NewCo, Head of Media Rights
An exciting opportunity has come up to hire a Head of Media Rights for the Barclay's Women's Super League and Women's Championship League (BWSL/BWC); this is a newly created high-profile role, reporting directly to the Chief Revenue Officer.
Women's Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL) has taken over responsibility for the Barclays Women's Super League and Barclays Women's Championship from the FA. Each club participating in these leagues will act as a shareholder in the new company. The completion of the agreement spearheads a new era in the sport, dedicated to driving growth and maximising potential, placing players and fans at its core.
Led by CEO Nikki Doucet, the new company is founded on a new vision and mission to transform women's football by building the most distinctive, competitive and entertaining women's football club competition in the world for the players and fans of today and tomorrow.
https://womensleagues.thefa.com/statement-womens-professional-leagues-limited/
Role Purpose
• Lead all domestic and international broadcast rights across the BWSL/BWC portfolio including the League Cup
• Identify new opportunities within the fast-evolving media landscape, from subscription based business to social media revenue models to grow and maximise Women's Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL) reach and/or revenue
• Manage key relationships with current broadcast partners, overseeing successful delivery of their contracts and maximising the partnership to drive value
• Identify and where relevant work closely with agency support for the sale and distribution of rights as well as production
• Lead the successful delivery of the broadcast scheduling and operations for the BWSL/BWC
Key Accountabilities
Domestic and International Media Rights
- Lead on the domestic and international end-to-end broadcast rights strategy
- Work with the CRO and CMO to develop a strategy that delivers against revenue targets and audience growth
- Lead on stakeholder management across broadcasters, clubs and other football rights holders to maximise scheduling
- Align linear and digital strategies in each market, and deliver against digital media requirements in WPG's core rights deals
To foster broadcast and agency relationships globally with a view to;
- Maximising revenues
- Adopt a progressive media approach with a focus on both existing and emerging platforms
- Maximise audience growth in target markets
Non-Broadcast Games/Streaming
- Lead the commercial development of WPLL's streaming service, to maximise distribution, partnering with the Operational and Marketing teams to develop and execute on commercial strategies and partnerships that drive revenue growth against cost efficiencies as well as audience growth
- Oversee the production strategy and delivery in both the short and long term
- Develop a long-term functionality roadmap for DTC e.g. monetisation, distribution and platform stability with the Head of Digital Product
Content Growth
- Identify new opportunities within the fast-evolving media landscape, from subscription based business to social media revenue models to grow and maximise WPLL's reach and/or revenue
- Drive an innovation agenda to unlock incremental media rights focussed revenue opportunities
- Work with content, insight and marketing teams on reserved rights - exploiting these rights and building out an international engagement platform for driving global audiences to consume published content, and promotion towards broadcasters
- Work with the Head of Digital Product to strengthen WPLL's archive, audio, photography and sports data businesses, driving growth through new and existing partnerships and innovative business models
Operational Management
- Oversee account management team of key domestic broadcast partners and ensure effective contractual delivery, including competition scheduling. Collaborate to build audience share, promotional opportunities and awareness of competitions
- Oversee procurement of production partners and development of the content offering to all international rights partners
- Support the team in delivery of all broadcast operations; contracts, relationships, delivery and stakeholder management
- Secure maximum revenue from ancillary rights, such as archive and audio
- Build strong club relationships to maximise delivery of broadcast picks
- Understand key industry and consumer trends that will influence the sector in the future, across technology, platform, production and distribution
- To be an effective point of escalation for the broadcast picks for all televised and streamed matches.
- To attend club commercial committees and meetings to provide media rights updates where required and approvals needed.
Essential Skills
- Significant extensive experience in broadcasting rights industry, with global network across broadcasters, rights holders and agencies and a focus on media rights distribution strategy, revenue generation and digital media business development
- Experience building and leading deal-oriented teams
- Proven track record of end-to-end media rights distribution including contractual delivery, scheduling, revenue generation, P&L responsibility and delivering against revenue targets
- Have a strong understanding of the sports broadcast landscape to maximise WPLL's rights, including a strong network of existing relationships
- Assume full accountability for financial performance, ensuring revenues and expenses are in line with agreed budget targets each year
- Deep understanding of media rights and digital media distribution business models
- Excellent negotiation skills, strategic and detail oriented to help deliver against WPLL's commercial interests
- A relationship builder that creates win-win partnerships both within and outside the organisation
Desirable Skills
- Strategic and detail oriented in long form negotiations to support WPLL wider company interests
- A proactive thinker and problem solver
- Ability to express and present ideas or facts concisely and precisely through PPT, Word and Excel
- Comfort with analytics, excel modelling and forecasting
- Ability to prioritize and handle numerous tasks simultaneously, often under pressure
- Ability to demonstrate multi-stakeholder management including broadcasters, sponsors and rights holder through strong relationships
- A leader and team builder who nurtures talent
- Someone who thrives in a start-up environment
- An understanding of the sport's industry and love of football will be an advantage
- Flexible working hours
We welcome applications from everyone and are proud to be an equal opportunities employer. If you have any particular requirements in respect of the recruitment or interview process, please mention this during your application.
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