Introduction
Digital technologies are currently used in all areas of the sports industry, from training and monitoring the performance of athletes and their health. To broadcast competitions and accumulate fans’ digital experience when visiting sports arenas offline and when watching online broadcasts. This will be possible because leading sports clubs have digital transformation strategies, and various departments collaborate with universities and research organizations to develop sports medicine and neurotechnology. Innovative tools for monitoring the conduct of competitions and controlling the impartial assessment of the performance of athletes have gained particular popularity. The selected technology solution, in this case, will be over-the-top TV or OTT technology, and its importance to the VP of Marketing will be described below.
Reason for Choosing This Technology
Much of the reason for choosing this particular technology is due to the recent events and restrictions associated with COVID-19, which has significantly impacted the sports industry. The coronavirus pandemic has spurred a record increase in demand for technology among sports clubs and federations that will reduce costs due to empty stands by monetizing fan loyalty remotely (Plumley & Wilson, 2022). This has been the driving force behind the development in 2020-2021 of innovative digital technologies for 5G-based sports broadcasting, which create a sense of real presence and involvement of fans.
Sports fans, such as moviegoers, want to be able to watch sports anywhere and anytime. Therefore, the list of the most demanded digital technologies includes OTT streaming media services, which provide several interactive options in parallel with live Internet broadcasting of sporting events (Plumley & Wilson, 2022). For example, viewers can participate in quizzes, place bets online, and organize joint viewings with other fans. AI-powered digital solutions are also being used for this purpose, enabling real-time 3D video broadcasting, giving fans the feeling of being in the stadium, and personalizing content (Deninger, 2021). Fans can view statistics and analytics about their favorites that accompany competitions. 3D projections, holographic replays, and virtual stadium tours are changing the user experience of watching sports broadcasts, and their gamification allows for solving marketing problems and engaging fans in any communication.
Description of OTT Technology
There is no unambiguous definition of the term OTT in the media community. Some believe OTT is Internet TV, others believe it is the ability to watch TV channels on smart TVs and mobile devices, and others believe it is a data transfer technology using unicast messages (Mohajeri Moghaddam et al., 2019). The reason for the confusion and difference of opinions, among other things, is the insufficiently correct definition of OTT in open sources. OTT means the delivery of a video signal from a content provider to the user’s device, that is, to a set-top box, computer, or mobile phone over data networks, often without direct contact with the telecom operator (Mohajeri Moghaddam et al., 2019). This has the potential to increase video consumption by users. Transferring data directly from the producer to the viewer eliminates the operator and organizes sales even to small content producers. The content management system is used to publish and authorize content viewing; it can be located anywhere in the world, and direct content encryption occurs on the side of the producer or aggregator (Mohajeri Moghaddam et al., 2019). Delivery is carried out by companies that specialize in this.
Benefits of OTT
Liveness is a crucial property of media sports coverage on portals and other technologies and platforms that distribute television and television-like content. This privileging is a product of two dynamics. First, media sport is a perishable phenomenon because live sporting competition’s tension and entertainment value fall away markedly once a result is known, which significantly undercuts the value of delayed consumption and repeat viewing for audiences (Hutchins et al., 2019). This perishability places sport at a crossroads of platform-based television viewing practices, imposing linearity on the programming capacity of portals that are often designed for customizable non-linear viewing habits. Second, the appeal of live sports streaming is linked to a broader symbolic power that has long been associated with the experience of live events on television and radio (Hutchins et al., 2019). Intensified by the rituals of sports fandom, this power emanates from the meaning and value assigned to live events regarding the access they offer to collective social experiences.
The organization of media sport rights markets according to exclusive national territories is being restructured by portals. This trend accelerates a longer-standing trajectory of globalization in which media and communications systems and sports extend each other’s reach in a symbiotic fashion (Hutchins et al., 2019). First, the transnational architecture of Internet-based communications networks means that coverage rights organized via discrete and exclusive territories become harder to sustain and protect over time. As a result, significant clubs, leagues, events, and sports have begun to conceive of nationally based audiences as sitting alongside or overlapping with potentially lucrative untapped markets in other countries.
Untapped markets are populated by expatriate fans, avid followers of specific sports, and potential new consumers. Under these arrangements, it becomes easier to name the handful of countries not served by portals such as Amazon Prime Video and NBA League Pass than to list the countries where they can be accessed. Second, this vast territoriality is built into the design of specialist media sports portals such as DAZN, Eleven Sports, and The Olympic Channel, among others (Hutchins et al., 2019). The ambition of serving numerous national or regional audiences and a global audience is a core feature in their development, launch, and rights strategies, distinguishing them from many national broadcasters who are now moving into live streaming. Third, the extended territoriality of portals allows semi-professional, non-traditional, and marginalized sports to attract niche audiences in a wide range of locations (Hutchins et al., 2019). It is a capacity leveraged by disability sports on the International Paralympic Movement site, various forms of e-sport on Twitch, field hockey and BMX racing on Epicentre.tv, and idiosyncratic competitions such as the World Armwrestling League.
Examples of the Use of OTT by Sports Organizations
Several lighting rights deals and a mega-event reflect the transformation that is currently underway. In 2015, the Chinese company Tencent became the most valuable international digital partner of the National Basketball Association or NBA by signing a five-year agreement for exclusive coverage and content rights in China (Hutchins et al., 2019). Thus, due to the integration of broadcasts of sports events into the popular social network, the NBA will receive a good audience. The rights are worth approximately US$500 million, and another US$200 million is expected to come from a revenue-sharing agreement between the NBA and Tencent through its popular social network WeChat (Hutchins et al., 2019). Such a deal will bring much future profit for both the NBA and Tencent.
The second example is the well-known OTT platform Amazon Prime. In the United States in 2017, Amazon paid US$50 million for non-exclusive digital streaming rights to the National Football League’s Thursday Night Football, replacing the previous copyright holder, Twitter (Hutchins et al., 2019). The games are available to Amazon Prime Video subscribers in over 200 countries and territories. The growing prominence and value of live sports and the enduring appeal of broadcast television were further confirmed during Russia’s 2018 FIFA World Cup (Hutchins et al., 2019). Amazon Prime can be considered the largest broadcast platform at the moment. In the United Kingdom, for example, the group stage match between England and Tunisia drew over 3 million viewers on the BBC iPlayer public broadcast streaming platform, joining the 18 million watching on BBC television (Hutchins et al., 2019). The second number of viewers is much larger, but the first is still large enough to show why live broadcasts are attracting rapidly growing commercial investment.
Conclusion
OTT technology is a modern and advanced solution for broadcasting sports matches and their marketing. OTT attracts primarily with its versatility, the ability to watch live on any device in high quality. The usefulness of this technology in marketing lies in the fact that its versatility allows you to cover the most significant number of audiences at the same time. As a VP of Marketing, signing a contract with a company that provides OTT services and gets the most out of it is easy. The high technology of such broadcasts will also attract more audiences, as such broadcasts allow more statistics to be displayed that may be of interest to fans.
References
Deninger, D. (2021). The modern era creates a new sports TV reality. Live Sports Media, 25–42. Web.
Hutchins, B., Li, B., & Rowe, D. (2019). Over-the-top sport: live streaming services, changing coverage rights markets and the growth of media sport portals. Media, Culture & Society, 41(7), 975–994. Web.
Mohajeri Moghaddam, H., Acar, G., Burgess, B., Mathur, A., Huang, D. Y., Feamster, N.,… & Narayanan, A. (2019). Watching you watch: The tracking ecosystem of over-the-top tv streaming devices. In Proceedings of the 2019 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security, 131–147.
Plumley, D., & Wilson, R. (2022). Over the top (OTT) broadcasting platforms and commercial shifts in professional team sports. The Economics and Finance of Professional Team Sports, 134–140. Web.