The men’s football channel, ‘DAZN X PLUTO TV INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL’, includes live games from top Spanish, Italian and French leagues, plus FA Cup and Coppa Italia games, and exclusively produced weekly highlight shows from LaLiga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and selected cup competitions, also on demand. The Football channel will include a weekly Pluto TV exclusive highlight show called ‘Die DAZN x Pluto TV Fußballshow’.

“With these launches, Pluto TV becomes the only free streaming TV service with 100% dedicated DAZN Football, Darts and Fights channels in these market,” Pluto TV says in a statement. Olivier Jollet, EVP and International General Manager at Pluto TV, says the deal makes sport, including niche disciplines like darts, more accessible to a wider audience. Pete Parmenter, EVP Business Development at DAZN, says the partnership creates even more visibility for DAZN’s “best in class” coverage.

Parmenter adds: “This is yet another exciting partnership that underpins DAZN’s strategy of delivering an ever-increasing range of top-quality sports content to fans on a global basis. This deal increases accessibility and reach for our rights holders’ content, such as the UEFA Women’s Champions League.”

Jollet continued: “This partnership showcases our commitment to providing exceptional content to our audience…We are happy to offer Pluto TV viewers unparalleled access to some of the most prestigious women’s competitions.”

DAZN and Pluto TV have a longstanding relationship, which started in 2019 when they partnered to deliver the DAZN Fight Zone, a three-hour weekly programming block, to Pluto TV viewers in the U.S.

The full channel list covered by the new deal is:

• DAZN X PLUTO TV INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL (Live on Pluto TV in Germany and Austria)
• DAZN DARTS X PLUTO TV (Live on Pluto TV in Germany and Austria)
• DAZN FIGHTS X PLUTO TV (Available from August 28 in Germany and Austria)
• DAZN HELDINNEN X PLUTO TV (Available from August 28 in Germany and Austria)
• DAZN WOMEN FOOTBALL (Live on Pluto TV in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, France and Latin America).

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.

Despite being distant from each other, the viewers can socially interact and so discuss what they are watching. Viewers are effectively projected into a common viewing space, prompting Ateme to say the solution “converges traditional television and gaming, enabling users to enjoy ground-breaking experiences.”

Ateme believes this solution will benefit D2C streaming providers and sports leagues and give them a chance to position themselves as sports UX innovators. There are also new ad placement – and therefore monetisation – opportunities associated with this environment.

“Video consumption is evolving, with gaming and social interactions increasingly taking place in both virtual and physical spaces,” says Mickaël Raulet, CTO of Ateme. “Moreover, with intense competition in the OTT streaming market, the industry must adapt to stay ahead.

“Our Virtual Lounge solution provides our customers with a competitive advantage: it incorporates all the features of a virtual environment – gaming, social media, and more – that are sure to appeal to younger audiences. We also enable more efficient streaming through headend optimisation and robust player application interaction.”