Should sports teams partner with local media to share content?

[Pat Coyle]

There is a movement afoot among media companies to share content in order to save money and cover more news. Got us thinking...this might work in the sports media biz too...

Historically the local media and sports teams have wrestled over who should pay who...and often times they end up paying each other. Now that most teams have established "news" Websites, would it make sense for the team to lean on the pro journalists to provide content? Would such a move make sense for the media entity?

Do you think it would be a wise business move for sports teams and local newspapers, TV and radio stations to share content...especially online?

Do you see this being done anywhere?

Share your thoughts here

[Matt Hansen]

Interesting, Pat. I would also ask, does there need to be a 'church and state' type separation of the two? Do we lose the outsider/insider point-of-view if we rely on ONLY the media or ONLY the team employee? Example - MN Wild internal would never report on the contract negotiations or sensitive topics concerning the team, but the media would. On the other hand, the media would may be hesitant to contribute to the marketing pieces and stories that come internally. Unless, as you suggest, these relationships change.

[Marti Funk]

Hi Pat, I think it's merely a matter of time before you see content sharing become standard business practice. To Matt's Church and State mention below - the lines are definitely blurring. Though it's a bit outdated, below is just one of many presentations that are blurring the lines. At Sportgenic, we see quite a bit of our publishers and partners sharing content to help strengthen their individaul offerings. So, I would suggest evaluating multi-tier rev share programs that can be shared across various partners. As it relates to video, Freewheel is one such vendor taking a thought-leadership role in the content sharing/distribution space.

Media Convergence

View more presentations from matthewbuckland.