Friday 14th June kicks off a summer of international football with UEFA Euros 2024 live from Germany – with both the BBC and ITV broadcasting games. ITV have decided to give advertisers some media buying “guarantees” whilst promising to deliver the following:
- The biggest commercial audiences of the year across their 4 weeks broadcast
- In Euro 2020, live coverage of ITV’s matches averaged 7.3m viewers across 25 games
- ITV delivered the tournament’s biggest single audience (England v Denmark semi-final) with an average of 24m viewers (a 1 minute peak of 26.4m)
- An increasingly inclusive audience
- 16-24 female viewers increased 18% between 2016 and 2021 with viewing for the final usually an even split between men and women
- With both England and Scotland in the line-up, and Wales’ qualification being decided at the end of March, this will continue and increase its appeal
The 3 ‘Media Buying Guarantees’ ITV has Offered
£13 All Adults fixed CPT: Even distribution across all matches, breaks and kick-off times, but excludes home nation games.
£17 All Adults fixed CPT: Access to all matches as above, but includes all games.
Completely bespoke, with a tailored schedule to cherry pick games/times and breaks.
Our Summary Viewpoint & Considerations before Buying
To fix or not to fix?
Our opinion: FIX
Despite questioning ITV’s motives, this isn’t a market ploy to game a deflationary market. It’s a strategic tactic to garner and secure much needed investment early as possible. This will also potentially improve share price ahead of mid-year reporting to the city.
During the 2021 Euros, week on week June pricing increased dramatically across the Men ABC1 & Men 16-34 audiences (the only allowable traded audiences). Advertisers couldn’t (or rightly) wouldn’t access the games on the excessive 71% and 80% premiums on already expensive CPTs.
Do the Fixed £13 & £17 Adult CPTs Offer Good Value?
Our opinion: YES (mostly)
In the 2021 Netherlands Vs. Ukraine group stage game, a 30 second spot (watched by 4.2m adults) was c £110k (bought against an audience of younger men). If bought in 2024, against the £13 adult CPT (all non-home nation games), the end cost would be much lower at c £50-55k around 50% less than 2021.
Home Nation Games, such as England Vs Italy, shared coverage with the BBC, reducing costs and impact in comparison to ITV-only games. In 2021 it cost c. £73k for a 30-second ad (using the premium on young men), but in 2024 it would only cost c. £20k on the new fixed £17 CPT adult pricing (using the 2021 adult viewing figures as a proxy).
Obviously 2021 and 2024 are different years, marketplaces and societal situations. ITV have kept their cards close to their chest on the June price grid (which still hasn’t been released to market). However looking at Jan – May, 2024 adult prices saw significant inflation (+33%) vs 2021, meaning the fixed pricing represents even greater value than the direct comparisons above for brands who do want to access this tournament. However, Football isn’t the right solution for all brands. Accepting we are likely to see some inflation in June and July versus last year, £13 and £17 for Adults is still expensive compared to buying non-Football peak ratings. Though it does offer good value for ‘premium’ football.
Is there another Route to Cost Effectively Buy Football Audiences?
For brands who do want Football audiences (BUT not via ITV/The Euros) buying into live sport on Sky could be another cost-efficient route to market. The A and B category games (as defined by Sky) can come with a hefty price tag (a spot in the upcoming Liverpool v Man United match costs c £150-200k) but games in the ‘C’ category (albeit lower viewers compared to the Euros) can be a very cost-efficient way to access this audience.
For example a centre break spot in the (still premier league game) Everton vs Crystal Palace on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League on 19th February would have cost under £10k for c 900k adult impacts, a 30% lower converted adult CPT compared to Fixed ITV price for the Euros.
Other Considerations
Cost per Spot: Their 3rd option of Cherry-Picking certain games and times.
Home Nation games will be more expensive – and will need serious justification and rationale to be included in any plans, the CPT is 30% more expensive and is predicted to attract more adult viewers, driving up the cost further. However, the games will reach a broader audience of people supporting their home nation with higher share of viewing these games will drive higher 1+ reach.
The CPT in 2024 remains the same across all dayparts, however, the daypart influences the spot cost due to the volume of impacts delivered, with weekend and peak games attracting higher audiences.
For the group stage games, current estimated costs start at £8-9k with a predicted audience of 600-700,000 adults for a non-England daytime pre-game chat break. It then rises to £200k+ for an England group stage spot at half time break in peak – reaching c 12m adults.
Whilst it is always risky to fix in an erratic market, our analysis shows that if the wider premium content and associations are required, there is some good value to be obtained with a mid-sized budget.
Break Type and Position in Break: Can be an important factor during live sports. We have investigated this, and ITV’s current stance is that increased commitment to the Euros will allow better conversations regarding Break Type and Position in Break (they call it “overriding deal position”). However, as they have ‘guaranteed’, advertisers buying into the £13 and £17 CPTs will get even distribution in the games. This can be easily demanded, monitored, and negotiated on if not delivered (any £ Per Spot buys can have their own agreements). We can advise what is best for different brands.
Response Rates: As Football drives highly engaged and captive audiences who are focusing on the programming, and in a concentrated ‘Play’ mind set, direct, immediate response rates tend to be much lower – we have seen 40-60% lower than other similar programming / time bands.
So, it is worth making sure that this is both taken into consideration when macro planning as well as when setting up grouped campaigns to establish performance.
Giving Clients the ARM Unfair Competitive Advantage (UCA)
For clients wanting certain audiences and an immediate hit of peak quality association, the Euros could be a great placement. We should also be canny to reach audiences at lower spot costs.
ITV4 will be broadcasting two Group Stage games in peak; Denmark v Serbia and Czech Republic v Turkey. Both games kick off at the same time as other highly demanded Euro matches on ITV1. So, although lower predicted ratings, we can access this audience for a much lower cost – a spot with non-key breaks ranging from £1-2k.
For other clients wanting to reach ‘general’ peak audiences during this period, there will be cheaper routes to market than buying into the Euros. Whilst the Euros may dominate ITVs schedule across this period, demand for their non-Football content will also increase as many brands will want to avoid the Football.
We expect an opportunity to leverage spend during this period with other broadcasters on linear and BVOD to negotiate short-term pricing offers.
We hope it will be an exciting and successful tournament, but whatever the buying strategy, ARM will be sure to pull the thread for the best value.