UP404 What is FIFA+? Netflix for Football or Infantino's White Elephant?

FIFA+ is the global football governing bodies own media platform, created in 2020 and launched two years later. It’s one of sports biggest and most ambitious and expensive direct-to-consumer projects, and so brings together many of the threads we talk about often on Unofficial Partner; a debate that runs across the sports industry, as governing bodies, leagues and teams spend billions creating owned and operated channels as a mitigation against volatility in the media rights marketplace and the money made from their content by the big social media platforms.

The conversation is peppered with phrases such as walled gardens, creative tension in the bidding process, owning the customer relationship, long tail audiences, build and they will come. 

FIFA+ is a poster child for these theories. But this is a conversation that goes beyond the mechanics of D2C. It’s about what the leaders of big sports governing bodies want to be and the role they will seek to play over the next decade or more.

Read this week's UP Newsletter for more on FIFA+ HERE
Guests:

Dave Roberts was one of the architects of FIFA+ in the run up to launch and in its early iterations. He’s now CEO of XCel Broadcast. 

Hugo Sharman is CEO of StreamAMG, one of the leading players in video content and distribution for sports rights holders.

Carlo Dimarchis is today known as a business media creator, The Guy with the Scarf but previously led strategy and innovation over a 34 year career at Deltatre. 

Michael Broughton is co-founder of Sports Investment Partners and was an advisor to FIFA on innovation and commercial strategy. 

Leadership in Sport MA 2024 Applications Open 

Applications for the next intake on the 2024 Leadership in Sport Masters are open. The Leadership in Sport Masters is designed for sports industry executives to study part-time alongside their careers.

The programme is co-delivered by Loughborough University London and the Institute of Sports Humanities (ISH), experts in leadership education. Loughborough University is ranked best university in the world for sports related subjects (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2017-2023).

Find out more https://www.sportshumanities.org/masters-uk

or contact tom.rann@sportshumanities.org

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