3 Crucial Rules for Successful Sports Streaming

Sports broadcasting has evolved significantly, now allowing fans to access games and sports news right from their mobile phones.

One of the most enjoyable achievements of our time is sports streaming.

However, most likely, you are not using the broadcast industry to its full potential.

We will provide you with invaluable tips to enhance your own live-streaming experience and make it profitable.

Modern Realities in Sports Broadcasting

The auction for the broadcasting rights was intense. Both Apple and Amazon participated in bidding for the Sunday Ticket package. Despite their loss, they remain engaged in other sports. Amazon already dominates Thursday Night Football in the US with a budget of $1.2 billion per year, while Apple holds exclusive rights to MLB’s Friday Night Baseball in 8 countries, with an annual investment of $85 million. They also possess global rights to Major League Soccer, allocating $250 million annually, featuring the one and only Lionel Messi.

In summary, the sector is bustling with activity. Deloitte Global predicts that streamers will spend over $6 billion by 2023 on exclusive broadcast rights for major sports in the world’s largest markets. The fact that an article titled “Live Sports: The next arena for the streaming wars” highlights this trend speaks volumes. While it may appear insignificant compared to the overall $50 billion content spent on streaming, 12% represents a considerable portion of the budget, particularly considering it was nonexistent just a few years ago.

Crucial Rules for Successful Sports Streaming

1) Secure Your Streams

Sports content stands as a premium target for video piracy, rivaling new Hollywood blockbusters and Triple-A Pay-TV titles. The evolution of illegal video piracy from bittorenting and peer-to-peer downloads to app-based streaming of live broadcasts has prompted pirates to intensify their efforts in intercepting and hacking live matches. It is crucial to assume that streams are always at risk, as pirates aim to entice viewers towards illegitimate services.

To discourage an illicit audience, it is estimated that there is a 15-minute window to take down a live stream. Ensuring this happens requires using a service that incorporates cutting-edge technologies like dynamic watermarking, multi-DRM, and constant 24/7 monitoring. Live sports watermarking helps in the early detection and subsequent action against breaches while the match is still in progress. Acting after the final whistle or checkered flag is too late, as the viewers would have already moved on.

Considering the considerable investment, it is imperative to prioritize security provisions. This approach guarantees achieving the full return on investment (ROI). Another way to attract an audience is to allow access to your streams through VPN for sports. For example, a person has an Amazon Fire Stick, but their stream is blocked in their country. He can use VeePN to unblock the broadcast. You can try to fight it, but it’s better to leave it as it is. This is also your audience and income.

2) Remove Bottlenecks

When OTT operators transition to offering live content, they face the major challenge of preparing for spikes in system demand. Start times for viewers suddenly synchronize, resulting in dizzyingly high usage peaks. Accordingly, any content streaming system must have the ability to rapidly and seamlessly scale without any bottlenecks or delays in signal transmission.

For instance, our system, which is utilized by Tier 1 telecoms operator Orange, can deliver up to 1,000 DRM licenses per second. This scalable delivery rate ensures that the system can quickly cater to the needs of a large audience. All this works without introducing any delays or additional latency.

3) Improve the Experience of Your Viewers

Viewers consistently crave more content. The surge of streaming services in the past decade has exposed them to various platforms, leading to higher expectations for functionality. The entire industry has been challenged to meet these standards. Viewers now desire the freedom to watch whatever, whenever, and on any device.

For operators, this means delivering exceptional service across mobile screens as small as 6 cm to sprawling 100-inch television sets. Picture quality should be outstanding regardless of platform or operating system, providing a seamless viewing experience. The absence of regional restrictions is also desirable. Otherwise, viewers from other regions will have to use the Edge VPN addon or other circumvention tools. But not everyone will be able to implement them. The ability to start over or watch time-shifted content is now a necessity, even though the importance of live experiences is recognized.

Reducing latency and buffering issues is crucial, particularly in the realm of sports viewership. OTT delivery faces the challenge of competing with less complex media, such as radio and internet score updates. However, overcoming this challenge is vital for ensuring viewer satisfaction.