23// Trail Running TV Guides & Podcast Networks
A Trailmix of news, quotes and ramblings about trail media
Hey pals,
Hope you’re having great weekends :)
Today we’re talking about making trail running livestreams more visible and the beginning of the Freetrail Podcast Network.
Enjoy,
Matt
If you asked most trail running fans ‘when is the next race being live-streamed?’ They would likely look at you with a mixture of befuddlement and confusion.
Keeping up with any televised sporting events is difficult, made even more difficult now that most sports' rights are distributed across multiple platforms and channels.
ESPN is trying to solve this modern conundrum by becoming a ‘TV guide for live sports’. Simply fans would visit ESPN.com to see where a game is airing, be able to link directly to the platform streaming it, sign-up for the service (if necessary) and watch the broadcast.
In theory that’s job done, a live sports content hub would make it easier for fans to find and access a given game. Additionally ESPN would benefit through having more sports fans visiting its site and maybe even pick up a referral fee from media rights owners. (If you’re interested in why this is solving for the wrong problem this article is a good analysis)
I’ve long thought about creating something similar for trail running since one of livestreaming’s greatest problems is discovery.
Most RDs host their livestreams on YouTube due to it’s enhanced backend support, but also the larger active user base that increases the likelihood of someone coming across your feed.
However the problem of discovery does not sit solely with YouTube’s distribution. The issue remains that unless you’re a dedicated fan following specific trail running twitter and Instagram accounts, you’ll only watch the livestream if you know it’s happening. And if you’re not a dedicated fan, just a casual trail runner, there’s no direct way for you to find out about livestreams.
Hence, for me, the problem is twofold - aggregation and marketing.
One, there needs to be a central source that aggregates all trail running YouTube livestreams by hosting them or linking out to the streams. This could be a ‘TV guide’ or a partnership. Outside have partnered with Ironman this year to host all 70.3 events. This solves both the marketing element and the aggregation problem (Zoe Rom, EiC of Trail Runner mentioned to me a while back she has been pushing this internally for trail running).
Which brings us to two, marketing. Currently RDs in any PR will talk a lot about the race, what to look out for, but rarely ask media publications to link out to their livestream making it difficult for anyone to find the events unless you’re actually participating yourself. Marketing through owned social channels is standard, but you’re only reaching the same people over and over again and not branching out to less committed fans.
As the tentpole races start to attract linear TV coverage across Europe, races will become more easily accessible and discoverable to the average person. But before then, trail running needs to solve the problem of livestream distribution. Maybe an old fashioned ‘TV guide’ might help.
I talk a lot about Freetrail on here, not just because they’re the exciting new thing, but because Dylan, Corrine, Travis and Harmony Are always approaching the online trail running media world in a modern way.
Take the recent announcement of their fourth podcast, Sub Hub. The idea for the podcast came from EmKay Sullivan and Dani Moreno who wanted to create a podcast around the sub-ultra distance trail running scene. Starting a podcast always comes with fixed and recurring costs, and a steep learning curve, so Freetrail decided to cover the costs for Sub Hub and host the podcast under the Freetrail umbrella, the “Freetrail Podcast Network”.
Now the announcement of a new podcast in a distinct area of trail running is fascinating to discuss (e.g, are we segmenting our discipline up too much? Will this attract more of an audience in Europe, where there is a more substantial sub-ultra audience base, vs America, which is often more ultra focused? Etc.) but what caught my eye was the naming of the ‘Freetrail Podcast Network’.
Podcast networks are often started by media groups for their scale. Podcasts are ad-funded businesses, and ad-funded businesses are largely based on scale. Alone a podcast can capture a reasonable audience, but when combined with multiple podcasts that attract different groups of people you have a reasonable size and story to sell to advertisers looking for a high reach. Bigger advertisers, bigger budgets.
When i broached this topic with Corrine, she mentioned the benefits of the scale were less about advertisers, more to do with directing a larger audience to Freetrail Pro. Freetrail is a subscription business at its core, driving more people to subscribe is it’s most sustainable way of generating sustainable recurring revenue. In a newsletter at the start of March, Dylan mentioned that Freetrail Pro had 700 subscribers, which puts it at roughly $7000 per month or $67.2K to $84K per year in subscription revenue alone. Creating a larger audience pool of potential subscribers with more reasons to subscribe is more beneficial for the company in the long run.
What’s modern about Freetrail here is the sustainability of their approach. Through the development of multiple revenue streams and focusing on developing subscriptions first, they’re less dependent on advertiser budgets and more on their subscriber needs. If Freetrail continues to scale, advertisers will always be knocking at their door, but when subscribers can cover your income, you can be more selective on which brands you partner with.