Sitting in an Uber heading to Perth's T2 airport this morning, I discovered that the 2017 America's Cup will be sailed in Bermuda this May, starting May 27 with most races being sailed at 2:00pm local time, (1:00am in WA). Being a huge fan of this event since 1980's, I immediately thought about time zones, work timeframes, coverage and how was I placed in respect to all of the above to watch the racing live? Badly, it seems...
It ends up that my working night shift in construction in WA and finishing at around 1:00 am is perfect, as this is when racing starts. Except that coverage will be on Sky or Foxtel, and while I have access to my phone and an internet connection at that time, I don't have access to a TV at that time and I don't have a Foxtel subscription. So I currently have no choice except to be watching delayed highlights and replays.
Which got me thinking about the future of watching live sporting events on mobile devices, either as pay per view (subscription) or ad supported (sponsored). If a solution were available to enable me to subscribe to a pay per view service to watch the America's Cup live on my mobile, I wouldn't hesitate to purchase.
When this solution is available, and when it is coupled with the massive number of live sporting events that people would be prepared to pay to watch live, I believe the demand will be so great, that the developed world will quickly swing towards utilising such a solution.
As we all know, Syntonic is in the process bringing their OTT subscription and sponsored platforms to market. Syntonic have partnerships with TATA, Verizon and AT&T.
With Verizon and Tata owning networks all over the world, I wonder if this global rollout of OTT video and audio to mobile devices will be as quick as Uber's rollout has been.
Uber's popularity has spread almost virally in the last 12 - 24 months, and only recently have I seen any advertising for Uber on billboards, (at Perth airport this morning coincidentally). Uber's popularity with very little marketing goes to show us that when people get on to an idea that is relevant to them, and it's timely and convenient, they pile into it big time, and the change in their behaviour becomes a paradigm shift. Bring on OTT ...
SYT Price at posting:
2.9¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
