If you think you’re hearing more about tripledoubles, RBIs and tight ends of late, you’re not imagining things. US sports such as baseball, basketball and gridiron are eyeing up the Australian market as a new generation tunes into the global conversation surrounding the sports.
So much so that Australia is now the second highest rating market for the US National Basketball Association (NBA) live digital passes in the world.
Locally, Perform Group works on the commercialisation of digital assets for the NBA and Major League Baseball (MLB), making custom content for those codes. Head of media sales Wade Maris tells AdNews that there has always been an appetite for US sports in the Australian diet, but access has never been more prevalent than it is today.
“The introduction of subscription-based services has allowed diehard fans to remain connected to every aspect of the game, including live streaming, player updates and game day news,” Maris says.
Seven West has held the rights to broadcast several NFL matches per season, and the 2015 Super Bowl managed to attract an average audience of 462,000 for Seven. While this is hardly AFL Grand Final territory, it wasn’t bad considering the match was played at 10am on a weekday.
In October last year, Seven West sent shockwaves through the market by snagging the right to act as a sales agent for Foxtel channel ESPN. Chief among its selling points was that US sports were a most effective tool for reaching males aged 18 to 34.
OMD’s Sydney managing director Mark Jarrett says it can be difficult to reach this fragmented audience.
“There are definitely a lot of platforms out there at the moment where this demographic is splintering, so any platform to do that [reach them] is always welcome,” Jarrett says.
Those invested in US sport in Australia are certainly preaching that message to agencies and advertisers.
“According to Nielsen, 46% of NBA’s digital audience and 56% of MLB’s audience are within this age bracket,” says Maris.
“What’s interesting is that this young demographic is digitally savvy and have grown up in a globalised world. For them, they can watch these international codes just as easily as they can Australian sports.”
ESPN Australia is also continually talking to agencies on the theme.
“NFL-wise in Australia across the 14/15 season, our ratings were the best ever, up 17% across all individuals, and the most valuable stat in our mind is that we’ve seen 40% growth in 18 to 34 demos,” says Lance Peatey, director of digital products and partnerships at ESPN Australia/NZ.
“That’s really where we’re trying to put a marker in the sand as a network. Our 18 to 34 growth is stronger than anywhere at the moment, so that’s a really valuable piece to our whole suite.”
Its growth is from a low base, but to put it in perspective, analysis from Fusion Strategy outlined a decline of 15% in the NRL viewing audience for Friday night matches from 2012 to 2014, with Sunday matches down 23% over the same period.
There’s a lot more choice for agencies trying to get the most effective buy if they look beyond the big codes.
“I think with US sports, you get what you pay for,” Jarrett says. “I wouldn’t call an Origin buy any less effective than a baseball buy in the middle of the season. Obviously we’re paying a lot more for Origin, but you get a lot more people, whereas with baseball you’d have less outlay and reach fewer people.”
As a broad-brush measure, Jarrett estimates it costs $100,000 for a spot against Nine’s coverage of State of Origin, while that same spot costs $10,000 against Seven’s coverage of the Super Bowl. Game two of Origin grabbed Nine a national audience of 3.9 million against the Super Bowl’s 462,000.
As the likes of Maris and Peatey try to pitch the growth of US sports, a key selling point is the number of rising Australian stars. During the latest NBA finals, Australians got to see Andrew Bogut running around for the Golden State Warriors, and Matthew Dellavedova for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Peatey sees the current situation a little like it was in the 1990s, when basketball enjoyed an unprecedented spurt of popularity in Australia.
“It’s interesting that in the ’90s, we had Michael Jordan as that global household name, but also had Aussies in Shane Heal, Andrew Gaze, and Luc Longley pushing the Australian wagon on the US stage back then,” Peatey says.
“Now, we’ve been totally spoilt in that we have a record number of Aussies competing in the NBA, and we are fortunate enough to have an Aussie on each side – clearly a contributing factor to the record growth.”
While Peatey says there’s a good production line of Australians coming up through the ranks in the US basketball college system, there’s also the wellpublicised attempt of ex-NRL player Jarryd Hayne to become an NFL player for the San Francisco 49ers.
Likely to inhibit growth is the lack of live games staged here. In 2014, the opening match of the MLB season played to a sell-out crowd at the Sydney Cricket Ground – but it was a one-off.
“Yes, US sports are definitely rising in popularity,” Jarrett says, “but, in my mind, there’s a ceiling on it. Australians love sport at the hugest level, whatever it is [but] the reason it’s so popular right now is because it’s becoming more available on more platforms than ever before. That’s where the growth is.”
See here for Sports Marketing Special Report Part 1: Sports Rights: Lay your money on the tablets and Part 2: Brands can buoy women’s sports
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