Production Work In Sports Media Presents Rewarding Career Opportunities For Matt Chisamore-Robert

1What do you see as the future in the growing in the world of sports media as the industry continues to change and evolve? How are you positioning yourself to adapt to the constant changes?

That’s the million dollar question right?

First and foremost for digital, I've been in this industry for 12 years now and the amount of change I've seen in that time, which is really just a snapshot of the industry as a whole, has been profound.

So I think as audiences become more and more fragmented and difficult to find, you have to fish where the fish are, and the fish aren't where they used to be.

I think you have to meet people where they are and on their terms. Give them content that is consumable in terms of their content. 

For example, appointment television is long since dead I would argue. You have people who are watching tv but doing it with two screens so how do we engage them that way?

How do we get people to consume Sportsnet’s news offerings when they’re unlikely to stick around until 10pm to wait for Sportsnet Central?

It’s a constantly evolving battle. I think the amount of focus on data in terms of people’s consumption habits and the metrics that define what is a success and a failure is always changing and we have to be in front of that. 

To answer the second part of your question, how do I navigate that? You have to have a team that is flexible, lean and ready to pivot on a moment’s notice.

As we’ve seen with the way the industry has gone, you can't afford to be shackled down by legacy workflows. It's important to at least be adaptable with the trends and also try to anticipate and be ahead of them.

I think that’s been my biggest challenge is that we’re feeding the audience what they want when they want it and where they are.

It's a challenge that keeps me up at night for many nights.

My title is production manager at Sportsnet so what I do is oversee a group of supremely talented content creators.

Our team’s mandate is to research, write, edit, produce, sometimes lend our personalities or voices to highlight driven content for a variety of platforms.

That includes linear, broadcast, non-linear, all of our digital, social, and YouTube for example. Anything you see on any of Sportsnet’s platforms that has an element of highlights or is highlight driven, odds are it comes from our department. 

On a day-to-day basis, you’re fighting that balance of staffing games accordingly if there are 13 hockey games and 8 NBA games on in one night.

We have to make sure that we’re creating compelling highlight stories for those for all of our platforms and our partners. But also we have to make sure that we have social media components and that we’re blasting things out in real time.

We have to combine that with some of our long term stretch assignments. We have some franchises that we do on YouTube, some stuff for Sportsnet.ca so when you’re in the thick of a busy hockey night, you’re trying to just stay afloat.

You need to take care of your deliverables and move on to the next thing.

We’re also trying to balance that with some long standing meaningful project. A day is controlled chaos I’d say.

As for myself, I have a team of managers beneath me and a highly talented group who can work independently to a high standard. But it's a matter of managing, delegating and being a facilitator because my team just represents a fraction of the Sportsnet operation. 

There’s a whole lot of symmetry and we have to make sure that there’s synergy to our content offerings and that we’re supporting all of our platforms and doubling up on our work. So it’s that sort of thing.

No day really looks the same, you have to be ready for anything. That’s the great thing about sports. There’s always something to talk about, good, bad or otherwise.

3Did you always want to be in this field? When did you decide sports media was your career focus? Would former teachers and/or friends be surprised that this was your career direction and focus?

No, to be honest, I’m not the best model for aspiring journalists to follow.

I got a Bachelor of Arts in media specialization, so I knew I wanted to be in the arts. I knew I wanted to do something a little more creative.

I knew I wasn't necessarily well suited to a 9-5 banker job but I completely fell into television.

Initially, I wanted to be a sports writer, I thought maybe when I graduated I could have a sports column or something like that. I graduated and had a bit of trouble finding a job, as often people do.

Randomly through an acquaintance, someone said that they did freelance work at Sportsnet. They told me to give them my resume and that they’d pass it on.

To be honest, I watched Sportsnet on TV incessantly but I’d never given a lot of thought as to what goes on behind the camera or behind the scenes.

I said sure, I have nothing to lose and that was 12 years ago so I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. 

While it wasn’t my stated goal where I wanted to land, I understand that it’s hard to get into the industry.

There are challenges but it’s supremely rewarding and the fact that you get to come to work every single day and do something different, quite impactful and entertain people especially with what’s going on now where people are looking for reasons to smile, be entertained or escape it’s very rewarding.

4What are some of the big creative challenges you face with content creation?

I think one of the challenges is speed. People aren’t gonna wait around for news.

If they’re not getting it from you, they’re gonna get it from someone who’s giving it to them quicker.

So from a content creation standpoint, we’re always mindful that we want to entertain a certain level of production value since you’re representing yourself and the brand, your partners in the NHL, MLB or whatever it happens to be.

But you have to be quick, so it's about navigating that balance between making this as good, compelling and engaging as I possibly can while also acting with speed.

Sometimes those two things don’t often work together so it's about finding that middle ground.

That’s why I say the emphasis on being first, or primacy I guess, is a challenge that sometimes we have to wrestle with in terms of how the product looks, sounds, feels because sometimes you just gotta get it out there.