Sky Sports has boosted its social media presence for England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) cricket this year with the addition of a dedicated social media journalist. While in recent years it always had a digital journalist on site, this is the first time it has added a person dedicated to social media.
Comments Liz Thorne, Sky Sports’ senior production manager in the cricket team, on what would previously happen, and what has been added for this year’s cricket season: “[A digital journalist] would always have come on onsite with us. They would have always accessed things like the commentator feed. Our content team are very good at flagging funny moments or interesting moments or exciting moments through to that team, where they can package up what’s actually been on TV and put that on social media.
“But what is new this year is that there is a specific journalist for social media with us onsite at the test matches, alongside the other digital journalist. They are now with us on site at all the test matches, and will be on site for a lot more of The Hundreds.”
Social media frenzy
That journalist almost has the run of the grounds in their bid to feed the social media frenzy that builds up around a test match or Hundred match day. Thorne comments: “They have access to our commentators; they have access to the commentary rooms. They sometimes sit in the media centre with the press, but they’ll be out and about down by the pitch, they’ll be getting different viewpoints.
“I follow quite a lot on TikTok – I love TikTok! – so you can see them going out filming bespoke content and vertical content for those platforms,” she adds. “It’s great to have them on site with us.”
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The social media journalists have spoken to the Sky Sports team about what they are trying to achieve, and the cricket crew are completely behind that goal as they seek to increase the numbers of younger viewers.
Says Thorne: “We had a really long sit-down meeting where the social media digital journalists came and spoke to the content team and the production team as a whole about what they were trying to achieve, and showed us some of the figures that they’ve had over the last couple of years. We’re super happy to support that and give them what they need in terms of accessing that younger generation and people that are more interested in instantaneous, maybe shorter clips.
“And that’s great around a test match because it’s difficult to understand,” continues Thorne. “[Test matches] last a long time, but if we can get people interested in it through those quicker, more instantaneous feeds on social media, that’s great.”
Hooked and engaged
Bridget Bremner, Sky Sports’ head of production for cricket, says that social media has the ability to keep new fans hooked and engaged with cricket after they have experienced a test match in the flesh: “I think that test match cricket is actually very sociable and I think when people go and experience it, that’s what probably brings them into [it more] and you start learning a little bit more about cricket. You could say this is cricket in its purest form, but actually offering customers a little bit more than what we know as straight test match cricket, converting those people from their [real life] experience, and bringing people in behind the scenes, works,” she says, referring to the social media journalist’s ability to go behind the scenes and capture exciting content not normally seen on linear TV.
Thorne continues on the captivating behind the scenes footage that works so well on social media: “We know that our viewers love to see what happens behind the scenes. They love to know that Stuart Broad [former England fast-bowler and Sky Sports commentator] got so excited about a wicket that he spilt cake all over his suit on his birthday. All these kind of things are really popular or work really well [on social media] and the teams do a great job of looking at our cameras.
“We have 40 different camera angles on site, and the viewer’s not seeing all of those all the time; we have a fabulous editor who works to put together the late cut at the end of every day where he has access to all these things, but also our social media teams have access to that. And I think in particular, giving them access to the comm cam to see how the commentators are interacting with each other during those times of commentary where you are watching the game – you’re hearing their voices, but you’re not seeing what they’re doing – I think it’s really great.
“It’s such a great way in [to cricket] and I love watching those clips as well,” Thorne continues. “When I’m working on site in a test match, I’m not necessarily watching everything that’s going on all the time because I have a job to do. But I love watching those behind-the-scenes clips [of the commentators]; they love to rib Nasser [Hussain, English cricket commentator and former player], they love to talk about the sartorial elegance of DK [Dinesh Karthik, Indian cricketer and commentator for Sky Sports], and all those kind of things are great. I think that really brings our viewers into that world and makes it more accessible for everyone.”
More young women
Bremner says The Hundred is definitely bringing more young female fans to the sport, who in turn will be tuning into social media for bite-sized updates. “It’s attracting more female viewers, more under 35s, which is fantastic for cricket,” she says. “Whether or not people have come in through The Hundred – which is a shorter, easier game to [understand] and maybe a more exciting way of learning about cricket and experiencing cricket – and converted from that to test match cricket and one day internationals, [it doesn’t matter].”
Adds Thorne: “We do know that the parity on The Hundred between showing every single women’s game on The Hundred alongside the men’s games has really translated into more young women being on site at cricket matches.”
Continues Thorne: “Definitely when I’m on site at a Hundred match, when I’m walking around the ground, you see a lot of young women there. You still see young men obviously at those games because they are accessible, but that route into accessing test matches would be go and watch a Hundred, then go and watch an IT20, then maybe go and watch a one-day international, and then come into the test matches. I think we will see that over the next few years, as that younger generation that have been enthused by The Hundred start coming through and watching more live cricket, [we’ll see] more clicks, more accessing highlights, more reels on the internet, and also through our on-demand services. It’s been really great to watch over the last few years.”
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