By Drew Ossakow ('11)
After intermingling with alumni at lunch, we entered into the classroom in Grover Center to listen to the final session of the afternoon. Earlier in the day we had been treated to wonderful presentations by Chad Estis (‘94) and Debbie Antonelli (’88) which would make it tough for anyone to follow up. However, this year’s 2010 distinguished alumnus David Johnston's (’98) speech was one to remember. Johnston, who serves as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for CBS Collegiate Sports Properties, spoke to the audience about his experiences in the collegiate multimedia rights holder industry.
He began by going over the structure of CBS Collegiate Sports Properties, which has been around for over 30 years. What drew Johnston to CBS was the entrepreneurial nature of the company. It currently holds 12 contracts with the newest to the family being Mountain West Sports Properties. CBS is very strategic in the way it approaches the selection process for each new property. Once they are chosen, each of these separate entities is given the leeway so that each general manager can run his or her property the way they see fit.
The money flow of the industry is an important facet when trying to understand CBS’s business model. Traditionally the sponsor pays an agency that goes out and finds a property representative that will help align the sponsor with a specific property to aid in accomplishing advertising goals. Companies such as CBS or ISP work as representatives on behalf of the property to produce, distribute, and sell a property’s media and corporate sponsorship assets. This is what Johnston considers the Revenue-Value model.
However, why would a sports organization give up their multimedia rights when they could provide that function in-house? That is a challenge not only for CBS but its competitors as well. Johnston’s response to this is that, “multimedia partners must add value to the Revenue-Value model and throughout the property’s business enterprise.” As a multimedia rights holder you have to show the organization that outsourced this function to you their return on investment on the deal. For colleges, the positives are that it provides the athletic department with financial stability and employees who once dealt with sponsorships can now focus on other functions such as marketing or ticket sales.
Today, there are very few BCS schools who handle their own multimedia rights because as Johnston put it the industry is simply a “risky business”. There are so many companies now that offer expertise in this area that schools no longer have to worry about the quality of work. The market is now saturated and has become difficult to maneuver because of the nature of the long term contracts signed by schools. A question that Johnston posed was how do you continue to generate new revenue without adding a new property. He jokingly kept his answer mysterious as alumni who work for CBS’ competitor, ISP Sports, were in the crowd, but he did mention that they are looking into IMG’s testing of including ticketing within their business model.
At the conclusion of the speech the question was asked “how has the Ohio University sports administration program helped you professionally”? Johnston made it known that without Ohio University he would not be where he is today in his career. In return he has shown his loyalty towards the program by giving back and assisting many others get their start in the sports industry. While there is no specific criteria to be named the Charles R. Higgins Distinguished Alumni, if you are looking for a text book definition search no further than Johnston.
