IMG Podcast : Thu Sep 22, 2022 12:35 pm
I have taken this from the TotalRL forums - but thought people would want to read itPopped up on Twitter that the IMG President Adam Kelly was being interviewed on a sports business podcast. Main takeaways:
* Speaking of other sports doing behind the scenes series (speaking of drive to survive and the new Arsenal documentary rather than in an RL context) he likes them and thinks they have a role to play but they're not a magic bullet. Mentions that he feels the strength in those shows is that they focus on a sport or athlete who is well recognised and gives a view behind the curtain and it might not be suitable for a sport where the athletes are not well known (mentions triathlon as an example and says other things for them are higher priority).
* Feels the partnership with RL is part of the new era of IMG, part of repositioning the company with a view to longer term projects using a broader set of capabilities (i.e. all key services a sport needs for growth)
* Focus with RL is maximising long term growth which involves, building better/deeper relationships with fans, attracting new audiences
* Ground up approach involving re-structuring competitions
* Re-imagining how content is produced
* Mentions a "light-bulb" moment for IMG recently when looking at how sports outsource content production (i.e. live matches) and give that broadcaster responsibility which can lead to misaligned objectives and incentives (for me this hints at in-house production or at least having greater say in what Sky & C4 produce)
* Mentions digital transformation projects & audience data
* Maximise streaming and data driven content development
* Seems RL is the test base for a new IMG strategy that offers this holistic package where they can use their business units (such as 7League/160over90/Endeavour streaming who they've acquired) to do everything and not have to outsource anything to anyone else (although RFL are not necessarily tied into using these he thinks they make a compelling case as a package)
* Builds on the same approach with was used with Euro league Basketball & Table Tennis
* The only investment is in use of IMG's resources, feels RL was right to turn down private equity as cash wouldn't solve the sports issues (mentions expertise, network support & guidance as what was needed). Doesn't seem a fan of private equity
* Mentions sports trying to do too much in house and not being able to attract the required expertise to make it work. That's where IMG step in
* Had received a brief on the morning of the podcast recording and says he feels their team have put together plans that will fire improvement in the sport
* Not specifically RL related, but was asked about RU and mentioned that he'd met with the Six Nations leaders and found that they individually believed their competition was another Union or another part of Rugby rather than a broader battle for attention versus Netflix/video games/live entertainment etc.
* Points to Boxing and misalignment and disagreement over competition within a historically massive sport and how that contrasts with UFC which has seen huge recent growth
* Feels RL has a passionate following that has been underserved and underutilised
* Mentioned a couple of times getting fundamentals correct and "introducing a framework that will allow investment at the team level" . Seems to be about giving owners confidence that if they invest in their clubs they can build the clubs as capital assets rather than a black hole for cash
* Dodged a question over the geography of the sport, the presenter asked him whether he himself was a target audience as someone in the south of England who only knew RL from Grandstand, swerved that one
* Not planning on a slow start, they're committing to a lot of up front resource and want to set the foundations for growth now to unfold over 12 years
* Mentions they doubled the revenues of Euro League basketball in 18 months by doing the "right things simultaneously"
