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Remote Commentary: How major sporting rights holders are using cloud production tools to deliver localized commentary

As broadcasters and media rights holders shift to more hybrid and remote production workflows for live sport, the flexibility of remote commentary has led to more engaging and tailored live content for audiences. 

With hybrid and remote production workflows now commonplace in live sport, many major media rights holders and broadcasters are finding new and innovative ways to produce engaging live sports broadcasts for global and local audiences.

Grabyo’s remote guest contribution app is giving organizations more flexibility in recruiting on-air talent for major sporting events. Using Grabyo’s Producer Guest, commentators can join live broadcasts using just a laptop and a microphone, from anywhere in the world. 

Removing the need for talent to travel to a fixed location is providing more opportunity and flexibility for broadcasters. This increased flexibility is enabling production teams to create localized broadcasts for specific audiences. 

Whether packaging a global feed, or redistributing a live broadcast to another territory, broadcasters are recruiting local talent with more relevance to their target audience – this could be to provide multi-language commentary, or to give the program local flavor. 

Reducing the need for on-site commentary drives down the cost of travel and transport of personnel and equipment while reducing the carbon footprint of live sports broadcasts. 

Over the past year, many have learned that creating engaging live broadcasts remotely takes a nuanced approach. Those who have experimented and adapted using cloud-based production tools have seen the benefits. Here are a few examples:

Korean K-League 1 returns to action with commentary provided in Australia

After a postponed season, the K League 1 used Grabyo’s cloud video platform to produce and deliver its season to its YouTube and Twitter channels. The K League was the first major football league to resume action after postponements and cancellations due to the COVID-19 health pandemic. 

With restrictions on public gatherings, only essential personnel were present at the match. Grabyo’s cloud-native live production platform enabled K League’s team to work remotely and safely from anywhere in the world, collaborating in real-time to deliver the match broadcast. 

Renowned commentator Simon Hill covered the match entirely remotely, using Grabyo’s remote contribution capabilities. Hill was based in Australia and appeared on the broadcast using a laptop with a microphone. 

K-League’s approach to remote commentary has acted as a blueprint for sporting events worldwide even beyond the current health pandemic. 

The Carribean Premier League repackages classic matches with live talent

In an industry-first, the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) broadcast their classic matches from the past, but with a difference. The games were broadcast with live commentary.

CPL enlisted its world-class broadcasting team, including Tom Moody, Danny Morrison, Ian Bishop, and Alex Jordon, to commentate live on the action. Using Grabyo’s cloud video platform, the commentators were able to join the broadcast from locations all over the world.

To make each match as realistic as possible, the commentary team wasn’t provided with any match information before taking part in the live stream. Reactions from the team were live as if they are watching the match for the first time. Featuring some of the greatest T20 cricketers, fans could re-live their performances with the commentary creating an authentic feel to the experience.

Broadcasting to Facebook and YouTube allowed fans to remain part of the experience, through the comments and engagements, without being at the match.

Sports Flick localizes UEFA Women’s Champions League broadcasts

Sports Flick Global, the worldwide OTT and pay-per-view platform for live sports, partnered with Grabyo to create bespoke viewing experiences for its subscribers.

With a growing global subscriber base, Sports Flick chose the use of Grabyo to remotely produce and tailor its international live broadcasts for regional audiences, including the use of local talent for presentation and commentary.

The platform uses Grabyo’s remote production tools to provide local commentary for its other properties across the globe.

The sports OTT platform utilized Grabyo’s remote contribution tools to bring some local flavor to its UEFA Women’s Champions League match broadcasts for its Australian audiences. 

Using Producer Guest, Grabyo’s remote contribution web app, Sports Flick, leverages local talent for commentary, like the legendary voice of Australian football Simon Hill, who contribute to broadcasts using their own personal devices from anywhere in the world. The commentators can interact with each other and view the program live as if they were in the stadium.

For more information on how Grabyo can support your remote commentary and social content strategy, get in touch.

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Filmnova partners with Grabyo to produce the World Triathlon Para Series in the cloud

Filmnova used Grabyo Producer to deliver in-depth and dynamic coverage of the World Para Triathlon Series to BBC Sport Online and other digital platforms.

The World Triathlon Para Series, which offers a unique and inclusive global opportunity for athletes of all disabilities to perform at elite levels in this exciting and dynamic sport,  returned to Leeds, U.K. for the fifth time this June.

Filmnova’s production crew consisted of just ten people, who shot, edited, and mixed the broadcast using a combination of four cameras with Mobile Viewpoint cellular bonded units linked to Grabyo. 

Using Grabyo’s live production platform, Grabyo Producer, Filmnova’s director mixed live feeds from each mobile camera, adding graphics and VOD assets from around the course. Being cut remotely and situated off-site from the race venue, the equipment required was minimal and lightweight, mainly laptops with an internet connection along with additional tablets for viewing purposes on site. 

To bring viewers as close to the race as possible, Filmnova needed to ensure it offered a variety of angles and perspectives on the race to replicate the live atmosphere. 

Three Timeline cameras were free to move around the course, feeding race footage into Grabyo. The last camera followed the presenter, Rob Walker, who conducted interviews and hosted guests throughout the day.  

Filmnova’s producer used Grabyo’s multiviewer to monitor each feed for quality and to decide when and where to switch, whilst the director operated Grabyo’s vision mixer, graphic tools and new audio mixer made the cuts. 

The production team had a total of six live microphones available at any one time. Three handhelds were linked back via the presenter camera, with the remaining three cameras sending back their natural sound utilising top mics. Audio was mixed using a dedicated interface within Grabyo Producer, enabling producers to precisely mix the gain, pan, fade and levels of audio in a browser tab, instead of a on-site mixing deck.

Graphics, supplied by Moov, were loaded into Grabyo Producer before the broadcast went live, allowing for the director to author graphics for the race in real-time. The broadcast was multicast to the BBC Sport website and TriathlonLive.tv.

Filmnova’s broadcast team also used Grabyo’s live clipping service and cloud editing tools to create clips from the race and add to the live broadcast.

“Grabyo allowed us to have an incredible amount of flexibility throughout race day. Working with Grabyo Cloud-based products meant that we could simplify our workflows, keep our team small but still deliver a quality output for viewers.”

Alex Lightfoot, Producer, FilmNova

For more information on how Grabyo can help to bolster your digital content capabilities, get in touch.

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INFLCR and Grabyo partner to provide increased content creation and distribution capabilities to sports organizations

INFLCR and Grabyo have teamed up to offer a powerful video production and distribution solution for athletes and sports organizations. This fully cloud-based workflow will help digital and social teams maximize content reach and ROI, as well as streamline their content production and distribution process.

Grabyo and INFLCR’s partnership will increase the content production capabilities of professional sports organizations as well as NCAA schools, which will in turn create more sponsorship inventory for brand partners. 

Content and media distribution staff across NCAA and professional conferences, leagues and teams will be able to create, brand and package video content using Grabyo’s cloud video platform. Organizations with remote staff will be able to collaborate on video production and editing in real-time, using Grabyo’s browser-based tools.

Media teams can then send content directly to an athlete’s INFLCR account for distribution across social media. Athletes can access and share content in real-time, while brand partners can track the impact and engagement of content.

Digital activation with branded social video has become a key component in endorsement strategy, with athletes across all sports racking up a considerable following across various social platforms. 

Consumers are far more likely to engage with social media content when it is published by a person versus a corporate account, especially major influencers like athletes. Sharing high-quality content, at the right time to the right platform, can deliver large audiences for sponsors.

“At INFLCR we want to make things as easy and impactful as possible for athletes and staff, and this new workflow helps us to build on our success, provide some operational efficiency, and give athletes and organizations the opportunity to produce next-level content, and distribute it to the widest possible audiences at scale. We’re thrilled to integrate with Grabyo and help support our clients’ needs.”

Jim Cavale, INFLCR Founder & CEO.

For more information on how Grabyo can help to bolster your content production and drive digital audience growth, get in touch.

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The European Broadcasting Union partners with Grabyo to drive digital engagement for the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest, the world’s longest-running annual TV music competition organized by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), connected with music fans across the world on social media by partnering with Grabyo for its 2021 return. 

Building on a  long-term partnership, Grabyo increased its support for the EBU at the 2021 event by extending its services to all EBU Members, Europe’s leading public service broadcasters, from across the 39 participating nations.

Grabyo’s technology was integral for the digital output for the show, expanding the reach of content shared to Eurovision Song Contest’s official digital channels. The production team, based on-site in Rotterdam, collaborated in real-time to produce live broadcasts and highlights for distribution to social accounts and broadcast partners. 

During the week of the Eurovision Song Contest the EBU streamed the competition to its official YouTube channel, gaining 50.6 million unique viewers across 234 countries and territories, up 28% on 2019, whilst also sharing key moments from the event through a mixture of live clips and post-show edits on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

The EBU used Grabyo’s cloud infrastructure to set up a centralised platform for EBU Members and partners, including broadcasters and major music labels, to gain remote access to all content produced for the event. Over 150 crew members from across the EBU partner network were given access to Grabyo to develop localised content for their own specific audience.

The EBU team and partners, with the support of digital agency Scrn, used Grabyo to manage content across the rehearsals, press conferences, Turquoise Carpet event and live shows. 

Fans across the world followed the show’s updates across the Eurovision Song Contest’s social media channels, with the Contest’s official social media accounts generated 14 million engagement actions on posts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok. The new TikTok channel, launched 100 days before the Grand Final, also generated 4.3 million engagement actions.

“Working with Grabyo has enabled us to ensure that exciting content from this year’s Eurovision Song Contest could be shared across all our digital platforms and just as importantly with EBU Members and partners. Grabyo’s technology very much helped us expand our reach, delivering the content from the event that fans want to see, across the channels they want to use. Social and digital engagement is important to the success and appeal of the Eurovision Song Contest and we’re delighted with the results.”

Dave Goodman, Communications Lead for the Eurovision Song Contest

For more information on how Grabyo can help to bolster your digital content capabilities, get in touch.

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Vertical video: How UFC, Arizona Cardinals, and Southampton FC maximize social media engagement

By 2022, videos are projected to make up 82% of all consumer internet traffic, and according to YANS, 90% of vertical video have a higher watch completion rate than horizontal.

The continued rise in global smartphone adoption across all age demographics, and the rise in video viewing on these devices, is reflected in the growth of social media platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram and now TikTok. 

Vertical video viewing has rapidly risen in popularity with the launch of these platforms. With a reported worldwide 689 million monthly active TikTok users, and 280 million daily Snapchat users, broadcasters, organizations and teams need to adapt their video strategy to activate the vast audiences across these platforms. 

Meeting audience expectations on these platforms takes a nuanced approach. Those who have been able to match the tone and style of content have seen huge early successes.

UFC

In February, Grabyo partner UFC announced a partnership with TikTok to produce weekly live content on the platform. The vertical video native content encompasses new weekly UFC shows that feature live footage from weigh-ins, press conferences, athlete interviews, arena tours, and fighter training. 

Each weekly show is dedicated to a live event, driving engagement and building a fan base for the UFC by engaging the younger demographic on Tik Tok. UFC’s decision to devote the extra time and resource to delivering vertical native content shows the value that major organizations see in the platform. 

@ufc

Nate Diaz is absolutely RELENTLESS 😳 ##ufc ##natediaz ##knockout ##ufc263

♬ TRAP AUTO DRIFT SPORT – Aleksey Zaykov

UFC has stated it aims to grow its TikTok base to over 7 million on its official channels. Since 2019, #UFC hashtag that has been viewed 8 billion times. 

The company has pledged to collaborate with TikTok to distribute hundreds of pieces of content each year across its channels including @UFC, @UFCRussia, @UFCBrasil, and @UFCEurope in order to propel its growth on the platform. 

Building a following from scratch on a platform takes audience understanding but also commitment. UFC’s success has come from its focus on delivering the right style of content consistently. 

Southampton FC

Southampton FC is a football club known for bringing its personality to fans on social media. Its digital and social production teams are dedicated to doing things a bit differently when it comes to engaging with fans online.

The club’s keen eye for trends, has enabled it to create successful content strategies for TikTok. Southampton FC’s light-hearted approach to content and viral trends has enabled the club to seamlessly integrate TikTok to its social content mix.

At the beginning of November 2020, the club reacted to reaching the top of the Premier League table for the first time in its history, early in the 2020/21 season, with a tweet that read ‘Stop the Count’, a reference to Donald Trump’s remarks during the US election happening at the time.

@southamptonfc

All about the Chéle train 🚂 ##saintsfc ##foryou ##fyp ##premierleague ##whoareyou

♬ MoussasDanceRemix – Southampton FC

The post went viral, reaching over 490K engagements on Twitter. It now ranks as the most popular tweet of the season from a Premier League club. The tweet then featured in one of Southampton’s TikTok videos a couple of weeks later, posted as a reaction to the club dropping from the top spot. The TikTok video reached over 200K views.

Southampton now has 241.8K followers and 3.1M likes on the platform. Its digital team has continued to be on top of trends, delivering engaging content to its fans with a particular focus on the younger demographic. TikTok is one of the main opportunities to engage this demographic and Southampton FC has capitalized on this. 

The club uses Grabyo to simplify the process of identifying an opportunity for a TikTok video. During the creation of TikTok videos, the team is connected using Grabyo’s cloud platform as a centralized workspace for collaborative asset management and content approvals.

With more freedom, Southampton FC is able to keep up with ever-changing trends on TikTok, participating in hashtags, replying to fan comments, joining in with the latest memes, and giving the Saints’ channel an authentic, human feel – something that is vital to engaging audiences on all social platforms. 

Arizona Cardinals 

Using Grabyo, the Arizona Cardinals have developed content across multiple platforms including TikTok and Snapchat. The team has been dynamic in adapting to trends in a year which has been challenging for live engagement. 

The digital team was quick to the rise of vertical video native content in sharing clips, highlights, and behind-the-scenes content to TikTok and Snapchat. Its move into TikTok has seen the franchise gain 450K followers and 4.5M likes on the platform. 

This success can be attributed to the variety of content the team produce. Viewers on Snpachat and Tik Tok aren’t looking for highlights, they want more behind the scenes, challenges, interviews and other engaging formats.

@azcardinals

Get to know Tay Gowan 👀 ##nfl ##funfacts ##arizona

♬ original sound – Arizona Cardinals

The Arizona Cardinals has also struck an exclusive sponsorship deal for its Tik Tok content. The team produces a series that is sponsored by Canes Chicken Fingers called #Gettoknowme, in which players answer a series of questions from fans. The team also has a content series dedicated to showcasing and selling its branded merchandise, with offers and promotions for viewers.

Many media companies have searched for a way to monetize Tik Tok content and the Cardinals have showcased a leading example. 

For more information on how Grabyo can support your vertical video and social content strategy, get in touch.

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