Feature: The mobile promise of sport - July 2003  

Wireless technology was a subject covered at the Financial Times Business of Sport Conference held in London during early June 2003. Journalist Darryll Adler, who is founder of eventsworldwide.com and managing director of consultancy company BBB Worldwide, reports that despite regular revenue streams from call charges, it is not all good news for mobile networks. However, sport may yet provide them with a panacea.

Many mobile networks have fallen foul of what was to be the holy grail of 3G licences and are now burdened with massive debts to unload from their purchase. As mobile networks seek partners to create additional revenue opportunities, the sports industry plans to vie for a share of these profits. And the two might yet form the perfect dream team if costs are small enough to commit resources to yet another uncertainty.
With a limited number of distribution networks and ever tightening controls on rights, there are a number of teams contesting the trophy. Producers of handsets; network owners; technology platforms; content providers, rights owners; and the various middlemen, are all circling their prey - the sports addict.
But which player would you back in this game for control of revenues? Who will be the likely winners in this new, potentially optimistic scenario?
It’s hard not to imagine that by 2006 a large number of soccer fans around the world will want to access the score/results/footage of crucial games during the soccer world cup. If they cannot watch from home or the office or be in the sports bar, or pub or club with their friends, they will be grasping their wireless handset watching almost real-time action and waiting for that moment of truth.
This offers a huge financial opportunity for the sporting world and no doubt the game of winners and losers will be played out over the next couple of years and the sponsors will want to cash in. But who will claim the grand prize?

Hewlett Packard and wireless F1

Andrew Collis, Hewlett Packard’s director of corporate strategy & global F1 spoke at length at the FT Business of Sport Conference about the company’s recent success when "a wireless bridge" (private wireless network) communicated critical "data transfer" information, i.e. "live telemetry from the garage to the race car" at Le Mans. And the result was a win for all concerned.
Wireless communications has many applications in the world of sport, and high-tech companies enjoy nothing better than demonstrating their products in a high profile sexy, environment. If they work, they can be applied to both the business and the consumer market on a much larger scale; and sport provides the glamorous and highly visible platform.
HP is hard at work to position itself as a technology leader in the wireless market. It has hooked up with IMG and through this partnership, Mobix Interactive has developed a service formatting digital content for the handheld market.
Also taking a lead is British public service broadcaster the BBC, which looks like a very strong contender. Currently playing many positions in the field with digital cameras, ownership of content and a very strong brand in other established media such as television and the internet, the very integrated BBC looks like it might be a winner in what might become a very crowded market over the next 12 months.
And if for example, the BBC can retain control of the rights to distribute live footage in an appropriate format to the distribution networks such as Orange and Vodafone (which ultimately control their own output), then it is probable that the broadcaster will negotiate either a one-off fee; share of telephone revenues; or most likely a combination of the two. High quality content will be at a premium.

3G’s commercial reality

In a world where digital is just round the corner and 3G will soon be a commercial reality (interim technology in the short term will suffice), one major hurdle remains: the competing and conflicting platforms around the world. History often dictates that the number three stands out (e.g., there were three players trying to dominate the VCR market, and Sony and Phillips found themselves the losers, even though Sony offered a better quality product). The same scenario might be true of wireless.
Because sport and other entertainment unifies the world and global products proliferate, technical barriers will naturally fall away in the belief that - when it comes to the media world - content really is king. Ultimately, only the cost of access differentiates (at the high end) or commoditises (at the low end) a product and service.
As the US languishes behind the rest of the world in regard to mobile phones - it took text messaging a vote for a favorite American Idol (Pop Idol in the UK) to kick start the industry - it continues to watch and wait as other markets such as Europe take the lead.
Crucial to these early days is content, and no one should ever underestimate the powerful force of entertainment/sport/celebrities in today’s communications industries.

Finding the right answers

But questions still remain. Will the live action be good enough? Will the delivery be fast enough? Will the picture quality be clear enough on my handheld to make the seamless transition from live action to instant almost real-time delivery a saleable proposition? And at what price?
If you want to be a player in the game and you offer a technology component you had better move fast to align yourself with what can only be two winners: the rights holders and the distributors of content.
Score a goal, cross the finishing line, or play that last winning point at Wimbledon - these great sporting moments past and present will always attract a large audience. In the future there is every expectation that the sports world can capture these live images and deliver them to a worldwide, mass market. And the middlemen, who in the early days facilitate this seamless transition from live action to instant high quality replay, had better watch their backs.
History dictates that very few care about the technology behind the service, which leaves only the two key players to slug it out for their share of the pot of gold.

This article appears courtesy of Darryll Adler who is a journalist, founder of eventsworldwide.com and managing director of media, entertainment and telecoms consultancy BBB Worldwide. Contact: tel +44 (0) 7973 225520; da@eventsworldwide.com.

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