Continuing our mini-series shining the spotlight on various professions within the golfing industry, I had the pleasure of recently meeting up (albeit via Microsoft Teams due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions), with Ian Waterhouse, founder of ContentLIVE, a company comprising of ContentLIVE Golf, MySuperCar and The Social Media Property Show.
ContentLIVE Golf attracted millions of viewers to live golf last year, a quite remarkable figure when one considers their first live show was not until March 2020.
We chatted about this incredible first year of broadcasting live golf and the packed schedule of events planned for 2021.
Hope you enjoy
First Tee
(Golfing Herald): I ‘teed off’ by asking Ian about the recent Press Release which said that ContentLIVE Golf would be broadcasting under the name Live Sport Now in 2021.
(Ian): As you know we broadcast motorsport as well as golf and other things as well. So what I wanted was to establish a single channel umbrella, like a TV channel, where you can watch live sport. Hence, Live Sport Now is going to show all of our golf and motorsport. If you choose, you can still watch the golf via ContentLIVE Golf but if you want the complete portfolio of live sport then Live Sport Now is the place to go to subscribe and watch it.
One-Stop-Shop
(Golfing Herald): In preparation for our chat today I spent some time navigating around the online pages of Live Sport Now and I really liked the comprehensive back catalogue of golf from previous events, the Q&A sessions you have done recently, such as the session with Ladies European Tour player Amy Boulden, etc…very much one-stop-shop.
(Ian): That’s it exactly. We want to build it out to be the #1 channel but we will never let ContentLIVE Golf go and we won’t let MySuperCar go but we want to turn Live Sport Now into that go-to channel. As you know yourself being involved in the Media, ContentLIVE Golf is not a very user-friendly name, not keyword friendly and not very searchable and the same with MySuperCar…but Live Sport Now is very SEO friendly, which is one of the reasons for choosing that name as well.
Free Subscription
(Golfing Herald): A couple of moments ago you mentioned that viewers could subscribe to watch your new broadcasting channel…I am right in thinking that subscription is completely free?
(Ian): Absolutely…all you need is Internet access and the link to Live Sport Now and you can watch it on YouTube, Facebook or Twitch, all for free. Facebook is still the main platform where we receive the majority of our viewers but YouTube is where I think we are going to get a lot more traction this year.
Chicken And Egg
(Golfing Herald): Turning the clock back just over 12 months, the first event that ContentLIVE Golf broadcast was the inaugural 2020protour tournament at Crosland Heath Golf Club. Apologies in advance for a sort of chicken and egg style question…but did you launch ContentLIVE Golf with no tournaments signed up to broadcast and reach out to various tours or did you have an agreement in place with Adam Walker and Chris Hanson, the co-founders of the 2020protour, to cover one or more 2020protour tournaments and then launch ContentLIVE Golf?
(Ian): No need to apologise…it’s a great question!! We originally started in motorsport back in 2017 and we built up the brand MySuperCar. In fact, I didn’t go straight to MySuperCar full time…we set it up whilst I was still working as the feature article writer for Foremost Golf. So our thinking was to take our method of broadcasting motorsport, which works really well, into broadcasting golf. Obviously being heavily linked to golf myself I started to hear, around about November 2019, a little bit about the 2020protour…and how it was a brand new tour. So I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for us to replicate what we do in motorsport and bring it into golf.
(Golfing Herald): What happened next?
(Ian): I got in touch with Chris and Adam at the 2020protour by dropping them an email to the contact address on their website and sent them a couple of links to the work that we do in motorsport and said I want to take this approach into golf…can we have a conversation? They said yes…I then had a good conversation with them and we struck up a bit of an agreement…and from that ContentLIVE Golf was created.
(Golfing Herald): What do you mean by a bit of an agreement?
(Ian): Originally, the deal with the 2020protour started out as a very tentative approach to see what we could do at the opening event at Crosland Heath…none of us knew how it was going to go. It was a shot in the dark for all of us, including the 2020protour. So we went to Crosland Heath…it was a roaring success and as they say “the rest is history!!”.
Blueprint
(Golfing Herald): I was fortunate to be a spectator at Crosland Heath so did not watch your first broadcast…but due to the ‘no spectator’ restrictions imposed by Covid-19 I watched most of the remaining events via your Facebook platform and for me, your approach to broadcasting golf is unquestionably unique…very entertaining and totally different by comparison to other broadcasters.
(Ian): I know it sounds crazy but what we try to do is to humanise sport. Are you a Formula One fan?
(Golfing Herald): I have to be honest and say I am not a big fan of Formula One.
(Ian): I totally understand why people find Formula One boring…cars just going round and round the track and not a lot appearing to happen. However, about half an hour before each race starts, Martin Brundle (who does the commentary for Sky), has about 10 minutes which is completely unscripted where it is him, a microphone, a camera…all live, on the grid walking around trying to talk to various drivers. Totally random, nothing is staged, nothing is lined up. He just walks up to drivers, shoves a microphone under their face and has a chat. Normally it would take about two weeks to try to arrange a chat or an interview. Sometimes they might tell him to go away but quite often they will just talk to him because he is there in the moment. And I thought that is brilliant…can we bring that approach into club racing in motorsport in the UK. We did and it proved successful. So for golf, we are not trying to compete with Sky and their fantastic golf coverage, but we are trying to do stuff that they can’t do.
Unique Insight
(Golfing Herald): Such as…
(Ian): Walking with the players and talking to them…for any PGA and European Tour events what you don’t get is interviews with players between holes. You can get access to the players before the event and you can get access after each round but you can’t get access to the players whilst they are playing their round…but that is something that we do to provide a unique insight during a round. We don’t have twenty cameras out on the course…we have a single camera. So we need to make sure we are providing the best possible coverage. We had no idea how the players would react but they have been absolutely brilliant…so much so that in later events we even miked some of the players up and just followed them around and listened to them talking!! It provided such fantastic insight and valuable content to see and hear what it is like playing in a professional golf tournament.
Live Sport
(Golfing Herald): Earlier you used the term humanise and for me what really comes across in your coverage is that personal touch in that as the 2020protour season unfolded you were very much on first name terms with most of the golfers…whether it was speaking to them on the first tee, during their round, after their round and so on.
(Ian): Let me tell you something…we do a bare minimum of 4 hours of live golf every single day for every single tournament that we do…that is our agreement. Other than planning rough timings for the day, the only thing that I pre-prepare for is my opening gambit shall we say…my opening paragraph(s) to introduce the start of the live coverage…the rest is completely off the cuff. It is a live sport so you just don’t know what is going to happen so you have to make it up as you go along. For me, our coverage is about giving the players a platform, the tour a platform and enabling anybody to watch live golf.
Global Reach
(Golfing Herald): Linked to the last point about your coverage allowing anybody to watch, you also actively engage with all your viewers by encouraging them to interact with you and the players…for example by asking questions via your Facebook platform. And some of the questions posted come from various compass points around the world.
(Ian): That’s right…I am pleased to say that we are continuing our partnership with Golf Asia so we will be broadcasting to Singapore this year. Also working with Inside Golf, Australia’s most-read golf magazine and I am now talking to Golf Ireland magazine so we might broadcast over in Ireland…and the big thing for us this year is fan engagement, getting fans involved which we openly encourage. If a viewer has a question for a player we can go and speak to the player to ask them your question. We also look at all the comments posted during the live coverage. Within reason, we try to give the fans what they want…and like you said we have formed relationships with players and they trust us. We are not there to catch people out like a Patrick Reed controversial moment…we are trying to let the players know that we are here to support them and we are here to help them. At the end of the day, these guys and girls want to make it on the PGA European Tour and the Ladies European Tour respectively. They want to be playing in Ryder Cups and Solheim Cups. A lot of players on the mini-tours are good enough to do it. But in order to do that the players need backing…and our coverage provides a platform for them to be visible and a lot of the players get that…the more airtime they get the better. Not only is our coverage seen globally but our coverage is also seen nationally via Golf Monthly, Today’s Golfer and National Club Golfer. So the golfers are being seen by the right audience and the right people.
Continuous Improvement
(Golfing Herald): All businesses, whatever the sector, can’t stand still…so what changes or improvements have you got planned (that you are able to share with the Golfing Herald readership) for the upcoming 2021 season?
(Ian): One of the key improvements is with the signal…we are out and about on a golf course bringing live coverage through the Cloud (rather than via cables). At times last season, one of the problems was connectivity. There is nothing more frustrating for the viewer when on those rare occasions we have a signal blackout. We think we now have a ‘bullet proof’ system so we can pretty much go anywhere on a golf course and not lose any of the quality. Also, last year we were broadcasting on YouTube but this year on YouTube you will be able to watch in High Definition, which is even better. Another aspect is bringing graphics onto the screen…it is very difficult to integrate Leaderboards and Scoreboards for what we do and perhaps that is something we will look at doing in the future. We now have about 27 Tournaments underneath our belts so we know what works and what doesn’t work aligned to our content strategy.
Co-Commentator
(Golfing Herald): During the live coverage last year you usually had a Professional golfer as a co-commentator (such as Aaron Cox or Charlotte Austwick) to provide a professional perspective of how a hole was playing, the contours and subtleties of a green, what a player might be thinking about a particular shot, etc…same again this season?
(Ian): Yeah…Aaron is going to be involved again this year. We have somebody special lined up for the first 2020protour event this year at Huddersfield Golf Club (on Monday 19th April) but I am not allowed to say who as there is an embargo!! This approach is another development for us…we can do it ourselves but it is much nicer to have a co-commentator and where possible we would like to have that sort of male-female dynamic. As you know the 2020protour events are all mixed gender and we want to showcase that as much as possible. It’s about showing more women’s golf as the men’s game gets so much attention on Sky…and the standard of the ladies golf on the 2020protour is absolutely incredible…the talent is just sensational.
(Golfing Herald): Absolutely…last year the 2020protour attracted golfers such as Ellie Givens, Rochelle Morris, Meghan MacLaren and Carly Booth who all play on the Ladies European Tour. With you mentioning you have somebody special lined up for the opening event, or should that be you are not mentioning by name who you have lined up, last year you had guests such as Andrew Murray, James Robinson and Rick Shiels.
(Ian): We had some wonderful people involved last year. One thing I am conscious of is that I am not a professional golfer…I am there to present the action and to give the viewers information so they know exactly what they are watching and what is going on and that is why I like to have someone like Charlotte or Aaron with me…they are professional golfers and bring that extra dimension to the overall coverage and provide detailed insight and analytics.
Identifiable
(Golfing Herald): We have focused on the 2020protour, but as the 2020 season unfolded ContentLIVE Golf also broadcasted several Clutch Pro Tour Events and the Faldo Series. One aspect they all had in common was that the Tournaments were played on golf courses that the club golfer can relate to and can identify with…what I mean is they have either played the course or in time they could have the opportunity to play the course, almost in direct contrast to the courses that stage the Majors and host the various Tours.
(Ian): And it’s nice for the courses as well. We have a good relationship with all of the Golf Clubs we broadcast from, and we usually broadcast to their (Facebook) pages as well….and we actively encourage that…let’s show your members what you are doing. The members of the various clubs get excited by the fact their course is hosting a Professional Tournament and they want to see the action as well. I must say a big thank you to all of the Golf Clubs and all their members as they do give up the course for most / all of the day. We like to pay them back (for hosting the events) by showing the broadcast and we like to provide information about the respective Golf Clubs as well. We do want people to go and visit the courses. And as you just said, I think all of the courses where we are broadcasting from for this year’s 2020protour you can book a tee time to play. How nice is that thinking “I have watched Professionals play this course and then go and play the course yourself?”.
Mixed Gender
(Golfing Herald): You are spot on…I had the opportunity to play a round of golf at Howley Hall Golf Club with Rochelle Morris a few months after your broadcast. It was the first time I had played there and several holes felt very familiar as a consequence of your coverage…and I have to say much harder than the Professionals made it look…well certainly based on the way I play!! Moving quickly on from my (lack of) golfing ability…you mentioned earlier how the 2020protour is a mixed-gender tour and I noted that ContentLIVE golf will also be covering the first-ever England U18 Mixed Gender Championship which is being played at Farnham Golf Club at the end of June.
(Ian): We were delighted to announce that event as part of our overall schedule for 2021. We are working closely with England Golf this year…and Farnham Golf Club means a lot to me as my Dad is a member there and he worked at the Club for a while. In fact, I am delighted to say that every single event we cover for the Clutch Pro Tour is mixed gender as are the seven Faldo Series events we will be covering this year. What a shift we are seeing in golf at the moment…all for the good, it really is.
Relationships
(Golfing Herald): Talking about the Faldo Series…I really enjoyed last year’s Faldo Series Wales Championship where there was some fantastic golf, including playoffs and your coverage of the final day was certainly well in excess of the minimum four hours you mentioned earlier!!
(Ian): It was our first Faldo Series event and so we wanted to start our coverage with the first tee shot at 07:00 and I think the final shot was about 12 hours later!! On the day there were five age categories…U16 girls, U21 girls, U16 boys, U18 boys and U21 boys…and the overall winner of the Wales Championship was Harriet Lockley, a U16 girl. It was absolutely fantastic to see…the future of golf is in such good hands.
(Golfing Herald): Certainly is…and I think Harriet also played (as an amateur) in one or two of the 2020protour events.
(Ian): Yeah…and in some ways, that sort of cross-pollination makes our life easier as we might be doing a Clutch Pro Tour event on a Thursday and a few of the players may have played in a 2020protour event on a Monday and so immediately, we have that relationship. I remember when Jacob Hassan won one of the majors on the Clutch Pro Tour we broadcast and he won a cheque for £10K. He is a lovely guy, only about 21 or so. After the event, he came up to me and said “Ian, I am buying you a beer”. Not only had he won such a large prize but his win also got him a start on the Challenge Tour and yet his first thought was to buy me a beer…and it is moments like that which really touch you where a player wants to thank you for covering and showcasing the event!!
Win-Win
(Golfing Herald): What a great example of where a golfer such as Jacob Hassan understands the concept of a ‘win win’ as a consequence of ContentLIVE Golf covering and promoting the various mini-tours in England.
(Ian): Exactly…and this is everything we stand for in that everybody has got to be a winner.
(Golfing Herald): A great way to finish. Ian, thanks so much for your time today and all the best for 2021 and beyond…I am really looking forward to watching your coverage, starting with the 2020protour at Huddersfield Golf Club, which should be a brilliant season opener looking at the quality of the field.
(In February 2022, ContentLIVE Golf was rebranded Live Golf Now … to find out more information and to watch live golf on a variety of platforms then please visit Live Golf Now)
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