I have a hunch this is the start of a much larger play. I would not be surprised if Flotrack attempted to acquire additional broadcasting rights for other track events. Flotrack wants to become the streaming hub for all Track/XC events in the USA. That’s the only way this deal makes any sense.
Flotrack has been buying up meet and organizational broadcasting rights for quite some time now.
For example, NCAA XC / TF and major marathons were scooped up 7 years ago already.
Everything appears to be growing until they are shunned from the Olympics and the typical investor scratches their head wondering why. Buying up all these rights is daring and almost stupid. But it's all they can do to build up the portfolio.
Yup. See my comment above. It’s pure marketing from Flosports. Every startup does this. Runway is getting low and you need funding…..what do you do?
Easiest option is to start acquiring stuff, filing patents/trademarks, etc. You’re padding your portfolio. Then you go out and start fundraising and use your boosted portfolio as leverage.
“we just acquired product XYZ. It might suck now, but with a little bit of funding look at what it could become”
this is exactly how Flosports is leveraging this broadcasting deal.
I say we all just give it a chance. Let's all just sign up and give Flotrack Diamond League a try. Try a month for low risk. I'm going to sign up for a year and really give it a chance.
Flotrack still feels like what the dyestate forums felt like 20 years ago or what your old high school locker room smelled like.
I wonder if Netflix had a look at this deal. They are gearing up to start live streaming tv and it's not hard to imagine that they could apply the formula they've used with other 'behind the sports scene' shows they've done like F1.
It’s pure marketing from Flosports. They haven’t raised money in 5 years and considering their reported revenue, employee count, and overall operating expenses, I guarantee they’re in desperate need of additional funding.
“and if Flotrack is taking a world feed and just charging you to watch it why not just do that yourself? I don’t see any value add from flotrack here.”
Thats exactly the point. Flotrack doesn’t care about the product or quality of service. The benefit here is being able to include these broadcasting rights when speaking to investors. Same reason why they acquired TFRRS. It’s adding value to the Flosports portfolio. They paid a small fee to acquire the rights. They’ll invest little money into the actual broadcast. But they’ll have a dedicated slide on their fundraising pitch deck about the “potential” of this opportunity. Low risk high reward.
I guarantee we’ll hear about a series D funding round within the next 12 months. Ive been involved in enough startups to see the writing on the wall.
1) it’s my understanding some third party owns the right to the DL broadcasts and all they care about is maximizing the revenue coming in. Makes sense short term but athletes want exposure
2) my main concern isn’t the price . It’s the lack of visibility. This is the best thing possible for Michael Johnson’s proposed league. If the DL finale isn’t on tv in the US more athletes may even pass on it.
3) NBC isn’t giving up on Olympic sports . The Olympics in 2028 are in the US and will be huge. I’d love to know how much money we’re talking about. If NBC wanted to cut costs for hey could have just used the world feed for every meet except Pre and the DL finale or anything they could wanted to put on NBC. Flotrack will just use the work feed I bet
4) I’ve never seen such a nearly universal reaction to a deal like this. Look at the comments on twitter and instagram. Every athlete speaking out is against it and hundreds of negative comments.
5) I wasn’t aware Flotrack bought TFRRS? The ncaa results monopoly? When did that happen ?
How do we ban THOUGHTSLEADER? If we get a 90% vote in favor of it, is he banned? Or can Flotrack get him an entry level role and require he not visit LRC?
🤕. I didn’t even think I said something nice about FloTrack. I just miss the Worlds feed.
Flotrack still feels like what the dyestate forums felt like 20 years ago or what your old high school locker room smelled like.
I wonder if Netflix had a look at this deal. They are gearing up to start live streaming tv and it's not hard to imagine that they could apply the formula they've used with other 'behind the sports scene' shows they've done like F1.
I think we’re dramatically overestimating the popularity of random DL events that take place at 1PM on a Thursday.
These broadcasts are publicly available in tons of other countries around the globe. I’d wager peak viewership on Peacock in the USA never broke 7 figures. Not even worth Netflix’s time to consider something like this.
It’s pure marketing from Flosports. They haven’t raised money in 5 years and considering their reported revenue, employee count, and overall operating expenses, I guarantee they’re in desperate need of additional funding.
“and if Flotrack is taking a world feed and just charging you to watch it why not just do that yourself? I don’t see any value add from flotrack here.”
Thats exactly the point. Flotrack doesn’t care about the product or quality of service. The benefit here is being able to include these broadcasting rights when speaking to investors. Same reason why they acquired TFRRS. It’s adding value to the Flosports portfolio. They paid a small fee to acquire the rights. They’ll invest little money into the actual broadcast. But they’ll have a dedicated slide on their fundraising pitch deck about the “potential” of this opportunity. Low risk high reward.
I guarantee we’ll hear about a series D funding round within the next 12 months. Ive been involved in enough startups to see the writing on the wall.
1) it’s my understanding some third party owns the right to the DL broadcasts and all they care about is maximizing the revenue coming in. Makes sense short term but athletes want exposure
2) my main concern isn’t the price . It’s the lack of visibility. This is the best thing possible for Michael Johnson’s proposed league. If the DL finale isn’t on tv in the US more athletes may even pass on it.
3) NBC isn’t giving up on Olympic sports . The Olympics in 2028 are in the US and will be huge. I’d love to know how much money we’re talking about. If NBC wanted to cut costs for hey could have just used the world feed for every meet except Pre and the DL finale or anything they could wanted to put on NBC. Flotrack will just use the work feed I bet
4) I’ve never seen such a nearly universal reaction to a deal like this. Look at the comments on twitter and instagram. Every athlete speaking out is against it and hundreds of negative comments.
5) I wasn’t aware Flotrack bought TFRRS? The ncaa results monopoly? When did that happen ?
Flosports acquired DirectAthletics in June of last year (
FloSports expands its reach within the track and field and running community by acquiring DirectAthletics to create an all-in-one essential destination.
Completely agree on points 1 through 4. I wasn’t trying to justify Flotracks decision in any way. It’s terrible for the sport, and if it really is a marketing play, most investors will see right through it.
Your third point is also what I’m most confused about. I just can’t fathom NBC not even making a bid. Doesn’t even make a dent in their wallet. This is why I actually think Flotrack’s bid may have been somewhat significant.
I fully agree that this is a bad decision and not in the interest of the sport at all. But some posters on here complaining about Flotrack being a money sucker are incredibly unfair and disregard how data-driven platforms work. Flotrack has a much smaller fan base, like basically 0 compared to NBC or Netflix. The product they sell is a datastream > essentially zero cost of copying / reproducing. So only fixed costs of staff/software etc. matter and those are spread over a muuuuuch smaller population > higher price per person needed.
So yeah, Flotrack should not have gotten the deal because they have no meaningful network effects to offer it to the individual customer for cheap and exposure is even worse. But you can't blame them for trying to break even, they're on the wrong side of a digital business model.
The Diamond League itself deserves some of the blame here too. Apparently they are clueless about FloTrack's bad reputation among American track fans. Or maybe they just don't care and made this decision for a tiny amount of money.
It would be interesting to know how much money we are talking about. Is there not ONE wealthy track fan who could do a solid for the sport? If FloTrack is really all about the money, they'd take a check to offload the DL to our angel.
Stan takes his $100 check and makes an investment into South Park Bank. Annndd it's gone."Margaritaville" S13Subscribe to South Park: https://www.youtube.com...
World Athletics is an investor in Diamond League AG, however, the league is owned by the meetings themselves and as such this decision rests with them and their board.
The Diamond League itself deserves some of the blame here too. Apparently they are clueless about FloTrack's bad reputation among American track fans. Or maybe they just don't care and made this decision for a tiny amount of money.
It would be interesting to know how much money we are talking about. Is there not ONE wealthy track fan who could do a solid for the sport? If FloTrack is really all about the money, they'd take a check to offload the DL to our angel.
DL uses British TV professionals who graciously volunteer their time and pay their own individual air fare and expenses for the love of the sport. Flotrack does likewise.
It was fun while it lasted (having the DL on Peacock) oh well all good things must come to an end. My life will go on and bo great lose not watching DL meets.
While some skepticism is definitely warranted, FloTrack wholesale takes the international feeds (e.g. Hutchings, Cram, England et al) for Commonwealth Tour Gold and World Major Marathons. That means no commercials and knowledgable commentators who aren't perfect, but are pretty dang good. I'd expect the same for the Diamond League coverage.
We can only hope. I won't tolerate their usual coverage: shot at ground level on an iPhone or from a guy that can't properly fly a drone, bad announcing that makes "Boom goes the dynamite!" kid sound like prime Bob Costas, and their trademark glitch/lag/blackout streams.
Every time I've watched any of their coverage I've been astonished at how amateurish it is. iPhone at ground level is about right.
But maybe they're picking up and restreaming feed from, you know, professional camerapersons and directors?
Nike's drones didn't even try to buy the DL feed. Nike is rumored to be shuttering Runnerspace, Track Town USA, Nike Store, Citius Magazine, Hayward Magic, Oregonian, etc. and adopting Adobe AI gizmos.
What's amazing about this is that someone (or a group of someones) made this decision thinking somehow it was a good decision.
I have never seen anything in this sport so universally agreed on than the fact that this is about the stupidest decision anyone can make.
I cancelled Flo Track because their coverage typically sucks (that's the only word for it).
I understand that they'll just be picking up another's feed and presenting it to us but I have never watched an event on Flo Track and not been pissed off at the poor quality.
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