Roger Franklin, chief strategy officer at LTN, looks at the issues around localising sport content
Sport has always been, and will always be, one of the most marketable products in our world — and undoubtedly the most valuable form of content in our industry. While the dawn of satellite television made the globalisation of sport possible, connecting audiences with unmissable sporting moments from thousands of miles away; today, new technology and business shifts are in play that go beyond globalisation to make “glocalisation” one of the biggest value-drivers and strategic priorities for major leagues and content providers. Reaching fans wherever they are is no longer enough. Success hinges on delivering platform-specific, language-tailored live event experiences to targeted audience groups around the world — cost-effectively and at an unprecedented scale.
Taking deeper control over global content distribution
Some of the world’s most-watched live sport has found a comfortable global home on streaming platforms. At the same time, major federations and fast-growing leagues are re-evaluating their content distribution models and technology partnerships to take greater control over operations — and the fan relationship. Late last year, the Premier League announced its plans to bring all domestic and international media operations in-house, signaling an ambition for deeper control and flexibility over production, content distribution, and D2C fan engagement, similar to strategies deployed by leagues like the NFL and NBA. While the immense value of aggregation and broadcast partnerships will remain central to sports distribution models, the business rationale of controlling more fan touchpoints and pursuing hyper-personalised, digital-first content distribution capabilities remains compelling. Netflix’s record-breaking Jake Paul-Mike Tyson boxing match, which reached 108 million global viewers in five different languages, demonstrates the potential value proposition of an accessible, digital-native, truly global live event.
Taking greater control over content distribution isn’t just about making live sport available to anyone, anywhere via their preferred streaming devices. A new wave of immersive shared experiences that take viewers outside of their living rooms is growing in popularity — and helping reach highly-segmented audiences with tailored content and targeted advertising opportunities. Take IMAX for example, which last year streamed a wide range of pivotal events including the Paris Olympic Games opening ceremony and the NBA Finals to cinema audiences across the US and East Asia. Taking high-value live events to exclusive and specific venues opens up a range of powerful ultra-localised advertising possibilities, helping content providers offer alternative ad propositions for greater monetisation while building local fan engagement.
Bridging technology worlds for efficient regionalization
The good news is that the sport broadcast industry is now free from the restraints of satellite. IP technologies make high-value live content distribution more flexible and cost-efficient than ever. The caveat is that sport rights models and the global distribution ecosystem underpinning them are more fragmented and complicated than at any point in history. The biggest and fastest-growing leagues in the world know international reach is everything. And they need to reach tens, if not hundreds, of countries with tailored live event coverage, not just a handful of core markets. Leagues and platforms that I speak with are pushing to elevate their regionalisation strategies beyond just delivering core game feeds to new markets or providing alternative language tracks. They’re betting on live event versioning with highly tailored graphics, local-language commentary integration, focused content versions relevant to specific markets (e.g. a Lionel Messi focused feed for Argentinian viewers and a Cristiano Ronaldo focused feed for Portuguese viewers), and intelligent ad signaling for localised advertising revenues. These capabilities are all achievable through modern production and distribution workflows — but are typically inefficient and uneconomical at scale.
Regionalisation needs to be more cost-effective for sport leagues and platforms to fully capitalize on the “glocalisation” opportunity. Several vendors offer feature-rich regionalisation services but lack inherent ecosystem integration with a global distribution network. Siloed live event versioning workflows mean that content providers often need to create multiple separate versions of live event feeds with individual playout instances, graphics, and remote commentary integration set-ups. The volume of required encoding, decoding and distribution processes means that scaling an event production to serve scores of different markets with language and platform-tailored coverage is unfeasible for many established players, and a pipe dream for growing sports brands.
Live event versioning powers more with less
New real-time customisation and live event versioning tools make it simpler to scale live events to global audiences. We work with leading sport businesses that favor a singular IP ecosystem approach to produce locally-tailored live events by automatically creating multiple versions of event feeds in real-time with custom ad signaling, graphics, scorebugs and announcer integration. And with a live event versioning workflow that is already embedded within a reliable, intelligent global IP transport network, platforms can sidestep additional encoding and playout requirements through a regionalised, distributed playout approach.
Top federations and trailblazing leagues have it all to play for. International audiences are hungry for more relevant, tailored experiences on diverse platforms and in new environments. Acting global and thinking local will set the winners apart.
Roger Franklin is chief strategy officer at LTN
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