Beyond Reach: Mark Frain on Measuring the Full Value of Sport
You've warned that complexity can discourage investment in Australian television and video. Where does that friction show up most clearly in sport, and what should the industry address first?
The clearest friction point is between the way fans experience sport and the way the industry measures it. A single fan might be a club member, attend matches, watch on Kayo SPORTS or Foxtel, buy merchandise, follow players on social media and respond to a sponsor offer. Yet those interactions are typically held in separate systems, owned by different organisations and measured in different ways. That makes it difficult for clubs to understand their full audience and for brands to see the total value of their investment.
The number one priority should be a more consistent measurement foundation: common definitions for reach, engagement and outcomes across screens and environments. It does not require everyone to surrender their data or competitive advantage. It means creating enough shared infrastructure that investment in sport is easier to assess, compare and grow.
standardisation should not mean sameness
A common currency depends on greater alignment across the industry. What should be standardised across broadcasters, clubs, codes and agencies, and where should they continue to compete?
The industry should standardise the foundations: how we define audiences, measure reach and frequency, protect and connect data, and report commercial outcomes. Brands need confidence that an impression, an engaged fan or a sales outcome means broadly the same thing whether it comes from a broadcast, a club, a venue or a digital platform. Common standards would reduce complexity and make it easier to plan investment across the sporting ecosystem.
But standardisation should not mean sameness. Clubs and codes should continue to compete fiercely on the content of their deals, the fan experience, creativity within their sponsorships, how they leverage their athletes and talent, storytelling and strength of their code and the value of their partnerships. Those are the things that make sport culturally powerful and distinctive. The opportunity is to make the underlying plumbing more consistent while preserving the differentiation that fans and commercial partners value.
The Sports Audience Graph will bring together club membership, viewing and transaction data. What could this allow clubs and codes to understand or do differently, and how do you keep fan trust central as those data sets are connected?
DAZN Media+’s Sports Audience Graph gives clubs and codes a much more comprehensive understanding of the people behind their audiences. Rather than seeing membership, ticketing, viewing, merchandise and digital engagement as separate reports, they could identify patterns across the fan journey: who is highly engaged, which locations have growth potential, and what type of experiences or partnerships are most relevant to different fan communities. It’s able to link real commercial outcomes to real purchasing behaviour. This can support more informed conversations with sponsors from planning to activation and measurement, as well as better fan experiences.
Most importantly, fan trust has to be designed in from the outset. That means clear consent, transparent explanations of how data is used, strong security and governance, and a genuine value exchange for fans. Data should be used responsibly, with privacy-preserving approaches for audience analysis and activation. The objective is not simply to know more; it is to create more relevant, useful and trusted fan relationships.
DAZN Media+ aims to move measurement beyond reach and recall towards sales uplift and other real-world outcomes. How can the industry demonstrate immediate commercial impact while also capturing the long-term loyalty, cultural relevance and community connection that make sport distinctive?
Sport has always delivered both immediate action and enduring brand value; the challenge is measuring them together. For immediate commercial impact, the industry can increasingly connect campaign exposure with outcomes such as site visits, store traffic, leads, subscriptions or sales uplift, subject to the right data permissions and measurement partners. That gives brands a clearer view of what happened during and shortly after a campaign.
However, sport’s most distinctive value often compounds over time. A partnership can build familiarity, trust, cultural relevance and community connection through repeated moments across a season or many years. We need measurement frameworks that reflect both short-term outcome reporting alongside longer-term tracking of brand consideration, affinity, loyalty and fan lifetime value. The strongest commercial partnerships should be judged not only by the next transaction, but by the relationship they help build.
The strongest commercial partnerships should be judged not only by the next transaction, but by the relationship they help build.
DAZN Media+ is bringing together broadcast, digital, social, creator and in-stadium opportunities. What needs to happen behind the scenes for brands to plan and activate across them as one connected ecosystem?
Behind the scenes, it starts with better connection between systems that were not designed to work together: data from broadcast and streaming, club and membership platforms, ticketing, social, creator activity, in-stadium assets and, where appropriate, transaction data. All of this requires common data standards, privacy-safe identity and audience-matching capabilities, and clear governance over who can access what information and for what purpose.
Commercial and operational alignment is also mandatory. Brands should not have to navigate multiple teams, contracts, measurement methodologies and reporting formats simply to build a coherent sports partnership. The industry needs more integrated planning, shared campaign objectives and consistent reporting across touchpoints. It will not happen overnight, nor should it erase the roles of individual clubs, codes or platforms, but a connected ecosystem can make sport simpler to buy, easier to measure and more valuable for everyone involved.
