Online-First Open Media Playbook
Design the experience for capture, remixing, and distributed reach
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 99%
The Online-First Open Media Playbook begins with production architecture rather than adding cameras after an event is designed. Venues become stages with multiple angles, strong connectivity, and workflows for rapid clipping. The organization licenses premium live feeds where appropriate but deliberately leaves selected angles and reproduction rights open for creators, commentators, and fans. Those participants translate one event into many formats and communities across platforms. The approach balances monetization with distribution: scarce or polished experiences can remain paid, while remixable source material drives cultural reach. Success is measured across the wider content ecosystem, not solely through official-channel views.
Origin
Extracted from Marketing Against The Grain during a discussion of how a new league could avoid inherited sports-broadcast conventions.
Core principles
- 01Production infrastructure should be designed into the venue
- 02Selective openness can create more value than restrictive licensing
- 03Creators multiply distribution when they can remix source material
- 04The in-person and online experiences should reinforce each other
How to run it
- 1
Build the production stage
Design venues, lighting, camera positions, audio, and connectivity around both live attendance and digital capture.
Pro tip Plan for vertical clips and creator commentary as well as the primary broadcast.
Watch out Retrofitting production later can make useful angles expensive or impossible.
- 2
Tier the feeds
Choose which polished feeds remain licensed and which camera angles or clips are openly available.
Pro tip Keep enough premium scarcity to support revenue while releasing enough material to encourage experimentation.
Watch out Do not make permissions ambiguous.
- 3
Enable remixing
Give creators practical access and permission to add commentary, edits, reactions, and new formats.
Pro tip Provide source files and simple usage rules.
Watch out Excessive licensing friction will suppress the distribution you are trying to create.
- 4
Measure ecosystem reach
Track official broadcasts, derivative views, creator participation, audience growth, and conversion together.
Pro tip Reward creators who repeatedly introduce valuable new audiences.
Watch out Official-channel metrics alone will understate the strategy’s impact.
In the wild
A league sells its produced broadcast while releasing selected court-level angles for approved public remixing. Streamers add commentary, short-form creators cut dramatic moments, and fans publish tactical breakdowns.
→ One competition reaches multiple audiences without requiring the league to produce every content format itself.
Common mistakes
Over-licensing the content
Maximizing control too early prevents creators from generating the reach an unknown property needs.
Opening everything indiscriminately
Without feed tiers and clear rules, the organization may erase premium value or create rights conflicts.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for emerging live properties that need audience growth more than maximum short-term rights revenue.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when contractual, privacy, or safety requirements prohibit third-party reproduction.
From the transcript
“I would make pickleball stadiums like stages, and I'd have them fully produced with all these different cameras and everything and make it feel like…”
“And one of the things I would do is I'd have a few camera angles that were open and free to anybody to remix to…”
“I would not over license my content.”
From the episode
CMO for the Day: Marketing Pickleball