Leaders Sport Business Podcast

Leaders Sport Business Podcast


Peter Hutton vs John Skipper

January 09, 2020

Listen in on a conversation between Facebook and DAZN.


Facebook's Director of Global Live Sports Partnerships and Programming Peter Hutton sat down for a conversation with DAZN Executive Chairman John Skipper in front of a main stage audience at the Leaders Sport Business Summit in London in October (conversation begins at 4.28).


Unscripted, unfiltered, and unmoderated, the session provided a unique insight into the minds of two of the executives - and two of the organisations - doing most to shape the future of sports broadcasting.


The two men have had their hands at the wheel of the sports media industry through decades of unprecedented growth - Hutton in leadership positions at Eurosport, MP & Silva, Fox Sports International and ESPN Star, and Ten Sports, and Skipper through a storied career at ESPN.


They now find themselves shaping the strategy and execution of the sports broadcasting operations at two organisations that promise to change the fundamental model of sports content distribution and consumption. At Facebook, Hutton insists the sports play is as a "business solutions provide". DAZN, meanwhile, is a "pure play OTT streaming service" and Skipper says proudly that its intention is "absolutely to disrupt the current world of pay-TV hegemony over sports rights".


On the conversational agenda:


- How they find themselves in their current roles;


- The key differences between Facebook and DAZN and the 'traditional' sports broadcasters;


- The rights landscape, who's buying what, and why;


- The rise of Google, Facebook, and Amazon;


- The funding and monetisation models of the future;


- Changing consumer demands and how to meet them with new technology.