Sports Rights Fragmentation Brings New Opportunities: Dentsu’s Lewis

AMENIA, NY — The biggest battleground in TV today is sports rights – and those rights are becoming ever more fragmented amongst a growing number of players.

But, while that is introducing complexity, it is also opening up new opportunities for engaging audiences in different ways.

Cara Lewis, Chief Investment & Activation Officer of Dentsu International, says her agency is helping clients understand and embrace the changes in this video interview with Julian Zilberbrand on behalf of Beet.TV.

Navigating the landscape

“We’ve been pretty much navigating this for a while, knowing that these rights are coming up, and NBA is just the start of what’s about to happen over the next 10 years,” Lewis says.

Dentsu is helping brands think about the league deals they have, the ones that are up for renewal, where they are going – and looking at it all through the lens of audience.

“Where is their audiences? Who are they trying to reach?” Lewis asks. “Are they actually on the new streamer that’s taking over that league or bringing some of it to that league as well as is there a new opportunity because it’s exciting and because there’s other things you can do outside of where it has holistically sat.”

New sports unit

To better understand and embrace the fragmentation, Dentsu recently launched a new sports division.

Unlike previous efforts, the unit isn’t only focused on TV and some digital – it’s focused on the full spectrum of media, from search to social.

“We have to kind of have that conversation and be thinking about all media and how different age groups, how different consumers are interacting with sports because some of them are not watching a live game anymore,” Lewis says.

“They’re going, they’re taking snippets off of social and then they’re going on their day. But Hispanic women, what are they watching? They’re watching more of the content studio shows and really catching up on their content and what happened in sports in that way, not watching a full soccer match.”

Measurement complexity

As live sports viewing fragments across different services and devices, advertisers are having to contend with ever-greater complexity, especially when it comes to measurement.

“Measurement in general is just so fragmented and we need to come to some solves here because it’s only holding up what greatness we can actually do outside of that,” according to Lewis.

“If we get the measurement right, then we can actually position things right in sports or in out of sports.”

Women’s sports growth

One big growth area is women’s sports. Recently, the WNBA signed a $2.2 billion deal for their media rights in a groundbreaking deal for their league.

Dentsu is “looking at the growth of women’s sports every single day”, Lewis says.

“Women purchase a lot of products. They are the ones who actually make a lot of decisions and we need to be supporting that in everything that they do. Powerful women that play sports and are also moms, they also might own a side business.

“They’re doing it and they’re hustling and we need to be supporting them. And we’re just talking to clients about how we can do that best.”

League direct

Dentsu is also working directly with the leagues themselves.

“Talking to the leagues and saying, we don’t automatically just need that $15 million package. What can we do for some of the smaller advertisers that want to reach a consumer in sports?” Lewis asks.

“I think some of the leagues are definitely open to that, not just having those high end packages, but also having some lower end packages that we can make an impact for some of those smaller advertisers that just don’t have the big budgets.”