FEED Issue 18

54 ROUND TABLE Sports streaming

CHUMS: We currently host video on YouTube and occasionally stream via Facebook Live. Should we stick with these platforms? Or should we look at developing our own platform? OLALLA CERNUDA: First question you need to ask yourself is whether you want to go big and free, or smaller but get revenue by having your premium content behind a paywall. Developing your own platform always gives you more control, but needs technical resources that can be difficult to get if you are still small. If you go for the free option, explore live streaming on Instagram. It’s the platform with the highest engagement. LIAM J. HAYTER: It is always best to do some market research and look at where your audiences ‘live’ online. With NewTek integrated production systems you can run two encoders, each pointing to multiple distribution platforms, ie. YouTube, Vimeo, Azure, and custom CDN platform. We’re not fussy. One big caveat with Facebook is that they changed their terms of service last year, and will kill any stream to Facebook Live that’s also going to a competitive

DEVELOPING YOUR OWN PLATFORM ALWAYS GIVES YOU MORE CONTROL, BUT NEEDS TECHNICAL RESOURCES THAT CAN BE DIFFICULT TO GET IF YOU ARE STILL SMALL

CDN. There’s simply no way round this currently, so if your audience lives on Facebook, its Facebook or nothing. If your audience doesn’t live on a particular CDN platform, then you have the luxury of choosing the best service for your needs. CHARLIE PRICHARD: With any sports property, building an audience builds the value of the product. What you gain from YouTube and Facebook in the ease of access to billions of users and minimal operational costs, you lose from not creating a fully controlled, owned and enclosed platform. It’s crucial to build out a strategy where both of these are harnessed. Use your existing social

media audiences to drive the growth of any platform you launch yourselves. That platform will be an important next step for you, bridging between what you have now and where you might need to go in ten years time. CHUMS: We use a GoPro to get underwater shots, which we use for social media and cut together for highlights packages. We would love to do a live underwater feed. Any advice? OLALLA CERNUDA: We have tried live GoPros during our bike segments in triathlon races and it does work amazingly well. We are exploring this season using

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