Winning the game: Net Insight on taking live sports video delivery to the next level
By Jonathan Smith, solution area expert, Net Insight.
Live sports are gold dust for linear TV. The numbers are painting a clear picture, with the Premier League being the most watched league in the world and NFL games accounting for 96% of the most-watched TV broadcasts in the US in 2023. Super Bowl LVIII alone brought in a record of 123.7 million average viewers. Live sports has a similar impact on streaming with the NFL breaking yet another record with its first streaming-exclusive playoff reaching 23 million viewers.
In a fast-changing and highly fragmented media landscape, live sports keep linear viewership rates high and drive global consumer loyalty. Global sports fans consume live Tier One as well as an ever growing amount of lower tier and more niche sports, bringing media companies invaluable eyeballs and monetisation opportunities.
However, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach for live sports video delivery. Media companies need to decide between a hardware, cloud, or hybrid video distribution model based on the value of the content and the expected ROI for each destination.
Highly reliable delivery
The surge in the global demand for live sports consumption and the revenue opportunities it is driving has meant the value of sports rights has increased dramatically and will continue to do so. With more tech and streaming players entering the arena, the sports rights market is a real battlefield pushing the rights’ value upwards. Rethink Research projects that the global media rights for the world’s top 16 sports leagues will hit $68.8 billion by 2028 and $90.6 billion by 2033.
For media companies that are claiming a piece of the live sports pie, the stakes are getting higher, and the content becoming increasingly premium and valuable. However, aside from the costs of acquiring the sports, rights media companies need to deliver the live feeds reliably and at quality to ensure the best viewing experiences and drive monetisation.
When it comes to premium content media companies can’t afford to risk their viewers’ missing out on a viral moment in sports history due to poor video quality, video delay, or buffering. Fans simply will not accept missing a penalty shoot-out due to behind the scenes tech difficulties. This is where video contribution and primary distribution workflows based on hardware really shine.
Innovative hardware can deliver ultra-reliable broadcast-grade long distance media networking across any infrastructure and supports high density video compression from lossless JPEGXS to H.264. Media companies can manage different events and harness monetisation by leveraging the same platform and reconfiguring it remotely. What’s really important is flexibility and agility, the investment needs to be able to cover multiple scenarios, things change quickly, returns can be variable, media companies simply can’t afford a single purpose platform.
In addition, new hardware solutions are designed with scalability in mind, allowing companies to set up new services, increase or reduce bandwidth-on-demand, and add new locations and services to existing networks as needed.
Unbeatable scalability
Cloud and IP workflows have revolutionised consumer video delivery enabling media organisations to reach massive audiences across existing connectivity. When we look further towards the event in the value chain we can leverage cloud to scale up and down per live event quickly and seamlessly and consume the services needed in a flexible commercial model. When considered without the upfront tech infrastructure investment, these capabilities have de-risked experimentation with media companies trialling new markets, content and destinations at lower upfront costs.
While cloud and internet primary delivery models are taking off, they are still largely utilised for backup links or second screen content for Tier One live sports events they are the workflow of choice when it comes to lower-tier events.
Despite the vast popularity of premium live sports, not all global destinations are necessarily a safe bet to guarantee revenue growth. There is always a degree of risk when entering a new market that justifies caution around the level of investment needed to get video content to new audiences. Media companies that want to test the waters while keeping video distribution cost effective largely benefit from a hybrid approach that overlays existing infrastructure investments with the flexibility, scalability, and cost efficiency of internet primary distribution to scale their live content and drive value for their investments.
Similarly, media companies acquiring rights for Tier Two and Three sports can supplement the primary feed with additional pre and post-game content and highlights for social media and other platforms. In this way, they can tap into the specific loyal fan base to drive monetisation and boost cross-platform engagement without increasing infrastructure investment.
Driving business success
The changing world of live sports means that media organisations need to act fast and smart. Securing valuable sports rights, is only the first part of the equation. Ensuring that the content yields the most ROI with the lowest risk is a key challenge.
Media companies can’t afford to leave anything to luck. A clear and well thought out live sports distribution strategy tailored to each destination’s requirements and potential risks is the key to unlocking revenue and safeguarding reputation.
Media businesses can opt for the best approach, hardware, cloud, or hybrid, on a case-by-case basis. In a complex media landscape, being able to adapt quickly and protect your content investment futureproofs your business and enables you to stay ahead of the curve.