Big Content/Social Media News

[Damien]

46 minutes ago, Dave T said:

They have been doing it themselves though. They all have social media that shows video clips, shares photos and content. That doesn;t mean it can't be done better.

Technically I could build my own house, but paying experts to do it is more sensible.

I can only speak of my own experience and the company I work for what is an I.T consultancy, essentially doing business transformations and migrations for clients. Its the same principle though. Yes a company may pay x amount for me to do a piece of work in 2 months and on the face of it it may be a lot. The same company to that themselves would need to spend x amount to train staff, x months/years to get that experience (if ever) and after all that would do a botch job that would take a year and ultimately cost far more.

Edited January 12 by Damien

[Dave T]

2 hours ago, Damien said:

I can only speak of my own experience and the company I work for what is an I.T consultancy, essentially doing business transformations and migrations for clients. Its the same principle though. Yes a company may pay x amount for me to do a piece of work in 2 months and on the face of it it may be a lot. The same company to that themselves would need to spend x amount to train staff, x months/years to get that experience (if ever) and after all that would do a botch job that would take a year and ultimately cost far more.

Totally. There is a reason that these experts exist. I don't know much about this company other than what I've read over the last couple of days, but using third parties allows Warrington Wolves (for example) to have access to best in class platforms - that simply wouldn't be the case if they did this themselves. 

I really don't think the principle of using 3rd parties!/partners/consultants is controversial, particularly for what are a bunch of pretty modest businesses. 

[Martyn Sadler]

On 10/01/2024 at 18:39, Tommygilf said:

This is massive, and is bringing the sport right up to date for the social media age. Finally we can start to use our assets.

It has massive potential, which I hope can be realised.

Scoreplay is a New York based company set up with seed capital in 2021. So it doesn't yet have a major track record.

It's interesting to see the list of clients on Scoreplay's website.

Under the general heading of 'Leagues', Super League is fourth on the list, after the Swiss Football League, Major League Pickleball and the French Basketball League.

If we want to see how this might work, perhaps we should look for evidence of the benefits being enjoyed by Swiss Football.

Perhaps someone on here would like to investigate that.

The principle is a very strong one, but as always the key lies in the delivery and its monetisation.

[gingerjon]

9 minutes ago, Martyn Sadler said:

 

Perhaps someone on here would like to investigate that

Know any journalists?

[Martyn Sadler]

14 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

Know any journalists?

I'm sure you have what it takes.

But back on topic, an interesting thing about the client list is that it includes a number of individual clubs, such as Rangers, Aston Villa and West Ham in football, but the only leagues that are collective clients appear to be those I've mentioned.

Given what they are offering, I would have said that a league-wide hub is better than an individual club one.

[Whippet13]

New Official SL Fantasy RL game

https://x.com/Voono_RL/status/1746865985410281742?s=20

Edited January 15 by Whippet13

[Damien]

3 hours ago, Whippet13 said:

New Official SL Fantasy RL game

https://x.com/Voono_RL/status/1746865985410281742?s=20

Another great initiative to get people engaged.

[Damien]

An interesting article, albeit a bit rich coming from the Times, about the all encompassing dominance of Football when it comes to the media. It really underlines how all sports are struggling to be heard in the mainstream media and shows how important it is for Rugby League to generate its own content and use alternative means to reach audiences. Here's part of it:

A few weeks ago I was on a speaking panel discussing the prominence (or lack thereof) of women’s sport in the media. My position was that decades of discrimination is lifting and that coverage of women’s sport is gradually growing. The point I should have made was that it’s not so much a gender thing now, it’s an everyone versus the Premier League thing.

Every sport is competing for space. Remember rugby league? We haven’t had a full-time rugby league correspondent here on The Times for more than a decade.

The weak are therefore struggling. No one wants to host the next Commonwealth Games — and they are only 2½ years away. The Commonwealth Games may be done for good.

Athletics in the UK is similarly struggling to stay alive. Recent financial figures posted by UK Athletics show losses of £3.7 million. UK Athletics is still feeling the pinch of the loss of its £3 million-a-year BBC deal. Think about it: for two-and-a-bit Gary Linekers, the BBC could bring you a whole other sport.

But this isn’t about Lineker or the BBC, it is about the impact of football’s success. With the Paris Games pending, then, this is a massive year for the Olympic sports to win hearts and convert young minds. But has there ever been an Olympics dawning with fewer superstars and household names? Go on, try naming them.

It’s not the athletes’ fault. Charlie Tanfield can’t help it if we don’t come.

It’s not only Olympic sports either. It’s not as though anyone was fighting over the TV rights for the England cricket team’s forthcoming Test series against India; only at the last minute was a complete blackout avoided.

Last weekend we saw the last byline of the Daily Mirror’s rugby correspondent, a really magnificent journalist, his career cut short by redundancies. That means that not one of the Mirror, the Daily Express or The Sun have either a cricket or a rugby correspondent. These are big sports now suffering a shut-out from a huge part of the market. And all the time the Premier League continues to thrive.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dca439a5-0918-46ab-92b4-fce97f0be51c?shareToken=acf9c9a069b38e581049f66f4ae5bef9

[tiffers]

8 minutes ago, Damien said:

An interesting article, albeit a bit rich coming from the Times, about the all encompassing dominance of Football when it comes to the media. It really underlines how all sports are struggling to be heard in the mainstream media and shows how important it is for Rugby League to generate its own content and use alternative means to reach audiences. Here's part of it:

A few weeks ago I was on a speaking panel discussing the prominence (or lack thereof) of women’s sport in the media. My position was that decades of discrimination is lifting and that coverage of women’s sport is gradually growing. The point I should have made was that it’s not so much a gender thing now, it’s an everyone versus the Premier League thing.

Every sport is competing for space. Remember rugby league? We haven’t had a full-time rugby league correspondent here on The Times for more than a decade.

The weak are therefore struggling. No one wants to host the next Commonwealth Games — and they are only 2½ years away. The Commonwealth Games may be done for good.

Athletics in the UK is similarly struggling to stay alive. Recent financial figures posted by UK Athletics show losses of £3.7 million. UK Athletics is still feeling the pinch of the loss of its £3 million-a-year BBC deal. Think about it: for two-and-a-bit Gary Linekers, the BBC could bring you a whole other sport.

But this isn’t about Lineker or the BBC, it is about the impact of football’s success. With the Paris Games pending, then, this is a massive year for the Olympic sports to win hearts and convert young minds. But has there ever been an Olympics dawning with fewer superstars and household names? Go on, try naming them.

It’s not the athletes’ fault. Charlie Tanfield can’t help it if we don’t come.

It’s not only Olympic sports either. It’s not as though anyone was fighting over the TV rights for the England cricket team’s forthcoming Test series against India; only at the last minute was a complete blackout avoided.

Last weekend we saw the last byline of the Daily Mirror’s rugby correspondent, a really magnificent journalist, his career cut short by redundancies. That means that not one of the Mirror, the Daily Express or The Sun have either a cricket or a rugby correspondent. These are big sports now suffering a shut-out from a huge part of the market. And all the time the Premier League continues to thrive.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dca439a5-0918-46ab-92b4-fce97f0be51c?shareToken=acf9c9a069b38e581049f66f4ae5bef9

Interesting article indeed.

Just wondering how much of this is to do with the dominance of football. Or how much of this is due to changes in people's consumption of media. I.e. less mainstream media, newspapers etc. Meaning they are cutting back, with much more dissemination of audiences across other micro-media formats and channels.

Take the latest Spine Ultra marathon race this week. One of the biggest trail running events in the UK. Highest ever engagement and cut through on their part. All entirely done in niche pockets of running media and YouTube channels/social with very small budgets for this stuff. Nothing at all on mainstream media yet they are producing quality content and drawing the biggest level of interest they have ever had.

The new RL content platform has to be made to work as hard as possible for us all. It's desperately needed when you don't have mainstream traditional media with in house correspondents reporting for you and spreading it through their own channels. We have to be the ones to grow it. We have to work with small budgets we have and make compelling, authentic content to engage people. 

[N2022]

On 20/01/2024 at 15:09, tiffers said:

Interesting article indeed.

Just wondering how much of this is to do with the dominance of football. Or how much of this is due to changes in people's consumption of media. I.e. less mainstream media, newspapers etc. Meaning they are cutting back, with much more dissemination of audiences across other micro-media formats and channels.

Take the latest Spine Ultra marathon race this week. One of the biggest trail running events in the UK. Highest ever engagement and cut through on their part. All entirely done in niche pockets of running media and YouTube channels/social with very small budgets for this stuff. Nothing at all on mainstream media yet they are producing quality content and drawing the biggest level of interest they have ever had.

The new RL content platform has to be made to work as hard as possible for us all. It's desperately needed when you don't have mainstream traditional media with in house correspondents reporting for you and spreading it through their own channels. We have to be the ones to grow it. We have to work with small budgets we have and make compelling, authentic content to engage people. 

Traditional media like the BBC? Nice they show a challenge cup game per round, but the latest story on their RL section is 4 or 5 days old. That's woeful.

[glossop saint]

20 minutes ago, N2022 said:

Traditional media like the BBC? Nice they show a challenge cup game per round, but the latest story on their RL section is 4 or 5 days old. That's woeful.

I think that's the point. In what other sport, almost a month before the start of the season, would there be any regular news on any website? Football. Maybe F1. Cricket but only due to the year round international scene. Football is the only game in town.

[Chris Taylor]

22 minutes ago, N2022 said:

Traditional media like the BBC? Nice they show a challenge cup game per round, but the latest story on their RL section is 4 or 5 days old. That's woeful.

Perhaps that isn't the BBC's fault, it's the clubs that feed this content.

[Futtocks]

On 20/01/2024 at 14:49, Damien said:

An interesting article, albeit a bit rich coming from the Times, about the all encompassing dominance of Football when it comes to the media. It really underlines how all sports are struggling to be heard in the mainstream media and shows how important it is for Rugby League to generate its own content and use alternative means to reach audiences. Here's part of it:

A few weeks ago I was on a speaking panel discussing the prominence (or lack thereof) of women’s sport in the media. My position was that decades of discrimination is lifting and that coverage of women’s sport is gradually growing. The point I should have made was that it’s not so much a gender thing now, it’s an everyone versus the Premier League thing.

Every sport is competing for space. Remember rugby league? We haven’t had a full-time rugby league correspondent here on The Times for more than a decade.

The weak are therefore struggling. No one wants to host the next Commonwealth Games — and they are only 2½ years away. The Commonwealth Games may be done for good.

Athletics in the UK is similarly struggling to stay alive. Recent financial figures posted by UK Athletics show losses of £3.7 million. UK Athletics is still feeling the pinch of the loss of its £3 million-a-year BBC deal. Think about it: for two-and-a-bit Gary Linekers, the BBC could bring you a whole other sport.

But this isn’t about Lineker or the BBC, it is about the impact of football’s success. With the Paris Games pending, then, this is a massive year for the Olympic sports to win hearts and convert young minds. But has there ever been an Olympics dawning with fewer superstars and household names? Go on, try naming them.

It’s not the athletes’ fault. Charlie Tanfield can’t help it if we don’t come.

It’s not only Olympic sports either. It’s not as though anyone was fighting over the TV rights for the England cricket team’s forthcoming Test series against India; only at the last minute was a complete blackout avoided.

Last weekend we saw the last byline of the Daily Mirror’s rugby correspondent, a really magnificent journalist, his career cut short by redundancies. That means that not one of the Mirror, the Daily Express or The Sun have either a cricket or a rugby correspondent. These are big sports now suffering a shut-out from a huge part of the market. And all the time the Premier League continues to thrive.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dca439a5-0918-46ab-92b4-fce97f0be51c?shareToken=acf9c9a069b38e581049f66f4ae5bef9

"But this isn’t about Lineker or the BBC" says the article that still brings it up. Journalists are being laid off because newspapers are on the slide. The ones that'll go last before Football are the old farts, and we're seeing RU hacks being disposed of already. Golf and horse racing next, I'd expect.

[tiffers]

1 hour ago, Chris Taylor said:

Perhaps that isn't the BBC's fault, it's the clubs that feed this content.

There is definitely part of the responsibility falling on the clubs. If we don't put it on a plate for the media outlets then we only have ourselves to blame.

I know Cornwall are constantly in the local media, BBC local news sections and even occasionally make the BBC RL section. See the recent article on George Mitchell (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/68004005). That is no accident.

They aren't sitting around waiting, hoping that a journalist picks this up. There is dedicated staff pushing this to the media. Similarly, Truro FC since been taken over by the same owners have seen significant increases in media coverage because the same people are using the same tactics.

Can the same be said for all of our clubs?

[RigbyLuger]

I think a few clubs think they have to do everything themselves in order to get attention on their social media and website or whatever, forgetting that they still need traditional media to get the messages further. They do need to pick and choose who they speak to though, no point wasting time on those without an audience.

[glossop saint]

25 minutes ago, tiffers said:

There is definitely part of the responsibility falling on the clubs. If we don't put it on a plate for the media outlets then we only have ourselves to blame.

I know Cornwall are constantly in the local media, BBC local news sections and even occasionally make the BBC RL section. See the recent article on George Mitchell (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/68004005). That is no accident.

They aren't sitting around waiting, hoping that a journalist picks this up. There is dedicated staff pushing this to the media. Similarly, Truro FC since been taken over by the same owners have seen significant increases in media coverage because the same people are using the same tactics.

Can the same be said for all of our clubs?

I am always surprised how much Cornwall news there is on the BBC RL. I wondered if that was down to the club or the novelty of RL in Cornwall. I'm assuming it's the former based on your post. This should be the sort of thing that is done as standard and be shared by clubs.

[tiffers]

7 minutes ago, glossop saint said:

I am always surprised how much Cornwall news there is on the BBC RL. I wondered if that was down to the club or the novelty of RL in Cornwall. I'm assuming it's the former based on your post. This should be the sort of thing that is done as standard and be shared by clubs.

This is definitely due to the hard work of the club, rather than the BBC picking it up as it's a novelty factor.

Something newsworthy happens and the club will get a press release out to the media outlets for them to literally pick-up and post on their channels. The heavy lift is done by the club, as it is with most entities wanting to build a profile in traditional media.

At my work, we monitor this all the time. What share of voice are we getting and is our message cutting through. What's the sentiment of the public and key stakeholders on it etc.

At a previous employer, the press team were constantly getting items on flagship new programmes and in traditional media. All of which started with basic things like building relationships with key journalists and building trust/taking out the heavy lift for them.

It's not rocket science, you just have to consistently put in the effort.

[glossop saint]

8 minutes ago, tiffers said:

This is definitely due to the hard work of the club, rather than the BBC picking it up as it's a novelty factor.

Something newsworthy happens and the club will get a press release out to the media outlets for them to literally pick-up and post on their channels. The heavy lift is done by the club, as it is with most entities wanting to build a profile in traditional media.

At my work, we monitor this all the time. What share of voice are we getting and is our message cutting through. What's the sentiment of the public and key stakeholders on it etc.

At a previous employer, the press team were constantly getting items on flagship new programmes and in traditional media. All of which started with basic things like building relationships with key journalists and building trust/taking out the heavy lift for them.

It's not rocket science, you just have to consistently put in the effort.

A very different scale in a different walk of life but as a kid I played in a local junior band. We did the same thing. Pretty much write the article, take the photo, and send it to the local press. Make their life as easy as possible. 

[Futtocks]

As the BBC's finances get squeezed further and further, the more open they'll be to showing (decent quality) finished product offered to them, especially the regional stations.

[RigbyLuger]

44 minutes ago, glossop saint said:

A very different scale in a different walk of life but as a kid I played in a local junior band. We did the same thing. Pretty much write the article, take the photo, and send it to the local press. Make their life as easy as possible. 

You'd think it was rocket science, wouldn't you!

[Worzel]

On 11/01/2024 at 20:54, Lowdesert said:

Im chuffed that these things are getting done but the templates have been there for years.  Clubs should have sorted this out themselves.

I agree in a sense, but often "content factory" stuff like this is better done at the centre, or at least the provision of the tech platform to enable clubs' media teams to do it is best organised there. You're right a top club like Wigan with resources could have done it itself, but it's less economical and if we're going to grow the game we want everyone to have more capability (even those who can't afford to do it on their own).

A rising tide lifts all boats, and all that jazz.  

[Worzel]

On 12/01/2024 at 10:09, whatmichaelsays said:

Completely, and this is how the sport unlocks new audiences and grows its reach, without the need to squabble about where teams should be and all that other stuff - the content speaks for itself, and now the sport has the rights and the tools to use it. 

It allows SL to do much more with its rights. This case study is a good example of how the NBA solved a problem that is in many ways similar to the ones that RL faces, with a media budget that isn't exactly huge, and RL now has the means to do something similar.

 

That's a quality share, thanks.

Digital media opens up so much potential for challenger sports like ours: We can disintermediate the "old media" gatekeepers who've held rugby league back for decades by not covering our sport, and instead get our great content directly in front of new audiences in places they are already online doing & watching stuff. This is precisely why IMG are here. 

 

[whatmichaelsays]

13 hours ago, tiffers said:

There is definitely part of the responsibility falling on the clubs. If we don't put it on a plate for the media outlets then we only have ourselves to blame.

This really is the key to it all. 

The sport and the clubs know that they're competing for space, they know that nobody reads the local rags any more, and they know that the number of dedicated RL hacks across the nationals has fallen to practically none. And yet, it doesn't really feel like they've responded to that. Clubs still keep everything confined to their own websites or the local paper, with it's declining, ageing readership.  

The onus is on the clubs to make it easy for the media to talk about them - to make themselves newsworthy, to make players accessible, to produce content that's of a good enough standard that it can be syndicated more widely and to build relationships with the media. We used to complain about the 'London Old School Tie' problem as to why RL didn't get media coverage, yet the BBC Sport Headquarters is within 2 hours drive of 10 of the 12 clubs. 

The same applies to those people who complain about being squeezed out by Sky, and not featuring in their "coming up this month" montages - the response to that is what are we doing to make it hard for Sky to not include us? What FOMO is the sport creating? 

[Worzel]

On 20/01/2024 at 14:49, Damien said:

An interesting article, albeit a bit rich coming from the Times, about the all encompassing dominance of Football when it comes to the media. It really underlines how all sports are struggling to be heard in the mainstream media and shows how important it is for Rugby League to generate its own content and use alternative means to reach audiences. Here's part of it:

A few weeks ago I was on a speaking panel discussing the prominence (or lack thereof) of women’s sport in the media. My position was that decades of discrimination is lifting and that coverage of women’s sport is gradually growing. The point I should have made was that it’s not so much a gender thing now, it’s an everyone versus the Premier League thing.

Every sport is competing for space. Remember rugby league? We haven’t had a full-time rugby league correspondent here on The Times for more than a decade.

The weak are therefore struggling. No one wants to host the next Commonwealth Games — and they are only 2½ years away. The Commonwealth Games may be done for good.

Athletics in the UK is similarly struggling to stay alive. Recent financial figures posted by UK Athletics show losses of £3.7 million. UK Athletics is still feeling the pinch of the loss of its £3 million-a-year BBC deal. Think about it: for two-and-a-bit Gary Linekers, the BBC could bring you a whole other sport.

But this isn’t about Lineker or the BBC, it is about the impact of football’s success. With the Paris Games pending, then, this is a massive year for the Olympic sports to win hearts and convert young minds. But has there ever been an Olympics dawning with fewer superstars and household names? Go on, try naming them.

It’s not the athletes’ fault. Charlie Tanfield can’t help it if we don’t come.

It’s not only Olympic sports either. It’s not as though anyone was fighting over the TV rights for the England cricket team’s forthcoming Test series against India; only at the last minute was a complete blackout avoided.

Last weekend we saw the last byline of the Daily Mirror’s rugby correspondent, a really magnificent journalist, his career cut short by redundancies. That means that not one of the Mirror, the Daily Express or The Sun have either a cricket or a rugby correspondent. These are big sports now suffering a shut-out from a huge part of the market. And all the time the Premier League continues to thrive.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dca439a5-0918-46ab-92b4-fce97f0be51c?shareToken=acf9c9a069b38e581049f66f4ae5bef9

That is actually quite funny. What he thinks is a sports problem, is actually his own industry's problem! Non-football journalists are getting cut back because the old media companies are failing, not because the "lesser" sports are failing. They've been disrupted by the internet, and so no longer have the money to pay for enough journalists and have had to retreat to the major sports. But that's just the death throws, as their owners squeeze the last cash out of a sector before it dies.

There won't be a Mirror Group in 10 years, maybe not 5. The Telegraph will only exist if a middle eastern sovereign wealth fund wants to own it for vanity or propaganda reasons. 

Sports, however, are more popular than ever before. People crave "experiences", especially under 40's in a world where it's no longer realistic to save for a house, often even to have kids until your late 30's. So discretionary spend on sporting experiences is up. Rugby league needs to find those audiences directly, and not worry about whether The Times publishes a match report or some pre-match article. Those days are gone. 

 

[Damien]

2 minutes ago, Worzel said:

That is actually quite funny. What he thinks is a sports problem, is actually his own industry's problem! Non-football journalists are getting cut back because the old media companies are failing, not because the "lesser" sports are failing. They've been disrupted by the internet, and so no longer have the money to pay for enough journalists and have had to retreat to the major sports. But that's just the death throws, as their owners squeeze the last cash out of a sector before it dies.

There won't be a Mirror Group in 10 years, maybe not 5. The Telegraph will only exist if a middle eastern sovereign wealth fund wants to own it for vanity or propaganda reasons. 

Sports, however, are more popular than ever before. People crave "experiences", especially under 40's in a world where it's no longer realistic to save for a house, often even to have kids until your late 30's. So discretionary spend on sporting experiences is up. Rugby league needs to find those audiences directly, and not worry about whether The Times publishes a match report or some pre-match article. Those days are gone. 

 

I think he fully acknowledges that his industry has been part of the problem.