As In-Market Streaming Barriers Are Lifted, RSNs Look To Serve More Live Content to Fans Custom fan experience, sports betting drive many efforts By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Monday, August 19, 2019 - 7:00 am
Print This Story
Story Highlights
In recent years, the MLB, NBA, and NHL have inked authenticated in-market streaming deals with nearly all the regional sports networks in the U.S., allowing the RSNs to connect with local fans on a whole new level. As a result, the walls between linear- and digital-production teams are coming down, with RSNs looking to become more efficient and distribute content across an ever-growing number of platforms.
From left: NBC Sports Regional Networks' Deven Persaud, NESN's Theresa Spencer, and KSE Digital's Matt Williams discuss growing RSN activity in live streaming.
At SVG's RSN Summit earlier this summer, digital leaders from NBC Sports Regional Networks, NESN, and Altitude Sports discussed best practices in designing a live-streaming app, enhancing fan interactivity, differentiating the digital experience, and riding the on-coming wave of legal sports betting.
Customized Stream: MyTeams by NBC Sports App
Last October, NBC Sports Regional Networks launched MyTeams by NBC Sports, a team-focused mobile app that provides fans customized, all-in-one access to live game streaming and other content featuring their local teams from the 25 NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB teams covered by NBC RSNs. Fans select their favorite team or teams - with no limit and in order of preference - to create a customized content offering that matches their passions, priorities, and interests.
In our research, we found that most of our users and our fans were team-specific, not regional-specific, said Deven Persaud, director of product, NBC Sports Regional Networks. Somebody in the Bay Area might be a huge Warriors fan, but they don't care about the Sharks, and vice versa; we found that across the board in all of our regions. We took that information and, using the backbone of the streaming products that the [NBC Sports] national side creates, made sure that we were presenting streams to help mitigate a lot of the confusion around authentication and geographic blackouts to get fans into the streams that they want and are credentialed for as quickly and as easily as possible.
The Peacock digital team's efforts paid off. Three months after launch, the MyTeams app had exceeded its annual download goal for the first year. Persaud believes that a major factor in its success was his organization's commitment to invest in digital and give the MyTeams app time to be built correctly.
Invest in digital now because these things take longer than people realize to build, he advised. One of the big barriers that I've had to break down in my career is the thought that, because it's on the internet, you can build it quickly. That is not the case. Make sure you invest in it and give it time to build. You might be able to get something up quickly, but it's not going to be scalable, and it's not going to function properly.
NESN Teams With Playmaker Media, Sees Success With NESNgo
NESN launched its NESNgo in-market streaming app in 2017 to live-stream Red Sox and Bruins regular-season games within its regional footprint. Last year, it relaunched the streaming service and moved it onto NBC Sports Group's Playmaker Media platform.
Since we were on the forefront, there weren't really industry best practices to go off of [in launching the app], recalled Theresa Spencer, digital technology manager, NESN. You're working internally with a limited knowledge base and resources from a technical perspective. I always come from the mindset in digital of you don't know what you don't know so everything is possible. We just brought the expertise from our team. Then, ultimately, we found a third-party partner, NBC Sports, to bring a strong technical stack and backbone to fill in the gaps and make us competitive and help with audience adoption.
In the two years that NESNgo has been available, the RSN has seen 80% distribution among its MVPD partners - making for ultra-quick audience adoption - and its in-market streaming analytics have trended similarly to their linear-TV metrics.
Phase 2 for NESNgo is definitely going to be looking at how we integrate data onto the screen, said Spencer. Do we have maybe different announcers during the games, giving our mobile viewers on the go a different experience on their phone vs. when they're watching in the home. Ultimately, I think addressable TV ads are something else that we'll be paying attention to in the near future.
Altitude Goes In-House for AltitudeNOW App
Last October, Altitude Sports & Entertainment launched AltitudeNOW, its in-market, live-streaming service featuring Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, and Colorado Rapids games and additional Altitude programming. Altitude/KSE Media Ventures worked with numerous vendors and its in-house engineering team to produce the app from scratch.
We spent a lot of time putting it together, and we took on a huge part of the project ourselves, said Matt Williams, VP, KSE Digital. We have a great group of engineers at Altitude who we worked really closely with the past two years. Solving the puzzle without having a blueprint was really challenging. Looking back at it, there was so much that we didn't know and discovered along the way, which was an exciting project. But, as far as the time it took, it was a lot greater than we expected.
Although the launch of the app proved a heavy lift for Williams and his team, the efforts paid off when both the Nuggets and the Avalanche advanced to the Playoffs and the app logged an all-time-high 200,000+ streaming views during the month of April.
We really just built the founda
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
03/06/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
01/06/2024
Young Sherlock, with Guy Ritchie directing and executive producing, is a go at Prime Video. Hero Fiennes Tiffin plays Sherlock. Prime Video calls it the origin...
01/06/2024
The Los Angeles Sparks-Indiana Fever game on Friday featuring the top two WNBA draft picks, Caitlin Clark and Cameron Brink, was the most watched WNBA game on I...
01/06/2024
Lionsgate, which increased its majority stake in 3 Arts Entertainment in January, said it named Brian Weinstein co-CEO of 3 Arts....
01/06/2024
Netflix is launching four video games based on unscripted series this year. They...
01/06/2024
ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox affiliates switched from their regular programming to carry live coverage of the verdicts in the porn star hush-money trial of former Pres...
31/05/2024
A U.S. Marine fires an FIM-92 Stinger missile during a training exercise in Yuma...
31/05/2024
NEW YORK The global body that sets technical standards for digital advertising h...
31/05/2024
In a new analysis of what services might make up a good bundle and what services might benefit the most from bundling, Antenna has released new data that highli...
31/05/2024
Global SVOD revenues will increase by $116.6 billion by 2031, a growth rate of 13.3% per year over the next eight years, according to a new report from MIDiA Re...
31/05/2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. The FCC Media Bureau has announced that effective August 1, 2024 the Commission's TVStudy software will incorporate the most recent U.S. Ce...
31/05/2024
NBCUniversal has announced that its FAST channel TNBC will be rebranding to NBC Comedy Vault on June 1 and that the free streaming service will officially launc...
31/05/2024
PARIS Ateme has announced that the Indonesian public broadcaster TVRI is making the transition to 4K UHD OTT streaming using Ateme technologies....
31/05/2024
The proposal had received support from James Cameron, Andy Serkis, Paul Greengrass, Richard Curtis, and Jeremy Irons
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: May 31, 2...
31/05/2024
According to multiple reports, the new bid from Skydance offers a better deal to Paramounts Class B shareholders, who were said to be unhappy with the companys ...
31/05/2024
The awards recognise women and companies who are stand-out performers, innovators and leaders in the broadcast media technology industry
By Matthew Corrigan
...
31/05/2024
NEW YORK The global body that sets technical standards for digital advertising has expanded the reach of its measurement software development kit to include Sam...
31/05/2024
The rise of digital platforms is fundamentally changing the broadcast newsroom and its investment in technology according to Jon Roberts, director of technology...
31/05/2024
In a new analysis of what services might make up a good bundle and what services might benefit the most from bundling, Antenna has released new data that highli...
31/05/2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. Fifty state broadcasters associations, including the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, have sent a letter to Congressio...
31/05/2024
EVS has announced the appointment of Richard Katz as senior vice president of operations for the North and Latin American (NALA) region. This appointment is par...
31/05/2024
CommScope has announced that it was selected by Casa Systems, Inc. as the highest to acquire Casa's cable business assets and that the two companies have en...
31/05/2024
Robert De Niro won't be receiving the Service to America Leadership Award from the NAB Leadership Foundation after all....
31/05/2024
Viant Technology said it formed an integration with Google Cloud's BigQuery data clean rooms...
31/05/2024
The CW said it will broadcast the 2024 Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl presented by Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop Last year, The CW aired the game when it was called Bar...
31/05/2024
Allen Media Group said it made a deal with Amazon's Fire TV Channel that will make content from several of Allen's outlet available via Fire TV and Echo...
31/05/2024
Robert De Niro, announced as the winner of the NAB's Leadership Foundation's Service to America Leadership Award on May 28, will not get the award. The ...
31/05/2024
Comcast Technology Solutions was selected by AccuWeather to create, manage and distribute linear and over-the-top video channels....
31/05/2024
Connected TV is becoming a bigger deal for consumers and advertisers, according to a new report from TVision....
31/05/2024
By Craig Anderton
Let's get right to what this sounds like. It's not quite feedback or tape reverse, it's well, listen to what it does in this blue...
31/05/2024
31 May 2024
VEON discloses April YTD trading update at its AGM Amsterdam, 31 May 2024 07:00 CEST -
VEON April YTD 2024 Highlights
Total revenue of USD 1,278 ...
31/05/2024
31 May 2024
VEON Announces Its New Board, Names Founder Augie Fabela as Chairman Amsterdam, 31 May 2024, 16.00 CET: VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON, Euronext Amsterdam...
31/05/2024
May 31st, 2024
TRIBECA FESTIVAL AND OPEN AI ANNOUNCE SORA SHORTS'
Five Commissioned Short Films Created Using Sora Debut at 2024 Tribeca Festival
New ...
31/05/2024
In-Venue Technology Wrap-Up: How 4K, IP, and More are Changing the Game Pres Gam...
31/05/2024
UEFA Champions League Final 2024: The host broadcast facts and figures for Real ...
31/05/2024
UEFA Europa Conference League Final 2024: Bringing the broadcast to global TV sc...
31/05/2024
Willow Offers Free 2024 ICC T20 Cricket World Cup Preview via DirecTV, Verizon, ...
31/05/2024
Women's College World Series: ESPN Brings Live Drone, Two-Point Cabled, and ...
31/05/2024
SVG College Summit Brings Video-Production Industry Together in Atlanta in the M...
31/05/2024
UEFA Champions League Final 2024: CBS Sports' UCL Today Studio Show Is Pitch...
31/05/2024
Back to All News
Master of the House' Unveils a Scandalous Tale of Power and Greed on July 18
Entertainment
31 May 2024
GlobalThailand
Link copied to ...
31/05/2024
Back to All News
JEEtu Bhaiya is Back: Kota Factory' Season 3 Arrives on Netflix June 20
Entertainment
31 May 2024
GlobalIndia
Link copied to clipboar...
31/05/2024
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
With around 9,000 employees, Ground Transportation Systems is a global leader in Rail Signaling and Train Control Systems, Telec...
31/05/2024
RT 2FM is the home of music this summer, entertaining listeners across the day and night, with the best music, chat and interviews providing the soundtrack to ...
31/05/2024
After the 2008 financial crisis and increased risk-management regulations that f...
31/05/2024
RT Supporting the Arts: What's On this June
Watch our promo: RT Supporting the Arts | What's on YouTube
This June, RT is delighted to support Lim...
30/05/2024
When to Upgrade Software or Firmware This post is from our blog and news archive. The information may be out of date. Please contact us for further information ...
30/05/2024
The City of San Jose Chooses Utah Scientific Again! This post is from our blog and news archive. The information may be out of date. Please contact us for furth...
As In-Market Streaming Barriers Are Lifted, RSNs Look To Serve More Live Content to Fans Custom fan experience, sports betting drive many efforts By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
