Volume v's Relevance

I think the sports industry has become a little too obsessed with content.

More highlights. More behind-the-scenes footage. More player interviews. More statistics. More posts designed to stop someone scrolling.

And don't get me wrong, a lot of it is excellent. But I keep coming back to one question.

Are we actually creating more sports fans, or are we just creating more content for the fans we already have?

Because I think there's a pretty significant difference.

I think we're still spending too much time trying to convince people to watch the game before we've given them a reason to care about it.

And perhaps we've got that backwards.

More content doesn't necessarily mean more connection.

Research from Stats Perform's 2026 Fan Engagement, Monetisation and AI Trends Survey, involving 675 sports media executives globally, found that 70% say sponsors are demanding more digital content.

That's understandable. Every sporting moment is now an opportunity to create something. But more output doesn't automatically mean more value.

A highlight might attract a million views without convincing anyone to watch the next game. Meanwhile, a short video celebrating a young athlete's achievement might create a genuine connection with their family, friends and local community.

Which is more valuable? The answer depends on what you're trying to achieve.

Having spent much of my career in media, I know how easy it is to become focused on the numbers. Reach, impressions, views and engagement all matter.

It's a useful reminder of something we probably shouldn't need research to tell us.

People don't just fall in love with sport. They fall in love with what sport connects them to.

The friendships. The rivalries. The family traditions. The shared experiences.

That's what makes sport different. And technology doesn't replace those connections. At its best, it creates more opportunities for them to happen.

A clip shared between friends. A local sporting achievement celebrated across a community. A statistic that starts an argument in a group chat. An athlete's story that resonates with someone who has never watched their sport.

These might seem like small interactions, but they're often where fandom begins.

Which is why I think the industry's obsession with content volume misses the point. The objective shouldn't be to create more things for people to look at. It should be to create more things people care enough to share, discuss and come back to.

The next million fans won't look like the last million.

When I think about where sport can grow, I don't just see larger audiences for existing competitions. I see people who haven't yet found a reason to become fans.

Young audiences who know athletes through social media but rarely watch their games. Families whose strongest sporting connection comes from their local club. International audiences who face language or distribution barriers. People drawn to the culture and personalities around sport before the competition itself.

I don't think these are secondary audiences. And reaching them requires a different mindset.

Instead of asking how we can distribute the same content to more people, we should be asking what different people actually want from sport.

Sometimes that's a live broadcast. Sometimes it's a 30-second highlight, a personal story, a piece of performance data or simply something worth sharing with a friend.

Technology gives us the ability to deliver those different experiences at a scale we've never had before. But producing more content isn't the same as creating more fans.

The next phase of growth won't be defined by who has the most content, the biggest audience or even the most sophisticated technology. It will be defined by who understands why people become fans in the first place.

The industry needs to stop asking how we get more people to watch our sport and start asking how we give more people a reason to care.

The future of sport won't be won by whoever creates the most content. It will be won by whoever creates the strongest connections.