The Bosun
As Shakespeare’s Prince Hamlet says in his famous To-be-or-not-to-be soliloquy: “That is the question”. Sometimes you find clues to an answer in the most obscure places.
Not many of us would read the Sports Business Journal but the current edition contains a revealing disclosure about the America’s Cup. The question, in this case, is about broadcast coverage. Without substantial mainstream TV air time, the business model of the Cup could be in trouble.
How interesting, then, that the SBJ reports the CEO of the America’s Cup Partnership, Marzio Perrelli, as saying they are still seeking a “broadcast partner”. (ACP is the entity comprised of the participating Cup syndicates, with the primary purpose of maximizing the event’s commercial value.)
Broadcast rights to major sports are usually negotiated years in advance, and for multi-year spans of exclusive access. For the AC to still be without guaranteed mainstream coverage only 10 months out from the start of official racing in Naples is surprising.
It is not just the anticipated revenue from a rights sale that is important to ACP. The individual sponsorship deals supporting the various teams would have been sold on the basis of international media exposure. “Ay, there’s the rub” (as Hamlet continued). There’s not much point spending millions to put your logo on the hull or mainsail of an AC boat if only the diehard fans are watching.
Why aren’t the free-to-air networks and streaming services queuing up to buy the rights? Probably because of the awkward time-zone difference between Italy and the US, which is still the world’s richest TV market.
Racing that begins in Naples at 3:00pm local time would be ‘live’ in New York at 9:00am, and 6:00am in LA. Not exactly prime time, and sailing is far from a ‘first rank’ TV sport. How much can the major outlets be expected to pay for what is fringe viewing content?
Perhaps the ACP will need to consider giving away the rights to secure the level of coverage their sponsors expect. Any deal would be better than none.
The Bosun
