During Australian Open 2021, organisers Tennis Australia leveraged Grabyo to enhance its global digital content strategy and deliver more immersive experiences to fans. 

As publishers and rights holders successfully adapt and innovate their content production workflows to cater for social distancing regulations, competition for audiences remains high.

Sports publishers are faced with the challenge of delivering more value to fans consuming content at home. As a result, Tennis Australia committed to delivering more enriching experiences for tennis fans across its social and digital platforms using Grabyo’s cloud video platform. 

For the first time in 2021, the Australian Open launched a daily Snapchat program, the AO 2021 Show. Using highlight clips and behind the scenes footage produced using Grabyo, the AO 2021 Show enabled Tennis Australia to add another dimension to its content offering, while reaching a younger demographic of sports fans across the globe.

To bring fans across the world as close to courtside as possible, Tennis Australia used Grabyo’s Studio platform to produce and deliver high-definition, real-time highlights to its social channels from over 18 courts, as well as live broadcasts of match celebrations.

Complementing the coverage of the Australian Open’s official rights holders in multiple markets, Tennis Australia provided a wealth of behind the scenes access to tell more stories from the tournament. Fans were taken inside the locker rooms, to press conferences and courtside to enjoy the human experience of the Australian Open.

𝑀𝒶𝒿𝑒𝓈𝓉𝒾𝒸 𝒾𝓃 𝑀𝑒𝓁𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓃𝑒

The moment @DjokerNole claims his 9th #AusOpen title.#AO2021 pic.twitter.com/2sQVBGF0Wv

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) February 21, 2021

The Tennis Australia team also ramped up its content distribution in China, using Grabyo to distribute content to its regional teams in China to deliver across Weibo and WeChat.

“While it remains a challenging time to keep fans at the centre of sport, we have worked hard to continue innovating and serving fans with the access they’re looking for”, comments Xavier Muhlebach, Supervising Producer Tennis Australia. “Our digital channels are more important than ever, and we focused on creating quality viewing experiences for fans to enjoy in whichever format they chose.”

“We are proud and excited to play our part in innovating content experiences for tennis fans”, adds Marcello Fabiano, head of Australia & New Zealand at Grabyo. “Tennis Australia has long been a leader in developing new and engaging content formats. The team understands the needs of fans and works to cover every angle, bringing the Australian Open to life for everyone.”

For more information on how Grabyo can support your live virtual event, get in touch.