A multi-cloud distribution platform from Base Media Cloud and Veritone helps off-road racing series Extreme E store, manage and share assets with multiple global partners. Imagine a Red Bull air race on the ground. There are certain gates that teams need to pass through but how they get through them is them is down […]
Author archives: Broadcast Sport
Sony Virtual Production
Share events. Reach further. Broadcast Live. Anyone, anywhere, can be in control of live event broadcasting with Sony Virtual Production. Our on-demand service is powered by Amazon Web Services and can deliver your live event to a global audience on multiple platforms. Switch cameras, add captions, control comments, all from your laptop or device. Easy […]
Connected Production Guide
Wireless Workflows with Sony The media landscape suddenly looks different – and a fast and efficient workflow has never been more critical. Whatever content you’re creating, we’ll keep you ahead with wireless workflows that make it easy to stream or transfer great-looking pictures from the field straight back to base over 4G, 5G or Wi-Fi […]
Extreme E enhances environmental reputation with cloud-based distribution
The competition is working with Base Media Cloud and Veritone to create a cloud-native storage and content distribution platform Speaking at the Broadcast Sport Tech Innovation Forum, Extreme E head of broadcast and technology, Dave Adey, Base Media Cloud managing director Ben Foakes, and Veritone senior director, customer solutions, David Candler, have explained how they’ve […]
TECH: Changing The Rules of the game for live news and dynamic sports productions
Ronen Artman, VP of Marketing, LiveU, chats with Broadcast Sport about the capabilities of the LU-800 and the various projects undertaken this year. It’s fair to say that in the build-up to the launch of the first LiveU product in 2008 there was some industry scepticism about the viability of the underlying technology we were […]
Free-to-air triumphs with return of the Premier League
(This article first appeared in Broadcast. Words by Stephen Price) BBC1 Premier League match well ahead of Sky, BT and Amazon Premier League Football returned this week and the process of cramming 92 games in over a little over a month began on Wednesday. Most matches are on Sky Sports (64 live games), while BT […]
BBC1’s Premier League debut peaks with 4.1m
Match was the second most-watched non-news offering of the day. The first ever Premier League match to play live on BBC1 peaked at 4.1m (26.1%) around the 30-minute mark on Saturday night. Across its 150-minute run it averaged 3.3m (20.4%) – behind the 4m (23.3%) slot average but the second most-watched non-news offering of the […]
Man City vs Arsenal is most-watched Sky Sports football game for 3 years
Return to Premier League football after three-month hiatus draws big audience for Sky Sports With pubs remaining closed and football having been off screens for three months, viewers tuned in in droves to watch Arsenal and Man City’s match-up, which kicked off at 8.15pm. The 2.6m (14.3%) who witnessed Arsenal’s drubbing across Sky Sports Main […]
SPORTEL CEO, Laurent Puons: “This year will be no exception”
Four months away from the flagship event, SPORTEL CEO, Laurent Puons confirms that it will be the “must-attend event” to get back on track after the period of uncertainty raised by the current COVID-19 crisis. How did the pandemic hit the sports industry? During these unprecedented times, with the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic currently […]
ITV4 returns to live sport
Championship League snooker tournament to take place in isolation ITV4 is to host the first live free-to-air sport since lockdown with coverage of next month’s Championship League snooker. The tournament is to be played behind closed doors at Milton Keynes’ Marshall Arena, with players, officials and staff staying on-site for the duration of the 11-day tournament. […]
Viewpoint: Encouraging diversity in production
Words: Anna Ward, head of production for Premier League Productions, IMG Stockley Park is not only home to the much talked about VAR, it’s also the base for IMG’s Studios production outfit. We employ over 600 technical and production staff with a client and programming portfolio of many of the world’s top sports federations and […]
Whisper chief sacrifices entire salary
Sunil Patel forgoes income as Sony indie faces £30m shortfall Whisper chief executive Sunil Patel has given up his entire year’s salary to help staff as the indie reacts to having almost £30m of revenues placed on hold. The directors of the Sony-backed business, which also include Jake Humphrey and David Coulthard, were each […]
Roundtable: How to Build A Fan Base
The rise in new sports formats has focused attention on the best way to combine traditional media with social and digital platforms to engage with and retain audiences. In recent years, a plethora of newly devised sports formats have launched. Formats like Sail GP, Extreme E, the Six Day Series and Roborace or major one-off […]
ITV gambles on Virtual Grand National
With no live race this year, broadcaster puts predictive event centre stage Iconic racehorse Red Rum is to face off against current star Tiger Roll as part of a virtual Grand National to be staged by ITV next Saturday. In a bid to entertain racing fans vexed at the cancellation of this year’s event, Carm […]
The emerging world of AI-driven solutions in sports broadcasting
Paul Cramer, managing director, enterprise broadcast solutions, Veritone, reveals how the latest in AI technology can help sport broadcasters with advertising and more It’s nothing short of astounding how much – and how quickly – artificial intelligence is transforming our world. Today’s most innovative AI solutions are the ones that amplify human effectiveness, taking people […]
Bowls Premier League ramps up digital coverage
Australia’s fast-action bowls tournament created live social video highlight clips to help attract a new, younger audience to bowls. The Bowls Premier League (BPL), held in Moama, New South Wales, Australia last month, used cloud-based live video production platform Grabyo to create, edit and deliver real-time social video highlights. The highlight clips were used to […]
Amazon Prime Video fields Paris Saint Germain doc
Four-parter will go behind the scenes with the French football team. Amazon Prime Video is to explore the heart of French football club Paris Saint-Germain in an upcoming series. Over four-parts, the series, produced by PSG TV and CAPA, will offer an insight into the team, replete with exclusive footage filmed over a season and […]
Producers hail idea-first sports commissioning
Heather Fallon, of Broadcast Intelligence, reports on sports programme commissioning insights from the Broadcast Sport Content Summit Speaking at last week’s Broadcast Sport Content Summit, producers Dale Templar and Jordan Laird discussed how they got their sports programmes commissioned. Laird is series director of A View From The Terrace, which is produced by Studio Something […]
Broadcast Sport magazine #5 out now
Editor Jake Bickerton gives a preview of the latest print edition of Broadcast Sport. You can read the whole magazine here. Welcome to the first issue of Broadcast Sport for 2020. It feels like the year has barely started, yet we’ve already seen plenty of action in the Six Nations; witnessed Liverpool running away with […]
Innovating for the modern sports fan
The average sports fan is smarter than ever. Not only with how they watch an event, but also with the information imparted to them while doing so. And while that insight is ultimately used to drive the conversation across social rather than the household or pubs like it once used to do, it is important […]
Could we be seeing the end of pay-tv packages?
Tomos Jones, senior associate at Reed Smith, takes a look at the future of sports broadcasting models What can we learn from recent developments in the pay television sector? Everything from Disney’s deal with Sky to place the new Disney+ service on Sky’s top boxes, to BT’s new packaging structure and the recent news that […]
Will Carling Six Nations blog #4: Drawing the battle lines with ruck insights
Will Carling’s fourth exclusive blog for Broadcast Sport, covering the new on-screen graphics unveiled for the Six Nations tournament. This week, Carling discusses the analysis of rucks and turnovers. We’re now over the half way mark in the 2020 Guinness Six Nations Championship, and the action is really starting to heat up. While Italy took […]
Esports and broadcast: A match made in heaven or not a match at all?
From the duration of the game to capturing the atmosphere and considering a change in format, Chris Wood, CTO at Spicy Mango, looks at the challenges broadcasters need to consider before they take the leap into the world of esports. The world of esports is growing rapidly. In fact, it is estimated that esports revenues […]
Using cloud technology to scale up business and monetise content
SPONSORED: Copa90 and Aurora Media Worldwide have leveraged cloud technology to improve their businesses The explosion of new sports content viewing platforms presents new challenges for companies in sports media, dealing with management, storage, processing and delivery of huge data sets. Two companies that have solved this problem by leveraging cloud technology to scale-up their […]
Little Dot Studios brings in senior content strategist from Formula E
Oliver Emery is joining the company’s sports division Little Dot Studios has appointed Oliver Emery as its new senior content strategist. Emery joins the digital content creator and distributor with experience from working head of digital content at FIA Formula E – where he grew social video viewing from 48m to 850m a year. He […]
Game on: the ever-growing production values of esports events
Head of marketing & communications at live production specialists EVS, Sebastien Verlaine, gives a view into the world of esports production Across online and TV it is estimated that more than 500 million people around the world are watching other people play video games. Yet, as esports continue to grow in popularity, tournament producers are […]
Sony invests in Whisper
Left Bank and Stellify owner takes minority stake in David Coulthard’s outfit Sony Pictures Television (SPT) has secured a minority stake in sports and entertainment producer The Whisper Group, as the indie officially ends its relationship with the C4 Indie Growth Fund. Reports emerged in December that Sony was considering taking a stake in the […]
Copa90 acquires Indonesian football documentary series
Doc follows the fortunes of young Indonesian players trying to forge professional career Football platform Copa90 has acquired documentary series The Search for Indonesia’s First Wonderkid. Created by UK, Milan and LA based Sent Entertainment, the series follows the fortunes of Garuda Select, a team comprised of 24 Indonesian youngsters, who tour England and Italy […]
Tata Communications to launch 100G media backbone
Move likely to boost adoption of 4k, Esports and remote production Tata Communications is to launch a 100G media backbone to meet growing bandwidth demands in the broadcasting, sports and esports industries. Delivered in collaboration with Net Insight, the 100G backbone will help overcome the technical complexities of esports, with each event involving multiple cameras, […]
Dorna Sports and LaLiga team for anti-piracy fight
MotoGP rights holder to use LaLiga’s anti-piracy services MotoGP and the WorldSBK superbike championship rights holder Dorna Sports has struck a deal with Spanish football’s LaLiga to use its anti-piracy services. LaLiga’s content protection department will use its anti-piracy tools to monitor and eliminate illegal MotoGP and WorldSBK audiovisual content hosted on social networks, digital […]
Will Carling: How technology is changing our experience of rugby
The first in a series of six weekly blogs from rugby legend Will Carling, written exclusively for Broadcast Sport Last year, for the very first time during the 2019 Guinness Six Nations Championship, fans had access to never-before-seen insights into the great game of rugby through new on-screen dynamic stats powered by Amazon Web Services […]
Behind the scenes: Eurosport coverage of the Australian Open
Complex remote production set up has seen 300 live hours tennis produced Eurosport wraps its coverage of the Australian Open after the finals this weekend, having broadcast every match either on Eurosport live or on-demand – over 300 live hours in total. Eurosport Germany, France, Spain, Russia, Norway and UK production teams have all been […]
Arena, Dock10 live trial FA Cup remote production for BBC Sport
Production team based at a gallery in Dock10 for FA Cup fourth round OB specialist Arena Television and Dock10 studios have completed a live trial of a new virtual gallery solution with BBC Sport for the fourth round of the FA Cup. BBC Sport’s production team was based at a gallery in Dock10, meaning a […]
US producers join forces for sports and esports projects
Partnership brings together two high-profile US production houses US producers Five Films and Sneaky Big have announced a co-pro partnership for their future sports programming. Under the co-pro partnership, the companies will create original sports and esports projects for the US and international markets. Sneaky Big’s clients include The Alliance of American Football, Grand Canyon […]
Top tips for producing sports in 4K and 8K UHD HDR
Insight TV executive producer Frank le Mair provides an assortment of tips for creating content in 4K and 8K UHD HDR There is significant impact to the production process when creating a 4K UHD HDR programme. First and foremost, producers must have access to, and be using the right equipment to shoot in 4K UHD […]
EU hits out at Saudi Arabia over beoutQ ‘piracy’
European Commission report highlights ’serious shortcomings’ A European Commission report has criticised Saudi Arabia for “causing considerable harm to EU businesses” by Saudi-based beoutQ , which reportedly provides illegal access to European sports programming including Premier League football. FIFA, the AFC, UEFA, the Bundesliga, LaLiga, Lega Serie A, LFP and the Premier League hit out […]
Copa90 promotes Simon Joyce to chief business officer
Football media group also hires Kate McGregor as head of client services Football media group Copa90 has promoted Simon Joyce to chief business officer. Joyce has been upped from head of global partnerships to the new role, taking over from James Kirkham who has left for a senior role in the music industry at Defected […]
BBC Sport takes on young viewer crisis
Production staff to undergo training in drive to reverse downward social media trend BBC Sport is sending its production staff on a set of courses designed to help tackle the corporation’s youth viewer crisis. In an all-staff email last week, the division’s director Barbara Slater said the upcoming sessions will be designed to improve the team’s […]
BBC and ITV ‘confident’ of retaining Six Nations
Tender process for next rights cyle opens next month The BBC and ITV are confident of retaining the rights to the Six Nations when the tender process for the next rights cycle begins next month, according to a Daily Mail report. The Mail said that new investors CVC Capital Partners had hoped to take some […]
Fanview bolsters board with two appointments
Former Deltatre COO Paul Bristow and Dow Jones digital product director Spencer Piggott join board Fanview, the esports and sports media services business, has appointed former Deltatre COO Paul Bristow and Dow Jones digital product director Spencer Piggott to its board. Bristow, now co-founder and director of European Championships Management, joins the company as non-executive […]
ITF selects Imagen to manage content archive
Tennis governing body wants to generate more value from its assets The International Tennis Federation (ITF), the world governing body of tennis, has selected SaaS video platform Imagen to manage and distribute its content archive which dates back to the 1940s. The ITF has digitised its content catalogue of 15,000 assets, which includes Davis Cup […]
Spearheading a cloud video editing revolution
SPONSORED: Blackbird is setting its sights on global domination through its patented, ultra-fast cloud video editing and publishing platform The proposition promised by Blackbird is simple enough – to provide a workstation experience in the cloud – yet it’s an objective almost impossibly complex to achieve. It means matching the capability and functionality of a […]
Channel 5 and WWE wrestle a deal
ViacomCBS secures UK’s first free-to-air highlights of the sport Wrestling highlights are coming to free-to-air in the UK for the first time after WWE secured a partnership with Channel 5 owner ViacomCBS. From February, C5 will air a one-hour version of the Raw programme on Sunday mornings at 10:30am, with SmackDown highlights will be broadcast in the same slot […]
Straightforward guide to low-latency streaming
Kyle Goodwin of Vecima Networks explores, in layman’s terms, how the industry is preparing to tackle low-latency streaming During the 2018 World Cup, media measurement company Conviva recorded 75.8 million attempts to stream the quarter-final games. More than 15% of those attempts failed – that’s more than 11 million unsuccessful attempts. Those delivering OTT services are […]
Explaining the appeal and continued growth of esports
Gravity Media Group sales manager Edward Dowdall, explains the growing appeal of esports As we head fast towards the end of 2019, esports continues to expediently grow in momentum with more global events. Tier 1 sponsors and media attention is being drawn to what is ultimately simply a form of live entertainment. Examples include the […]
The journey from YouTuber to global sports superstar
COPA90 chief business officer James Kirkham on how modern sports fans are turning social media influencers into world-dominating sports stars Modern sports fans are the new bastions of power. They’re the reason a YouTuber will star in the biggest pay-per-view boxing event of the year. Where once our sports viewing schedule was dictated by men in […]
Streaming: Taking the direct route
Both established and niche sports are testing the waters of serving fans via their own D2C services The rollout of high-speed broadband, smartphones and SVoD services such as Netflix has created a technically literate audience that’s familiar with the direct-to-consumer (D2C) model. Sports organisations are beginning to test the waters in different business models around OTT […]
5G technology: A revolution is on the way
The arrival of 5G has the potential to completely change the way sporting events are produced and watched, says Matt Stagg Ask any sport fan about their preference for viewing the game and the answer is likely to be either in the stadium, in the pub with friends, or at home in front of the […]
MotoGP: Full throttle action
Covering the Silverstone MotoGP race meeting for BT Sport is a mammoth operation for North One, with 26 hours of live outside broadcast over three days It’s late on Friday afternoon at Silverstone and production house North One has already been live-to-air on BT Sport for eight hours straight. A premium presentation and commentary team have been busy fronting the show throughout the […]
Six Day Series: Fast track to success
Revitalising one of cycling’s first ever track events, the Six Day Series is making innovative use of data to educate first-time fans and grow its audience The growth in shorter TV sports formats, marrying cutting-edge on-screen technologies with rousing in-stadium entertainment, continues at full pace. Cycling’s version – the Six Day Series – hit its […]
INTERVIEW: Alex Green, Amazon Prime
With two blocks of Premier League matches to sit alongside its ATP Tour tennis coverage, Amazon is emerging as one of the key players in the future of sports broadcasting Alex Green, head of sports and channels, Europe, at Amazon Prime Video, would love to have the rights to Wimbledon. “If only that were possible,” […]
STV to stream 24-hour sports feed
Broadcaster partners with Premier Sports and FreeSports for on-demand offering STV is to offer an ‘always on’ sports channel on STV Player after partnering with pay TV sports broadcaster Premier Sports and free-to-air sister channel FreeSports. By streaming FreeSports, STV becomes the first broadcaster to operate a VoD service providing a free-to-air, 24-hour sports feed. […]
Weavr esports project unveils first working prototype
Government backed esports consortium debuts mobile app at ESL One Birmingham Weavr, a UK Research and Innovation-backed consortium of companies spanning esports, education and entertainment, has demonstrated its first working prototype mobile esports app. Eight months after being founded in January 2019, the consortium has built a prototype of the first third-party analytics and viewing […]
IMG to produce and broadcast Fortnite World Cup 2019
The high-profile esports tournament finals to be live streamed online, and televised on in-flight sports channel, Sport 24 Extra IMG has been appointed by Epic Games to produce and distribute the first Fortnite World Cup 2019. The finals of the esports tournament will take place 26-28 July at the Arthur Ashe Tennis Stadium in […]
JD Sports launches esports competition
Inaugural JDX event will hold finals at Salford’s Dock10 studios in August Retailer JD Sports is pushing into esports, with the launch of a new esports competition, JDX. Qualifier stages for the inaugural JDX event will be held at Westfield Stratford City on 26th July and intu Trafford Centre, Manchester on 31st July. The competition […]
Bannister Lake takes on Gran Turismo esports championships
Video display specialist on hand for esports competition at Nürburgring Track in Germany Video display specialists Bannister Lake is providing live data management and graphics for the esports FIA-certified Gran Turismo Championships 2019 Series. The series kicked off on June 21-22 at an esports event that took place at the Nürburgring Track in Germany, produced […]
Report reveals the astonishing rise of esports
The huge growth of esports is revealed in Futuresource’s forthcoming report Esports are very quickly rivalling some conventional sports in terms of viewing figures and prize money. Facts revealed by Carl Hibbert, associate director of research company Futuresource Consulting during the DTG Summit 2019 this morning, show how far esports have come in so little […]
Why esports needs TV
How the storytelling ability of television will add significant value to esports The Esports industry has grown into a serious player despite having very little coverage on traditional TV. There are a spattering of televised esports tournaments, and broadcasters including BT Sport, ITV and Sky Sports have dabbled in bits and pieces of esports broadcasting, […]