Guest Comment: Sports content is the star player in the multiscreen market
This year will be the first time Simplestream attends IBC as a stand-alone exhibitor – a testament to the increased popularity in our live streaming solutions, writes Dan Finch, commercial director, Simplestream. From At The Races to MP&Silva, our customers have allowed us to expand our horizons and work in exciting new markets while picking up some awards along the way, most recently a Broadcast Digital Award and Videonet Connected TV Award.
At the beginning of 2016, we announced a strategic partnership with sports distribution expert MP&Silva that marked a strong push into the sports OTT market. By providing multiscreen OTT video services like live streaming, real-time highlights clipping, social syndication and subscription management, sports federations, clubs and media clients can maximise audiences, reach and revenues with Simplestream.
Audiences for sports streaming and VOD services have been increasing exponentially in recent years, with an influx of providers and rights holders transitioning over to the OTT and VOD landscape to follow the fans. According to The Centre for the Digital Future, 56% of sports fans are willing to pay more for sports streaming services than their cable/satellite equivalents, with 78% of “intense sports fans” willing to pay for up to an average of 3.5 different online streaming services to satisfy their content thirst. Some commentators say that right now, sport is keeping the satellite/cable ecosystem intact; however, there is a clear trend towards sports content transitioning over to OTT, becoming a content mainstay alongside the TV and movie content of Netflix and Amazon Prime.
At IBC 2016, our Cloud TV Platform and Media Manager services will demonstrate how sports content can be delivered seamlessly and cost-effectively, allowing a vast range of mainstream and niche providers to extend their reach and better engage with their viewers, all through a cloud-based, single workflow that is intuitive for the user and manageable with current infrastructure.
With less than a month until Amsterdam, I look forward immensely to sharing the showfloor with other influential companies who are disrupting the industry.