Who doesn’t love a good docuseries? Sports organisations for one can’t seem to get enough of them, seeing these productions as a way of reaching new audiences, showcasing their superiority or documenting new ownership- perhaps all three.
‘Formula 1: Drive to Survive’ and ‘All of Nothing’ are the arguable front-runners in the space, having set the stage and the model for succeeding series. The former is notable for playing a key role in the growing visibility of Formula One in the US.
Whilst F1’s North American growth cannot be attributed solely to Drive to Survive, the motorsports series’ US expansion – with three Grand Prixs now held in the country – and the popularity of the Netflix series are hardly coincidental.
Five years after Drive to Survive first episode, the docuseries format has been adopted by various other sports, from niche disciplines to global powerhouses – “Full Swing’ for the PGA Tour, ‘Sprint’ for World Athletics, and ‘All or Nothing’, which has covered NFL, NHL, football (soccer) and rugby union.
For the leagues that commission these shows, the main benefit is simple – to reach new audiences, as Tom Jeffs, VP of Media Business Development at PGA Tour put it at the SPORTEL Monaco sport business conference late last month.
“This was not for the hardcore golf fan, it was for the casual fan or people who haven’t watched golf at all,” he said about Full Swing.
“There was a significant proportion of the audience who hadn’t watched golf at all.”
The impact of the rise of docuseries can be felt across sports, and not just in the sense that it is another product for organisations to sell to their fanbases.
Driving audience engagement and captivating new fans via a series can ultimately lead to more viewers for a tournament, meaning more advertising money and sponsorship opportunities, more data feeds, and potentially more betting lines.
Finding benefits for all stakeholders
Docuseries have now cemented their place in modern sports broadcasting strategies. In some cases, such as with World Athletics, docuseries have underpinned wider expansion plans.
For World Athletics, the delivery of digital content has served to get more audiences engaged ahead of the planned launch of a new competition next year. Whilst this digital content has not been entirely limited to just docuseries, Sprint has made a big contribution.
“It was a no-brainer to get the buy-in with the sport, it was a good opportunity for us to bring the sport together,” said James Lord, Director of Broadcasting at World Athletics. “There weren’t many barriers, but it was part of a broader broadcast strategy for us.”
Leading documentary production companies, namely Box to Box and Fremantle, are becoming increasingly valuable partners for sports organisations. It seems that in every sport, across every continent, everyone wants to make a docuseries.
“There are a lot of other coaches and athletes from other disciplines saying ‘pick me’,” Lord summarised the demand for documentaries within his own sport.
For both the sporting and commercial partners involved in producing these shows though, there are of course several key factors to consider. Firstly, perhaps most obviously, is the opinions of the athletes themselves.
Whilst organisations, leagues and teams may be keen to expand their audience and their commercial reach, athletes may require more convincing. Even though athletes are already highly public figures, not everyone adores the spotlight.
Many may be concerned about how a documentary portrays them. In the case of those in team sports, this could affect future transfer prospects, for example, and a factor to consider across the board is whether a series could impact potential brand ambassador deals.
“The stakeholder that needs the most convincing is the athlete’, PGA Tour’s Jeffs put it, adding that time constraints is another concern some competitors may have – when you’re spending most of your waking hours training for a gruelling sport, taking time out for the cameras might not always work out.
Netflix and the new sports media landscape
Lastly, choosing the right partners again may seem obvious, but its importance cannot be hammered home enough. This includes distribution partners, with Netflix and Amazon Prime two of the most significant.
Given the wide reach these two organisations have, with billions of monthly subscribers and a particular foothold among younger demographics – millennials, Gen Z and the future Gen Alpha in particular – this is unsurprising.
Netflix in particular has been stepping up its sports game of late, looking to match Amazon’s position as a live broadcast partner as well as a docuseries distributor by acquiring 10-year rights to WWE for example.
When partnering with these streaming giants, sports organisations need to make sure they can find common ground. Jeffs explained that when talking with Vox and Netflix the PGA was looking for signs of an ‘earnest and honest interest in the sport, not just that it was another part of their archive’.
Audiences do not stay engaged forever, however, and as noted above there has been an abundance of sports docuseries in recent years. When historical series are counted, like Netflix’s exploration of Michael Jordan and David Beckham’s careers, the market does appear quite saturated. There may be a risk of audiences becoming fatigued.
Also speaking at SPORTEL, Georgette Schlick, CEO of Northern Europe at Fremantle Media Netherlands, highlighted the need for the docuseries format to evolve if fan engagement is to be maximised. “You constantly have to tweak the format. Don’t let go of the format, tweak it,” she said.
Regardless, stakeholders seem confident that docuseries will remain popular and have emerged as a tried-and-tested method of boosting engagement. The growth sports enjoy, coupled with commercial opportunities for both these sectors and other partners, should continue for a while longer at least.
“The audience is still watching, there is still demand,” World Athletics’ Lord assessed regarding the future of docuseries. “There is still longevity in it, maybe it is coming towards the end of its cycle soon but I’m not sure it’s there yet.”
