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It cannot be assumed that service providers will continue to pay increasing fees for sports rights.
Indeed, speaking in a panel discussion, Warren Packard, CEO, Thuuz Sports, said that cracks were already appearing in the US.
He cited the examples of Pac-12, which is now in the fourth year of a dispute with DirecTV, and Time Warner Cable, which paid a lot of money to get exclusivity for LA Dodgers but has since been unable to sell on the rights.
Asked about the prospects for 4k in sports content, Packard said that HD had previously worked wonders for sport.
Meanwhile, Sascha Kojic, VP sports CEEMEA, Discovery Communications, said that 4k, or more specifically 8k, is the future standard format but unlikely to herald a revolution as was the case with HD replacing SD.
Touching on the subject of Brexit, Mike Moriarty, president, CE-DMC-UK AMC Networks International, said that it was as yet unknown how it might impact on the Premier League.
Kojic pointed out the negative consequences the relegation of Rangers to the lowest tier of Scottish league football had had on the Scottish Premier League.
Both Moriarty and John Drakes, senior account manager at OMD, agreed that there was little to worry about European viewers aged up to 15 not regarding sports TV as “essential”.
Interestingly, there was little variation between all other age groups, with 25-30% categorising it as so.
Moriarty said that the youngest demographic was probably consuming sport in other ways, while Drakes stressed the need to fin in with audience consumption patterns
