Video Industry News

Read about the most interesting and unique content ideas from around the APAC sports and broadcast industry these past few weeks.

As world tours are postponed indefinitely, Korean Band BTS hosted two virtual concerts to connect with fans and introduce new songs from their recent album. As this shift online continues with concerts and broadcast, the impact is also being felt for ecommerce as The Double 11 Single’s Day sale set a new sales record. The NBA is continuing to engage with fans in China, by opening six entertainment and experience centres. Amazon Prime has announced its debut in India by acquiring New Zealand Cricket rights from 2021 to 2025/26, one of the country’s most popular sports. As fans are unable to attend this season’s IPL matches, Disney+ Hotstar introduced #WatchWithYaars which allowed fans to video call family and friends to watch matches together. To further support the virtual event space, Sport Singapore announced a $50 million grant to encourage sport event organisers to engage locals via ‘phygital’ hybrid events.

NBA entertainment and experience centres China

NBA will be opening six entertainment and experience centres in China, as part of their partnership with Harves Entertainment . The centres will be equipped with interactive gaming facilities, NBA-themed restaurants and other entertainment choices. The centres provide an opportunity for the league to enhance its connection with its Chinese followers and expand the global reach of the league.

Amazon Prime in India

Amazon Prime Video announced earlier this month its debut into live sports in India, acquiring the broadcast rights for one of the country’s most popular sports. The streaming platform will be airing New Zealand Cricket from 2021 to 2025/2026. The deal includes rights to stream all international cricket matches played in New Zealand for both men’s and women’s cricket, ODI, T20 and Tests formats starting late 2021 on Prime Video’s platform.

Streaming giant @PrimeVideoIN has purchased the exclusive rights to live stream New Zealand-based BLACKCAPS and @WHITE_FERNS matches into India for the next six years. https://t.co/ZYtDqqZKcg #CricketNation

— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) November 10, 2020

#WatchWithYaars on Hotstar

The 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL) took place over two months, from September to November, and attracted a record audience across television and digital platforms. 58 of the 60 IPL games showed a 24% increase from the 2019 edition and a cumulative of 383 billion minutes were watched.

As all games are held behind closed doors in United Arab Emirates this year, Disney+ Hotstar has introduced a “Watch with your friends” feature using #WatchWithYaars, that allowed users to video call family and friends while watching the IPL cricket matches on HotStar.

Double 11 sale breaks record

The double 11 singles day ecommerce sale broke another record, with 498.2 billion yuan ($74.1 billion) in sales revenue on Tmall.com and 271.5 billion yuan on JD.com. Brand owners are diversified ways of communicating with customers through live streaming platforms and invited influencers to endorse goods by publishing short-video advertisements.

BTS Virtual Concert: ‘Map of the Soul ON:E’

The pandemic has disrupted BTS’s World Tours but that hasn’t stopped them from connecting with their fans through two virtual concerts over a weekend in October. ‘Map of the Soul ON:E’ achieved a total of 756,000 viewers from 100 different countries to watch the online performance live. The virtual concert applied AR, XR and 4K/HD technology for a more immersive fan experience and provided fans with the option for “multi-view live streaming” with six different screens to choose from.

‘Phygital’ Hybrid events in Singapore

Sports Singapore has launched the “Blended” initiative which offers grants to sports event organisers, event management companies, private academies and clubs to engage locals via the ‘phygital’ hybrid event formats. ‘Phygital’ combines both physical and digital elements in sports to deliver a more interactive experience for participants.

To learn more about Grabyo and how we are helping global broadcasters, rights holders and media companies overcome these challenges with our cloud-based video production and editing platform – get in touch today.

Here are Grabyo’s favorite content production ideas from around the EMEA sports and broadcast industry over the past few weeks.

From football stars to Disney, there has been a variety of high-quality content produced over the past month. Two of Liverpool FC’s stars have launched their own series, Wingmen, giving fans an insight into life at Liverpool FC. The Masters took place after a six month delay, and the PGA Tour produced a series of videos to get fans in the mood for the occasion. Disney entered the race for the best Christmas advert and Three transported two of Chelsea FC’s season ticket holders to a virtual Stamford Bridge. As eSports continues to grow rapidly, La Liga has become the first competition to join the streaming platform with a series of highlights, match previews and eSports competitions.

The Wingmen

Liverpool FC’s two wingbacks, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson, have launched a new digital-only series called Wingmen. As the players look to connect with fans during their absence from the stadium, the series follows them driving through Liverpool, carpool karaoke-style. Joined by guests along the way and stopping off at historic places throughout the city, the pair answer questions from fans and discuss their highlights from their victorious 19-20 season.

Golf fever

The Masters took place for the first time in November. To get golf fans in the mood, the PGA Tour created a selection of videos including highlights packages, informative videos, and tournament previews. The tour’s best players discuss their experiences and recommendations for any player competing in a Major. The preview videos look at the full tournament including the course, the players and the adjusted format following the 6 month delay to play.

Disney

For the first time, Disney launched a Christmas TV advert. Following on from their successful launch of the Disney+ streaming platform earlier in the year, the brand continues to build momentum with fans of all ages. With parks shut across Europe, Disney is looking for new ways to bring joy to fans over the festive season and engage with them until the park gates can reopen.

Introducing the 2020 Disney Christmas Advert. #FromOurFamilyToYours ✨ #DisneyChristmasAd2020 pic.twitter.com/IU7ihjP2xQ

— Disney UK (@Disney_UK) November 9, 2020

Back to The Bridge

Chelsea’s official club partner, Three, created an immersive fan experience. Taking two avid Chelsea fans, Three re-created Stamford Bridge using projectors, a tannoy announcer and TV screens for them to watch the game. The fans were sat in the middle of the warehouse, creating the feeling that they were in the stadium, surrounded by fans cheering on their beloved Blues.

La Liga on Twitch

La Liga has joined Twitch, the first major European sports competition to do so. Looking to increase its fan base, La Liga will be interacting with Twitch’s highly engaged audience. The league’s content includes warm-up footage from games, exclusive eSports tournaments and exclusive highlights packages. 

To learn more about Grabyo and how we are helping global broadcasters, rights holders and media companies overcome these challenges with our cloud-based video production and editing platform – get in touch today.

2021 is the year that cloud-native remote production becomes a reality. Join Grabyo, AWS and Fox Sports Mexico to discuss what moving traditional broadcast workflows to the cloud means for the industry as a whole.

The webinar will take place Wednesday November 18th at 5pm GMT/12pm EST, on this exclusive webinar, we will discuss:

For more information, please get in touch with us.

Grabyo’s new multiviewer service gives live production teams the ability to manage multi-feed broadcasts from a web browser with no on-premise equipment.

As the shift to remote, cloud-production accelerates, Grabyo has taken a step forward towards delivering broadcast-quality live productions in the cloud, by adding a customizable, multiviewer accessible via a web-browser.

Multiviewers are an essential part of live production workflows, enabling directors and producers to view multiple feeds and sources in a single screen.This development is the first in a series of planned upgrades to Grabyo’s cloud-native live production platform, Grabyo Producer.

The addition of the multiviewer features, combined with Grabyo’s powerful low-latency, frame-accurate switching capabilities, playlisting tools, graphics authoring and multi-platform distribution means production teams can use Grabyo for a broad range of live broadcasts in the cloud.

Grabyo’s multiviewer supports:

• Customizable layout for preview, program and sources
• Ability to add over 30 configurable live sources
• Live clock
• Support for an unlimited number of independent multiviewers
• Ultra low latency, high-quality previews
• Multiple predefined layouts
• Sharing of multiviewers for team-wide access
• Built-in audio meters

The adoption of cloud-native broadcast tools removes on-site constraints for production teams, allowing teams to work remotely and collaborate in real-time. Cloud production enables hi-fidelity broadcasting to all major digital platforms, as well as TV. The services reduce the amount of on-prem equipment needed, dramatically lowering the cost of production.

Production teams can utilize a number of separate multiviewers within Grabyo Producer for a highly customizable user experience.

The addition of multiviewer is the latest enhancement to the Grabyo platform that gives broadcasters and publishers the essential tools to produce live video in the cloud.

Instead of high upfront costs to purchase production hardware and software, with upgrades limited by infrastructure capacity and a slow release cycle, production teams utilizing cloud services can be more flexible – scaling their usage, and spend, to suit their needs.

For more information, please contact us.

MotoGP, the Grand Prix motorcycle racing association, reached over 30 million social media followers in September 2020.

We’ve published a new report with our partner Dorna Sports, who is the exclusive commercial and television rights holder of MotoGP. It has been a leader in the sports industry in using real-time and live video to grow its social audience and connect with MotoGP fans. Reaching the 30m landmark is a huge achievement for the sport and illustrates the demand for sports on social media.

This report explores MotoGP’s content production workflows, its partnership with Grabyo, and how the championship uses video across multiple platforms to grow its audience.

Here’s a preview of what’s included:

Real-time race updates

MotoGP’s digital team uses Grabyo Studio to deliver real-time highlights, ensuring it utilizes important moments from a race to bring the entire experience online. A mix of crashes, light-hearted moments or exhilarating overtakes, its team uses Grabyo to capture and package every moment for social audiences.

Live video accelerates

With some races cancelled in 2020 with the pandemic, and fans restricted from accessing the events, MotoGP has bolstered its live broadcasting efforts during 2020 to reach social audiences. Using Grabyo Producer, MotoGP’s production team produces live broadcasts remotely from anywhere in the world, using a web-browser on a laptop/PC with an internet connection.

eSports Boom

With no live sport taking place in the summer of 2020, MotoGP had to switch its content focus in order to keep fans engaged. Like many others, it took the opportunity to expand its coverage of eSports. 

The 2020 MotoGP™ eSport Championship Global Series is broadcast to all of MotoGP eSports social channels using Grabyo Producer, enabling it to deliver broadcast-quality live streams to multiple destinations simultaneously. 

To read the full report, fill in the form below. If you have any questions, please get in touch with us.