Sports key to Warner Bros. Discovery’s UK ad-supported streaming ambitions

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Sports is playing a key role in driving growth in Warner Bros. Discovery’s advertising-supported streaming business in the UK, with the combination of TNT Sports – WBD’s JV with BT that replaced BT Sport – Eurosport and The Bleacher Report delivering “a rounded offering for sports fans and advertisers trying to reach them”, according to Katie Coteman, GVP, head of ad sales & partnerships at Warner Bros. Discovery.

Speaking at VOD Professional’s OTT Question Time event in London yesterday, Coteman said that combining sports streaming with advertising brings challenges, but that the company was working to improve the experience.

Streamer Discovery+ is the exclusive streaming home of TNT Sports since the shutting down of the BT Sports app last year.

Coteman told OTT Question Time attendees that a light ad load with relevant ads would not put people off subscribing to premium streaming services.

While streaming was still not able to match the advertising experience built up over years by linear broadcasters, Discovery+ was working on improving the experience, she said.

Mid-roll advertising has been a challenge for streamers with content not designed for this, she said. However, streaming provides flexibility about how advertising can be served, enabling OTT players to experiment. WBD’s advertising teams were now in conversation with programmers about how to incorporate advertising in shows, including product placement, she added.

In sports, serving advertising when users press pause is one option that does not disrupt the experience, while ‘squeezebacks’ – adverts that reduce the size of the live game to allow logos or graphics to be seen in the main display area – were another option, she said.

Coteman said that streaming does have the advantage of providing “plenty of data that streamers can provide for advertisers”.

She cited the example of cycling training platform Zwift, which faced the challenge of targeting cycling fans in winter when there are no major cycling events.

The answer, she said, was based on the data-informed affinity cycling fans were found to have with winter sports, enabling Zwift to build a year-long campaign.

Discovery+ sees itself as “a home for fans” and looks to “super serve those groups of fans”, she said. She said that viewers self-selecting as fans, combined with a low ad load, created a very valuable commodity for advertisers.

Discovery+ launched in the UK with an ad supported tier just after the US. Warner Bros. Discover always “knew it would take longer to launch Max” in the UK, said Coteman, which led it strike the deal with BT to launch TNT Sport in the interim.

She said that WBD had decided the JV with BT was “the biggest thing we could do” to drive discovery+ in the UK market.