Op-ed column -ESPN and the Caribbean: the business story unfolds

Tony Deyal, Columnist

High up in the top tier of the Trelawny stadium in Jamaica, I sat watching Shaka Hislop, Russell Latapy, Robbie Earle and some other football coaches working with about 100 young boys and girls.

While I admired their commitment and enthusiasm, I was even more impressed by their courage under fire - braving the extreme midday heat without wilting.

I was waiting for an opportunity to interview Bernard Stewart, the vice-president of ESPN responsible for its Caribbean operations and maritime media.

ESPN Caribbean was launched in December 2008 and its first Caribbean foray was the coverage of the Regional T20 tournament.

I normally would not pay much attention, or give much credibility, to anyone whose initials are 'BS', but Bernard Stewart is different.

He was one of the 43 people with ESPN when it started in 1980. Before he took over the new Caribbean thrust, Stewart was vice-president and general manager of ESPN Asia Pacific.

He is also the author of The Fifty/50 Rule: Guide to a Successful Working Life Balance.

I had met him the day before at the Half Moon resort where the soccer clinic was launched and where Stewart decided to talk about ESPN Caribbean.

He made the point that his job in the Caribbean is easier than it was in Asia, where he had to sell people on what ESPN was.

He argued that since we in the Caribbean all know ESPN, particularly late in the night when it is the only show in town, he is concentrating on what ESPN can do for us individually and collectively.

His first major foray into what he calls "telling the stories that need to be brought out" and "getting the kinds of stories that sports fans want" was broadcasting the regional T20 tournament in the top ESPN markets, especially in the Asia Pacific and North American regions.

The first thing I asked Stewart was why ESPN was interested in the Caribbean. My own experience in trying to market cricket globally was that most people considered the region too small and were really not interested.

Yet,
here was ESPN with a dedicated Caribbean channel and spending money in
community activities with the promise of more to come in terms of
expanding the programme to the rest of Jamaica and the region.

"After
I spent 10 years in Asia and returned to the ESPN headquarters, we had
to decide on what would be my next assignment," said Stewart.

"Given
my experience, it had to be something strong and challenging. In
looking at the options, the Caribbean came up. We realised how important
it had become to our overall portfolio."

There
are three components of the ESPN strategy - covering the sports stories
in the region and increasing the existing market for ESPN in the
region, getting involved with the cruise-ship business the way the major
television networks in the United States have their programming niches
in the airline industry, and reaching as well as involving the people of
the diaspora in the United States, Canada and Britain. This changes the
market from about three million viewers to at least 20 million, maybe
much more, especially with cricket which caters to the vast and
insatiable demand for the sport in Asia.

Menu of sports

Stewart said people were interested in a menu of sports, with athletics, football and cricket being the top three.

"We
are trying with the clinic to find out what goes on inside the schools.
We asked athletes, what was your strongest dream as a child? Their
overwhelming response was "going to a high school stadium and playing
before a capacity audience at a high- school event'. My question is, can
I get them back to that?" said the ESPN executive.

Down below me, the aspiring Reggae Boyz and Girlz were learning to take shots on goal, so I tried one from outside.

"What
about SportsMax?" I asked. From the height of the ESPN domination of
world sports coverage, he was entitled to reply, 'Who?', but he did not.

"They're
an important part of the local and regional scene," Stewart conceded.
"We complement each other. We're free to air. From the viewer's
standpoint, we offer an international array of options. In the
Caribbean, we will be working with local partners like Flow and this
will force each of us to make our products better. Consumers are very
focused on value for money and that is what we will provide to the
Caribbean, as we have to the rest of the world."

I took the complimentary bit with a grain of salt. This is business and while it might be all sports, it is not free of games.

As
I watched from the back row of the stands, with Stewart in close-up and
the youngsters and their coaches in the distance, the sweat glistening
on them, I realised that ESPN had already charted a course that was
two-pronged - get the big sports like cricket and football on the big
screen, and apply some money and interest in the development of youth
sports.

However,
the Caribbean is not an easy place to work. Even though English is the
common language, every island, every piece of sand and rock, is a nation
entire unto itself and guards its sovereignty jealously.

When you get closer, the same word has different meanings in each country.

In
cricket, you cannot just deal with the West Indies Cricket Board
(WICB); you also have to negotiate with the West Indies Players'
Association (WIPA) which has the final say on timing and venues, as well
as with all the different countries, since the WICB owns nothing - not
even a roller or a mower - except the right to manage West Indies
cricket.

There
are issues of piracy. In Antigua, my cable subscriber does not have
ESPN Caribbean since it pirates the ESPN signal out of the US, and there
are other providers doing the same thing in the other countries.

Then there is the need for getting advertising support, and that is the only way that ESPN can continue with the service.

Stewart constantly made the point that the business model must be profitable.

One
of the challenges to ensure the financial success of ESPN Caribbean is
getting the diaspora outposts aware, on board and getting what they want
to see.

In
football, there is Jack Warner and, given his recent fallout with the
board of Caribbean Airlines Limited - he is the line minister - it is
not all plain sailing.

I
suppose that we have to ask whether ESPN's interest in football for one
part of Jamaica, and its insistence that the programme will eventually
spread through the Caribbean, is all PR or for real.

This
leads to the next question: What are ESPN's chances of success in its
plans for the region and for the diaspora? If the money and support are
there, if the cruise ships and the diaspora folk get on board, and some
regional conglomerates buy into ESPN Caribbean, I would think it is
better than Bernard Stewart's book title - more than 'fifty/50'.

I would give it odds of about '80/20' and falling fast.

tdeyal@yahoo.co.uk