Football's Digital Supremacy Has 'Eaten Almost Every Sport Worldwide'
Football has effectively "eaten almost every sport worldwide" due to its overwhelming dominance in television and digital markets, according to Tony Pastor, CEO of leading podcast production company Goalhanger. Speaking at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit, Pastor delivered a stark assessment of the global sports landscape, highlighting how broadcasters struggle to extract value from rights deals while traditional competitions risk fading into obscurity.
The Disappearance of Once-Dominant Leagues
Pastor pointed specifically to Serie A as a cautionary tale of how prestigious competitions can lose their audience. "When I grew up, Serie A was the best league in the world and I never missed it," Pastor recalled. "Channel 4 did an amazing job and I never missed it. It went through a long spell of disappearing. Now, my kids don't watch it. It's disappeared."
The Italian top flight, Pastor argued, has a responsibility to ensure future audiences can discover its content. "We need to bring Serie A back again," he emphasized. "Otherwise, these things disappear and die."
The Fragmented Media Landscape
Pastor, who served as controller of sport at ITV before co-founding Goalhanger with Gary Lineker and journalist Jack Davenport in 2018, described a fundamental shift in how audiences consume sports content. "I think one of the challenges around TV rights is that we were able to capture a lot of attention at Euro 2024 and be very noisy without any rights," Pastor revealed.
His company, which produces popular podcasts including The Rest Is Football, generates over 75 million monthly downloads despite operating largely without traditional broadcasting rights. The Rest Is Football does have access to La Liga highlights and recently secured a deal with Netflix for a World Cup show, but Pastor emphasized that significant audience engagement is possible without rights ownership.
Embracing Fragmentation for Survival
"The NFL has the biggest, most valuable sports rights in the world," Pastor noted. "What's the thing that most people are aware of? It's actually New Heights podcast with the Kelce brothers and it has no rights. So we're in a really interesting new landscape where it's very challenging for rights holders to capture [the audience] all in one place."
Pastor argued that sports organizations must adapt to this new reality. "Now you have to embrace this idea of fragmentation, where different audiences are in different places," he stated. This approach involves meeting fans across multiple platforms rather than relying solely on traditional broadcast models.
The Devastating Impact on Other Sports
Pastor's assessment extended beyond football's internal challenges to its effect on other sports. "With the possible exception of a bit of boxing and, obviously, American sport separately, football's eaten all the other sports," he declared. "Rugby and cricket are like a pale shadow of themselves."
The podcast executive stressed that high-quality leagues must ensure they remain visible to audiences. "What we need to make sure is that these very high-quality leagues are seen by people," Pastor insisted. "They've got to make sure they've got the audiences that are going to watch them in the future."
Pastor's comments highlight the profound transformation occurring across sports media, where digital platforms and podcasting are reshaping how fans engage with content while traditional broadcast models face unprecedented challenges.
