THE DEGREE OF ENGAGEMENT AROUND SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT IS HUGE – IT’S HAPPENING EVERYWHERE
LIVE BROADCAST STRIKES BACK Cassidy believes that the main content itself is now no longer enough to fully engage an audience. They need ever more immersion if they’re going to be retained. “We know, based on audience behaviour, that there’s a demand for much more than being a passive consumer. The degree of engagement around sports and entertainment is huge, and it’s happening everywhere. What we’re trying to do is help broadcasters start to own that engagement.” To be the exclusive provider for audience extras means giving the audience something additional. In the case of ITV, it’s facilitating voting on Love Island ; for Liverpool FC, it’s letting fans vote on the Man of the Match after each game. OTT sports platforms might provide a live stream of major events to deliver a Twitch-like experience on their own platforms. These interactive extras are also ideal ways of getting sponsors involved, or to push merchandise. These deeper commercial transactions take the experience beyond video. But smoothly integrating
this kind of e-commerce capability is more challenging than it looks. “For the past decade, it’s been about getting the video to stand up properly,” says Cassidy. “The next step is to attach this interactivity and gamification directly to the live stream.” But to do all this, broadcasters need the vision to try it in the first place. Cassidy notes that a certain amount of education is required. Some companies don’t always fully realise what tools are available. “If they can push traffic in clever ways, from TV to digital platforms, that has value. Not just because of the pure traffic, but also the potential for registrations and sign-ups. There’s a real economic pay-off from driving interaction.” With big OTT platforms elbowing broadcasters into the shadows, opportunities for unique live experiences need to be grabbed – and live is the ground on which broadcasters can compete with the likes of Netflix and Prime Video. On-demand content has often ended up with viewers stuck inside little content siloes. Maybe interactive video can bring audiences together again.
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