The BackPage Weekly | Sports Docuseries – Storytelling in Sport and the Commercial and Marketing Drivers Behind its Continued Success

Written by Chris Paget and Alex Harvey

The rise of episodic behind-the-scenes sports documentaries continues apace in 2023, with breakthrough series in tennis (Break Point), golf (Full Swing – released this week), rugby (Six Nations) and cycling (Tour de France) all hitting our screens this year. The eagerly anticipated fifth season of Formula 1’s hit series, Drive to Survive, is also due to premiere on Netflix later this month, illustrating the potential longevity of a successful docuseries. We’ve also seen a host of hugely successful behind-the-scenes athlete documentaries, featuring the lives and careers of the likes of cricket’s Ben Stokes (Phoenix from the Ashes) and Brazilian legend Ronaldo (The Phenomenon).

With increasing numbers of sports rights holders and athletes entering the space, we take a closer look at some of the key strategic commercial and marketing drivers behind the rise of the sports docuseries.

Storytelling and Introducing the Stars of Tomorrow

Sport naturally lends itself to storytelling: the unpredictability, the twists and turns, the gripping sub-plots, the emotions and the high stakes can create thrilling narratives. Those storylines are undoubtedly enhanced when you get a real sense of the personalities and rivalries involved. The boundaries between the public and sporting personalities have been increasingly broken down by social media and the ability to (perhaps superficially) feel like we know and understand our sporting heroes. Sports docuseries supplement that breaking down of barriers and can engender new or refreshed levels of fandom.

As Charlie Thomas, International Athlete Content at CAA, notes:

“If approached correctly, the access-all-areas content can be mutually beneficial for the sports stakeholder and talent alike: sports can attract new audiences through leveraging the personalities within their sport, while the talent benefit from increased personal exposure to a captive audience on a major streaming platform. Given the importance of a strong digital presence to athletes in the current landscape, the opportunities provided by these streaming platforms present a massive opportunity for an athlete from a personal brand building perspective”.

Furthermore, sports understand the importance of introducing and promoting the stars of tomorrow, thus allowing for new narratives and storylines to emerge. In tennis for example, the current crop of legends (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray and Serena Williams et al.) are all reaching (or have reached) the end of their careers, so the docuseries format provides a perfect platform for established and new audiences to be introduced to, and better understand, the next crop of stars.

Audience Diversification & Embracing Consumption Habits

It is widely accepted that the sporting fan base is ageing, so sport is continually looking for ways to engage with the younger Gen Z and Millennial audience. Whether they’re gaming, on social media, or consuming streamed content on YouTube, Twitch, Netflix and Amazon Prime, the younger generations are less likely to prioritise sitting down to watch a full match or race on traditional live broadcasts. Episodic docuseries housed on on-demand streaming platforms provide rights holders with an opportunity to reach that younger target demographic in an environment familiar to them. Rather than fighting against the changing consumer habits, sports rights holders are using docuseries to follow the eyeballs and diversify their content portfolio.

Commercial and Participation Growth

The all-access docuseries provide an initial entry point for new audiences. Take Formula 1’s Drive to Survive. Last year, around 50% of F1 fans in the US reportedly cited the popular Netflix series as a reason for their fandom, and the percentage rises even further to 74% when looking at the under 45 age-bracket. F1’s live broadcast viewership figures are booming as a result, and this has in turn translated to increased revenue in merchandise and ticket sales; a trend that will likely continue and compound.

The challenge for sports with high barriers to entry, such as motorsport, will be turning this new fanbase into more than just paying customers, and into active regular participants. For sports with lower barriers to entry (football and tennis, and increasingly golf), the potential to increase participation should in turn create stronger foundations to consolidate and grow. These are benefits which fit with the wider socio-political aims of governments to address falling sports participation.

Sport is a Central Pillar of Entertainment

Despite the challenges faced by sports in attracting a younger audience, global media rights revenue across key sports properties continue to soar. The popular streaming platforms have significant financial clout (just see the market cap of Apple, Netflix and Amazon), and while the industry is regularly awash with rumours of one or more of them plotting bids for key live media rights assets, Netflix at least has been steadfast in its approach. Its continued investment in sports docuseries demonstrates the importance of sport as a medium of entertainment, and its importance as a genre to its 230 million subscribers. However, its approach (to date at least) has been building a sports line up through unscripted storytelling offerings. Whether these platforms are using docuseries to grow or better understand a sport’s audience before making a play in the live market, only time will tell. But for now, the Netflix approach is certainly a cost-effective way of serving its audience with relevant and desirable sports content.

Content Businesses

Over the past decade or so, sports rights holders and indeed individual athletes have increasingly trended towards seeing and presenting themselves as media and entertainment businesses, with an increasing focus on content creation. While the docuseries don’t provide owned IP assets per se, they nevertheless fit with the wider trend of sports rights holders as media content businesses.

Challenges Ahead?

The genre will likely continue to grow for all the reasons stated above, but for sports rights holders, talent, production companies and streaming platforms alike, the challenge now is ensuring that the market does not become over-saturated and stale. It will be interesting to see how the space develops and diversifies to stay fresh and relevant, but also how it will continue to compliment the various commercial and marketing objectives of the various stakeholder groups.