Over the past six to twelve months, Rohit D’Silva has overseen an extensive reboot of the Asia sports offerings from Fox International Channels (FIC), building out the product suite with a “massive” investment in rights, supported by more funds for local production and dedicated feeds, as well as a major brand repositioning and marketing campaign.

It’s a big bet on sports in Asia attracting bigger audiences and generating more revenue streams in the future, with FIC helping steer the necessary changes to ensure a return on its spend.

“You’ve got to be competitive, not just to buy rights, but you’ve got to be competitive to be able to monetize rights,” comments D’Silva, FIC’s SVP of sports in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. 

Part of this involves closer collaboration with operators, to help broaden audiences and enhance the appeal for sports properties, including potential joint pushes for local sports in other markets, while also seeking to rein in rights inflation. 

At the same time, D’Silva is looking at additional sources of revenue, including rights syndication as well as sales to online distribution platforms, including possible new OTT services run by FIC's existing partners.

FIC has also been pushing for longer-term rights deals and more joint investments with platforms, moves which could help stabilize the marketplace.

However, these are being offset by greater competition as rivals such as Eurosport, now part of Discovery, and sports rights agency MP & Silva ramp up their own ambitions in the region.

Earlier this year for example, FIC found itself out-maneuvered by MP & Silva in Malaysia, where it had been working with Astro on a bid for local football rights.

More recently, Eurosport is believed to have ended up the victor in the bidding for Champions League football rights in Singapore.

FIC is embracing new revenue streams too, D’Silva explains. 

“On one hand, you’ve got to think like a broadcaster, on the other hand, you’ve got to be able to put on an agency hat on and be able to compete, because the competition is not coming in a linear fashion,” D’Silva says. 

“Our inherent business model has been transformed to adapt,” he adds. “We are not taking anything for granted.”

A Layered approach

While FIC has already embarked on this push, selling on Formula 1 rights it has acquired for Japan, a better pay-TV experience still lies at the heart of the broadcaster’s monetization drive. 

D’Silva hopes that additions such as more localized content and complementary second-screen experiences will entice more people to sports tiers, while getting its channels in more packs, driving in turn both advertising and affiliate revenue. 

The foundation for this push remains English-language content around premium international properties across football, motorsports, tennis and golf.

Over time, D’Silva wants to go deeper into markets with bespoke productions and, in some cases, rights acquisitions for local feeds.

Most key markets have at least one local feed, he explains, with Hong Kong and Thailand to follow in July. Malaysia meanwhile has two local feeds, while Taiwan has three.

FIC has ventured into local sports such as basketball in the Philippines and baseball in Taiwan as one way to get more people in Asia tuning into sport. However, opportunities for near-term revenue returns are thin on the ground.

“It is very easy to get carried away with trying to think just because you have local sport, you will be able to get a big premium from the market,” D’Silva says. “Right now, it’s challenging.”

Meanwhile, bidding for the next cycle of Premier League football rights is coming up this year, presenting FIC with another opportunity to bolster its rights portfolio, by itself or in a joint bid with operators.

“It’s a question of what level of impetus we want, and in what market,” D’Silva says. “We could do a range of things. That’s a good position to have."

FIC has been evaluating market permutations and combinations for different markets, he adds.

"It’s very difficult to predict what the rights end up going for, but we have a good sense of how we could use it on our channels, what monetization avenues there would be, what we could do on digital, and how we could promote it.”