An owned and operated OTT streaming platform for the World Games will fully launch ahead of the 2025 edition in Chengdu in a departure from the previous model of streaming on the Olympic Channel.
The World Games Live (TWGL) will showcase the action from this year’s iteration of the multi-sports Games in all markets where broadcasters have not secured exclusive digital rights.
The streams will largely be free to access although the International World Games Association (IWGA) is currently weighing up whether to introduce a paywall for some of the 34 sports.
TWGL is a joint project between International Sports Broadcasting (ISB), the IWGA’s production and media rights sales agency, and digital technology company Ztudium.
The move has been made in a bid to better promote the World Games sports and disciplines given the low audiences generated on the Olympic Channel. International federations will be able to embed TWGL onto their digital platforms.
Joachim Gossow, the IWGA chief executive, told SportBusiness: “It’s nothing against the collaboration with the Olympic Channel but we also have to develop our product and give the best opportunities to our member federations that participate.
“With this digital platform we’re also in a position to meet the expectations of our member federations to use their pictures for their communities and showcase the sports in the best way.”
A year after its creation, the Olympic Channel streamed action from Wrocław’s 2017 World Games on the back of a content agreement. The IWGA deal was one of a flurry of content deals secured by the Olympic Channel at the time. The World Games content archive was also moved to the Olympic Channel in 2020.
The 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Alabama were streamed on Olympics.com following the migration by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of content from the Olympic Channel. Live streaming was also embedded onto the IWGA and organising committee websites, along with the event app.
On average, Olympic Channel streams from Birmingham 2022 registered 4,500 views globally, according to a post-event evaluation report commissioned by the IWGA.
The IWGA has an ongoing Memorandum of Understanding with the IOC.
The Olympic body helps to promote the IWGA’s activities, encourages national Olympic committees to take part in the World Games and provides technical assistance. In return, only disciplines that are not on the programme of the immediately preceding summer or winter Olympics can be included in the World Games programme.
TWGL was first tested at the World Games Series held in Hong Kong from October 11 to 13 last year. The platform carried three live streams from cheerleading, roller sports and wushu events. More tests will be carried out at the World Games Series event in Chengdu at the end of this month.
The 2025 World Games will see a jump in production output, including live coverage of preliminary rounds, after the local organising committee in Chengdu increased its budget as it looks to shine a light on the city as a sports destination. Only semi-finals and finals were produced from Birmingham with the number of feeds restricted to eight.
A total of 19 broadcast deals struck by ISB for Birmingham 2022 spanned 61 broadcast territories. That footprint has already been expanded for Chengdu 2025, Gossow said, with new deals set to be announced soon.
The 19 broadcasters in 2022 were: VRT (Belgium); CCTV (China); České Televize (Czech Republic); Sport1 (DACH region); L’Équipe (France); RTHK (Hong Kong); MTVA (Hungary); Sports Channel (Israel); TV Tokyo and TV Asahi (Japan); ESPN (Latin America); Abu Dhabi TV (Mena region); TVP (Poland); RTVE (Spain); Staylive (Sweden); Elta (Taiwan); T Sports Channel (Thailand); XSport (Ukraine); and CBS (USA).
ISB’s work with the IWGA is headed by managing director Ursula Romero. She is the daughter of the late Manolo Romero, founder of both ISB and Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), the IOC’s host broadcast arm.
ISB began working with the IWGA as media rights advisor for the 2013 World Games in Cali, Colombia. The Madrid-based firm has handled the production and distribution since Wrocław 2017 and is signed up through to the 2029 Games awarded last year to Karlsruhe in Germany.
Global sponsors introduced
Along with the investment in its own OTT product, IWGA is targeting global sponsors to augment its own revenue streams. Shankai Sports, the agency with offices in Beijing and Lausanne that secures Chinese brands for international sports properties, was hired in 2023 to help find central sponsors.
To date, only Xtep, the Chinese sportswear brand, has signed up as a global partner for Chengdu 2025. Tissot, the sister company of Swiss Timing, a long-time provider of graphics, scoring and technology services to the World Games, is a central sponsor at partner level.
Sourcing sponsors beyond China will prove challenging, according to Gossow.
He said: “We suffer more from the economic developments worldwide, also in China, than the IOC does. It’s like in soccer with number one and number two properties peppered 24/7 [with interest] and the rest suffers under these economic circumstances.”
In a bid to avoid cannibalising hosting fees from future host cities, the IWGA implemented a new governance structure with the local organising committee when introducing a pathway to sign its own global sponsors. The IWGA retains all commercial rights at the time of awarding the hosting rights, and then releases the domestic sponsorship rights upon request from the LOC.
“We’re looking at global partnerships because in 2029 we go back to Europe in Germany,” noted Gossow. “So, it only makes sense to have those companies who are acting worldwide as permanent sponsors that we take along with the Games.
“Our marketing concept with the host cities allows this. There are shared opportunities for the host cities and the IWGA.”
Organisers of Birmingham 2022 raised $33m (€30.4m) in cash and in-kind sponsorship support with a large buy-in from the Alabama business community.