Digital News: Sports News & Youtube Research

When we were originally coming up with the idea that we wanted a sports specific news channel i wasn't sure if there was something like this on youtube already, Especially that is geared towards a 16 - 25 year old market. However i came across VICE Sports which is a branch of the VICE Media Youtube Channels. VICE News,  Another branch of this group, markets itself as "an international news channel created by and for a connected generation. Our documentaries and original news series bring you an unvarnished look at some of the most important events of our time, and shine a light on underreported stories around the globe".  The sports branch markets itself as "a piece of web real estate dedicated to the game beyond the game, where the unbridled passion of the true fan shines through, for better or for worse. Headlined by original video content and distinct voices, VICE Sports shines a light on the endless array of characters both inside and outside of the game that tend to inspire such undeniable, and at times, unreasonable devotion. More often than not, the compelling stories and rich experiences that sit in the sports sidecar tend to eclipse the sport itself. We're here to celebrate that."

VICE News has 970,127 and was created Novemeber 2013 subscribers while the sports channel has 298,688 subscribers and was created May 2014. The channel has recently been chosen along with 2 othe popular youtube channels by YouTube, who are paying to run TV, print and billboard ads in the UK for the three channels, as well as running online ads on its own and other websites. Vice Media recently secured a $500m investment from Silicon Valley firm Technology Crossover Ventures and US cable broadcaster A+E Networks, which valued the company at more than $2.5bn.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/25/youtube-vice-news-zoella-slow-mo-guys

I am very interested in their style of videos so will be posting a few that i found interesting below and then discussing and comparing to our style.




This was the first video posted by the channel, It has some features that would defiantly fit in with our market however i think that most of the episodes are more documentary or package style. Similar to our channel it also bring to the forefront sports than don't get the same recognition that mainstream ones do but i feel our channel will be more relaxed in its style and like a friend talking to another friend - similar to how a lot of vlogs work on youtube.



In this video they send an ex olympic boxer as their 'reporter' to a Baseball event and film as he chats informally to players and managers, despite the fact he has no clue who is who. I like this relaxed style a lot more however there is no real story here. They haven't utilised the 'celebrity' they got in the right way and although the video is funny in parts it isn't something that flows well. I think it would work better if he was interviewing boxers and promoters and possibly talking about the future in the sport and this is something that i would suggest for our group if we were to create something like this. I do however like the way they are able to portray the celebrity as one of the people and show him unable to hit a baseball. It makes the package more relatable and possibly a feature we could use in our news - young british people tend to enjoy a failure rather than a success.

Here is a video from Today's episode of Vice News Daily:



Although this news is obviously important i don't find that its aimed at someone like me, i don't enjoy watching the news and its not spoken in a way that engages me with the story. I think this is one of the reasons we as a group decided against world news or stories like this as, typically, its covered in a certain way and this doesn't bring anything different to the news. I like the idea of brining something different out of stories and hopefully with a clear branch with the sports channel this will work well.


Sky sports news is a dedicated news channel on digital TV. It is the leading sports-dedicated news channel on television, with a sizeable, predominantly male, audience of all ages tuning for programming slots such as Evening Report and Good Morning Sports Fans.  is a table of the rough being figures:

As you can see from the table Sky Sports News garners average audience figures ranging from 1,000 during breakfast, daytime and late peak, and up to 900,000 viewers during daytime. The cost per spot can vary from between a minimum of around £10 and a maximum of approximately £8,000 per 30 second broadcast. There is also a heavy focus on male sports although they do have women presenters. This leads to a heavy male bias in viewers. 

Here is an example of a typical sky sports feature:

The onscreen graphics are an important feature of this news channel as it helps to let viewers know what is happening in various sports in a very brief outline incase they have missed the feature on the channel. Often each of these rolling news graphics are repeated by the presenter throughout the timeslot and also up to the minute 'breaking news' features heavily. It also live and goes to reporters interviewing managers and players at the last minute especially on deadline day.



Looking at these channels i think we will be able to look at the styles and use this to create something different and successful that our target audience will enjoy.

Stay safe,

Helen