5th ARD Forum Sport 2017

#vibranttimes – Sports communication in the digital age

On 8th of November, a top-class discussion panel met during the 5th edition of the “ARD Forum Sport” in the facilities of the German broadcaster HR. After events in Munich (in 2013, 2014, 2016) and Hamburg (in 2015), representatives from various fields, such as sports, politics, media and science, met for the first time in Frankfurt.

Gerhard Delling (TV moderator), triathlete Sebastian Kienle and ski jumper Severin Freund (f. l. t. r.).

Gerhard Delling (TV moderator) with Professor Michael Steinbrecher (TU Dortmund) and Saskia Aleythe (Süddeutsche Zeitung) (f. l. t. r.).

Gerhard Delling (TV moderator), Axel Balkausky (ARD Coordinator Sports), Dr. Holger Blask (German Football League), Susanne Aigner-Drews (Discovery Networks Deutschland), Kay Dammholz (DAZN) and Hans Gabbe (Sky) (f. l. t. r.).

Students of the University of Tübingen with program coordinator Dr. Verena Burk and TV moderator Gerhard Delling.

The panel discussion was organized by the Sport Coordination Department of the broadcaster ARD in close collaboration with team members from the Department Sport Economics, Sport Management and Media Research (University of Tübingen) and students from the Bachelor program Sports Journalism.

The morning session focused on the marketing and social media communication of athletes and clubs and started with an overview on the development of digitalization and its effects on sports communication by Mario Leo, Executive Director of Results Sports and Editor of the online magazine Digitale Sportmedien (digital sports media). Leo argued that many sports associations and clubs have so far largely neglected to fully explore all options in digital sports communication.

Triathlete Sebastian Kienle and ski jumper Severin Freund discussed both the relevance of social media for the marketing of athletes as well as the pressure it puts on them. Kienle explained that sponsors quite frequently expect a certain degree of activity on social media platforms from their athletes. This might be even part of some contracts. According to Kienle, social media has the advantage of being a “two-way communication” allowing to discuss also critical issues such as the abuse of performance enhancing drugs in sports with fans. Importantly, however, athletes should still be evaluated based on their sportive performance rather than their communication skills, as argued by Freund.

While many professional soccer clubs have already developed their own TV channel, still, however, a close collaboration between journalists and clubs is seen as being important, as argued by Stefan Mennerich (FC Bayern Munich). Martin Strasheim (Eintracht Frankfurt), agreed on this and argued that journalists are responsible for offering critical reports. After this, Saskia Aleythe (Süddeutsche Zeitung), Christoph Becker (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) as well as Professor Michael Steinbrecher (Technical University in Dortmund) discussed about the consequences and chances of an increasing digitalization in sports for sports journalism.

The afternoon session was focused on the opportunities and threats of the recent developments of the sports broadcasting market. It started with a discussion on the opportunities and threats for niche sports and small clubs. In this regard, Björn Beinhauer (DOSB NEW Media GmbH) presented the concept of the online platform Sportdeutschland.TV and Thomas Krohne (President of the German Volleyball Association) highlighted its value for Volleyball. The podium was completed by Markus Detering (clipmyhorse.TV).

After this, Susanne Aigner-Drews (Discovery Networks Germany), Kay Dammholz (DAZN), Hans Gabbe (Sky), Dr. Holger Blask (German Football League) and Axel Balkausky (ARD Coordinator Sports) talked about the increasing competition in the sports broadcasting market due to the digitalization. According to Balkausky, further collaborations like the one between ARD and Sky for Handball are necessary in the future. Moreover, according to Dammholz, the licensors now have better possibilities to sell their rights while media companies are able to offer a wider range of different viewing options to consumers. Gabbe added, that the individual client and the interactive offer will gain more importance in the future.

Finally, a discussion with Christoph “Icke” Dommisch, “Netman” at the Sat.1 sport broadcast ranNFL showed how digitalization can generate new jobs for sport journalists. During the live-show ranNFL, Dommisch interacts with the TV viewers via social media.