1) Whither the Super Bowl without the Half-Time Show?
This year’s Super Bowl delivered a record peak live audience of 137.8 million viewers. But remind me who was playing again? Oh, that’s right – Bad Bunny. From this international viewer’s perspective, the only thing to cut through globally was the half-time show. And my how it cut through. It’s official, the Super Bowl is a gig, not a game. And in fairness, that’s been the case for a long time. Just look at the NFL’s official YouTube channel with the videos arranged by popularity. The half-time show with Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg et al at number one with 384 million views; the half-time show with Shakira and J. Lo at two with 337 million views; the half-time show with Rihanna at three with 299 million views. Bad Bunny is at nine with 75 million views – but rising rapidly. You get the picture. It’s not until the 13th most popular video on the NFL’s YouTube channel that you see a football (and that’s via highlights of the remarkable Patriots vs Falcons Super Bowl of nine years ago.) We all know this, but it bears repeating. The Super Bowl is the game that stops a nation. The half-time show is what takes it round the world.
2) Are the Winter Olympic athletes auditioning to be drone pilots?
If Olympic Broadcasting Services CEO Yiannis Exarchos has his way, then maybe so. The drone shots at Milan-Cortina have been the biggest hit coming out of these Games so far. There are up to 25 drones in use to cover each event, 15 of them controlled by very talented pilots. The type of footage being produced is new for many viewers, but of course it’s been trialled at winter sports events for years. Once again the Olympics is serving the purpose of mainstreaming innovation in broadcast technology. Incidentally, while Tennis Australia Chief Content Officer Darren Pearce was giving me a tour of the broadcast facilities at the Australian Open the other week, he told me about a simple tweak to drone design that had completely revolutionised producers’ ability to use them in built up areas: the addition of self-opening parachutes, which had convinced city authorities to license their use around populated zones.
3) Any other new broadcasting angles catching the eye?
This new angle being used by ATP Media and Tennis TV feels almost immersive.
4) Any other Olympic angles catching the eye?
TOP sponsorship revenues are down. By a lot. The latest accounts, pored over by the always-excellent Alan Abrahamson, show TOP income of $560 million in 2025. It was $871.5 million in 2024. It’s not a surprise. At the end of 2024, the IOC’s deals with Toyota, Atos, Bridgestone, Intel and Panasonic expired. But with those deals yet to be replaced, is this a quirk or a crisis for the IOC’s much-vaunted model? Meanwhile the IOC has set up a working group to look at changing the process for how Olympic host cities are selected. A return to a more public – more expensive – bidding process might solve a couple of problems for new IOC president Kirsty Coventry. It would more actively involve IOC members, and would provide the kind of always-on narrative that might beef up the value of the TOP proposition.
5) What’s going on in the space between Adland and sport?
You can’t move for sports content – and CMOs showing off their athlete endorsers - at Cannes these days; WPP launched a new sports practice last month; now Publicis has opened something called Influential Sports, a new ‘unit that taps into the creator and influencer marketplace to help brands connect with sports fans on a deeper level.’ Are the big beasts of advertising taking sports more seriously?
6) Who’s got the best ‘what Disney’s new CEO choice means for sport’ take?
NRL Corporate Strategy GM Ben Shepherd is a shrewd commentator. He’s run the numbers and looked at incoming Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro’s background and come to a conclusion: the future for Disney (and by extension the sports industry) is where the best margins are. And the best margins are in physical experiences.
7) Who has a view on in-game ads?
It’s my (oft-stated?) view that the UK sports industry over-indexes on giving an S about rugby union relative to the general population. It does mean that there is some genuinely nuanced opinion on ITV’s roll-out of in-game ads in this year’s Six Nations tournament. Michael Broughton is good on this.
8) Is the IPL the most golden of sports industry geese?
The IPL is the gift that keeps on giving for the BCCI, which already routinely takes 50% of the tournament’s annual revenues, and now seems set to pocket 5% of the acquisition fees for the two franchises that are up on the block at the moment. There are now approved bidders in place to make offers for Royal Challengers Bangalore, currently owned by Diageo, and Rajasthan Royals, currently owned by Emerging Media. The mooted fees are up to $1.8 billion for RCB, and up to $1.4 billion for Rajasthan. Not bad work if you can get it.
