Take a moment, close your eyes. Breathe-in deeply, breathe-out slowly. Now think about your typical Saturday morning soccer viewing experience. Do you plan your morning around watching the pre-show before your team’s game? Dugout, a digital network and content producer for many of the world’s largest clubs, believes that you do not, so they’re here to help not only you, the fan, but also the soccer club and the broadcaster.
For the soccer club, there is value to be found in this dead period before a game and during the week. According to Dugout’s Executive Chairman, Elliott Richardson, “50 percent now, we estimate, of sports content is nothing to do with the game itself”. Teams are starting to take notice. Since the brand’s launch in 2016, they’ve partnered with 77 clubs across the world producing over 18,000 individual pieces of content and this number will continue to grow as launches in North America and Asia are planned for Q4 of this year.
Also growing will be the value of this content to the fan. As Millennials and Gen Y continue to enter and take over the workforce, the way media is consumed will vastly change. Knowing that 14% of 21 to 40-year-olds are likely to cut-the-cord in the near future, it provides clubs and companies like Dugout to provide the daily stream of digital content that this generation craves.
These additional touchpoints drive immense value to not only the soccer club’s, who are continually looking for ways to increase their value and brand awareness, but also the companies who own the broadcast rights to these soccer matches. Dugout President, Matthew Baxter feels this is another valuable aspect the company provides.
“We give the broadcasters who have the rights something extra; everything around the game, we’ve got something all these guys haven’t to supplement their journey and what they want to do. If you’re thinking about a game at three o’clock on a Saturday, then week to week, what are you going to do? You’ve got to fill that void with a great load of content. So that’s where we can help and work alongside them in a very good collaboration.”
At the end of each day, Dugout is driving value to three core consumers of the product. The fans, the soccer club, and broadcast partners. As the way soccer is consumed continues to change on a daily basis, it will be incredibly interesting to see the growth of Dugout’s own brand value two more years down the road.
Categories: Digital Content, Dugout, Technology, Television Ratings, TV Rights