“This is not the first time that there are digital alternatives to watch the Olympic Games (in Rio de Janeiro 2016 Claro Sports also broadcast the event), but on this occasion the fact that the event did not have an audience present broadened the possibility of that the digital numbers grow ”, explains Efrén Páez, senior analyst at Digital Policy & Law. “However, the television audience in Mexico is still greater than that of the mobile internet. It still needs to be more accessible ”.
The expert mentions that because the live event was broadcast at dawn, some people chose to follow the repetitions on digital platforms, but there was still an important group that did so through traditional media. “This does not mean that we must wait for traditional TV to stop broadcasting the event to grow in digital, but rather that the online market is lacking for this to be a 100% profitable business,” says Páez.
“And we’re going there,” he says.
The path to sports streaming
That the company that offers sports content on streaming platforms does not have a television service in the country has its advantages. For José Antonio Aboumrad, director of Marca Claro and Claro Sports, the firm found a sports broadcasting space in digital, which not only allows it to reach the audience, but also gives them the opportunity to choose what to watch and when to do it.
“For users it is very important to choose, that is the future”, says the executive. And this was the bet on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Claro offered the user four linear channels with all sporting events, 24 hours a day, through its YouTube channel. The total transmission was 4,000 hours, while television only broadcast 400 hours of activities.
This paid off: 128.4 million hours viewed on the video platform, 59.2 million unique users, 772.7 million views, and 5.8 million likes on the YouTube page.
“The numbers are impressive. We are very happy that our big bet turned out like this. We put sport at the center of everything and it was clearly the big winner. We realized that people like sports and, thanks to the fact that the pandemic helped increase internet consumption, we had this result ”, explains the director of Marca Claro and Claro Sports.