All in podcast
John Cross is one of the best story-getters currently working in British sports journalism.
As Chief Football Writer for the Daily Mirror, he was in Russia reporting on the World Cup when he chatted to Sport: Digital and Social.
We spoke in the first week of the tournament and there was much to discuss: covering England, the Panama team-sheet story, a new media approach for the Three Lions, social media, his career and the industry in general.
By his admission, Mark Pougatch is enjoying the highlight of his career.
He is the lead presenter for ITV coverage of the World Cup.
Mark spoke to me from Russia on the tournament itself, his presenting style, his career, the tricks of the trade and his advice for youngsters
It's sod's law. You produce an in-depth podcast on TV rights and then someone drops a digital bombshell a week later
When I spoke to former head of BBC Sports Rights David Murray about the current market for the Sport: Digital and Social podcast, little did I know that the Premier League were just about to announce that Amazon had made their much-anticipated move into football.
Then there was more on BT, Sky and the departure of the Premier League's executive chairman Richard Scudamore.
It was worth a revisit so here's an updated podcast on Premier League rights deal 2019-2022.
Call it an extra chapter in our co-authored book on the current field of play
Josh Chetwynd is the UK’s Mr Baseball.
He captained his country and then carved out a career as a broadcaster on Major League Baseball for the BBC and Channel 5.
He has also been a minor league player in the US, agent, international team manager and has written books on the topic.
Therefore he is perfectly positioned to explain the challenge baseball faces in finding a foothold in the UK and Europe.
It was announced recently that the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees will play a pair of games at London in 2019.
Josh and I look forward to those games, the game’s history in Europe, MLB’s international expansion and the issues the game is having in the US.
David Murray is an expert in sports rights.
He led the BBC’s negotiations between 1999 and 2014, sealing deals with almost every major governing body during his time.
Sports rights have always been a contentious issue but now, with social media platforms and new OTT players entering the market, the conversation has taken a very different turn.
He is an independent, rational and intelligent voice who can put the current sports rights environment (especially its threats and opportunities) in context.
Paul Beirne is a serial builder of Canadian sports organisations.
He was employee #13 at the Toronto Raptors basketball team, #1 at current MLS champions Toronto FC and was also first through the door at the Candian Premier League.
The CPL will launch in April 2019 with Beirne as President. We talk about the compelling metrics behind the League’s formation, the role fans are playing in building it from the ground up, the specific Canadian solutions they are searching for and the content strategy they’ll need to tell their story
As Chief Football Writer of the Times, Henry Winter is one of the most respected and influential sports journalists currently working the UK.
Winter’s career started well before social media but he has fully embraced the medium and now boasts a Twitter following akin to that of a mid-table Premier League club.
This is a wide-ranging conversation taking in the state of sports journalism, the newspaper industry, TV and sport as well as social media. But it is all underpinned by the thoughtful analysis and humility Winter’s readers will know so well.
Rudy Gestede is the epitome of a modern footballer.
Aside from training and playing, he is building businesses, developing his charity and promoting a personal brand on YouTube.
The Benin international has featured for Blackburn, Aston Villa and Middlesbrough during a high-calibre career. But his is looking ahead to later life with a spirit of entrepreneurship and self-development.
And social media underpins all it.
The Fan-Controlled Football League is like nothing we've seen before.
This competition puts the supporters in charge.. of everything... yep everything.
So many clubs in so many sports see conflict between those in the directors box and those in the stands.
This Arena American Football event merges the two with fans voting for the coach, the signing, the team colours and, most intriguingly, the plays in the game.
It has been called a real-life Madden by its devotees and an unworkable novelty by its critics.
Starting in late 2018, it promises to be an interesting blend of traditional sports, esports, crypto-currency, reality television, crowdsourcing and democracy.
I spoke to Jason Chilton, Head of Football Experience, to understand how this is going to work
Colin Kelly is Director of Digital at a soccer team who are yet to play a game.
LAFC will kick-off their first MLS season in March 2018. But, unlike most of the recent expansion franchises, they are an entirely new club.
For the content team this one huge blank sheet of paper, when I spoke to Colin, he had barely met the playing staff.
So, how do you create a fresh and engaging soccer tale in Tinseltown, the storytelling capital of the world? Still, LAFC have a star-studded ownership group, a nationally known-coach, a soccer-lovers stadium on the way and soaring ambition
But will they fly in the City of Angels?
Kevin Doyle was forced to retire from football in September 2017 at the age of 34 after suffering complications over concussions. An intelligent, hard-working striker, his 16-year career including successful spells at Reading, Wolves and, in the US, where our paths crossed at the Colorado Rapids. Doyle also won 63 caps for Ireland, scoring 14, with the highlight being his involvement in Euro 2012.
Doyle’s decision to call time drew tributes laced a tinge of sadness, given the enforced nature of his retirement. But, a few months on, how is he feeling now? How is he reassessing his life and career? Where is he going next? And how does he feel as a former footballer?
We are getting ready to rumble.
Anthony Joshua is fighting Joseph Parker at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff on March 31 with three of the four heavyweight title belts on the line.
On this edition of Sport Digital and Social, I speak to Parker’s promoter David Higgins about how he managed to engineer a lucrative unification bout for his fighter when the chances seemed remote. Also how technology helped and hindered in that process, the counterintuitive nature of boxing PR, how and when the ‘trainwreck’ a press conference, his plans to unnerve Joshua, how the fight will secure Parker’s future and how David Higgins got into the boxing business.
Starting a sports digital agency is a dream for many people and arguably there has never been a better time set up on your own.
You are your own boss, you can be creative, work in sport and make good money. On the flipside, the responsibility is entirely on your shoulders and, right now, competition is particularly intense.
Luca Massaro took the plunge five years ago when he set up WePlay in London. In this podcast we talk about how he assessed the market before launch, character lessons, how they have had to change their offering, the crucial art of pitching for business and the qualities that brought them the Football Business Agency of the year award in 2017.
Guerilla Cricket, and its previous incarnation Test Match Sofa, challenge the long-established norms of broadcasting England's national sport.
This is not the cosy cake-filled commentary box of the BBC. It beers and banter in a basement flat plus humourous, sometimes sweary, jingles at major moments. (You’ll hear a few of those through this podcast).
But real innovation (not just the copying and twisting that content creators constantly do) so often starts at this level and has to fight resistance from those in incumbent positions.
So is Guerilla Cricket a revolutionary new model for live commentary that could be rolled out across other sports?
Or is it just a hobby that can only exist in its sporting niche?
Listen and then you decide
We are told these days that athletes are “brands”.
Digital and social media has given them unprecedented tools of direct communication. So does that mean you can just find your audience, tell your story, engage your followers and then sponsorship dollars will roll in?
Ehsen Shah, MD of B Engaged, is guiding some major footballers through this particular opportunity/problem.
What they have to do, how they have to act, who they have to listen to and how they react to ‘haters’ or tough times on the pitch?
In late 2017, Inter Milan announced a major innovation in their content capabilities. The Serie A club hope Media House will be a revolution in the way they tell their story. I wanted to explore the concept a little further so I spoke to Inter’s Media Content Director Giuliano Giorgetti about how this famous old team is trying to change its culture for the digital age.
Mario Leo is one of the best analysts in sports digital and social media. His company, Result Sports, works with many of the biggest football clubs in the world crunching crucial numbers and much more. I went to visit him near Frankfurt to discuss the trends he noticed in social media among football clubs in 2017 and what we can expect in 2018.
In any modern sports organisation, the digital/content/social media teams need to understand the communications team, and vice versa. But often they fail to work cohesively and end up in different silos. That is why I spoke to David Alexander, the founder of Calacus, an independent sports PR consultancy. They help organisations and individuals to tell their stories across the world.
Tony Jeffries never took boxing that seriously until he won an English schoolboys title. Soon he was captaining his country at amateur level and winning a bronze medal at the 2008 Olympic games. Unfortunately, hand injuries curtailed his pro career but he moved the US and set up a new business in boxing gyms.
Now he is expanding his empire, training boxing coaches and developing his own Box'N'Burn podcast in which discusses all aspect of self-improvement.
Marcelo Balboa is a pioneer of US soccer. The goal-scoring centre-back represented his country in two World Cups and was the first player to earn 100 caps for the Stars and Stripes
His father was a professional player in Argentina and made the game a major part of Marcelo’s childhood.
He worked his way through the tough semi-pro leagues in the early 1980s, played in Mexico and would join Colorado Rapids when the MLS started in 1996.
But how did those formative years shape his later career?
