Folha- How was the transition from a Globo’s executive to owner of your own company?
Marcelo Gonçalves de Campos Pinto - Throughout my career I have always sought growth through the study of markets, in order to understand them in depth and be able to trace their trends, with a view to producing innovative content and distribution models. That's how my time at Globo was. After 43 years of work, I took a sabbatical period to deepen my knowledge of the strategies of the various digital platforms and understand how rights holders could make the best use of this transitional moment in the consumption habit of sports lovers.
When and how was the idea of Sportsview born?
It was born in early 2019, when I was certain that traditional sports media distribution platforms would no longer generate enough cash to meet the growing financial needs of Brazilian football. First the name was born: SportsView. I felt the need to bring a new point of view that could help the sport face the paradigm shifts brought about by the digital revolution. It wasn't a company but a fancy brand that I started to use in the consulting services I provided to my clients.
At that time, in my lectures and opinions, I predicted that before 2021 Globo would make a drastic move with the objective of reducing its acquisition cost of sports rights. Almost no one believed it, but the fact is that it happened. The signs were evident: declining advertising revenues and the number of pay-TV subscribers each year since the end of 2015, coupled with the accelerated growth in the number of consumers of the large digital audiovisual content platforms.
In your portfolio, games are also broadcast live on betting websites and applications. What precautions are necessary to ensure the integrity of the sport?
The right to exhibit Carioca-2021 games was sold to be exhibited on existing betting rights platforms in several European, Asian and North American countries, where this type of betting has already been regulated. Therefore, it was not negotiated for any company headquartered in Brazil, with which the current legislation was respected. Regarding the procedure for checking abnormal movements in betting volumes, we entered a partnership with the company Sportradar, which operates globally and uses its own fraud detection system. It is a sophisticated monitoring, using artificial intelligence to cross a series of data to analyze suspicious movements related to betting, which aims to preserve integrity and fair play in all matches in the competition.
Is this a trend?
The sale is part of a strategy to distribute the product across all media platforms with the aim of increasing the clubs' revenues. It has already shown itself as a trend in the commercialization of competition rights by leagues and clubs in several countries in Europe, Asia and North America.
The TV rights market is taking a sharp turn. Today Record and SBT are broadcasting important tournaments. Is it a temporary strategy or a change that is here to stay?
I believe it is a result of the change in Globo's strategy in the purchase of sports broadcasting rights. Globo's retraction movement generated beautiful opportunities for SBT, Record and Band, which took advantage to acquire important rights and are looking to build a portfolio that allows them to capture advertising investments that follow sports wherever they are shown, as is the case of football and F1. It's here to stay.
The amounts paid for the broadcasting rights turned into a bubble, with values outside the market. Is the trend for stabilization to take place?
Even before the pandemic, some markets were already showing signs that prices had reached very high levels. Recent contract renewals in the Bundesliga, Premier League and Italian Serie A demonstrate this. On the other hand, in the United States there have been increases in new contracts. Here, it will depend on the entry of new players. If we do not have new media platforms interested in buying Brazilian competitions, we will have a lean period due to the loss of purchasing power of the so-called linear media, open TV and pay TV.
It is important to start the development and launch of new formats for the distribution of sports content, for example, through OTT [over the top, distribution made over the internet] applications and digital platforms. The 5G technology, which will revolutionize this market, is just around the corner.
Are you in favor of a change in legislation, as was attempted through the provisional measure that changed the ‘Lei do Mandante’ in 2020 (and which has already lost its validity)?
This is another one of those topics where there are good arguments on both sides. At first, I was in favor, as I know that many clubs that play in championships that are not broadcast by any media platform are able, due to the size of their fans, to monetize their games. With the change in legislation, they would have a source of income that does not exist today. I also don't see the “Lei do Principal” as an impediment to future collective negotiations on broadcasting rights, a model that I understand to be the one that adds the greatest value to clubs. In a world where football consumers frequent multiple audiovisual content distribution platforms, only a competition that is economically exploited collectively has the capacity to produce tailored products to reach fans in all media.
Source: Folha
