StreamAMG worked with the Football League Interactive (FLi) network to deliver a new video strategy to meet the growing expectations of sports fans. StreamUK discuss the work
Technology is changing the game for football fans in the UK. This year’s fixture release day was a digital record breaker in the UK, with more than three million views across the Football League Interactive (FLi) network. The associated clubs published a total of over 3,214 new pieces of content within the same day.
Video makes up a good portion of this content. And as Adobe Digital Index’s 2015 report revealed, the number of users watching sports streams is surging by 640 per cent each year. The FLi saw the need to invest heavily into its video as fans desire better quality video and new ways to watch it.
The Football League chose StreamAMG to help deliver on their new video strategy.
The Challenge
The Football League wanted to build on its Player video platform offer to meet the expectations of fans. They saw an opportunity to create a premium quality video platform, which could be tailored to every club in the Football League.
What’s more, Football League needed to make PlayerHD available around the world, with a brilliant user experience and fast load time. The Football League follows its fans around the world, and regularly looks into which teams have large global followings. They knew that audiences were large enough to build a service with global reach.
This platform, named PlayerHD, would need to:
• Ingest multiple streams at full HD bitrates
• Deliver video to mobile, tablet and all major browsers
• Provide a stable monetisation and subscription system
• Integrate seamlessly with a new FLi app
• Stream live video to a global audience
• Create faster, smoother workflows for media teams to deliver video
• Continuously evolve the product for football fans
PlayerHD was also to act as the ‘Live Hub’ for teams’ pre-season tour content, where a number of clubs will use StreamAMG’s live expertise to stream fixtures in the run-up to the start of the new season.
With the new PlayerHD planned, the FLi put forward the aspirational slogan: “Support your club. Whenever. Wherever.”
Launching 89 different video websites on one day is no easy feat. We needed to provide the FLi with a tailored solution, for June 25 saw each club re-launch their video subscription platform as PlayerHD, offering for the first time a multiple device-compatible service with HD content, match highlights and live audio commentary.
The Strategy
The company’s sports office, based in MediaCityUK, Salford Quays, provides technical account management, customer support and streaming production.
The new partnership has been aided by StreamAMG’s construction of a custom data facility, able to accommodate the number of concurrent events required by the project, and broadcast live audio and video content with minimal delay to a global audience.
StreamAMG has also recruited new team members at management, account management and customer service level as part of the new project.
Prior to the launch, the StreamAMG team went on a ‘road show’ of the different clubs, training their teams on the new platform and putting into place all the support workflows for both the media teams and the fans (the end users).
The Results
First, we provided a seamless launch to the new HD service on June 25. This was down to the determination of our teams and our powerful infrastructure.
After the launch, and when we could all take a breath of relief, Duncan Burbidge, CEO for StreamUK said: “I’m very proud of StreamAMG today. We delivered 89 video websites on our best day ever. Our technology and delivery team has been awesome.”
The new offering represents a major development in the consumption of online football video, as fans look to engage with their clubs through digital and social media, across multiple devices, anywhere in the world.
And you only have to take a quick scan of Twitter to see how powerful this tool has been to help fans and teams connect with each other.