How to navigate the new sports doc terrain: micro-formats and the funding jigsaw
Insights from Pitch International's Jonathan Rogers
The sports documentary market has enjoyed a boom over the past few years, with the likes of Prime’s All or Nothing and Netflix’s Drive to Survive becoming famous programme brands.
Driven by a post-pandemic hunger for high-stakes stories and global streaming platforms realising how the genre could improve their reach, sports docs are in demand.
But the market is changing. With a glut of shows trying to emulate the success of Netflix hit Beckham and streamers moving more into live sports rights, indies are facing new challenges but also new opportunities - particularly in micro-sports docs.
Alongside straightforward turnkey commissions from streamers/broadcasters, more complex financial and windowing deals are being done that have echoes of the pre-streamer era.
So if you’re a sports documentary specialist or want to get into the genre, what are the financing options? And how can you compete in a market that’s become dominated by athlete-controlled semi-branding exercises?
Pitch International has its ear to the sporting ground as it’s a 22 year-old global media rights agency that manages sponsorship deals, sports events and hospitality for clients including the FA, the English Football League and the English Cricket Board.
It also has a features and programme-making arm, Pitch Productions, which has numerous acclaimed titles to its name. They include the Netflix film Pele, All or Nothing: Brazil National Team, plus two Untold UK docs currently on Netflix (one on Vinnie Jones, the other on Liverpool FC’s 2005 Champions League final) and the film Cantona, which premiered to rave reviews at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Pitch International’s chief operating officer Jonathan Rogers leads its production arm and was previously at ITV, so understands both sides’ point of view and where the market is heading.
For The Indie Hustle he breaks down the reality of the shifting sports landscape, so read on to find out:
• How to negotiate the new economics of sports docs
• Moving beyond the sanitised access series
• The new funding jigsaw
•The changing global market
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