Carlo De Marchis on DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND OTT

“We wouldn’t be where we are today without disruptors line DAZN, Netflix and Apple,” says Carlo De Marchis. “Netflix’s creation of non-live sports content is teaching us a lesson. The fact that HBO Max is thinking of putting the NBA inside an entertainment format is very interesting.”

“Sports properties have options. And they’re not alternatives, they’re layers. Social media are great for some, but they’re not monetising as expected. You have to be careful with partnership deals that after two years you have learned nothing, and you have nothing.”

“How many fans do you have? And how many do you talk to directly? Consent is becoming crucial. I’m not advocating a transition to direct to consumer. But Spotify spoke to FC Barcelona and found that just 1 per cent of the club’s 350 million fans had agreed that the club could access their name, phone number and email address. There are a lot of lessons there.”

“Something that still needs proof is the interactive experience. We need to become more familiar to users, so interactivity becomes a part of the user paradigm. When you launch OTT it’s the first day of your new life. You need to work every day on growing it. Once you launch a product you need to spend time, intelligence and maybe artificial intelligence to understand the patterns. Is OTT alone enough of a proposition to retain fans? Maybe aggregating an offer that becomes a relationship with your fans is the answer.”

“The approach you should have is, as you become more strategic in your relationship with your fans, your project becomes a product. The next level is going strategic. Instead of creating a series of products, let’s create a business intelligence platform that we can plug the next thing into. That’s where we should try to grow.”

“My advice: develop an O&O platform; get your fans, while creating more fans; sport is more than sport, so implement a wider vision. You have to nurture this fan relationship. If you don’t constantly create value, people will churn. We need people to come from B2B, people coming from outside sport.”