The transition from linear TV to streaming is applauded by consumers, who want more viewing choices. Streaming enables viewers to watch any and everything, including niche sports like bowling, frisbee, and paddleboarding.

This article will explore the current live sports streaming trends and the key enabling technologies that are empowering outstanding live sports streaming experiences.

Interactivity, personalisation, and low latency are trending for live sports streaming

One of the top live sports streaming trends is the move from linear scheduling towards a live events interface where viewers can select whatever match is on, enabling more choice. In addition, there is a strong desire in the industry to reduce the latency of live sports streaming. Service providers want to match the five second latency of broadcast delivery. Lower latency means viewers can see the action happen in close to real-time, making the streaming experience much more enjoyable. While streaming standards and video platforms support low latency, it can take time for service providers to adopt new systems and redevelop their applications.

The viewer experience is also becoming more interactive. There is a trend towards sports data enabling more interactive streaming experiences. Data can be synchronised with video: for example, stats following a horse on the racing field. Advertising is also changing, with new options such as double-box displays where viewers can continue to watch the game while an ad is being displayed. This creates new ad inventory for video service providers and is less disruptive for fans, improving the streaming experience.

The number of FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) channels in the U.S. has increased 81% in the last year, according to Whip Media. A growing number of sports leagues are setting up their own streaming service to serve markets where they were previously unable to sell media rights, or to engage directly with fans with exclusive content they own outside of their media rights contracts. In some cases, it’s an opportunity for leagues to develop their sport in foreign markets. Sports leagues are creating their own linear streaming channels to distribute content to FAST platforms to boost monetisation.

Latest live sports streaming innovations

One of the biggest challenges when streaming live sports is scaling the service for high volumes of consumers. A premium sports event can attract millions of fans. Service providers need to be able to scale on-the-fly to meet the demand.

The cloud enables video service providers to scale quickly and assure an exceptional quality of experience for a fluctuating number of viewers. Bally’s Interactive, the digital arm of one of the world’s leading entertainment providers, is an excellent example of a content provider delivering next-gen live sports streaming experiences via the cloud. Bally’s is leveraging the cloud to simplify all stages of media processing and delivery, including playout, branding, media processing, streaming and more.

Video compression is another technology that is key for live sports streaming. Through advanced video compression technology, video service providers can reduce bandwidth to keep delivery costs down while maintaining outstanding video quality.

In addition, server-side ad insertion (SSAI) technology is a necessity to deliver targeted advertising, whether it’s to complement a subscription-based model or support an entirely new service. Using an SSAI SaaS that is fully cloud-based, service providers can deliver targeted addressable advertising to millions of concurrent viewers for live sports streaming. By choosing a targeted ad solution with manifest manipulation capabilities, service providers can also deliver different variants to users in real-time based on delivery rights.

Furthermore, working closely with content management and application vendors is critical to delivering the most innovative streaming experience to sports fans.

Conclusion

The live sports streaming market is growing and evolving. To deliver an exceptional-quality, low-latency, interactive streaming experience, video service providers must stay ahead of the latest technology innovations. Service providers must be able to stream live sports reliably and at scale with pristine quality up to UHD HDR, with low latency and targeted advertising, for millions of concurrent viewers.

OKAST enables FAST creation and distribution via a modular cloud solution called OKAST Channels that includes programming, playout, transcoding, distribution, and advertising monetisation services. The company says it has deployed over 500 OTT platforms and FAST channels. Broadpeak provides video delivery components for content providers and network operators deploying video streaming services, including operator CDNs. The company’s advanced video API cloud platform, broadpeak.io, offers as-a-service solutions for dynamic ad insertion, linear virtual channel creation, and content personalisation. The companies are now integrating OKAST Channels and broadpeak.io.

The vendors say their partnership results in an advanced FAST offer that enables publishers to differentiate themselves in the market to achieve greater audience engagement. The technology helps content owners better monetise their inventory, the companies claim. The dynamic adaptation of channel content is key to success, and this is achieved thanks to Broadpeak’s Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) solution (available on broadpeak.io SaaS) in combination with AI. The line-up of channels is customised to end user tastes.

The content line-up is also changed using dynamic programme replacement in order to meet the business rules associated with a diverse distribution marketplace. As the vendors explain, channel distribution to multiple connected TV platforms and applications, all with their own specific requirements, generates very high costs for publishers and high management complexity for channel editors. So, this solution uses ‘variant channels’ where the same video stream is adapted to the different format, language, regulation, cultural, business and advertising rules of distribution platforms, reducing distribution and editorial management costs.

Before, the original channel programme line-up had to be changed to suit each different CTV platform carrying FAST channels – so four CTV platforms meant four versions of the channel (to align with different language, regulation, business, etc. rules). OKAST and Broadpeak have swapped this approach for one that uses rules-based programme replacement (using server-side content insertion). This means that only one version of the original programme line-up is needed, plus SSAI-enabled adaptations on a per-distribution platform basis. This reduces costs and makes wider distribution economic.

The final value-add from the OKAST/Broadpeak integration is the use of Broadpeak’s Advanced CDN solution to distribute the FAST channels to Pay TV operators. “Integration of FAST channels into operator offerings means they reach a new, very large audience in addition to that of the usual CTV platforms.”

Editor’s comment

FAST channels still attract only modest viewing (as a total of all viewing) but are a welcome addition to the TV landscape, complementing standard linear TV programming as they often provide genre-focused content collections (on a linear schedule) or allow super-fans to binge the same show 24/7. Integration of the best FAST channels into Pay TV line-ups seems a natural move, and we also expect to see these appearing more in broadcaster streaming services where third-party content is welcomed, given that many broadcasters want their BVOD to become a digital destination in its own right rather than ‘just’ a catch-up service for their own broadcast channels. Seven Network in Australia is one of those pioneering the ‘third-party FAST inside BVOD’ model, and gave details about that at Connected TV World Summit in March.

The rapid growth of streaming TV consumption makes it imperative that networks, studios and MVPDs have a ‘grown up’ connected TV offering – one that allows them to compete for every eyeball and ad dollar that migrates into the premium digital video environment. This means:

• Holding onto audiences, and attracting new viewers, by ensuring a consumer-friendly ad experience with modest ad loads, frequency capping and relevant ads.
• Enabling ad insertion (and targeting) at huge scale with total reliability, so that mega-events including sport and breaking news can be fully monetized.
• Maximizing the value of inventory by carefully managing direct sales with multiple programmatic demand sources.
• Effectively using audience data to achieve better targeting and a personalized ad viewing experience, even in a cookie-less world.

The pandemic accelerated all digital behaviours, including TV viewing. Mass-scale connected TV was tomorrow’s opportunity and challenge, but tomorrow arrived early. Join us live to hear how networks, studios and distributors can rethink the ad-supported TV model and ready themselves for connected TV primetime.

Register here.

This webcast explores:

• What a holistic ad performance and revenue strategy looks like, and how you find the sweet spot where ‘audience + avails = best possible yield outcome’, and how you avoid the one extra ad that loses you money, as viewers ‘tune out’.
• The potential for greater integration and synergies between SSAI and audience data and targeting capabilities –and how this could be implemented.
• How to manage ad frequency in a multi ad server (direct, programmatic, affiliate) environment and so ensure ad repetition does not degrade the ‘premium’ TV experience.
• The next steps in dynamic ad insertion, including the benefits of server-side ad insertion and client-side ad insertion, and how these can be used successfully in a hybrid model.
• The potential for a multi-DAI vendor strategy (similar to multi-CDN strategies) and how this could influence ad delivery performance and costs.
• How to manage multiple inventory owners within the same video session using an understanding of who has the ‘right to sell’, plus the ad routing and decisioning processes that support sales business rules.
• The special considerations when streaming ad-supported content into MVPD set-top boxes.
• How to monitor and diagnose the causes of ad errors, and so increase ad delivery reliability.
• How organizations are managing ad insertion for very large scale events, including the implications for ad insertion infrastructure

Iredeto says the technology is “vendor agnostic” and can be incorporated into a pre-established advertising ecosystem with vendors of the customer’s choice, or delivered as a full end-to-end solution. Within the SSAI there is also a tracking manager that monitors aspects of ads stitched into a stream (such as impressions, errors and quartile completion) and helps identify any issues within the system. The first, unnamed customer for the new technology is fully operational.

The SSAI detects SCTE35 markers in a broadcast feed – inserted by the stream creator – to know when an ad break is coming and its duration. It then requests ads from the ad server which are selected based on the individual viewer’s profile, including information on past viewing history, demographics, and geographical location. Once the ads are chosen, Irdeto SSAI manipulates the manifests of the stream (the set of instructions for how the video player locates and plays video files) to playout the audio and video segments from the selected ads, stitching ads directly into the same stream as the content. The technology then returns the stream to its original manifests after the ad break has finished, until the next ad break is indicated by SCTE35 markers.

The company argues that this approach to ad insertion eliminates the latency and buffering associated with other ad insertion technologies. Irdeto also says that the impact of ad blocking is minimised as a result of ads being stitched directly into the stream, and the SSAI will prevent timeouts and black screen during ad playback caused by device fragmentation.

Shane McCarthy, COO of Video Entertainment at Irdeto, says: “For decades advertising has been the backbone of live television. As the consumer viewing behaviours rapidly shift towards streaming video platforms, it is only natural for us to seek new innovative solutions to empower our customers. With this new solution we empower streaming platforms to explore new revenue streams by maximising the value of their premium OTT ad inventory.”