Sports Industry went through a particularly rough time during the pandemic, as they attempted to keep the fans engaged remotely for a little over a year while the organizations, players, and teams managed to keep things going from within the bubble.
While the venues and the arenas stayed closed to the public. The entire industry was forced to cook up ways to innovate and try on new ways to entertain sports fans. The content owners, media companies, and broadcasters created multiple opportunities thereon to keep the ships afloat and then pioneered new ways of engagement. Thus, here we come to you and discuss the ways to spearhead better approaches for engagement and also discuss the current areas in the sports broadcasting industry, where development is going on right now.
Today, live viewing has blown up the future of sports broadcasting, from production to screening everything. When it comes to live viewing, it needs to be on target and be increasingly engaging to the viewers. Even before the pandemic live sports were present but after the teams and players returned to the field after a brief break there was a certain change in the live stream from the production's point of view. They were not just raptured by the actions on the field anymore but took the engagement to a different level with customized insights for the fans.
As we continue to see development in the field, we would doubtlessly keep on seeing the development of how telecasters utilize various feeds to cover various viewpoints with a live broadcast. Various feeds, and elective camera points, take into consideration an upgraded narration of the sports with various perspectives. Keep in mind here and don't forget the goal cam installed by Premier League which aims to deliver an unfiltered celebratory reaction of the players and the team from a fixed point that doesn't need a camera administrator and lets the audience witness the live reaction of the players directly from the field to the people watching it at home.
The next big development is future sports technology like Augmented Reality, along with other technological enhancements that are in the phase of development with the aim to change the way viewers experience live sports events in stadiums and on their screens.
There's been a nonstop discussion on how the utilization of Augmented Reality and different innovations could help improve live games. CBS Sports, through their NFL joint effort with Nickelodeon, has given us an incredible illustration of how this should be possible. By adding Nickelodeon-styled AR to NFL games, CBS expected to draw in a more extensive crowd than the conventional games swarm.
This particular model was driven by a report that stated watchers actually follow sports at a high rate, however, they do such by watching highlights and sports-related online entertainment content. Hence the objective above was to draw in a young crowd to change the fact that the average NFL watcher’s age has now pushed over 50. In the hopes to rope in the young generation, sports broadcasters would have to put on their thinking hats and be innovative in their approach to rope in new viewers. The above experimentation alone would not be enough but it a series of changes that need to be brought in and it is this out-of-the-box thinking that can help the games and media industry to turn profit from considering new ideas like this.
With emerging technology in sports, OTT and streaming share a major share in the channels, it is time organizers adapted their strategy for this specific platform. Personalizing the entire experience will require a lot of research and data on their viewing habits. Some fans would appreciate detailed game highlights while others would like a bird's eye view of the game. Thus, audience segmentation and targeting the content accordingly is one of the strategies that is in the early stages of adoption. Another strategy is being innovative with the audio, it would be easy to demonstrate that with an example, La Liga once experimented in this domain by using influencer as the narrator of the game. Innovations and experimentation are the only constants that can help the organizers deliver content and personalize that as per viewing experiences.
What should these companies keep an eye on in the future?
5G and its impact on broadcasting is a topic that has been discussed many times. It would transform the way users consume sports, with reduced latency and better video quality, the final experience would be immersive and interactive for all the viewers whether they are stilling inside the stadium or inside their home. Sports broadcasting and media could brainstorm on ways to implement that in the future.
While the pandemic may have momentarily proved to be a challenge but it did provide impetus to new developments. With 5G and AR in mind, innovation in the field would be fascinating as changing the way we view sports entirely with personalized targeting. All this can be made a reality with sports data providers like Data Sports Group. Their experienced team has made headways in the sports industry and is even regarded as the best sports data provider in the market. Check out their offerings today itself and get in touch with the team to align your goals.
