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Local cable television company SportsMax Limited says it intends to build a football stadium in the Corporate Area in order to improve content quality on Fox Soccer Channel (FSC) Jamaica and increase market share.
"The grounds that exist here in Jamaica don't suit our needs from a (television) production standpoint," SportsMax president and CEO Oliver McIntosh told the Business Observer. "We have a couple of places in mind; we haven't come up with a cost as yet, but it is going to be significant."
The stadium, McIntosh said, should be ready within a year of the start of construction.
SportsMax, through its parent company, International Media Content Limited (IMC), brokered a deal last year with FSC for the local distribution rights of the rebranded FSC Jamaica.
Under the deal, SportsMax also televises local content abroad.
But the quality of the broadcasts became an issue for the firm during its live coverage of the just concluded Red Stripe Champions Cup football tournament.
McIntosh said that while Fox was content with the overall coverage of the Red Stripe Champions Cup, the American television company had a few issues with the quality of the production, which, he believes, the construction of a TV friendly stadium will address.
"The production and presentation - they were (generally) pleased with, but obviously they gave us pointers where we can improve upon," said McIntosh. "The primary thing that we have to work on is a venue, you will be surprised how much a venue will change this...if you had a venue that would have fully green grass and stadiums looking the way they should, you would be surprised at how the production will look different... so we are looking at a venue and putting the proper production facilities in place."
Fast approaching its fifth year of operations, McIntosh claimed that SportsMax's strategy of creating a sports television entity, primarily driven by viewer subscriptions, is working.
The company said its current market share is five per cent of the over 500,000 cable subscriber homes in Jamaica. Its goal is to capture at least 25 per cent of the market.
In December 2002, SportsMax became the Caribbean's first dedicated sports television unit when it began distributing its self-titled sports channel, SportsMax, to 10 cable operators in Kingston, St Andrew and St Catherine. Since then, the staff has grown from three to 33 persons and the firm now feeds content to over 60 cable operators locally. It is also established in 13 countries across the region.
Scepticism greeted the company's entry into the market, with many people questioning whether Jamaicans would be as receptive to a 24-hour sports channel, similar to what the pioneering ESPN and Sky Sports channels experienced in the US and England respectively upon their emergence.
Without divulging figures, McIntosh said that while many people still doubt the viability of the operation, the company is on a healthy path towards achieving financial prosperity.
"When we first started this business, we looked on the five-year horizon, in terms of getting the company into a position where it has stability. and we have started to achieve that," said McIntosh. "This is our fifth year in operation and I think we are pretty much on schedule in meeting our phase one objectives, which are to set up the channel, get the brand out there, have the right human resource in place, have the right technical infrastructure in place, have a production facility in place, satellite technology, be established in the wider Caribbean, etc."
The backbone of SportsMax's revenue stream is viewer subscriptions, depicted in what Chairman Pat Rousseau described as a "80 to 20" subscription to advertisement business model. This, SportsMax executives said, is in line with international cable television stations with a similar structure.
"(Regular) TV stations depend significantly on advertising revenues because that is really their only source of revenue," noted McIntosh. "Our source of revenue is primarily from subscriptions, and that's the driver for the channel.
"We do sell advertising and sponsorship, which are part of our revenue base, but they are not a significant part, because at the end of the day, what we provide is a destination for the viewer who wants to watch sports, and they are not going there to see ads," added McIntosh. "We do banner ads, we do on-screen logos and so on, but like most of the channels internationally that are structured like ours is, the primary revenue driver is going to be subscription."
In order to get viewers to fork out additional personal expense for a cable channel subscription, a relatively new concept in Jamaica, the station needed to have a content base that would lure Jamaican viewers to its screens. The firm has done this through prudent acquisitions of local distribution rights of some of the most popular sporting events, primarily football.
Initially after its launch, SportsMax broadcast just the English Premier League, FA Cup and archive cricket to help fill its 24-hour air time. Today, the firm, boosted by the rebranding deal it brokered with FSC last year to create FSC Jamaica, has added the local rights for some of the more popular global football tournaments, such as the South American Copa America Cup, Italian Serie A, UEFA Cup and the World Youth Cup.
This, combined with exclusive rights for many West Indies cricket tour series, along with a wide variety of events in other sports such as rugby and track and field, has given the company the platform on which it planned its subscription drive, which it finally implemented late last year after a year delay.
McIntosh admitted that while the subscription delay had put the firm behind, it was now on course to meet its financial targets.
"The subscription delay in Jamaica by a year held back some of our revenue objectives and profit objectives, but I would say by the end of year five we will be pretty much on stream to where we had wanted to be," he said.
The aim, according to SportsMax marketing manager Tanya Lee, is to procure a significant number of multiple subscriptions per household.
The company projects that to recoup the extensive production costs, it has accumulated over the years, as well as the US$300,000 to US$400,000 in rights fees it now pays to redistribute FSC, it will be heavily dependent on a large "take-up" for its $400 per month subscription package.
"We are at about five to seven per cent take-up, which is small, but it's a start," said McIntosh. "Our objective in terms of our business plan is to get to 25 to 30 per cent take-up in subscription, which is where the international channels are."
In order to lure more cable customers, McIntosh disclosed that SportsMax will start an aggressive promotion drive, which will see the firm fork out "$10 million to $20 million" per year in marketing costs or "25 per cent of our expenses going forward".
He acknowledged that the firm had not been focusing enough on marketing its product.
"We haven't done much promotion around the channels outside of what we do with a partnership with the Gleaner, but we are planning on doing a number of upcoming promotions, which you will start seeing throughout cable offices, supermarkets, etc in the coming weeks," said McIntosh. "We will have a more significant presence of both brands (SportsMax and FSC Jamaica) islandwide in the coming weeks."
McIntosh added that through collaborative efforts with overseas cable companies, SportsMax will use innovative marketing strategies in other countries where its product is offered.
"Unlike some other companies with a blanket strategy, we are going to have individual strategies for each country.what sells in Jamaica won't sell in another country," he said.
"The grounds that exist here in Jamaica don't suit our needs from a (television) production standpoint," SportsMax president and CEO Oliver McIntosh told the Business Observer. "We have a couple of places in mind; we haven't come up with a cost as yet, but it is going to be significant."
The stadium, McIntosh said, should be ready within a year of the start of construction.
SportsMax, through its parent company, International Media Content Limited (IMC), brokered a deal last year with FSC for the local distribution rights of the rebranded FSC Jamaica.
Under the deal, SportsMax also televises local content abroad.
But the quality of the broadcasts became an issue for the firm during its live coverage of the just concluded Red Stripe Champions Cup football tournament.
McIntosh said that while Fox was content with the overall coverage of the Red Stripe Champions Cup, the American television company had a few issues with the quality of the production, which, he believes, the construction of a TV friendly stadium will address.
"The production and presentation - they were (generally) pleased with, but obviously they gave us pointers where we can improve upon," said McIntosh. "The primary thing that we have to work on is a venue, you will be surprised how much a venue will change this...if you had a venue that would have fully green grass and stadiums looking the way they should, you would be surprised at how the production will look different... so we are looking at a venue and putting the proper production facilities in place."
Fast approaching its fifth year of operations, McIntosh claimed that SportsMax's strategy of creating a sports television entity, primarily driven by viewer subscriptions, is working.
The company said its current market share is five per cent of the over 500,000 cable subscriber homes in Jamaica. Its goal is to capture at least 25 per cent of the market.
In December 2002, SportsMax became the Caribbean's first dedicated sports television unit when it began distributing its self-titled sports channel, SportsMax, to 10 cable operators in Kingston, St Andrew and St Catherine. Since then, the staff has grown from three to 33 persons and the firm now feeds content to over 60 cable operators locally. It is also established in 13 countries across the region.
Scepticism greeted the company's entry into the market, with many people questioning whether Jamaicans would be as receptive to a 24-hour sports channel, similar to what the pioneering ESPN and Sky Sports channels experienced in the US and England respectively upon their emergence.
Without divulging figures, McIntosh said that while many people still doubt the viability of the operation, the company is on a healthy path towards achieving financial prosperity.
"When we first started this business, we looked on the five-year horizon, in terms of getting the company into a position where it has stability. and we have started to achieve that," said McIntosh. "This is our fifth year in operation and I think we are pretty much on schedule in meeting our phase one objectives, which are to set up the channel, get the brand out there, have the right human resource in place, have the right technical infrastructure in place, have a production facility in place, satellite technology, be established in the wider Caribbean, etc."
The backbone of SportsMax's revenue stream is viewer subscriptions, depicted in what Chairman Pat Rousseau described as a "80 to 20" subscription to advertisement business model. This, SportsMax executives said, is in line with international cable television stations with a similar structure.
"(Regular) TV stations depend significantly on advertising revenues because that is really their only source of revenue," noted McIntosh. "Our source of revenue is primarily from subscriptions, and that's the driver for the channel.
"We do sell advertising and sponsorship, which are part of our revenue base, but they are not a significant part, because at the end of the day, what we provide is a destination for the viewer who wants to watch sports, and they are not going there to see ads," added McIntosh. "We do banner ads, we do on-screen logos and so on, but like most of the channels internationally that are structured like ours is, the primary revenue driver is going to be subscription."
In order to get viewers to fork out additional personal expense for a cable channel subscription, a relatively new concept in Jamaica, the station needed to have a content base that would lure Jamaican viewers to its screens. The firm has done this through prudent acquisitions of local distribution rights of some of the most popular sporting events, primarily football.
Initially after its launch, SportsMax broadcast just the English Premier League, FA Cup and archive cricket to help fill its 24-hour air time. Today, the firm, boosted by the rebranding deal it brokered with FSC last year to create FSC Jamaica, has added the local rights for some of the more popular global football tournaments, such as the South American Copa America Cup, Italian Serie A, UEFA Cup and the World Youth Cup.
This, combined with exclusive rights for many West Indies cricket tour series, along with a wide variety of events in other sports such as rugby and track and field, has given the company the platform on which it planned its subscription drive, which it finally implemented late last year after a year delay.
McIntosh admitted that while the subscription delay had put the firm behind, it was now on course to meet its financial targets.
"The subscription delay in Jamaica by a year held back some of our revenue objectives and profit objectives, but I would say by the end of year five we will be pretty much on stream to where we had wanted to be," he said.
The aim, according to SportsMax marketing manager Tanya Lee, is to procure a significant number of multiple subscriptions per household.
The company projects that to recoup the extensive production costs, it has accumulated over the years, as well as the US$300,000 to US$400,000 in rights fees it now pays to redistribute FSC, it will be heavily dependent on a large "take-up" for its $400 per month subscription package.
"We are at about five to seven per cent take-up, which is small, but it's a start," said McIntosh. "Our objective in terms of our business plan is to get to 25 to 30 per cent take-up in subscription, which is where the international channels are."
In order to lure more cable customers, McIntosh disclosed that SportsMax will start an aggressive promotion drive, which will see the firm fork out "$10 million to $20 million" per year in marketing costs or "25 per cent of our expenses going forward".
He acknowledged that the firm had not been focusing enough on marketing its product.
"We haven't done much promotion around the channels outside of what we do with a partnership with the Gleaner, but we are planning on doing a number of upcoming promotions, which you will start seeing throughout cable offices, supermarkets, etc in the coming weeks," said McIntosh. "We will have a more significant presence of both brands (SportsMax and FSC Jamaica) islandwide in the coming weeks."
McIntosh added that through collaborative efforts with overseas cable companies, SportsMax will use innovative marketing strategies in other countries where its product is offered.
"Unlike some other companies with a blanket strategy, we are going to have individual strategies for each country.what sells in Jamaica won't sell in another country," he said.
So, my advice that Sportsmax should seriously consider this stadium thing is probably unnecessary. Sportsmax must remember its mandate, and I doubt if that includes operating a football stadium. 
Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 
05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015
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