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Launching an OTT Sports Service

(June 2019)

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GO
gonzo
Hi all,

I work in sports media and the club that I work for are looking to launch a Streaming TV service by the end of the year.

I’m just looking for advice for making it a success with content, design and what kind of equipment we’ll need to get it over the line. I’m the most technically competent person at the organisation (Not saying much) and I’m going to be in charge of it but I’m just not sure where to start.

Any advice appreciated.
JO
Jon
What’s the sport?

It’s important because if it’s say motor racing your setup would be more complex then it would need to be for say hockey or football. If it’s a non-league football club you probably can’t stream at Saturday 3pm for example.

Is it going to be a paid for service or is it going to be free?

What type of budget do you have?
GO
gonzo
It’s a Rugby team, we have a 24 hour full 80 minutes embargo but aside from that, we’re able to stream Academy, Women’s and U16s games for free.

We’re charging for it, £5.99 a month but I have a video camera, Premiere Pro and that’s it as it stands. No extra budget allocated.
JO
Jon
For live streaming I’d look at getting something like Wirecast or VMix. Assuming that you have a reasonably high spec PC or Mac you will be to take your camera feed into the software using a converter and you can build later if you feel you need more cameras.

With the embargo in place it sounds like the team are at a reasonably high level so if you can get a budget for an initial set up you shouldn’t have to shell out much once you’ve got that in place.

You will then be able to add things like scorebars and clocks that will help you make it look good.

OBS is an open source software option with that you would just need to pay for hardware but may be slightly less user friendly but shouldn’t matter too much if you’re just going to be using the one camera.
harshy and bilky asko gave kudos
FO
FanOfTV99
You could also have a free month thing so people can get a taste of what they can expect. MUTV did something like this before I think
NG
noggin Founding member
You will have a couple of hurdles to get across :

1. Content creation / acquisition. Are the Rugby matches you will be distributing covered already or do you need to cover them? What budget have you set aside for this? Will this be a single camera following the action or will you be attempting multicamera coverage? Do you want to create additional value-added content (pre-match, post-match stuff, additional content that isn't coverage that is about the wider club(s) etc.)?

2. Subscriber management - how will you manage subscribers, their subscription payments, content protection etc. This will need to be GPDR compliant.?

3. Content Delivery - how will you actually make the OTT video streams available. Will you have your own CDN or partner with one of the bigger players like Akamai etc.?
HA
harshy Founding member
What an interesting idea i hope you can make it work!

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