Revenue Streams

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Permalink Reply by Tim Horton on July 22, 2008 at 1:53am

Hi Jake,
I think this is an interesting and important topic for the online sports market that will have different answers depending on what type of an organization you have. In addition to the revenue models you listed above, Subscription can be an important source of revenue. However it will only work if you are adding value or premium tools to the consumer that they can't easily get for free somewhere else.

At my company, Soccer Interactive.com we will utilize the revenue streams you listed above but will also start charging a subscription fee soon to access the Coaches area. We believe we have created a unique value proposition of both educational content, tools and interactive capabilities that empower both the volunteer parent coach and the professional alike that other competitive websites in the soccer educational market do not offer and that they cannot get for free. In order for subscription to be successful however it must add value to the user at a price point they can justify.

Some other benefits that subscription should bring is loyalty from the subscription base in that they will continue to visit the website driving up page views, which will in turn help to drive more revenue from Advertising, Sponsorships and commerce. It also offers a more consistent revenue stream that is renewable so if you are lucky your revenue base continues to expand from both new subscribers and renewals.

I am interested in any other types of revenue streams that people have identified as well as their experience with implementing a subscription model and any lessons they might have learnt that they can share.

Cheers
Tim

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Permalink Reply by Tim Horton on July 24, 2008 at 3:19pm

Looks like an interesting new report issued by eMarketer called : Sports site marketing: Ad revenues pull ahead. It seems to be targeted at professional sports teams and any website that caters to fans. I would be interested to hears someones summary of it if they choose to buy it.

The article around it can be found at this link: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006440&src=dp1_home

Here is an interesting snippet of the article:
Online sports properties have the perfect ingredients to engender the kind of customer engagement that all businesses crave.

"Sports sites have a built-in audience of passionate fans who are loyal to the teams they follow," says Paul Verna, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of the new report, Sports Site Marketing: Ad Revenue Models Pull Ahead. "These fans have an insatiable thirst for facts, figures, statistics and trivia—and they like to share their knowledge and opinions with others."

Most importantly to marketers, sports fans are willing to pay for premium content and merchandise, and are used to the presence of sponsors and advertisers around sports events.

"As the Internet continues to evolve toward ad-supported models," says Mr. Verna, "sports sites will follow suit."

eMarketer estimates that total revenues for US sports sites will reach $2.96 billion in 2012, up from $1.49 billion in 2007.

Cheers
Tim

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Permalink Reply by Dan Harbison on August 5, 2008 at 2:27pm

Subscriptions to premium content and offline amenities....

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