BT Sport Presents: How to Win on Digital

Rio Ferdinand (BT Sport Pundit and Former Footballer)

Mike Norrish (Head of Digital at BT Sport)

David ‘Vuj’ Vujanic (YouTuber / Copa90)

Alexandra Willis (Head of Comms, Digital & Content at the All England Club)

Chaired by BBC’s Sonali Shah

A bit of background from the panel:

Copa90 drives 80m views a month on YouTube (1.4m subscribers)

Wimbledon attracted 220m social media video views during the fortnight of the competition (up 100m from 2016). The peak TV audience was 7m.

Sky announced a 30% increase in streaming last year (Sky Go etc.)

All members of the panel agreed that social is entirely complementary to TV.

BT Sport understands that it isn’t “cool”, it doesn’t have a “cool switch”, instead it relies on talent to drive authenticity, such as Rio Ferdinand. He is given free reign to publish BT Sport content on his own accounts and Rio regularly hosts Facebook Lives. Mike Norrish stated that he firmly believes “people follow people” and pushes the talent to lead conversation.

BT Sport looks to integrate social talent with TV, using internet talent to develop the TV offering and give it a different stance than usual. The panel did mention that should they look at two former players, if one had a significantly larger social following, they’d lean to them.

Rio Ferdinand uses social media to gauge reaction to an event or his own coverage, which he’ll then use to shape future content/programmes. This gives the programme a different feel and approach to the traditional TV output. So rather than purely covering Liverpool v Arsenal, for example, the team might look at a specific incident, or a rumour etc.

Premier League Tonight — schedule is driven through fans and social media (trending topics) This is more current and relevant and a move away from the normal broadcast approach. Brands need to be aware of the disruptive ability of tech/social.

Authenticity is key, yes there’s loads of data available, but rather than using data to get to the top of the algorithm, BT Sport understands the importance of being authentic and relevant, rather than chasing views on all content.

Everyone agreed that athletes don’t have to give you the time, so it’s important to make an interview different, make it something they’ll enjoy if possible.

During Wimbledon, content from the All England Club was viewed 220m times in the fortnight the competition ran. The peak TV audience was 7m, but these audiences are completely different and should be treated that way.

Rio Ferdinand:

“YouTubers are the rockstars for the youth of today”

Mike Norrish

“CVs aren’t important anymore, it’s about skills and creations online”