Brand responses to the Women’s World Cup; Sony’s ground-breaking Ghostbusters short; Premier League’s piracy battle.

Lessons from the Women’s World Cup, the pirate threat to sport, David Zaslav’s Hollywood battles and the unsung heroes of podcasting all feature in this week’s Trippant Takeaways, our weekly round-up of stories on communications trends in sport, entertainment and experience.??

The Drum and PR Week on brand responses to the Women’s World Cup?

The Fifa Women’s World Cup is over but the discussion about the future of women’s football have barely begun.??

With the champions’ crowning moment soured by allegations of misconduct and sexual harassment against Spanish Football Association president Luis Ruibales – who kissed unsuspecting captain Jennifer Hermoso on the lips in the post-final medal ceremony – the game is confronting issues of governance and power dynamics even as it celebrates huge progress.??

Sponsors and sports brands, meanwhile, are thinking about the stories they can tell in the years ahead – or, in Nike’s case, rethinking commercial decisions they made just a few weeks ago.??

The FT on Relevent Sports’ US football strategy?

The next global football tournament will be the men’s Fifa World Cup in 2026, across the US, Canada and Mexico. The sport has grown rapidly in North America over the past decade but while recent conversation has centred on Apple and the arrival of Lionel Messi, one other company has had a significant hand in developing the market.??

Relevent Sports Group made its name bringing European teams to the US for pre-season friendlies – and, more controversially, trying to bring LaLiga teams over for official competitive games. During the pandemic, it pivoted to media rights sales, reinforcing an already influential transatlantic position.??

Unofficial Partner on the Premier League’s piracy battle?

A couple of decades ago, piracy changed the music business forever. Music downloads from platforms like Napster were illegal but next to the overpriced, ageing CD format, they also looked a lot like the future. The industry needed a radical solution.??

Today, sport’s straining media model faces a similar challenge from pirated live broadcasts. The Pirates vs The Premier League is the essential first documentary from Unofficial Partner Productions – the new narrative arm of the leading sports business podcast company. ? ? It explores the issue of stolen content as an existential commercial threat, a sophisticated criminal enterprise, a response to demand from priced-out fans, and a harbinger of seismic change to come.??

Original research conducted for the series, meanwhile, indicates just how extensive the practice of watching illegal streams has become in the UK.???

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Fast Company on the ‘high art’ posters for Paris 2024?

The organisers of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics have hit another pre-Games milestone: the release of the official event posters. They have been designed to meet the high aesthetic expectations that come from representing one of the world’s cultural capitals.?

The New Yorker on the face of Hollywood uncertainty??

For years, David Zaslav led one of the most dependable performers in US media. The factual entertainment company Discovery found its niches across traditional and cable media platforms around the world and exploited them to consistently profitable effect.??

Then in 2022, Discovery merged with blue-chip movie studio Warner Bros to put Zaslav in command of one of the biggest, most complicated media entities in the world. Grappling with strikes, streaming and some beloved entertainment brands, he has become a lightning rod for some of the most emotive disputes in Hollywood.???

CBR on Sony’s groundbreaking Ghostbusters short?

As labour stoppages grind on in Hollywood, the makers of the latest Ghostbusters: Afterlife movie have tried to present a more optimistic take on the possibilities to come.??

At the Sony Creators Conference, director Ivan Reitman presented a short video set in a digitally recreated New York – filmed and built in a single day using the Unreal Engine 5 graphics platform. They hope it can herald faster, more powerful filmmaking processes and compelling links between movies and gaming.??

Fast Company on how podcast producers broke out?

The uncannily personal connection between podcast hosts and their audiences is one of the medium’s more remarked-upon qualities.??

But that close relationship has now extended to other voices in the recording booth – on many shows, producers have become fan favourites in their own right.???

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