How World Aquatics monetise dark markets with Recast
Overview
World Aquatics, the global home of aquatic sports, have been using Recast as their OTT since June ‘23 and have had success leveraging our PPV access and geo-blocking functionality to bring their international events into dark markets.
Last month, the 2024 World Aquatics Championships took place in Doha, and the federation were able to host their content on their own website using Recast’s Channel Embed feature.
The federation had been successful in securing global linear and digital rights deals in major geographies, but a small number of markets remained unsold leaving revenue on the table.
Solution
Having had success using our former destination watch.recast.tv, World Aquatics adopted Recast Embed in 2024, looking to improve their fans’ user experience by bringing their events onto their website.
World Aquatics were able to offer 1, 7 and 28 Day Channel Passes for the event, giving fans unlimited access for a set period of time whilst only paying for what they want to watch.
With more broadcast agreements in place than ever before, the number of dark markets were limited. However, using Recast’s advanced geo-blocking functionality, World Aquatics were able to take their Championships into these markets, monetise these territories and give fans the opportunity to watch the sport they love.
The federation were able to publish replays of events shortly after they had ended, allowing their fans across the world to catch up at a time that suits.
Results
World Aquatics were able to compliment their global linear and digital rights deals in major markets by utilising Recast to deliver revenues from pockets of markets around the world that typically would have generated zero.
By broadcasting their event directly to their own website via Recast Embed, World Aquatics fans spent more compared to the 2023 World Championships. The av. revenue per fan increased by 53%, showing an improved user experience.
In addition, World Aquatics sold 2,188 Channel Passes which generated a 44% increase in revenue from this means compared to last year.
From the event,38.6% of sales were replays, illustrating the benefit to Recast’s quick replay creation function and as an added benefit, the geo-blocking feature enabled World Aquatics to broadcast into the country of the host nation. The revenue generated from that nation increased by 1800% compared to 2023.