ESPN is doubling down on digital. Its very presence at Wednesday’s NewFronts pitchfest for online video publishers in New York City was news in itself.
In making its first appearance at the event, organized by the Interactive Advertising Bureau to connect content creators with advertisers, ESPN touted an average daily audience of 28 million users through its desktop, mobile app, OTT or new subscription services. Sports fans spend more time on its top-ranked digital properties than on Nos. 2, 3 and 4 combined, the company said. And with the added digital content ESPN unveiled in NYC, that gap may grow even wider.
ESPN’s SVP of original content, newsgathering and digital media Rob King said the ESPN app had 109 million unique visitors and one billion total visits in April. Some two-thirds of those streaming video opt for OTT channels over the app, and that about 240,000 users are concurrently using the app at any given time.
SportsCenter is ESPN’s most iconic brand, and that flagship is being digitally disseminated every which way. A twice-daily Snapchat version that receives two million views per day will continue, with Snap’s VP of content, Nick Bell, saying the program is “setting the North Star for other media organizations.” On Monday, also at NewFronts, Twitter announced SportsCenter Live (@SCLive), an extension of the product on Twitter Moments. On Wednesday, ESPN said a daily SportsCenter video series hosted by Scott Van Pelt will soon appear in the reimagined app every morning.
Twitter also unveiled a second daily live ESPN show, Fantasy Focus Live, and ESPN followed up with three other co-branded programs on Wednesday: Rankings Reactions, The College Football Show and Hoop Streams. With Facebook’s Anthology branded video and the E60 feature film division, ESPN is co-producing Phenoms, a look at athletes before they reach superstardom.
Another new talk show program on the lineup card is Always Late w/ Katie Nolan. In a fake sizzle reel Nolan acknowledged was concocted entirely for the showcase event, she proclaimed “We do things a little bit differently here.” Nolan then appeared on stage to add that her program would be a weekly half-hour show, mostly. “Some weeks maybe it’ll be 27 minutes—maybe I had stuff to do,” Nolan said. “Some weeks it might be 35, we’ll go crazy.”
King also took the stage to boast about the ESPN app. Personalization features will make it appear differently to just about every user. “It’s not a mass audience,” he said. “It’s a massive audience of individuals seeking an experience.”
SportTechie Takeaway
ESPN’s struggles with cord-cutting have been well-documented, as has parent company Disney’s investment in BAMTech. The digital plans the sports giant announced Wednesday are a natural extension of a strategy of reinvention into more of a multi-platform plan.
SVP of social content, Ryan Spoon, said on the stage that the company’s broad digital distribution is already in place. “That’s why today I’m proud to stand before you with no new distribution announcements because we’re already everywhere,” he said. And the only new location ESPN is appearing is at NewFronts — to claim more of the digital advertising pie.