Fans of sport have become accustomed to watching their favourite teams through a variety of platforms. Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and Amazon have all started to broadcast various sporting events over the past few years. This has led to speculation that streaming giant Netflix would enter the ring as well to keep up with its main competitors.
To the contrary, though, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has said that the website will stay away from sports because it diverts from the company’s main business model of streaming movies and TV shows. However, with the Netflix sport documentary ‘Icarus’ winning an academy award at the 2018 Oscars this rumour has once again picked up steam.
Hastings reiterated during Netflix’s Labs Day at their headquarters in Los Gatos, California, “To follow a competitor? Never, never, never. We have so much we want to do in our area, so we’re not trying to copy others… There’s lots of things we don’t do. We don’t do news, we don’t do sports. But what we do do, we try to do really well.”
It’s worth noting that Netflix considers a company like Facebook or Amazon to be a central competitor. The lense of sport/entertainment has pushed these companies to all become rivals, despite their initial purpose to the users of the website.
Barcelona’s dominance in their second leg match against Chelsea led to a large amount of content creation from their social team where the club’s main sponsors received impressions through a variety of graphics and gifs centred around game events the club always knew were going to take place, such as pre-game lineup announcements, substitutions, the man of the match award and – perhaps in hope rather than expectation – goals.
⚽ 2: GOOOAAAAAALLLL! Leo #Messi gives Barça the lead!!!!! #BarçaChelsea pic.twitter.com/YId45rtEsI
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) March 14, 2018
As the clock hit the 90-minute mark and the final score was cemented into the books, Barcelona posted a graphic that featured the results of the match sponsored by shirt sponsor Rakuten and a man of the match poll sponsored by Viber, a Rakuten company.
⏰ Final whistle at Camp Nou!
FC Barcelona 3-0 Chelsea (4-1)
⚽ Leo #Messi (2) and @Dembouz
👏 Into the quarter-finals!!! Som-hi Barça!!! pic.twitter.com/YSASUs0Ju7— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) March 14, 2018
👏 @FCBarcelona's win over @ChelseaFC shows how well football clubs can offer brands exposure on #socialmedia during games. https://t.co/VQtYvTOT3g#smsports #digisport
— Digital Sport (@DigitalSportUK) March 16, 2018
The success that Barcelona saw in-game and through their social were not the only things to celebrate for the Catalan Club this week. Kit sponsor Nike took full advantage of the team’s massive success lately by recognising its 20-year history with the club by releasing a video that highlights some of their greatest past and present names. One of the more interesting notes about the advertisement is that it features a short clip of the back of Messi’s shirt, who is signed with rival company Adidas.
.@nikefootball marks 20 years of making kits for @FCBarcelona with a new videohttps://t.co/MSi7abhCP9
— Digital Sport (@DigitalSportUK) March 13, 2018
Across the pond, the PGA Tour is beginning its season with flying colours due to one major face seeming to return to prominence. Golf legend Tiger Woods is currently in the midst of what seems to be a true comeback after finishing tied for second at the Valspar Championship and sits tied for fourth after one day of play at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Many have argued that Woods is the figure that drives the success of the PGA Tour both on television and on social media. While that can be argued either way, there is no denying that the PGA Tour’s social team is taking full advantage of Tiger’s great play, as the Tour continued to prove why they are one of the strongest accounts in sports by posting videos of Woods in real-time throughout last weekend’s tournament.
Perfect speed. Perfect line.#MustSeeMoments pic.twitter.com/hhpl0n1xXx
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 12, 2018
The PGA Tour and NBA are excellent examples of accounts that give their followers real-time content for fans that may not have an opportunity to watch games/tournaments on television. However, it should raise a red flag for fans of the Premier League, where a majority of the matches are broadcasted through networks that require fans to pay a fee for the channel. Why do the PGA Tour and NBA post real-time videos on their social platforms when fans in the States have access to the content through their television? In the UK, the only way that fans are able to witness the excitement of the Premier League is mainly through Sky Sports and BT Sport.
The weekend highlighted the top class social media game of @NBA and @PGATOUR – and what European sports can learn from it | By @JakeMeister6536 ✍️https://t.co/N0IUTaXPl1 #smsports
— Digital Sport (@DigitalSportUK) March 12, 2018
