
it gives customers that's that level of security and knowledge
that for the next 4 years they're going to be able to
watch all these great events live on Sky Sports.
And I think what the Premier League deal does for us is again
underlying our position as the domestic home of football.
We've got all those, all those games.
I think within the presentation I think it was over 1500 games.
(30:18):
We'll show next season, which ishuge and if you're a football
fan, Sky Sports for for domesticfootball, for Premier League,
for AFL, for Scottish football, men's and women's and the WSL is
is the place to be. Absolutely.
And I think what would be interesting is talking about
that Premier League deal, the new, the, it's a, it's a
partnership that has obviously been very beneficial for both
(30:38):
sides. I think the Premier League would
be right to credit Sky Sports for its global growth, not just
domestically, but what it's beenable to do in terms of building
that. When you're having that
conversation, just be curious with the expansion of the
coverage, is that something thatyou guys are working on mutually
talking about the expanding the coverage?
Is that something you're pushingfor, the Premier League's
pushing for? Like how does the collaborative
nature of that tender process work in terms of expanding that
(31:01):
coverage? So we've been, as I said in the
presentation earlier, we've beensort of partners with the
Premier League since, since a whole new ball game back in 1992
when the offering back then was just 60 games.
We're exclusive partners for 15 years and we've been the lead
partner ever since. And as I said earlier in the
presentation, our games have grown year on year, I think.
And Gary Neville was, it was in the presentation earlier or I
(31:23):
was doing a punditry session, hewas saying there's, you know,
you go around the world and all Premier League games are
available. Now clearly we have the 3:00 PM
Saturday blackout here, which isArticle 48, which is tradition
and which we respect. And I think what the Premier
League did, it was their decision.
Ultimately it's their rights, it's their tender and they will
look at what they think is the right thing to do in this four
(31:45):
year cycle. They looked at extending it for
an extra year and what they havedone is made all those 2:00
games available. So again, the guys were talking
around the 2:00 game that might be live on the television.
There'll be three other games happening at that time and it
feels as though you're missing out.
I don't think you feel that on aSaturday at 3:00 because it's
tradition in this country. So I think you know the, the,
(32:05):
the EFL again led the way on this by their inventory is
massive. I think it's 18181 games and we
were only showing 160 odd of those matches a season.
And we, we had some good dialogue with them.
And again, it was their, that's their, their inventory.
It's their, it's their tender. But what they would do with
(32:27):
their rights, they wanted more of that shown.
So much so that we now show, I think it's 1059.
But I think with displaced matches it was well over 1100
last year. So the volume is increasing all
the time. All the rights are all the
governing bodies want more of their sport on more of the
channels and the Premier League have got, you know, the biggest
and best inventory. It's the best sporting league in
(32:48):
the world and to have us having 215 and maybe a total of round
270, round 280 I think is a big sea change in a step forward and
it'd be interesting to see. And it's ultimately again up to
them. We have regular dialogue.
We've got a great relationship with the Premier League.
As I said, we've been partners for 33 years.
We talked to them a lot about a lot of stuff.
(33:10):
We talked to them about access, I'm in regular contact with them
around fixtures and scheduling. It is a partnership.
Ultimately they will always decide.
We will talk to them as being their lead partner about certain
issues. But what I think it does is just
again underline that fact that and it's the same with the WSL
and you deal with them, all 132 games are going to be live.
(33:31):
So that is a direction of travelfor all rights and I think the
Premier League have have made a really good decision this year
and this cycle going to the volumes that they have.
Yeah, one question I didn't necessarily prepare for, but I
saw it in your presentation. I think it's really interesting
because for us as a podcast, we have started to extend more
digital media, not just explicitly linear broadcaster
(33:54):
ATT. You reference some statistics
around the growth of your YouTube channels and in
particular the Gen Z audience you guys been able to capture.
So for me, just be curious when you're having those
conversations from a rights perspective, you've obviously
got the live rights, but sort ofhow you view also having access
to the digital rights because that seems like a, I imagine you
wouldn't have wanted to share that statistic if there wasn't a
(34:16):
story behind. It no absolutely in my role as
direction of football, I'm in charge of the television
coverage of what we do, but obviously we work very closely
with the digital team and clearly in any rights
negotiation, you know the way that it all set up at the
moment, it is linear it's television first, but then
digital is becoming so much moreimportant.
So we would you know, very rarely and we would always want
(34:39):
to do a rights deal where the digital rights are attached to
that as well. And we we have got those clip
rights. Digital is massively important
for us. You know that that new audience
is massively important for us. We've got a lot of focus on
under 30 fives, how we can, how we can reach, how we can talk to
how we can we can become more relevant to to under 30 fives as
(35:00):
a Sky Sports brand and how they would consider buying and
upgrading or working, you know, on some of our of our products
now TV, how, how are they, how are they, how are they become a
subscriber and a customer of Sky.
So that's a huge focus for us. And I think what we've tried to
do as well, we've tried to evolve our offering on
television, on screen. You know, we've, we've got a
(35:22):
very got a much younger, more diverse, more relevant pundit
lineup than we ever have done before.
And I think some of the stuff weget around our access, what
we're trying to do is, again, goout and really engage with the
young players of today, get themtalking about themselves, their
lifestyle and putting stuff social first, digital first.
That's a lot of what we're doingaround our access and then
(35:45):
teasing it in the linear coverage and promoting our
digital, digital outlets as well.
So yeah, it's a whole ecosystem that in any rights deal across
any sport, we do both the live rights and the digital and
digital rights are massively important.
Yeah. And I imagine that does sit with
Mark and his team. He gave the presentation from
the Sky Sports perspective. But like you said, that's all
(36:06):
linked together and just the fact that you mentioned in your
presentation, I just thought it was worth.
That seems constantly working together about how we can best
utilise our content, best utilise what assets we've got
across all platforms. Now you referenced this is a
complete football strategy. This isn't just limited to the
Premier League. It obviously gets the big
billing. Will you reference some of the
other leagues? And in particular looking at the
(36:27):
WSL, you guys have made further investment financially as well
as your extended coverage of theamount of games you talked
about. I think it's 90% of games are
going to be covered. But additionally, as well as a
specific strategy change, is theSunday afternoon kickoff spot
moving that? Is it noon or is it 12:30?
Noon, 12 noon, yeah. Talk about sort of that using
the WSL as part of the overall football strategy and then
(36:48):
particularly that decision is a way how you think that's going
to help promote the growth of the league?
So the WSL is, is not just part of the football strategy, it's
part of our women's sports strategy.
We want to be, and I think we are known for our, you know,
being the, the, the leading broadcaster of women's sport.
We've had, you know, some incredible sports, women's
sports rights, golf, netball, cricket for a, a long, long
(37:10):
time. We're now into the first year of
five, which is our fifth year working with the WSL.
Football being the biggest game,WSL becomes the biggest women's
sporting, right? It's all part of that narrative
and all part of us becoming, youknow, the leader of women's
sport. I think what we've tried to do,
it's interesting. Earlier I talked about the 3:00
(37:32):
blackout. There's, there's, there was an
article 48. There was a lot of noise in the
women's game around women's matches being at 3:00 on a
Saturday. That hasn't happened.
And the reason why that was thatwas talked about was because
what is the best slot for women's football?
So when we acquired the rights, the football calendar, as we
talked about with so many more live games is a very congested
(37:53):
space. So we were placing matches at
6:45 on a Sunday after Super Sunday to inherit a big audience
to talk about the women's game. And it was relatively successful
from a viewing point of view, but it wasn't great for
attendances. So what we've had to do and we
what we want to always try to beis the best partner.
The best partner for sport is sit down with the league and
(38:14):
talk to them around what we think we can do together to, to
better the sport from a broadcasting perspective and
from a fan and league perspective.
So what we've ended up doing is doing a deal and WSL have done
similar to what the the EFL havedone in more, more inventory.
In fact all their inventory, 118games on Sky out of the 100 and
(38:35):
3290% of all WSL games. But what we wanted to try to do
was get a dedicated slot. So midday Sunday obviously
leading up to our Premier Leaguein the afternoon, but midday
Sunday we will have a live frontchannel, either first pick or
second or third pick. However the the picks process
(38:56):
work that week, that week have alive game at 12 O clock.
Then the games that aren't picked live will then be
displaced a bit like the two O clocks as often as they can
TO12O clock on a Sunday. So what we've then got is a
programme, but we're not just talking about one game and two
WSL clubs, we're talking about three games, four games and six
(39:17):
and eight WSL clubs. So the narrative becomes much
more wider and we can talk aboutall the clubs rather than just
focusing on a couple. We can tell the stories from
around the grounds, we can tell the stories that show the best
moments and we can tell the stories of some of the players
as well. So what we're planning there is
a is a as a new, new programme at 11:00, building up to the
(39:39):
12:00 again with a social element to it.
We think that the growth audience is in from the social
side, from the from the younger generation.
How can we best get, you know, young female football fans or
young fans watching the women's game?
So there'll be a social element to that.
There'll be a new change and of tone and approach.
(39:59):
There'll be a new set as well. So all this stuff, we'll, you
know, we'll, we'll, we'll talk about this in the coming weeks.
But that's the plan around WSL, massively important for us.
Unbelievable opportunity off theback of the brilliant success of
the Lionesses that couldn't havehappened at a better time for
the women's game, for the WSL, for Sky Sports as well.
In terms of the narrative and the talk ability, you know,
(40:22):
everyone's, everyone was talkingabout and still is talking about
the Lionesses success is brilliant.
So yeah, we're really looking forward to that and we hope that
midday narrative will will continue and be an appointment
to view slot for women's football.
Absolutely. And the, the big number is the
amount of EFL matches they're going to be displayed.
And that's through Sky Sports Plus, which, you know, is
(40:42):
largely a, a streaming platform.So out of curiosity, just what
that means for Sky? And then at the same time, were
there any learnings you took just from, you know, the habits
of people from a consuming perspective?
Because I think one of the important stats that was
mentioned was every team at minimum is going to have 20
games, which again, talks about the value and security for fans
that you're not going to pay fora subscription that isn't going
(41:03):
to speak to you. You know, it's something that
everyone's going to, you know, have their moment in the sun.
I guess you sort of say just sort of what you've learned from
then kind of the scale of those operations because there aren't
small numbers. Yeah, it's huge.
And as I said, I think there's 18181 AFL games in which we show
1100 of them. And I think that's what we did
(41:23):
last season. And I think that unlock of, of
saying to customers and to fans that they can watch their team
at least 20 * a season was huge and was a huge undertaking
internally with the EFL and withthe production partner IMG as
well, who deliver the bulk of those games on streams.
And we've got, this is on the Tuesday, we've got 30 Carabao
(41:45):
Cup games that are being streamed on Sky Sports Plus
tonight. But that was a huge unlock Sky
Sports Plus for not just the AFLbut I think for all sporting
rights because it gives you the long tail, it gives you a
platform and that's where some of the WSL games will be going,
gives you that platform for the long tail to be seen and to get
a platform basically. So the learnings were huge
(42:08):
operational, huge technical, whole new streaming platform.
We clearly have our front games and again, it's about promoting
that appointment to view. So at 12:30 on a Saturday for us
to have 7 EFL games available, Championship three there, League
1-2, League 22. So we have that narrative of,
(42:30):
you know, talk about the whole league and I think the EFL deal
as well. It, it meant that we were, we
were talking more about League One and two.
Obviously the Championship is massively high profile, some
big, big clubs in there, but some big, big clubs in League
One and Two as well. So we doubled our inventory from
I think 1920 games to 38 in League 1 and 2 front channel
games. But then you've got so many more
(42:51):
available as well. So again, that was a huge
unlock. And I think the learnings there
were, there were some teething problems.
You know, there's always going to be some teething problems
when you've got, you know, you go into every ground every week,
you know, and you've got 2 cameras, 4 cameras, a streaming
set up, you know, broadband connectivity.
(43:11):
It, it, it, it, it was, it was huge.
But that was ironed out very quickly.
If there were some, some, some some issues at the time.
I think the platform is very robust and fingers crossed,
Touchwood, it's very robust. It stood up to the first couple
of weeks of the AFL season and hopefully it will do this
Tuesday night with the 30 games as well and throughout the
season. But no, I think that has been
(43:33):
Sky Sports Plus has been brilliant for tennis as well,
for rugby league or Super League, all our all our long
tail rights. They've got huge volumes and
it's great for the customer. The last topic I want to go is
speaking about the customer. So perfect timing.
One thing just sort of what are kind of the new features things
that you were doing particularlyto serve the Super fan?
(43:54):
And I think one of the things that that popped up to me that
they caught my eye, I'm an NFL fan shocking with the American
accent. I think NFL red zone's one of
the the best packages that exist.
And you guys reference the multiview that's going to come not
just on Super Sunday, but you guys called it Super Size
Sunday. So that feels like something
that's new. Maybe just talk about the
development of that, that Sundayoffering and what that means for
(44:17):
super serving, you know, football fans.
Yeah, So listen, the I, I totally agree with you.
Red Zone's brilliant. It's, it's a fantastic watch.
I think American football's a little bit easier to do a, a red
zone of time because you, you know, there's breaks in play,
you know where, you know where the play is going to be.
You know if they're in the end zone, you know, you know where
in the red zone, you know, you know that's going to happen.
(44:39):
Football is obviously a lot moreunpredictable, but what the the
premise is behind multi view is a new viewing option,
simultaneous games. We will be in editorial control
of what we put front and centre in the big screen with the other
games happening on the right hand side.
We'll jump in and out, not like like red zone of when we think
that that'd be a corner or a free kick.
(45:00):
We'll make sure all the goals are seen, all key moments.
And again, that is just how we're trying to evolve our
offering customer experience. They could all watch their
individual games on separate channels, but if they want to
watch all four at once, and if you're, you know, a Super Sunday
junkie and you want to watch everything like that all in one
place, that's your place to go. Again, it's something new,
(45:21):
something different. We will do it on those super
sized Super Sundays. We'll do it when we've got
simultaneous games in mid weeks.We'll also look to do it as well
around some of our other football.
And I think we're always constantly looking to evolve and
to innovate. It's been at the heart of what
Sky Sports is all about, about how we can better serve our
(45:42):
customers. And that is an example of how we
we intend to do that next season.
So we're we're very excited by that.
And anything that's anywhere close to being as good as the
red zone will definitely take. Yeah, well, Gary, I appreciate
the conversation and particularly you taking the time
given the the season is kicking off shortly.
But you've already said that there's 30 care about cup games
tonight. So well, some people might be
focused on the Premier League Friday.
(46:03):
Work has already started here. Exactly.
Sports on the new season? Yes.
Yeah absolutely. We we kicked off 2 weeks ago in
League One and Two. The championship kicked off last
weekend. We've had Scotland, we did our
WSL start season shoot yesterday, we've done our media
day today, There's so much goingon but there's no better place
I'd want to be. We love it here and we're
(46:23):
looking forward to a brilliant season ahead.
Awesome, I really appreciate it.Gary, thank you.
Thanks for your time. Thank you.
Hello everyone, and welcome backto the next episode of
Streamtime Sports. My name is Chris Stone, the
community lead, joined as alwaysby our CEO, Nick Meacham.
And I'm Nick. I'm excited because today the
rules are reversed. Usually you're the guy that's
been out on adventures, but today, at least for this
episode, I'm the one that went on adventure earlier this week,
so I get to share my experiences.
I have to say, I'm pretty jealous.
(00:25):
It was like a pretty cool experience.
You got what you got to see and check out on the ground and I
saw a lot of people posting about it.
So definitely keen to hear more about what you heard, what you
saw, maybe what you learned along the way.
Well, before we do that, Nick, Ihave a brief story to tell that
would have almost thrown this entire episode into the void.
And if it had ended a different way, I would not be sharing this
(00:47):
story at the moment. Steve McCaskill, our technology
Admiral, Tubs, the only two people that know this because
they were at the event with me. Our video producer, Dana, when
he edits this in about 30 minutes, would be very upset
with me. Manny, our multimedia director,
is going to have something to say to me.
So I went to Sky Sports on Tuesday, went to the studios,
did an interview with Gary Hughes, who's the director of
(01:08):
football. The day before that interview, I
had to go in the sports pro offices and pick up all the
multimedia equipment. So multiple phones, multiple
microphones, all these differentthings.
Probably couple $1000 worth of, you know, equipment.
So I'm taking the tube home. I'm on the DLR and very crowded,
so I had to put stuff underneaththe seat, including my backpack
and including this bag of stuff.So I get off the DLR, I'm
(01:30):
walking up to my house in about 10 minutes and I'm like, oh
shit, I've forgotten the recording stuff.
So I Sprint back down. Fortunately there's a lady
working there. I'm like, hey, about 15 minutes
ago, I let this bag on here. Like I know it's a one in a
million shot being in London. Is there any chance someone's
found it? So she starts bringing out her
(01:51):
phone and starts calling. People aren't walkie-talkie.
And then about 10 minutes later,she looks at me and she's like,
what's in the bag? It's like it's a black
drawstring bag. There's two iPhones, there's two
this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
It's all right, we found it. Wow.
So shout out shout out to Anne Marie and Nadine working for the
TfL on the DLR in particular. They're massive listeners of the
(02:13):
pod, definitely the listeners ofthe.
Pod. Yeah, they're like the the DLR
train's currently a popular. It's gonna be an hour until it
gets back. She's like love.
There's a pub just around the corner.
Go sit down, have a pint, relax and I'll have it for you in an
hour. So had a pint, came back.
So yeah, I want to share that story.
If story had gone otherwise don't know what I would do with
the interview, but it's all worked itself out and we're
(02:35):
we're going to have something totalk about today.
It's nice to hear good stories of things actually being handed
back because everyone you have to hear a lot of negative,
particularly in London late withthings getting stolen and so
forth. I've heard some bad stories of
friends in the time so. Nice to hear.
That was resolved, and no wonderit didn't get mentioned to me
because it was all resolved withpart of that message having to
(02:56):
make its way to Sweden. But good, good to hear that it
all worked out in the end. That's amazing.
So we did. It worked out.
I actually, I had a bird take a shit on me while I was walking
my dog the day before. And I'm told that it's supposed
to be good luck. So I'm assuming that is that is
that good luck to roll it over Scientifically proven that.
Yeah, scientifically proven. So we're back on.
(03:17):
I came back from Sky Sports Studios, gave the equipment to
Dano to me. He said I no longer want the
responsibility. I'll explain later.
He's going to find out when he edits his podcast.
Oh, that's hilarious. I think even better than dad is
going to find out the boy by listening into into this.
Well, it's either that's really good luck or bad things happen
in threes. So it was going to be one way or
the. Other.
So yeah, good luck it. Is ever worked out?
(03:39):
So now that we we, we've gone over there because it had to
share the story. I had the opportunity to go out
to Sky's campus on Tuesday. They were hosting a pre season
Premier League kickoff event. A little bit of setting the
scene. These are some of the things we
accomplished last year and theseare some of the new things we're
going to roll out this year. All the the, the senior leaders
were there. Jonathan Lynch, the managing
(04:00):
director of Sky Sports. I may have messed up his job
title there, but he he's the topdog when it comes to Sky Sports.
I mentioned Gary Hughes, Chief Sports.
Officer is Jonathan Lee. Sports officer, There you go.
Yeah, I love that one. It's going to.
Be just chief. Great title.
Great title. I think the of Sky Sports, like
it was chief sports officer of Sky would get it, but I think it
says chief sports officer of SkySports.
That's a bit of a mouthful. I'm not going to try that freak
(04:21):
out last. We had Gary Hughes, who I
interviewed and you'll hear fromlater in this episode.
The director of football also had sort of the head of product
there kind of talk about some ofthe new features, the Sky OS
system, Sky glass and rolled outsome of the features there.
And then Steve Alford, who's thedirector of Sky Sports News,
Basically they all gave a rundown of different things that
you can expect this year. And even though she didn't
speak, the group CEO of Sky was there.
(04:44):
So big, big dog in the house. And they also had Michael
Richards, Gary Neville and JamieCarriger.
You know, they're they're they're head talent when it
comes to commentary. We're all there to do a separate
session. Got to go into the actual
studios where they recorded everything.
I don't think anybody will be shocked to hear.
Really incredible experience, very professional.
Everything was super well done. And given it was probably one of
the hottest days of the year, thankfully the air conditioning
(05:06):
was on super high blast, which they say is intentional because
of all the lights. It gets really hot in there.
So yeah, it was really good. Lots of things going on.
Have you ever been to the Sky Campus before?
What do they call it? It's like it's it's known as
Siberia because it's so far. That's what Steve said, yeah.
No, I haven't. I've driven past it before and
I've always been intrigued to see what it's like.
(05:27):
You just don't know with studio setups like that, you know,
we've, we've been to like TurnerStudios in the in the US and
sometimes it's just a big lot. Sometimes it's like no frills.
And other times you can be to goto a place like that and it's,
it's in a really impressive setting or somewhere in between.
So I know I haven't had the chance to go out there.
I've always, always wonder what it looks like.
Yeah, I mean, I only saw a smallportion of the campus because
(05:49):
the the sports sections kind of got its own dedicated building
and studios. But obviously Sky is a not only
just broadcaster, they have the whole telecoms business.
So there's different areas there, the research and
development centre. So I only got to see the one
small portion of it. But like I think there's
something like over 5000 people on that campus in terms of how
many people are working there. So yeah, it was really
impressive. Everyone there, super
(06:10):
professional, super well spoken.So yeah, I was just today, this
is actually going to be a bonus pod.
The Premier League kicks off on Friday, August 15th.
That's when this pod will kick off.
So just a little bit of a preview on things you'd expect
from a Sky Sports perspective, because they did share some
numbers and those that haven't been following, it is going to
be kind of a monumental year forSky, at least in terms of the
(06:32):
sheer amount of content they're going to be delivering this
year. Yeah.
Yeah, it's a, it's a super interesting time for a number of
reasons around what the Premier League's doing.
It's the new kick off, sorry, the new rights cycle kick off.
And with Sky is the primary partner for that and to see how
they bring all that content to life.
Because obviously one of the bigthings and we've talked about it
(06:53):
before, but for those that are new to it, is the UK is so
unique with its 3:00 PM block out that black out that it has
for all those games and what they've done as a result of a
couple of reasons. But what they've done is they've
moved loads of games off the EPLcalendar and schedule out of
that 3:00 PM slot to make them available through Sky, mainly
(07:13):
through Sky out of all partners,which completely transforms the
the ability to watch the PremierLeague where it was four years
ago. And also might be a precursor to
that inevitable blackout being taken away or the the 3:00 PM
back out inevitably being taken away, depending on how you want
to phrase that. So it is a really interesting
point in time in the the historyand the relationship between Sky
(07:36):
and the Premier League in the Premier League itself, because
just all built around this blackout situation more than
anything. Yeah.
Well, in terms of just starting kicking things off, the big
number to come up with this in the new deal is they are going
from broadcasting 128 games to aminimum of 215 games.
So you're talking about quite a significant increase in games.
(07:57):
And the reason I say minimum, and this feeds into some other
things, is that historically, those that don't follow
football, if a team is playing in a European fixture in the
midweek, the Premier League won't force them to go play on
the Saturday because there's notenough turn around time.
So those games, have they been historically been scheduled on
Saturday? They've been quote unquote
displaced into the Sunday schedule.
(08:18):
And then we're just never shown on TV because of the way, you
know, the broadcasters get to select games.
Those games just aren't in the pool this year.
Those displaced games will all now be shown on what they call
it's Super Sunday. But they kind of jokingly called
it Super Size Sunday because nowall the sudden you could have
four to five games kicked off inthat 230 window on a Sunday that
(08:39):
historically never would have been there before.
So that's why it's the it's 2:15with an asterisk, because that's
just the minimum that number could go up.
And we'll kind of see where thatends up, depending on how many
European games get displaced from the Saturday schedule.
Really interesting that they've done that.
I don't think I've ever seen a contract or set of terms with
one of these major rights deals that has that flexibility in it
(09:00):
built built into it because of these X Factor with with the
3:00 PM blackout, whereas those games could be not broadcast at
all or they could be sitting in this this multi game window.
It's interesting you brought that up because obviously one of
the things that they did talk about and show was the fact they
are going to have a multi view experience made available, which
you're probably going to talk about.
But I was wondering, it turns out, why does that matter?
(09:21):
Because you know, you almost never have a game going against
another match up. But this is obviously where it
can come to life. And that's exactly it.
They they talk about the introduction of multi view this
year. Gary speaks about it with me
later on as well. And they almost referred to it
as an NFL red zone light. Obviously the packages are a
little bit different in the sense of football's stop and go.
(09:43):
You can more easily go in and out where football's a little
bit more fluid, but they also won't have someone like a like a
Scott Hanson that's going to be a singular voice kind of going
back and forth. It'll be pulling in the audio
and the commentary from each individual games.
And they'll have someone that will see, hey, if there's a
penalty kick up, we need to bring this up on the big screen.
So it's not going to be an apples to apples remake of the
(10:05):
Red Zone, but it's going to be avery similar package where
either you have the choice to goacross the multiple different
sky channels and focus on one game or you can have the option
do the multi view. So yeah, that's exactly where
they're going to roll that package out is on the Sundays
when they have those displaced games, which we know inevitably
that is going to happen given how many Premier League teams
happen to feature, whether that's Champions League, Europa
(10:26):
League, Europa Conference and soon.
Who do you think should be the Scott Hanson of the Premier
League if they were going to do one in the UK and which so it
could be really viable next cycle if those those caveats
come into place, They release 3:00 PM, remove the 3:00 PM
black out or put more games backinto that slot.
Who do you think will be best placed?
Best placed, or who ought to be most entertained by?
(10:48):
I'll both. Give us either or.
I'll take either. I've got no.
Idea. To be honest, I've got
absolutely no idea. Probably.
Probably Roy Keane, just becausehe's just just hilarious.
Just to hear I'm just kind of yelling and giving a saying.
So like keep my favourite just 'cause like I just find him to
be hilarious even though I thinkit is intentional.
(11:11):
He also does a really good job of delivering in an
unintentional way. I can't remember the guy's name.
This is probably a more boring answer.
Well, I'll give you a boring answer and a a more entertaining
answer. Oh, the entertaining answer
would be Micah Richards. I just think he'd be absolutely
all over the place and he's quite comical.
He he'd just bring the energy every time something was
happening. The two obvious ones that stand
(11:32):
out are Jeff Stelling, who was does Super Saturday or did Super
Saturday. I don't know who does it
anymore. I haven't watched it in years
and obviously Gary Linico, but his Match of the Day background
would be, would be an absolute professional step into that.
Just as long as I've got the yeah, depending on what rights
and stuff are available. But I don't think that's good.
We won't see if that happens. We'll see if that happens
(11:54):
anytime soon. I've never seen the MLS version.
Of neither have I that. And I think I would love to see
some video of that. If anyone has access to that or
has equipped somewhere that theyare listening, please send it
across. Otherwise I might do do some
searching after this. Yeah, so that's going to be
rolled out as a new product. One of the other things that the
the they were talking about froma product perspective, I think
is interesting. Not that it's necessarily ground
(12:18):
breaking, but it's good to see him introduce is a they'll not
have features if you if you showup late that you can start from
the beginning so you don't miss anything.
But the other thing they said they were going to commit to is
having full game replays available within minutes of the
match finishing, which I've spoken about before for me with
zoning, NFL Game Pass, one of the biggest features for me is
having access to full game replays.
(12:40):
So the fact that they said they're going to commit to that
and you know, kind of do it, they said really within minutes
of a game finishing. I think it's just a nice
feature. You know, particularly they,
they used a great example for parents who are going to be busy
on a weekend, something like that, being able to have that
replayability. It's a little thing, but I think
it is something from a viewer perspective, it is really
positive. And then the other thing worth
(13:01):
mentioning, we know Amazon is nolonger doing the Christmas
coverage that they used to do around Boxing Day, which is
obviously a very impact schedule.
They don't have exclusivity overthe games around the festive
period, but they do have the return of Boxing Day and other
games around there. So you're going to see more
footage or more coverage around that period.
So that's always, I think been a, a nice block of time to to
(13:22):
have. And obviously they'll also be
driving people the World Darts Championship.
So it's just sort of continuing to house more and more content
around that festive period. And also it'll be the first time
match week 38 for those that don't know, the last game that
week of the season, the Premier League, all games kick off the
same exact time. So that way you can't sort of
try to strategically play your way into the final spots.
They're actually going to broadcast all those games
(13:43):
individually and you're going tobe able to choose which game you
want to watch. And that'll be a first time
feature, which, you know, I think would be great for
everybody just given how crazy that is to think that there's
that many games played and only one of them is going to be
featured. Now you can watch any game you
want on the last game week. Sounds interesting.
Definitely making a lot of changes from from season to
season by the sounds of it. So it'll be interesting how they
can pull this off. 215 games is extraordinary number to be made
(14:07):
available through primary broadcast production.
That's the thing, like sometimesmore games are available and
this sometimes is lost on people.
But to have that full breadth ofbroadcast, the Sky Sports touch
on those broadcasters means it'sa pretty major investment.
And that's probably why Sky was able to push back on also on the
EPL, which is what I expected tohave happened, and not pay a
(14:28):
correlated increase in meteorites fees because they're
going to have to put a lot into production on this.
I think one of the interesting things now with this, with this
change is that the, the I had my, my theory is that Sky didn't
really want or need more games to their package and to their
offering because they had, they had the core, they had, they had
(14:51):
the what do you call the core rate?
The, the, the majority share. So if you are a football fan,
you will buy Sky Sports in that market, no question.
But more games probably wouldn'tlead to more subscriptions for
them. They had such a, a stronghold of
that. So now that they are opening up
all these games and adding all these extra investments into
producing more ways of interacting with it, I'm just
(15:12):
curious to see how much the actual impact it can have with
subscriber numbers. Normally if you saw a
broadcaster take on so much morecontent, you would do it under
the guise that we would expect an uplift in subscriptions and
so forth. But here I don't think it's
really under the same guise. Well, interesting.
That question did come up and Jonathan Lynch did answer it,
(15:34):
which was basically around there.
And he, he explicitly said Sky is a growth business when asked,
you know, is the acquisition of all these rights about retaining
existing customers or is it about trying to attract more
subscribers? And he explicitly said Sky is a
growth business and we are looking to grow the business and
we see football as a core part of our strategy to do so.
(15:55):
And that's not to he didn't say that as a way to negate the
impact of retention, but he was also very clear on saying like
this is a growth business and what they're trying to achieve.
Well, it make I mean it makes sense now because I think what
would have taken some time for them to work out with EP with
the EPL is the right mix. Because now by moving so many
(16:15):
games out of that 3:00 PM slot, it also means that more games
will be available in non traditional windows.
Which means that those fans are perhaps always a season ticket
holders to Championship League One, League 2 competitions.
Teams might also have a higher interest in buying subscriptions
now because they are able to watch more games and have access
(16:36):
more games than they were in thepast.
So I don't think there's a, there's a subscription up tick
play here. But they haven't had to invest a
lot from a rights perspective tohave that opportunity.
Instead, they've made investments in perhaps adding
more interactivity, more value to a subscriber.
Well, Speaking of that, we we'vetalked about the uptake of
Premier League games. It's actually nothing in
comparison to the uptick in games from the ELF, which is the
(16:57):
Championship League One League 2, which are going to show over
1000 games this year from the EFL.
And at minimum, each team will be featured at least 20 times.
So there's going to be, you know, talk about that value add
to make sure everyone's going toget an opportunity to be able to
watch your teams. Not all this will necessarily be
on Sky. Part of it will be on Sky Sports
Plus, which is the app that theylaunched last year and they said
(17:18):
really positive statistics on last year where they said 75% of
all Sky Sports subscribers also stream content by Sky Sports
Plus. So I thought that was an
interesting statistic to talk about consumer behaviour in
terms of how they're doing that.There's also going to be 90% of
WSL games are going to be shown.So in total, they're looking at
showing around 1500 football matches this year between the
(17:40):
Premier League, Scottish PremierLeague, EFL and the WSL.
That is a pretty extraordinary number blows blows me away.
I'm not sure it could go down a Segway here, but I was thinking
about this. I was going to write something
about this in some stage, but just I was thinking after this
ESPNNNFL deal, like who else would possibly be someone that
(18:01):
could this type of deal would deal could come about with?
And it's got to be the got to beSky and EPL like they are.
So their success and failure, particularly in the UK is all so
synergize together that if they if the 3:00 PM blackout is
removed, I could definitely see a play like that happening and
playing out because they just, they're already, they're already
(18:24):
proving themselves that Sky can deliver at scale to the scale
that is unrivalled probably in the world for for the amount of
matches. So interesting to see what
happens with that. But cool.
Wow, that's a big number. Yeah.
And Speaking of the 3:00 PM blackout, the question really or
the common came more around piracy, just the threat that
exists out there. And Jonathan Lynch spoke about,
(18:45):
you know, we do know the 3:00 PMgame is a more attractive option
for pirates to be involved because it's simply just not
available. And there was mentioned multiple
times, even Gary and Micah mentioned it when they were just
talking about football. But it got brought up, you know,
you can go to the US and watch every single game.
And whether that needs to changenow, I didn't, I didn't take the
common as they're explicitly going to make the 3:00 PM games
(19:07):
all the sudden broadcastable. I don't know if that's weird,
but more of they've talked aboutwe're going to put more games on
Friday, more games on Monday. So I don't know if it's
necessarily this is just completely me kind of having to
think is less about opening up that window and more about
potentially shifting around the schedule a little bit.
Well, I think it's important to delineate.
I'm not exactly sure who's actually responsible for that,
(19:29):
but it's not Sky and it's not the EPL either.
It is a like regulation that's in place preventing that.
So even if they want it doesn't mean they'll get it anyway.
Although I think where we're at today now it has to be done at
some stage and the sooner the better for I, I would have
thought most parties. Now the, the, the challenge
again to Sky from Sky's point ofview is they don't really have
(19:49):
much benefit for themselves to open up that floodgate,
particularly if those, if those rights are therefore made
available to buy for anyone. Because that just dilutes the
value of their current rights package.
If we think they're at a relative critical mass of
subscribers, they're not going to get meaningful value out of
it. And they would hate to have
another competitor come up and mop up those 3:00 PM rights.
(20:11):
So that's the tricky balance, that Sky won't want it and
they're paying billions for the rights to the EPL.
The EPO has to be conscious about upsetting the apple cart
too much with their main partner.
So guys in the in the driver's seat there.
And we've seen they've been in the driver's seat with a lot of
different types of negotiations and partnerships in, in, in, in
the past that they won't be in arush to make that move.
(20:32):
But I can imagine, I can imaginethe EPO would probably want to
do it if they knew that they could see a correlated uptick in
revenue and engagement etcetera.So inevitably it must have some
impact to Sky's subscription numbers.
If people know they can get through through pirated means,
surely a. 100% but that's also part of the reason between the
uptick in games available, not just at the Premier League level
(20:54):
at all other lower levels, having that the new Super Sunday
with the multi view option to just try to make as much
available as possible. And one of the other things that
I thought was interesting that they brought up, Nick, a couple
different people brought up in different angles and given we
just talked about sort of renting our own in your
audience, audience and YouTube, things like that.
Jonathan Lynch mentioned it's a big point of emphasis for them
to grow their youth audiences aseveryone's trying to do.
(21:17):
They've talked about they've seen their broadcast numbers in
terms of viewership almost double over the last four years
for under 30 fives in the UK. But one statistically get
brought up was not just what they're doing on broadcast but
also on YouTube. I'm assuming the statistic comes
from usage in the UK, but they've said that the number one
sports publisher on YouTube reaching 5 million under 30
fives every month. So I'm imagining most of the
(21:37):
other stats were UK focused, butI thought the fact that they
felt the need to make that a point of emphasis, you know,
they're talking about some of the other bits.
And then Mark Alford from Sky Sports News talked about it was
a really high number, Nick. It was something like 2/3 of all
mentions of the Premier League on Twitter included the handle
Sky Sports News, which I'm sure has to be people are quote,
tweeting things, responding to things.
(21:59):
It was a really high number. And I think it just goes to talk
about sort of this renting versus owning.
Does everything have to be on your own platform?
It seems like Sky is very comfortable with saying we know
there's stuff happening off our platform that we want to be
around, particularly for those younger audiences that.
Yeah, good. That's very some very
interesting numbers there. Nice work, Chris.
Say the the whole youth thing, Ithink it's always a bit of a,
(22:24):
what do you call a metric that keeps getting talked about for
different reasons. Like a broadcaster wants to show
that they're reaching younger audiences.
From an advertiser perspective, they want to show that they are
viable and relevant to all sortsof different potential consumer
brands to work with. And also monetization through
YouTube, you can sell ads directly to platform.
So I know that many broadcastersare looking at actually
(22:47):
monetizing YouTube more effectively now by actually
selling direct to advertisers, not just through their own
channels. So that might be why they're
talking a bit about that in thatsort of setting, I would
imagine. And then the last bit just to
flesh it out because it's not just all about live sports.
And we talk about some of the stuff there on social.
Sky Sports News is expanding their coverage.
There's going to be the introduction of new shows.
They're going to take place across the week.
(23:08):
One of those includes the Premier League Friday show,
which will be hosted by Roman Kemp.
Those that don't know a famous radio DJ for Capital FM.
So definitely comes from a different football background,
but I think that is also intentionally part of the
strategy of attracting A newer, younger audience.
They're also introducing a Sky Sports fan club TV show where
they're now going to have content creators from all the
(23:30):
different clubs. Basically.
I think they now have a content creator from all 20 clubs
that'll be able to come on, givefeedback.
So again, this is more this creator LED approach and they're
also partnered with a company called Phenalisys, which is
basically a platform people can engage directly with, give
player rankings, give confidenceratings on the manager's
decisions. And some of that feedback from
(23:51):
finales is going to be brought into some of those different
shows. So even they're trying to flesh
out what they do on the non gamedays and they're taking a little
bit different approach with somenew hosts that don't necessarily
have all haven't historically always been in, you know, in the
mainstream broadcast for sports.And then bring it in the
analysis app along with the fan club show, changing up some of
the content they're doing. So it's as much as it's easy to
(24:14):
focus on the sheer amount of games that are being covered.
They've also made a total recommitment to the amount of
coverage that they're going to do, the different types of
content they're going to do throughout the week.
So they're going all in, let's put it that way.
They sure they sure are. Wow, great work mate.
That's a lot of good insight packed into about 20 minutes
there before we jump into the the conversation that you you
(24:36):
had on on the ground. I think what I'm really
interested to see just how things evolve not only from now
from Sky's perspective, but alsowhat we see other league, other
teams do, the teams themselves, whether they do continue to grow
on platforms like YouTube and other social media channels and
double down on that. I saw some interesting stats the
day from WC Sport in the report that they produced and obviously
(24:57):
they are helping clubs, teams that have rights holders,
publishers, etcetera create content and it's like a 76% jump
in vertical videos year on year.Like that's an extraordinary
number and nearly nearly 1,000,000 videos generated
around the EPL coverage for those that have rights to it.
(25:17):
So there seems like a huge increase and boost in that off
non live array of content also being are generated at the same
time. So with all that alongside this
extra exposure of more matches lead to a real big increase in
fandom. Because you think Premier
League, it's pretty much the pinnacle of fandom in in many,
(25:40):
many countries in terms of how it's followed.
Can it go even further with all this extra content being pumped
out or is that just correlated with what expectations are for
audiences these days? Like is is the expectation,
there is just more more more. Yeah, I didn't get the statistic
written down. They did also mention your point
new vertical highlights because they talked about, we know our
(26:00):
users do not like to flip the phone sideways.
So they've even talked about this year they're going to
introduce more vertical video highlights.
So it's all included in there and let you say after this,
we're going to hand things over to myself with an interview with
Gary Hughes as the Director of football.
We kind of talk about the relationship, particularly in
this last round of negotiations,sort of was it Sky or was it the
Premier League pushing to have more games?
(26:21):
How collaborative is that approach?
Who really one of the games out there.
We talk about their improved coverage and investment in the
WSL. We, you and I spoke about the
other day, their move to that noon Sunday slot.
Gary gives his view in terms of how they work for the league to
do that talk about Sky Sports Plus and just a general overview
of what you're going to see fromSky this year in in terms of
that new agreement going forward.
(26:43):
So I was really glad Gary was able to take some time out to
speak to us and hopefully we'll give you more direct insights
from, you know, Sky themselves. I'm very excited to be joined by
Gary Hughes, the director. Of football for Sky Sports.
And we're actually want to startGary.
I. Know I have some business
questions, OK. But for me, just on a day-to-day
work basis, yeah. How exciting is it to be able
(27:04):
to, this is my first time ever at the Sky Sports Studio, so how
invigorating is it to get to walk in and see the studio?
Because I imagine you're a football fan, so just being able
to sit in there every day. It's pretty special.
I've been at Sky for 30 years now.
I worked in Sky News, Sky SportsNews and now doing the role I am
in Sky Sports football, having produced some, some fly football
(27:25):
before, Champions League and some Premier League and other,
some of our shoulder programmes as well back in the day of
Sunday, supplement goals on Sunday, et cetera.
So I've been been here a fair few years, but I still still get
a buzz every day I walk in the building.
Obviously the campus has evolvedlike sport has evolved, like the
Premier League has evolved, likeour rights deals have evolved.
But yeah, it's a fantastic placeto work, lots of good energy.
(27:48):
Obviously the football team are full of football fans and we
have great debates and, and, andevery day around who's going to
be signing for who and who's going to win what.
And it's just a really good energetic place to work.
And I hope you got that sense coming to Sky for the first time
today. 100% totally got that vibe and it's just wasn't all my
list of questions, but it's justthe sort of thing that when
(28:09):
you're here, it's a bit infectious.
So just kind of want to hear first hand how your experiences
were just being able to walk in day-to-day.
We always talk business, but we don't always talk about some of
the more just enjoying life sortof things.
The classic it's not work if youenjoy what you do thing right.
Exactly. And I love my work, so there we
go. Awesome.
So today we we managed. There's a presentation from you
and different members of the team.
Yeah. I'm also got to hear from some
of the key talent. Yeah, really big summer, really
(28:31):
big season upcoming as we're recording this.
It's Tuesday before the kick offon Friday.
Yeah. One of the big things from Sky
Sports is the expanded coverage of the Premier League and you
went through some of the statistics on the increase.
You know, we're looking at a minimum 215 games this year.
Just talk about that process, what it means for Sky to really
sort of establish further establish, I should should say
(28:52):
its dominance in the UK as beingthe number one broadcaster for
sports. I'm glad you were listening and
mentioned the minimum 215 exactly.
Listen, I think I think this is our, it's our biggest and
biggest ever Premier League deal, 215 games minimum of going
into next season. It's a four year deal, which is
(29:13):
different to other cycles which have always been 3.
So it gives us that opportunity to really plan and that extra
year does make a big difference.What it does do, the four year
Premier League deal, it's sort of aligns all our football.
So we've got a four year deal with the Premier League starting
this Friday. As you say, we've got four years
left of our of our five year EFLdeal.
We've got four years left of ourfive year SPFL deal and we've
(29:35):
also got a new WSL deal as well.I think what what our strategy
has been and where we've been very successful, it's full in
recent years. It's locking down the key
rights, the ones that are important to us up until the end
of the decade. So obviously all those football
rights are locked in alongside F1, ECB, cricket.
We've got long term tennis rights and other cricket rights
as well. So what it does mean, it gives,
(29:56):
it gives customers that's that level of security and knowledge
that for the next 4 years they're going to be able to
watch all these great events live on Sky Sports.
And I think what the Premier League deal does for us is again
underlying our position as the domestic home of football.
We've got all those, all those games.
I think within the presentation I think it was over 1500 games.
(30:18):
We'll show next season, which ishuge and if you're a football
fan, Sky Sports for for domesticfootball, for Premier League,
for AFL, for Scottish football, men's and women's and the WSL is
is the place to be. Absolutely.
And I think what would be interesting is talking about
that Premier League deal, the new, the, it's a, it's a
partnership that has obviously been very beneficial for both
(30:38):
sides. I think the Premier League would
be right to credit Sky Sports for its global growth, not just
domestically, but what it's beenable to do in terms of building
that. When you're having that
conversation, just be curious with the expansion of the
coverage, is that something thatyou guys are working on mutually
talking about the expanding the coverage?
Is that something you're pushingfor, the Premier League's
pushing for? Like how does the collaborative
nature of that tender process work in terms of expanding that
(31:01):
coverage? So we've been, as I said in the
presentation earlier, we've beensort of partners with the
Premier League since, since a whole new ball game back in 1992
when the offering back then was just 60 games.
We're exclusive partners for 15 years and we've been the lead
partner ever since. And as I said earlier in the
presentation, our games have grown year on year, I think.
And Gary Neville was, it was in the presentation earlier or I
(31:23):
was doing a punditry session, hewas saying there's, you know,
you go around the world and all Premier League games are
available. Now clearly we have the 3:00 PM
Saturday blackout here, which isArticle 48, which is tradition
and which we respect. And I think what the Premier
League did, it was their decision.
Ultimately it's their rights, it's their tender and they will
look at what they think is the right thing to do in this four
(31:45):
year cycle. They looked at extending it for
an extra year and what they havedone is made all those 2:00
games available. So again, the guys were talking
around the 2:00 game that might be live on the television.
There'll be three other games happening at that time and it
feels as though you're missing out.
I don't think you feel that on aSaturday at 3:00 because it's
tradition in this country. So I think you know the, the,
(32:05):
the EFL again led the way on this by their inventory is
massive. I think it's 18181 games and we
were only showing 160 odd of those matches a season.
And we, we had some good dialogue with them.
And again, it was their, that's their, their inventory.
It's their, it's their tender. But what they would do with
(32:27):
their rights, they wanted more of that shown.
So much so that we now show, I think it's 1059.
But I think with displaced matches it was well over 1100
last year. So the volume is increasing all
the time. All the rights are all the
governing bodies want more of their sport on more of the
channels and the Premier League have got, you know, the biggest
and best inventory. It's the best sporting league in
(32:48):
the world and to have us having 215 and maybe a total of round
270, round 280 I think is a big sea change in a step forward and
it'd be interesting to see. And it's ultimately again up to
them. We have regular dialogue.
We've got a great relationship with the Premier League.
As I said, we've been partners for 33 years.
We talked to them a lot about a lot of stuff.
(33:10):
We talked to them about access, I'm in regular contact with them
around fixtures and scheduling. It is a partnership.
Ultimately they will always decide.
We will talk to them as being their lead partner about certain
issues. But what I think it does is just
again underline that fact that and it's the same with the WSL
and you deal with them, all 132 games are going to be live.
(33:31):
So that is a direction of travelfor all rights and I think the
Premier League have have made a really good decision this year
and this cycle going to the volumes that they have.
Yeah, one question I didn't necessarily prepare for, but I
saw it in your presentation. I think it's really interesting
because for us as a podcast, we have started to extend more
digital media, not just explicitly linear broadcaster
(33:54):
ATT. You reference some statistics
around the growth of your YouTube channels and in
particular the Gen Z audience you guys been able to capture.
So for me, just be curious when you're having those
conversations from a rights perspective, you've obviously
got the live rights, but sort ofhow you view also having access
to the digital rights because that seems like a, I imagine you
wouldn't have wanted to share that statistic if there wasn't a
(34:16):
story behind. It no absolutely in my role as
direction of football, I'm in charge of the television
coverage of what we do, but obviously we work very closely
with the digital team and clearly in any rights
negotiation, you know the way that it all set up at the
moment, it is linear it's television first, but then
digital is becoming so much moreimportant.
So we would you know, very rarely and we would always want
(34:39):
to do a rights deal where the digital rights are attached to
that as well. And we we have got those clip
rights. Digital is massively important
for us. You know that that new audience
is massively important for us. We've got a lot of focus on
under 30 fives, how we can, how we can reach, how we can talk to
how we can we can become more relevant to to under 30 fives as
(35:00):
a Sky Sports brand and how they would consider buying and
upgrading or working, you know, on some of our of our products
now TV, how, how are they, how are they, how are they become a
subscriber and a customer of Sky.
So that's a huge focus for us. And I think what we've tried to
do as well, we've tried to evolve our offering on
television, on screen. You know, we've, we've got a
(35:22):
very got a much younger, more diverse, more relevant pundit
lineup than we ever have done before.
And I think some of the stuff weget around our access, what
we're trying to do is, again, goout and really engage with the
young players of today, get themtalking about themselves, their
lifestyle and putting stuff social first, digital first.
That's a lot of what we're doingaround our access and then
(35:45):
teasing it in the linear coverage and promoting our
digital, digital outlets as well.
So yeah, it's a whole ecosystem that in any rights deal across
any sport, we do both the live rights and the digital and
digital rights are massively important.
Yeah. And I imagine that does sit with
Mark and his team. He gave the presentation from
the Sky Sports perspective. But like you said, that's all
(36:06):
linked together and just the fact that you mentioned in your
presentation, I just thought it was worth.
That seems constantly working together about how we can best
utilise our content, best utilise what assets we've got
across all platforms. Now you referenced this is a
complete football strategy. This isn't just limited to the
Premier League. It obviously gets the big
billing. Will you reference some of the
other leagues? And in particular looking at the
(36:27):
WSL, you guys have made further investment financially as well
as your extended coverage of theamount of games you talked
about. I think it's 90% of games are
going to be covered. But additionally, as well as a
specific strategy change, is theSunday afternoon kickoff spot
moving that? Is it noon or is it 12:30?
Noon, 12 noon, yeah. Talk about sort of that using
the WSL as part of the overall football strategy and then
(36:48):
particularly that decision is a way how you think that's going
to help promote the growth of the league?
So the WSL is, is not just part of the football strategy, it's
part of our women's sports strategy.
We want to be, and I think we are known for our, you know,
being the, the, the leading broadcaster of women's sport.
We've had, you know, some incredible sports, women's
sports rights, golf, netball, cricket for a, a long, long
(37:10):
time. We're now into the first year of
five, which is our fifth year working with the WSL.
Football being the biggest game,WSL becomes the biggest women's
sporting, right? It's all part of that narrative
and all part of us becoming, youknow, the leader of women's
sport. I think what we've tried to do,
it's interesting. Earlier I talked about the 3:00
(37:32):
blackout. There's, there's, there was an
article 48. There was a lot of noise in the
women's game around women's matches being at 3:00 on a
Saturday. That hasn't happened.
And the reason why that was thatwas talked about was because
what is the best slot for women's football?
So when we acquired the rights, the football calendar, as we
talked about with so many more live games is a very congested
(37:53):
space. So we were placing matches at
6:45 on a Sunday after Super Sunday to inherit a big audience
to talk about the women's game. And it was relatively successful
from a viewing point of view, but it wasn't great for
attendances. So what we've had to do and we
what we want to always try to beis the best partner.
The best partner for sport is sit down with the league and
(38:14):
talk to them around what we think we can do together to, to
better the sport from a broadcasting perspective and
from a fan and league perspective.
So what we've ended up doing is doing a deal and WSL have done
similar to what the the EFL havedone in more, more inventory.
In fact all their inventory, 118games on Sky out of the 100 and
(38:35):
3290% of all WSL games. But what we wanted to try to do
was get a dedicated slot. So midday Sunday obviously
leading up to our Premier Leaguein the afternoon, but midday
Sunday we will have a live frontchannel, either first pick or
second or third pick. However the the picks process
(38:56):
work that week, that week have alive game at 12 O clock.
Then the games that aren't picked live will then be
displaced a bit like the two O clocks as often as they can
TO12O clock on a Sunday. So what we've then got is a
programme, but we're not just talking about one game and two
WSL clubs, we're talking about three games, four games and six
(39:17):
and eight WSL clubs. So the narrative becomes much
more wider and we can talk aboutall the clubs rather than just
focusing on a couple. We can tell the stories from
around the grounds, we can tell the stories that show the best
moments and we can tell the stories of some of the players
as well. So what we're planning there is
a is a as a new, new programme at 11:00, building up to the
(39:39):
12:00 again with a social element to it.
We think that the growth audience is in from the social
side, from the from the younger generation.
How can we best get, you know, young female football fans or
young fans watching the women's game?
So there'll be a social element to that.
There'll be a new change and of tone and approach.
(39:59):
There'll be a new set as well. So all this stuff, we'll, you
know, we'll, we'll, we'll talk about this in the coming weeks.
But that's the plan around WSL, massively important for us.
Unbelievable opportunity off theback of the brilliant success of
the Lionesses that couldn't havehappened at a better time for
the women's game, for the WSL, for Sky Sports as well.
In terms of the narrative and the talk ability, you know,
(40:22):
everyone's, everyone was talkingabout and still is talking about
the Lionesses success is brilliant.
So yeah, we're really looking forward to that and we hope that
midday narrative will will continue and be an appointment
to view slot for women's football.
Absolutely. And the, the big number is the
amount of EFL matches they're going to be displayed.
And that's through Sky Sports Plus, which, you know, is
(40:42):
largely a, a streaming platform.So out of curiosity, just what
that means for Sky? And then at the same time, were
there any learnings you took just from, you know, the habits
of people from a consuming perspective?
Because I think one of the important stats that was
mentioned was every team at minimum is going to have 20
games, which again, talks about the value and security for fans
that you're not going to pay fora subscription that isn't going
(41:03):
to speak to you. You know, it's something that
everyone's going to, you know, have their moment in the sun.
I guess you sort of say just sort of what you've learned from
then kind of the scale of those operations because there aren't
small numbers. Yeah, it's huge.
And as I said, I think there's 18181 AFL games in which we show
1100 of them. And I think that's what we did
(41:23):
last season. And I think that unlock of, of
saying to customers and to fans that they can watch their team
at least 20 * a season was huge and was a huge undertaking
internally with the EFL and withthe production partner IMG as
well, who deliver the bulk of those games on streams.
And we've got, this is on the Tuesday, we've got 30 Carabao
(41:45):
Cup games that are being streamed on Sky Sports Plus
tonight. But that was a huge unlock Sky
Sports Plus for not just the AFLbut I think for all sporting
rights because it gives you the long tail, it gives you a
platform and that's where some of the WSL games will be going,
gives you that platform for the long tail to be seen and to get
a platform basically. So the learnings were huge
(42:08):
operational, huge technical, whole new streaming platform.
We clearly have our front games and again, it's about promoting
that appointment to view. So at 12:30 on a Saturday for us
to have 7 EFL games available, Championship three there, League
1-2, League 22. So we have that narrative of,
(42:30):
you know, talk about the whole league and I think the EFL deal
as well. It, it meant that we were, we
were talking more about League One and two.
Obviously the Championship is massively high profile, some
big, big clubs in there, but some big, big clubs in League
One and Two as well. So we doubled our inventory from
I think 1920 games to 38 in League 1 and 2 front channel
games. But then you've got so many more
(42:51):
available as well. So again, that was a huge
unlock. And I think the learnings there
were, there were some teething problems.
You know, there's always going to be some teething problems
when you've got, you know, you go into every ground every week,
you know, and you've got 2 cameras, 4 cameras, a streaming
set up, you know, broadband connectivity.
(43:11):
It, it, it, it, it was, it was huge.
But that was ironed out very quickly.
If there were some, some, some some issues at the time.
I think the platform is very robust and fingers crossed,
Touchwood, it's very robust. It stood up to the first couple
of weeks of the AFL season and hopefully it will do this
Tuesday night with the 30 games as well and throughout the
season. But no, I think that has been
(43:33):
Sky Sports Plus has been brilliant for tennis as well,
for rugby league or Super League, all our all our long
tail rights. They've got huge volumes and
it's great for the customer. The last topic I want to go is
speaking about the customer. So perfect timing.
One thing just sort of what are kind of the new features things
that you were doing particularlyto serve the Super fan?
(43:54):
And I think one of the things that that popped up to me that
they caught my eye, I'm an NFL fan shocking with the American
accent. I think NFL red zone's one of
the the best packages that exist.
And you guys reference the multiview that's going to come not
just on Super Sunday, but you guys called it Super Size
Sunday. So that feels like something
that's new. Maybe just talk about the
development of that, that Sundayoffering and what that means for
(44:17):
super serving, you know, football fans.
Yeah, So listen, the I, I totally agree with you.
Red Zone's brilliant. It's, it's a fantastic watch.
I think American football's a little bit easier to do a, a red
zone of time because you, you know, there's breaks in play,
you know where, you know where the play is going to be.
You know if they're in the end zone, you know, you know where
in the red zone, you know, you know that's going to happen.
(44:39):
Football is obviously a lot moreunpredictable, but what the the
premise is behind multi view is a new viewing option,
simultaneous games. We will be in editorial control
of what we put front and centre in the big screen with the other
games happening on the right hand side.
We'll jump in and out, not like like red zone of when we think
that that'd be a corner or a free kick.
(45:00):
We'll make sure all the goals are seen, all key moments.
And again, that is just how we're trying to evolve our
offering customer experience. They could all watch their
individual games on separate channels, but if they want to
watch all four at once, and if you're, you know, a Super Sunday
junkie and you want to watch everything like that all in one
place, that's your place to go. Again, it's something new,
(45:21):
something different. We will do it on those super
sized Super Sundays. We'll do it when we've got
simultaneous games in mid weeks.We'll also look to do it as well
around some of our other football.
And I think we're always constantly looking to evolve and
to innovate. It's been at the heart of what
Sky Sports is all about, about how we can better serve our
(45:42):
customers. And that is an example of how we
we intend to do that next season.
So we're we're very excited by that.
And anything that's anywhere close to being as good as the
red zone will definitely take. Yeah, well, Gary, I appreciate
the conversation and particularly you taking the time
given the the season is kicking off shortly.
But you've already said that there's 30 care about cup games
tonight. So well, some people might be
focused on the Premier League Friday.
(46:03):
Work has already started here. Exactly.
Sports on the new season? Yes.
Yeah absolutely. We we kicked off 2 weeks ago in
League One and Two. The championship kicked off last
weekend. We've had Scotland, we did our
WSL start season shoot yesterday, we've done our media
day today, There's so much goingon but there's no better place
I'd want to be. We love it here and we're
(46:23):
looking forward to a brilliant season ahead.
Awesome, I really appreciate it.Gary, thank you.
Thanks for your time. Thank you.
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