Our industry is in choppy waters, as we have seen job cuts in streaming and the wider media world over the last couple of years. While streaming is increasingly picked over linear broadcast, the pressure on sports streaming services mounts as they wrestle with consumer churn, large-scale piracy, and streaming ad revenue not fully replacing linear broadcast ad revenue. Add an unstable geopolitical situation and fears of a recession to this mix, and it is safe to say that streaming services worldwide face a precarious situation. This article aims to identify key factors and trends, and to explain some of the dilemmas that sports platforms both large and small are dealing with. Special attention will be given to the role of AI within streaming services and the push for more personalization on the consumer side.
Mobii – Democratizing Premium Content Personalization: How Synthetic Intelligence Unlocks D2C Revenue Without Production Cost Barriers
Sports organizations entering the direct-to-consumer streaming market face a fundamental economic paradox. Audiences accustomed to Netflix-level personalization expect tailored viewing experiences – following favorite players, accessing alternative camera angles, choosing commentary styles, and controlling their content journey. Yet these same organizations must deliver these experiences using broadcast-era production models where creating multiple personalized streams requires proportionally scaling production resources, crews, and infrastructure.
NStarX – The Live Sports Broadcasting Crisis: How AI Can Navigate the Perfect Storm
Live sports broadcasting stands at a critical inflection point. What was once a straightforward linear television model has fractured into a complex ecosystem where fans need multiple streaming subscriptions exceeding $800 annually just to follow their favorite teams. The migration from appointment television to streaming platforms has created unprecedented technical and business challenges that threaten both viewer satisfaction and industry profitability.
Net Insight – Creating without limits: smarter workflows for live media
In the world of live content production, creativity has always been king. Whether it’s the emotion of a last-minute goal, the atmosphere of a sold-out concert, or the breaking tension in a live news broadcast, the magic of live lies in its immediacy. But behind every seamless live broadcast is a complex network of workflows, technologies, and teams working together to make it all happen.
LTN – How to manage operational convergence with smart automation — and smarter IP technology
The media world is transforming fast. Broadcasters are rethinking how they produce, manage, and deliver content to bring their most valuable assets to the widest audience. Reaching viewers with tailored live news and sports experiences across multiple platforms has never been as important — or as challenging.
LiveU – Clubs go bananas for LiveU’s sports production solutions
As the M&E industry continues to evolve, the growing pressure to produce more content at lower costs, while retaining the same high-quality, has increased the demand for cost-effective, flexible IP-based production models. As well as enabling broadcasters to utilize ground-to-cloud-to-crowd turnkey sports production workflows, this has opened up new opportunities for diverse and niche sports to create dynamic live content and to drive online fan engagement.
Ateliere – Overcoming extreme conditions to livestream niche sports
Niche sports have a remarkable opportunity to grab a global audience’s attention, but broadcasting events from remote locations presents unique challenges. Take the CX80 World Cup and European Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships (EMTBOC) as an example. This cross-country event, deep in a Polish forest, showcases the power of technology innovations in overcoming infrastructure hurdles.
Appear – The sustainable future of sports broadcasting: remote production, hybrid compute, and IP transport
The sports broadcasting industry is at a critical turning point. Fans demand ever-more immersive, high-quality experiences, while broadcasters and production companies face increasing pressure to reduce their environmental footprint. Traditional production models – characterized by large-scale travel, extensive on-site infrastructure, and energy-intensive workflows – are no longer sustainable.
Net Insight – Efficiency first: streamlining sports video delivery
Innovation has always been integral to the broadcast industry, such as with the rise of HD, digital audio and 4K, as well as more recent developments surrounding IP. Each new wave of development has encouraged experimentation, leading to solutions that stand the test of time, like the ones mentioned, and solutions that do not. The latest experimental wave is, of course, AI which finds itself full of potential but lacking enough real-world use cases to make it resonate across the industry.
Imagine Communications – The Home Field Advantage: France TV delivers coverage of Paris 2024 Olympics in UHD, with an assist from Imagine Communications’ SNP
In the past for its coverage of the Olympic Games, France TV has built a dedicated facility at the International Broadcast Center (IBC) in the host city and delivered signals back to its headquarters in Paris for distribution to viewers via over-the-air TV. However, with the 2024 Games taking place in its own backyard, the broadcaster saw a unique opportunity — it could forgo the IBC and instead use its own facilities for the event. Furthermore, to enhance the viewer experience, France TV committed to delivering its Olympic coverage in UHD.