Live from Sportel Monaco: NEP staying on top of tech trends for future sports rights holders and broadcasters

The NEP stand at Sportel Monaco 2019

NEP is at Sportel Monaco (21-23 October) to help rights holders and broadcasters meet the technological and logistical challenges of televising sport.

With many sports rights owners, such as the NBA, becoming sports producers and broadcasters in their own right, NEP is advising on how to make the dream a reality, said Brian Clark, director of sales, NEP Major Events.

Clark commented: “We are here meeting with clients that are looking to or have acquired rights to sports events across the world. Our presence helps [sports rights holders] talk about what they want to do for deals or within sports.

“We work with broadcasters but also rights holders, and some of those rights holders are becoming content producers and broadcasters in their own right,” he went on. “For instance, the NBA has put together its own production teams to produce certain events on behalf of the NBA, such as European events and others around the world, and they come to us as their facilities partner. We are a facilities partner, but also part of that whole chain.”

Trendspotting enables NEP to make sure its own technology is ready to meet the demands of the rights holders, noted Clark: “We pay attention to who is here and what they’re selling. Not long ago VAR was seen a lot here, so people [attending Sportel] are interested in the technology side of sports broadcasting [not just the rights].

“From a facilities point of view, we’re looking to see what current trends are coming up, and looking to see that our technology keeps on track with that. It’s all about understanding the conversation,” he added.

Clark pointed to NEP’s Mediabank, a cloud-based media asset management service that helps boost the value of assets for rights owners, broadcasters, or production companies. “If you’re going to buy rights, the questions then are what are you going to do with [those rights] once you’ve got them, and how?

“If you buy certain rights you’ve got to think about how you manage it, how you distribute it, all within [the rights holder’s] environment and extending that out to other clients. Mediabank and media management then become very important,” Clark concluded.

NEP is exhibiting on booth B03/B04 at Sportel Monaco 2019