With a summer of the Euros, Olympics and Paralympics coming up, what social impact can Live Sports TV have on our world?

With a background in charity and sport, Jack Eatherley, the Founder and Consultant of Do/Social, former Head of Community Investment at Sky and Trustee of Together TV has plenty to say on the social impact of media, especially when related to sports.

Francesca Aita, Head of Marketing at Together TV, joins Jack for a cuppa to discuss the social effects in media and sports and how Do/Social helps individuals and organisations improve their impact.

Francesca Aita, Head of Marketing at Together TV: Would you like to share your professional path and the roles you have had over the years?

Jack Eatherley, Founder and Consultant of Do/Social: After I finished an arts degree at Goldsmiths, I got an opportunity to join a charity named Street League. Street League was set up by a doctor to help at risk young adults by providing regular sports. I was given the opportunity to grow it and develop it from scratch. I spent four amazing years there and then I went to Brazil to do similar work, using sports and arts as a tool supporting homeless adults.
When I returned back to England, and got an opportunity to join Sky, I was asked to develop and grow a sports initiative that worked in schools. Sky was very ahead of its time with social purpose. There was a real focus on social initiatives and how a media company could play its part in solving those challenges.
During my time at Sky, I focused on an array of community investment initiatives, sports participation programmes and strategies to improve diversity and inclusion. I saw first-hand how partnerships between the private and charitable sector could maximise social impact with each bringing valuable skills and expertise.

Francesca: Is there an initiative you feel most proud of?

Jack: I think there are two. The first one was Sky Sports Living for Sport, which is the school's initiative I mentioned before. We worked with a brilliant team at the Youth Sport Trust to eventually reach a third of all secondary schools. We had over 120 athletes mentoring children in schools, and over half a million children took part. It was something I was really proud of, and I’ll always look back on it as a successful initiative.
Recently, there was an initiative which I led on a much smaller scale, to improve off-field diversity in football. We worked with Kick it Out and the University of Liverpool, to fund and set up an MBA scholarship, taking some of the best talent from underrepresented communities in the UK and giving them an opportunity to fast track their careers. Looking back now, since I left Sky, the team there continues to do that brilliant work. I think that's the interesting part about the work, you don’t see always the results immediately, sometimes it’s years later you can see the impact of work.

Francesca: Was there a challenging moment that you learned a lot from?

Jack: I think one of the challenges with the field that I'm in like many others is that it needs resources and cash investment and when there are challenges around it needs to stand up and prove its worth in the short term. Unfortunately, with long term social impact and reputational work this can sometimes be a challenge. If leadership changes, priorities might change. Where that clashes with a social impact initiative is that you often need to be doing these for multiple years to create the impact and understandably there sometimes isn't the patience for that.
I have had experience of having to stop things, which was very difficult. Social impact initiatives need to align with what the company is doing and what it's about. It goes back to understanding how that company is unique, successful and, for the most part, profitable. If you can understand that clearly, it’s going to help you create and ultimately protect the sustainability of your social impact strategies.

Francesca: You have started a new consultancy called Do/Social. Why did you feel the need to create Do/Social and why do you think it’s important for the industry?

Jack: I set up Do/Social to help both individuals and organisations design and develop social impact initiatives. As long as I can remember I have always loved setting up social projects and after being taught by so many inspiring people in my career it felt like the right time to share the process and practice of what I have learnt.
Depending on the brief, the work that we're doing can run across a number of things like designing strategy, developing initiatives, reviewing and understanding what they're already doing, and why they're doing it. It’s so fun! Every company, leadership group and challenge is different. I’m a creative at heart and I love understanding what’s really important. One thing that links it all is the people.

Francesca: In January 2024, NBC hosted the first-ever exclusive live stream of NFL and the Wild Card Playoff became the most streamed programme in history. You’ve worked on leveraging sport to make social impact programmes in a TV environment. What are your thoughts on the centrality of sport on social impact?

Jack: Sport isn’t going anywhere, it's more popular than it's ever been! In itself it’s about creating a social impact bringing fans together, to watch it, play it, fall in love with it and follow it. It's always been a fabric of the community in the UK and across the world. Television is more accessible now than ever before. There’s more choice and ways to watch. That fuels the passion and the love of sport, but also the money and investment in sport. It's only going in one direction in terms of growth.
From a media company perspective, if you do it brilliantly, you are bringing your audience with you. With the NBC example, you’re reaching more people and inspiring more people to watch and engage. Once you have engagement in mass you then find yourself in a really privileged postion to go further and create deeper social impact if you so choose.
If nothing else, sport already creates a social impact in terms of bringing people together through a passion. It's exactly the same at Together TV, in that you have an opportunity to shine a light on some brilliant things happening and get awareness up and drive action. I feel strongly that all media organisations have an opportunity to do that and can always do it better.

Francesca: You were on Together TV’s board for six years, why did you take the role?

Jack: Together TV chimes with everything I believe in. It was a tangible case study of an organisation authentically using the media platform to do good. It was really exciting. I was lucky to be invited to join that group. It was at the heart of the media industry in the UK with connections to different broadcasters. It was a brilliant opportunity to help support it. I could give insight from the other side of the fence about what it could do and how it could help. I loved every moment of being involved.

Francesca: Now that you have stepped back, what do you think the space Together TV has in the media ecology?

Jack: I definitely think there's space. Frankly, I'm surprised that there aren’t more organisations set up to do exactly this. I remember us realising that an older demographic group was being left behind in the move from analogue to digital TV. They were still turning the TV on and being inspired by the content that they watched. The job was to figure out how to support and engage this older group. The work that you did there was instrumental to that. Together TV looked after that group really well.
As part of the board, we helped streamline where Together TV could have the biggest impact and how to get people to believe in it.
Together TV has been a powerful tool for inspiring particular sections of society. I think broadcasters and platforms should invest more in Together TV to enable them to continue to do their work authentically on their behalf.

Francesca: Do you think companies are ready to embark on a social impact journey alongside their business or do they need to educate themselves first?

Jack: I believe social impact shouldn’t be alongside but driven by their business and be inseparable from it. There's definitely a need for education to understand why you invest in social impact. I would urge companies to think longer term, to be clear on why their organisation exists in the first place and connect social impact strategies to that. I would always be an advocate to do less if it means the social impact can be afforded more time to take effect.

Francesca: What is the best piece of advice you can give?

Jack: The best advice that I can give, and why I set up Do/Social was “We can all create social impact, however small it may be, you just have to do it and not talk about it.” I think moving from planning to action is what we need to do, and when we do that we can look back on it and be really proud of that.

Francesca: For the pass-it-on question, the previous interviewee asked: what is the best thing you have ever seen on TV?

Jack: I think probably watching Liverpool beat Manchester United seven-nil. I am a big Liverpool fan, sorry Manchester United fans!

Revisit other editions of ‘Spilling the T’ to read the Advertising Week Europe Special with BBC, ITV and Channel 4 talking all things streaming and the marketing challenge of generating talkability, Sky's former Managing Director of Content Zai Bennett talk about how he knows a show is going to work and BSLBT'S Chief Executive Camilla Arnold's advice on being a 'deaf ally'.