For the latest episode of the Broadcast Sport podcast, Broadcast Sport editorial director Jake Bickerton is joined by Appear VP, tech and innovation, Ian Wagdin, to talk about what Appear does and how it’s working to simplify future workflows for sports production.

The company provides a range of products (the X20, X10 and X5) that take camera feeds from location and transfer them to remote production hubs securely, reliably and with very low latency. These also provide content distribution workflows, for satellite replacement.

Appear’s clients range from top-tier sports for its X20, which works with a huge number of camera feeds, to lower tier-sports with its X5, which provides the same reliability and workflows of tier one sports to more modest setups.

The company also enables software-based workflows, for on-prem or cloud compute, through its VX software.

In this podcast, Wagdin clearly explains Appear’s range of products and solutions for sports production, whether hardware, software-defined or hybrid workflows. He also talks about the sustainable nature of the way Appear works and manufactures its products.

The podcast is a useful overview of the company’s tech innovations in sports production and broadcasting, what they mean for the industry, and what’s next for Appear.

In this episode of the Broadcast Sport Podcast, senior reporter Max Miller speaks to Matchroom’s Boxing CEO Frank Smith and Multi Sport CEO Emily Frazer. 

Recorded shortly after the release of Box To Box-produced Netflix documentary The Greatest Showmen on the business and its leaders Barry and Eddie Hearn, the pair discuss the show’s impact, Matchroom’s content strategy across its various sporting properties, and what it will be looking at in the future. 

They also give insight into the future of pay-per-view in boxing, how running your own D2C platform can lead to benefits outside of direct subscriptions, and more. 

In this episode of the Broadcast Sport Podcast, co-founder of creative agency Formidable Pete Gibbons assess the recent FIFA Club World Cup from a content perspective. 

Gibbons, who has a long history working in production across the US and UK, looks at the impact of empty seats in stadiums, the growing football fandom in across the Atlantic and more on what was the largest men’s tournament of the summer.

Encompassing both broadcast and branded content, he looks at where the tournament succeeded and failed, teasing out lessons to be learned for next year’s World Cup hosted across the US, Canada and Mexico, and for creating content that appeals to US audiences. 

Ellipse and Racecourse Media Group partnered to bring more data and analysis to horse racing broadcasts back in 2023, and 18 months on the pair are changing the face of the sport on the likes of ITV and Racing TV.

The Broadcast Sport Podcast speaks to Ellipse’s lead editorial analyst, Page Fuller, about how this has been accomplished, and what could be next for data analytics in horse racing coverage. Fuller, who was a professional jockey herself before joining Ellipse after retirement, ​explains how the company has aimed to add depth to horse racing on TV, and educate fans further on the sport. 

She also discusses which types of data have been most successful in making the jump to TV on ITV and Racing TV, and how Ellipse will be aiming to develop the area going forwards. 

In this episode of the Broadcast Sport Podcast, senior reporter Max Miller speaks to LadBible Group lead producer Connor Suckling about how it approaches making content for YouTube and other platforms that brings in viewers as well as brand support. 

Suckling works across LadBible brand SportBible’s various shows, and has key insight into how it approaches creating new formats, sourcing talent, the various social video platforms, and more.

Among the productions that Suckling mentions in the episode are its Snack Wars series in partnership with Uber Eats that debuted around the men’s Euros in 2024, as well as its Find The Fake Fan series that launched in the same year. 

We talk to After Party Studios managing director Josh Barnett about working with content creators. The company was founded by content creators and its slogan is "Founded by a creator. Think like a creator." It's an ethos the company applies to everything it produces, which ranges the full gamut from branded content to live production (including most recently the Sidemen charity match at Wembley), taking in commercials, pop promos and a range of originals formats too. The unifying factor across their output is it's content that online audiences will want to share. In this podcast, Barnett provides some great hints and tips for working with content creators/influencers and the kind of content that’s ‘authentic’ for them to get involved in. We also talk about the setting up of After Party Studios and how the running of the company differs from a conventional production agency, the key productions it's created and why they worked so well, and whether traditional TV has anything to offer the content creator community.

For this episode of the Broadcast Sport Podcast, senior reporter Max Miller speaks to the managing director of the relaunched Netball Super League, Claire Nelson.

Nelson reveals how the league is aiming to turn a high participation sport into a high viewership one, with a complete restructure and expanded Sky Sports rights deal aiming to bring new fans to the sport.

She discusses what was behind the major changes to the competition, how Sky approached them to show more matches, and how the Netball Super League hopes to grow the followings of its athletes.

In this episode of the Broadcast Sport Podcast, we speak traveled to Premiership Rugby’s offices to speak to CEO Simon Massie-Taylor and chief growth officer Rob Calder about how the competition has grown its audience through the last few years.

Coming from hard times during the pandemic, including some clubs going out of business, the league has built back to acheive record viewing figures over the Christmas period, and ​30% growth in viewership year-on-year. 

Massie-Taylor and Calder spoke to Broadcast Sport senior reporter Max Miller about how a mix of distribution tweaks, a focus on approaching the season as a whole, and more have led to this improvement. 

This week's Broadcast Sport podcast is the complete recording of the 'How to Benefit from the Growing Influence of Women's Sport' panel discussion at the Broadcast Sport Summit 2024, held at The Emirates Stadium in November 2024.

Speakers:

Chair: Tammy Parlour MBE, Co-founder & CEO - Women's Sport Trust

Women's sport has continued to grow over the past 12 months, but how can this growth be sustained? What can broadcasters and rights holders do to help women's sport build on the success of the past few years in terms of its presentation and drawing larger audiences? Find out all this and more in this insightful live discussion.

This episode is a recording of the 'Turn Challenges into Opportunities as Sports Broadcasting Evolves' panel discussion at the Broadcast Sport Summit held at The Emirates, London, in November.

Streaming, social media and the proliferation of mobile devices have turned sports broadcasting on its head.

Sports producers and broadcasters now output across a huge range of platforms – linear TV; OTT services; a plethora of social media platforms including YouTube, TikTok, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Snap, Facebook, Instagram and more; D2C platforms; in-stadia screens – and each requires bespoke content and delivery formats.

It's daunting and ever evolving, but each new way to reach fans on the platforms they use the most is an opportunity to grow your audience and returns.

These opportunities are discussed in detail during this session.

Speakers:

James Clement, SVP Tech and Operations, IMG

Dominique Cutts, Chief Content Officer, Aurora

Ben Gallop, head of digital and commissioning, BBC Sport

Kahlen Macaulay, senior manager, international sports partnerships, Snapchat

Chair: Jake Bickerton, editorial director, Broadcast Sport