Managing up: Edgio on securing business outcomes with flexible technology in 2024
By Nancy Maluso, Edgio chief marketing officer.
The sports broadcasting industry has navigated a number of economic headwinds over the past year. Media companies are having to contend with tighter budgets while consumer habits evolve and the global demand for more affordable access to high-quality content grows. Content owners across the media and entertainment landscape are focusing on maximising ROI on their investments while diversifying their offering to capture wider audiences.
Meanwhile, sports organisations of all sizes now have access to the technology required to produce and deliver compelling content to directly engage with fans. As competition for valuable sports rights increases in a crowded streaming market, brands are exploring ways to provide new viewing features and functionality while building out new revenue streams.
In 2024, sports organisations and broadcasters need to focus on driving real business outcomes and maximising efficiency. More and more, brands are harnessing flexible streaming technology and a managed services approach to bring new services to market quickly while managing shrinking in-house resources.
Hybrid business model experimentation
The drive to mission-critical profitability means that media companies need to experiment with new business models and multiple cost points across SVOD, AVOD and FAST. Content providers and sports streamers are increasingly pursuing hybrid revenue strategies to align with changing consumer demands. Audiences are embracing ad-supported viewing to save costs while enjoying high-quality, lean-back viewing experiences. As major streaming players attract and retain viewers through affordable access to lean-back content, the need for advanced advertising solutions to maximise the monetisation of every stream has become pivotal to achieving success.
Today, experimentation is at the core of the sports broadcasting market. With the streaming landscape more fragmented than ever before, content owners, rightsholders and broadcasters need to identify the most profitable distribution strategies to fit their evolving business needs. Major content owners and sports streamers are responding by delivering multiple viewing models and cost points simultaneously while exploring direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategies to drive revenue streams and build deeper relationships with fans.
Capitalise on the direct-to-consumer wave
There’s more opportunity than ever before for sports organisations of all sizes to scale their streaming strategies and reach new audiences, experimenting with multiple distribution paths and building their D2C offerings to maximise fan engagement. However, sports streaming at scale is incredibly complex — and many in-house teams lack the infrastructure or know-how to tackle all of the complexities of modern streaming.
This year, we’ve seen a number of sports brands partner up with established managed service providers to help them stream thousands of live events per year. Opting for a managed service provider enables brands to scale their in-house resources with best-in-breed streaming workflows while relying on trusted professional services teams.
Ultimately it doesn’t make business sense for sports organisations to build and manage the infrastructure required to deliver a modern live sports streaming workflow. Complex technology integrations take time and cost a lot of money. In a fiercely competitive environment where agility is everything, sports organisations need to focus on time to market and audience strategy. Leaving the hard part to a managed services provider with proven technology and dedicated experts is becoming a not-so-secret recipe for success.
Navigate economic headwinds with a flexible and scalable strategy
The ability to quickly assemble and manage a streaming ecosystem that delivers high-quality linear, live or on-demand video while reducing costs and increasing efficiencies is incredibly challenging. There has been a growing shift towards the managed services model in 2023 as companies embrace technology partnerships to help them get to market quickly while harnessing economies of scale.
Streaming companies need seamless access to best-in-breed streaming workflows without the headaches of complex and time-consuming technology integrations. Through pre-integrated partnerships and flexibility at the core, managed service providers can help media companies simplify multiple vendor integrations, de-risking and streamlining operations while saving customers time and money.
From a technology perspective, sports and media organisations are questioning whether it makes sense to invest in developing new tech in-house or whether they can achieve more flexibility and cost-efficiency by partnering with a managed service provider. Increasingly, they’re opting for the more agile managed services model to scale their teams and source best-in-class tech across every element of a streaming workflow.
This year, we’ve seen a renewed focus on driving greater efficiency and securing real business outcomes with smart business decisions. In 2024, many forward-thinking organisations are reassessing their tech investment strategies to reduce costs and operational pressures — freeing up resources for creative tasks, accelerating time-to-market and enabling high-quality, engaging experiences for global sports fans.