New media guru Sorrell urges Olympic sports to learn from YouTube, Pop Idol or lose fans
By APMonday, October 5, 2009
Olympics urged to learn from YouTube, Pop Idol
COPENHAGEN — The Olympic movement needs to learn from the likes of YouTube or risk losing young viewers for life, IOC members were told on Monday.
Communications guru Martin Sorrell advised global sports leaders to release their grip on exclusive broadcast rights and hand them over to a new generation of technology-savvy fans.
“If they are going online, you go online,” Sorrell said in a keynote speech on digital media at the International Olympic Committee’s Congress. “You have to let them play — with your content, your assets — in their own way.”
Sorrell said sports federations had to learn from how the entertainment industry engages with viewers.
He urged sports to let passionate fans buy access to archive footage, and held up Major League Baseball as an example of how to make money online.
“They are now driving nearly $200 million directly from subscription revenues to their Web site,” he said.
IOC President Jacques Rogge described Sorrell, a Harvard-educated Englishman, as the world’s most influential man in advertising and communications.
“He has definitely opened up new ways for us,” Rogge said.
