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Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio.

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Speaker 1: Hi everybody, I'm Jason Kelly, and I'm Mike Lynch and

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Barr. And this is the Bloomberg Business of

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Speaker 1: Sports podcast where we explore the big money issues in

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Speaker 1: the world of sports. So, guys, we love these topics

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Speaker 1: and these guests where it feels like worlds are colliding,

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Speaker 1: so many things coming together that we're interested in. And

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Speaker 1: today the perfect example of that, Bohn is with us.

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Speaker 1: He's the founder and CEO of Buzzer. It's a new

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Speaker 1: live sports streaming app keeping you up to date on

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Speaker 1: your favorite teams, players, topics and more. It has got

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Speaker 1: to call the list of backers and investors and interested

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Speaker 1: parties blue chip is the understatement of the year. Really

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Speaker 1: happy to have both with us. So, so, bo, let's

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Speaker 1: just get right down to it. What is this? Describe it.

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Speaker 1: You're in an elevator with Michael Jordan, who's an investor,

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Speaker 1: and he says, what do you do? What do you

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Speaker 1: tell him? Well, Buzzer, First, thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: having me here. Um, I feel obliged to say the

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Speaker 1: the cliche of longtime listener, first time so thanks so much, fellas. UM.

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Speaker 1: But Buzzer is a notification driven mobile platform for short

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Speaker 1: form live sports, personalized for fans. UM. What Buzzer essentially

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Speaker 1: does is it curates short form access to these live

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Speaker 1: moments UM where fans never have to miss these sports

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Speaker 1: moments that matter to them the most, and they can

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Speaker 1: access them via through their existing subscription or um micro

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Speaker 1: payment via hyper personalized mobile notifications. So if I had

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Speaker 1: the Buzzer app, my app would go off last night

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Speaker 1: and it would say my Detroit Tigers Boston Red Sox

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Speaker 1: score two, and I would say t he t he,

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Speaker 1: And then after that I would wonder our all kinds

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Speaker 1: of sports involved? I mean obviously the major ones baseball, football, basketball, hockey,

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Speaker 1: but are we talking about other sports as well, like

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Speaker 1: maybe skiing? Of course the Olympics as well. Absolutely, I

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Speaker 1: mean that is our vision to aggregate all sports rights

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Speaker 1: and really personalize access to those live moments that is

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Speaker 1: really shaped around a sports fan in their interests. We

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Speaker 1: currently have three league deals in place with the NBA,

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Speaker 1: PGA Tour UH and the NHL. UM. But you know

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Speaker 1: it is as I mentioned before, we aim to be

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Speaker 1: a multi sport aggregated platform that will serve and cater

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Speaker 1: to the fans of all sports UM, and the Olympics

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Speaker 1: is certainly a very relevant and topical example UM where

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Speaker 1: UM each individual event is played in seven different channels, right,

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Speaker 1: and so the need for curation and live discoverability of

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Speaker 1: these moments UH becomes more relevant and essential than ever.

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Speaker 1: And so you can certainly think about the broader impact

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Speaker 1: of this type of technology in the future of life sports.

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Speaker 1: See bo, I gotta get my licks in now against

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Speaker 1: Lynch because the Tigers may never win again. So this

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Speaker 1: is it for me. I mean, you're tied to a

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Speaker 1: Cubs fan in the last Oh man, it's been very um.

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Speaker 1: They say rebuild, um, and I'm trying to see the rebuild.

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Speaker 1: But um, you know, I'm I live in New York

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Speaker 1: and I have seen the Knicks rebuild for twenty some

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Speaker 1: years and so yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, bo, this

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Speaker 1: is Mike Lynch up in Boston. I'm gonna try to

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Speaker 1: heal that the paper cut that Michael Barr just threw

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Speaker 1: at me with his Detroit Tigers. You know, you've got

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Speaker 1: like a mount rushmore of investors. Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky,

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Speaker 1: Naomi Osaka, Patrick Mahomes, who did the pursuing and who

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Speaker 1: was the pursuing in each one of these investments. I

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Speaker 1: mean a lot of this has been just finding each other. Um.

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Speaker 1: But to directly answer your question, UM, you know, we

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Speaker 1: we started the fundraising process earlier this year, UM, when

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Speaker 1: everything was shut down. And the silver lining here is

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Speaker 1: that I was in the comfort in my own home, UM,

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Speaker 1: on a lot of zoom calls, and so when you

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Speaker 1: see the output, it's amazing. But the input, UM, please

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Speaker 1: believe me, I've gotten turned down more than you could imagine, right, UM.

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Speaker 1: But our incredible investors, you know, namely my childhood idol,

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Speaker 1: Michael Jordan's um Nao yosaka, Wayne Gretzky, LaMelo Ball, Devin

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Speaker 1: book or Saprino and ask you and the Patrick Mahomes

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Speaker 1: and the list goes on. UM. We've tried to focus

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Speaker 1: on younger athletes, with the exception of Michael Jordan and

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Speaker 1: Wayne Gretzky of course, so when I'm talking about Devin Booker,

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Speaker 1: LaMelo Ball, even j Cole, you know, we find that

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Speaker 1: the next generation of fans our player first. And so

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Speaker 1: when we sought out each of our investors, not only

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Speaker 1: are they powerful distribution channels of their own. They're also,

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Speaker 1: as we all know, powerful marketing channels UM. And so

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Speaker 1: we've been very UM intentional and focused on who we

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Speaker 1: partner with. UM. I will also uh, you know, talk

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Speaker 1: about our you know, Strive initiative, which is our commitment

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Speaker 1: to really level the uneven playing field and serve underserved communities,

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Speaker 1: namely communities of color UM. And that is really kind

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Speaker 1: of reflected in our not only our corporate structure UM,

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Speaker 1: our profit structure UM, as well as our consumer tools UM.

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Speaker 1: And so all of this kind of combined appealed to

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Speaker 1: UM a lot of our decorated investors because they are

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Speaker 1: not only in the content what that we're seeking out

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Speaker 1: to distribute, but they also really a lot nd with

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Speaker 1: the company values and mission that we want to really

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Speaker 1: drive forward. So UM the very long winded hips saying

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Speaker 1: that we found each other and I'm glad we did

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Speaker 1: because UM, you know, I am so excited about the

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Speaker 1: next upcoming months on what we are able to do together.

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Speaker 1: So both and fair warning, I'm gonna ask you sort

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Speaker 1: of a big existential question. I mean, it feels like

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Speaker 1: our entire relationship with media and sports has changed and

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Speaker 1: changed rapidly over the past few years in terms of

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Speaker 1: our relationship to individual athletes, our relationship to how we

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Speaker 1: consume sports, feather that in. Ay, I wonder if you agree.

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Speaker 1: I'm guessing you do. Um, but help me understand how

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Speaker 1: this this fits into sort of that that broader disruption

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Speaker 1: across the business world, factoring in you know, streaming versus broadcast,

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Speaker 1: factoring in mobile versus you know, more traditional television, written

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Speaker 1: things like that. Because this is I mean, this is

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Speaker 1: the nexus of all of it. It feels like absolutely,

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Speaker 1: And you know, we are very intentional about how we

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Speaker 1: how Buzzer is a compliment to the existing ecosystem and

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Speaker 1: not a disrupter um. And we've been very thoughtful and

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Speaker 1: mindful about the products that we build and how that

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Speaker 1: complements the existing ecosystem. But in terms of the challenges

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Speaker 1: and the problems that you've hinted out here, absolutely, you know,

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Speaker 1: I do agree. You know, there are three kind of

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Speaker 1: broad challenges that are happening. One is the decrease in

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Speaker 1: live viewership, especially amongst young, younger fans, right, and so

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Speaker 1: there is that exit, uh, that generational gap when it

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Speaker 1: comes to consumption of live sports. You have the older

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Speaker 1: generation that are still consuming live long form that's really

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Speaker 1: optimized for linear television. And then you have the younger

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Speaker 1: generation specifically Gen Z and younger millennials that are consumed

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Speaker 1: purely consuming highlights and clips that are optimized for TikTok, snapchat, Twitter,

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Speaker 1: Instagram right, and um during my time at Twitter at

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Speaker 1: a front row seed into that migration of consumption behavior

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Speaker 1: when it came to sports. Second is there's just a

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Speaker 1: lack of continent awareness due to the proliferation of subscription

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Speaker 1: video on demand services. You have ESPN Plus, Paramounts, Peacock,

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Speaker 1: um and so. So now even if we you know,

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Speaker 1: on top of our cable subscription, we're sitting on four

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Speaker 1: or five six different subscriptions, you know, if we include

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Speaker 1: HBO Max as well as Netflix, and so, you have

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Speaker 1: all these stand alone subscription services that don't talk to

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Speaker 1: one another, and so we as consumers don't know what

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Speaker 1: we're paying for anymore. We don't know what to find where, right,

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Speaker 1: and so curation discover ability of content, not only sports,

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Speaker 1: but just continent in general becomes very challenging. And then

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Speaker 1: third is this frequent piracy in my sports due to

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Speaker 1: high barriers of access. Um I um noted this in

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Speaker 1: my op ed on you know, the Sports Business Journal

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Speaker 1: a few weeks ago about how we are currently set

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Speaker 1: up where we are doing a better job of keeping

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Speaker 1: an audience out instead of content in. Right. Um. And

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Speaker 1: when you're looking at the market opportunity for the loss

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Speaker 1: due to piracy, UM, you know it's projected to be

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Speaker 1: around twenty eight billion dollars annually globally. Right. And so

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Speaker 1: that is another signal of how do we create easier access,

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Speaker 1: create different and innovative ways to monetize that access so

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Speaker 1: that piracy becomes an absolute last resort. Um. So that

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Speaker 1: kind of leads to what we're building at Buzzer. We're

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Speaker 1: building three products. As I mentioned, One is micro payments

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Speaker 1: meeting paper content that you want to watch and what

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Speaker 1: you want to watch only we don't want to compete

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Speaker 1: with any subscription products. We want to complement and so

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Speaker 1: if you have a subscription product we're building, are that

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Speaker 1: leads to our second product that we're building, which is

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Speaker 1: a unified authentication platform. What that just simply means is

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Speaker 1: you tell me what current subscriptions you have and authenticate

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Speaker 1: the subscriptions with me, and if uh, the live look

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Speaker 1: in falls within the rights that you already paid for.

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Speaker 1: It's free. If not, then you pay the micro payments.

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Speaker 1: And then third is creating a very timely and quick

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Speaker 1: hyper personalized mobile notifications. Simply put, you tell me what

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Speaker 1: you're interested in, and we'll let you know when those

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Speaker 1: interesting moments happen. And that certainly happens during the on

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Speaker 1: boarding process of Buzzard. You guys could change the way people,

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Speaker 1: even like me old geezers watch the NBA when it

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Speaker 1: starts up again next season, because you can just get

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Speaker 1: the last ten or fifteen minutes. The younger crowd seems

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Speaker 1: to think that I don't need this four quarter jazz.

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Speaker 1: Just give me the end of the game. And and

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Speaker 1: if I'm out, and I just want to see the

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Speaker 1: end of the game, and I got a bet on

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Speaker 1: the game. Uh, this seems like the way of the go.

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Speaker 1: Like you said, this is more towards the younger audience. Absolutely,

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Speaker 1: and and additively, we want to increase consumption of live

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Speaker 1: sports as a whole, right, And so how do we

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Speaker 1: you know? We we we find that die hard NBA

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Speaker 1: fans or MLB fans will watch full length live games,

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Speaker 1: But what about casual fans? What about the younger generation

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Speaker 1: that I like to call the House of highlights or

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Speaker 1: overtime generation. Right, this is a generation that is very

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Speaker 1: much trained to watch highlights and clips that are optimized

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Speaker 1: for social channels. Not because they don't like live sports.

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Speaker 1: It's just that the barrier of life sports is way

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Speaker 1: too high, right, and so um if we create an

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Speaker 1: easier access, a barrier free access, with a nominal way

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Speaker 1: of paying for that access, I do think that net

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Speaker 1: you'll have an increase in audience as well as an

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Speaker 1: additional revenue channel that that complements to be existing subscription ecosystem.

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Speaker 1: I might also add that micropayments over time should justify

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Speaker 1: the economics of the subscription. We're just targeting a different

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Speaker 1: set of audience, right, And so in many ways, when

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Speaker 1: you see the proliferation of spots, we want to be

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Speaker 1: the compliment. We want to be that le gent tool

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Speaker 1: and marketing partner for a lot of the subscription video

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Speaker 1: on demands services that networks out. Hey bo, When I

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Speaker 1: was a sportscaster here in Boston, I would tell my

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Speaker 1: interns when they were logging an NBA game, just don't

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Speaker 1: write anything down to the last five minutes because that's

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Speaker 1: basically what we get of our highlights. It sounds like

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Speaker 1: you're going head to head for the with the sportscast

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Speaker 1: on the ten to eleven o'clock news. Is that a

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Speaker 1: fair assessment. What we're trying to do is addressed an

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Speaker 1: audience that's not addressable by linear television. So I would

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Speaker 1: argue that it is a completely net new audience, right,

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Speaker 1: and so gen Z and younger millennials, Um, let's just

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Speaker 1: you know, think about your kids. You know, if you

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Speaker 1: are watching that ten to eleven o'clock show that recaps

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Speaker 1: the day of sports, your kids are probably sitting next

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Speaker 1: to you looking down, right. And so for us is

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Speaker 1: how do we engage them while they're looking down on

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Speaker 1: their phones? Um, you know, as with all pieces of

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Speaker 1: it's highly frequent, but shore form. And so how do

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Speaker 1: they already consume other pieces of content? So BO help

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Speaker 1: us understand also how you fit into you know, some

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Speaker 1: of the newer platforms. You worked with our our pal

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Speaker 1: a guest on this show obviously Twitter has a lot

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Speaker 1: of ambitions as it relates to sports, which you know

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Speaker 1: as well as anyone. Uh, you know, you guys have

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Speaker 1: figured in, I believe, discord into your offering, Like, help

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Speaker 1: us understand, especially as you as you describe, you know,

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Speaker 1: reaching this new audience, how you fit into You know,

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Speaker 1: I have teenagers, and I know that their suite of

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Speaker 1: both you know, streaming subscriptions those of course I pay for,

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Speaker 1: but they also have a bunch of free things that

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Speaker 1: that they've got in terms of how they consume content,

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Speaker 1: whether it's TikTok or Instagram or what have you. So

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Speaker 1: help us understand how you fit into to that kind

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Speaker 1: of ecosystem. Absolutely, and that's a great question. I mean,

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Speaker 1: um to refer back to my time at Twitter. You know,

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Speaker 1: my good friend t J would always say how Twitter

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Speaker 1: is the world's largest sports bar, and and I would

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Speaker 1: also think, you know, I started thinking that's great, and

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Speaker 1: we're in this world's largest sports bar. But what if

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Speaker 1: you can't see the TV while you're at the sports

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Speaker 1: are all us can hear is the roar and the excitement, right,

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Speaker 1: And so what Buzzer is is allows you to actually

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Speaker 1: access that that live game that you can't see, right.

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Speaker 1: And so the best way to describe what buzzer is

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Speaker 1: that the technology is that we're the last mile tech

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Speaker 1: for live in e femeral moments in sports. And so

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Speaker 1: if we are able to really develop and perfect that technology,

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Speaker 1: I think we can be a compliment and partner to anyone. Right.

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Speaker 1: And so think about Twitter, where things are happening live, Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, how do we monetize the ending moments that

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Speaker 1: people are talking about um, you know on Twitter? Right?

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Speaker 1: How do we meet them at TikTok or at Reddit

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Speaker 1: where uh, these discussions are happening, right? And so our

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Speaker 1: broader goal is really tapping into the existing communities while

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Speaker 1: fostering our own right. And so it's been very cool

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Speaker 1: to just see that Discord community really come alive. Um.

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Speaker 1: A lot of younger sports fans, uh, specifically gen Z

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Speaker 1: sports fans are utilizing our Buzzer Beaks channel within Discord

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Speaker 1: to discover what events are happening when and at what

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Speaker 1: time and what channel. So we've just simply served as

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Speaker 1: a discovery utility for for anyone who is passionate about

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Speaker 1: the Olympics. Um. So that's been very uh, just cool

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Speaker 1: to see that community grow purely organically simply because of

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Speaker 1: the pure utility around discovery of live content. And I

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Speaker 1: want to go back more to the generations involved. I'm

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Speaker 1: the old linear TV generation, but the streaming services over

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Speaker 1: the next decade or so, it seems like this is

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Speaker 1: going to be just the one that's going to explode,

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Speaker 1: Which brings me to media rights. If I'm a TV

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Speaker 1: executive and I see the younger audience months to go

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Speaker 1: in the direction that you're going, why would the TV

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Speaker 1: executive pay big time bucks for the the go four

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Speaker 1: quarters for the NBA when they can go to you

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Speaker 1: and and pick up what the younger crowd is going

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Speaker 1: to go to your app for. Absolutely, And that's a

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Speaker 1: great question. Um. That's why I think Buzzer is a

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Speaker 1: great will be gent tool for a lot of these

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Speaker 1: uh subscription video on demand services that a lot of

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Speaker 1: you know networks have, right, you have ESPN, BUSS, Peacock, um,

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Speaker 1: you know whatever you Discovery and Herner is going to

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Speaker 1: call theirs as well as Paramount plus. Um. A quick example,

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Speaker 1: say that Christiano Ronaldo is about to kick a penalty kick.

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Speaker 1: You hear about that on Twitter? Um, you know it's

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Speaker 1: behind an ESPN plus paywall. Right. Um, At that given moment,

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Speaker 1: you as a consumer can either choose to subscribe, which

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Speaker 1: I you know in that moment I doubt you would um,

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Speaker 1: or you'll just wait and watch the highlighter clip on Twitter. Right.

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Speaker 1: And so I think the status quo is that people

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Speaker 1: are resorting to the clipper highlight on Twitter. Of course,

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Speaker 1: the sub numbers have been very powerful on the ESPN

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Speaker 1: plus front, but in terms of targeting an audience that

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Speaker 1: normally would not subscribe, UM, I would argue that your

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Speaker 1: kids are not your typical subscribing generation. Right. Um, look

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Speaker 1: at the gaming industry. The gaming industry is not driven

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Speaker 1: by subscription. It's driven by digital goods. Others known as

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Speaker 1: micropayments are transactions, and so I think it's very important

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Speaker 1: to behave in a way that the future generation is behaving. Um.

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Speaker 1: And and also you know rightfully, so the TV networks

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Speaker 1: so for us is how do we augment that engagement live?

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Speaker 1: How do we bring a net new audience as well

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Speaker 1: as incremental revenue to these networks? Um? That is not

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Speaker 1: addressable by linear television. So I would go back to

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Speaker 1: this whole notion around how do we drive net new

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Speaker 1: audience as well as incremental revenue. Well, I want to

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Speaker 1: circle back to a Strive just at the beginning of

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Speaker 1: this conversation. You you're briefly touched on it, but I

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Speaker 1: really think it's it's it's worth mentioning and worth revenue.

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Speaker 1: Just sort of expand a little bit more on and

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Speaker 1: what Strive is actually aimed at. Absolutely, UM. I mean

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Speaker 1: I'm personally uh, I'm a son of a preacher man

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Speaker 1: and I've you know, my pastor dad has always taught

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Speaker 1: me that UM, the foundation that you set anything UM

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Speaker 1: will determine your steps in the future. And so for

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Speaker 1: us being born during the pandemic, you know, we started

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Speaker 1: Buzzer in January, We've gone through to fundraising rounds during

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Speaker 1: the pandemic. We've built a company and culture and team

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Speaker 1: around a social and racial reckoning in this country, and

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Speaker 1: so it was incredibly important for us to really build things.

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Speaker 1: You have build our company and team the right way,

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Speaker 1: in a mindful way, and so UM Strive. Our first

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Speaker 1: product was a Strive Summer Mentorship Opportunity where program where

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Speaker 1: we paired five mentors from the sports, entertainment and media community,

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Speaker 1: please know that I will hit all you guys up

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Speaker 1: to be mentors next summer UM and we connected UH

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Speaker 1: you know, these notable mentor with five black college students

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Speaker 1: primarily from HBCUs and the outcome, the tangible impacted outcome

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Speaker 1: that we have seen just simply from creating access too,

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Speaker 1: you know, two amazing individuals and mentors has just been

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Speaker 1: one of the most rewarding experiences today. UM. While Billian

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Speaker 1: Buzzer and so UM, it really prompted us to go

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Speaker 1: back to how our company is set up, and so

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Speaker 1: Strive really and really reflects one percent of our cat

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Speaker 1: table and our company that will never be diluted regardless

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Speaker 1: of the future rounds dedicated towards advancing UM, underrepresented underserved

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Speaker 1: communities that have been traditionally under invested UM and undervalued.

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Speaker 1: We're also dedicating one percent of our net profits to

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Speaker 1: those efforts as well as we are deploying UH early

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Speaker 1: next year customer participation where our users are able to

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Speaker 1: round up their micro payments UH to dedicate towards efforts

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Speaker 1: as well. So again, you know, for us, you know

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Speaker 1: it's all about UM. You know, you do well because

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Speaker 1: you do good first, and so that I'm proud that

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Speaker 1: that is our foundation, that is who we are UM

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Speaker 1: and UM again. You know, I think that our investors

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Speaker 1: and our future teammates UH choose us because first because

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Speaker 1: they align with their values and our mission and our goals. Well, Bo,

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Speaker 1: it's been really good getting to know you a bit.

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Speaker 1: We appreciate the time and we know it's busy as

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Speaker 1: you continue to ramp up this company. The company is

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Speaker 1: called Buzzer. The CeON founder is Bohan Both. Thank you

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Speaker 1: so much, really good to catch up. Yeah, thank you

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Speaker 1: so much. And a quick t s A. Well, we'll

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Speaker 1: launch the general g a launch mid October, so please

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Speaker 1: be on the lookout for that aligned with the new

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Speaker 1: NBA season. So excited for that general launch. And thank

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Speaker 1: you gents for the Thank you sir. This is the

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast. I'm Michael Barr. Find me

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Speaker 1: on Twitter at Big Bar Sports, and I'm Mike Linch.

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Speaker 1: You can follow me at Lynch e w CVB. And

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Speaker 1: I'm Jason Kelly find me at Jason Kelly News. We're

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Speaker 1: here each and every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday talking about

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Speaker 1: the world of money and sports. Join us again at

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Speaker 1: the end of the week. We're going to catch up

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Speaker 1: with PGA Tour Commissioner j Monaghan, lot going on the

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Speaker 1: womb of though. You're listening to Bloomberg Business of Sports

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Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio around the world and online wherever you

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Speaker 1: get your podcasts.