Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Live sports broadcasting in 2021- is it time to be experimental?

26/07/2021

With the uncertainty surrounding live events in 2021, Arqiva's Chris Alner looks at the broadcast challenges of a congested and fluid sporting calendar and asks whether winning strategies will be defined by conventional wisdom or experimental thinking.

2021 should, in theory, be a big year for sport. Alongside all the usual action, scheduled marque events include the postponed Summer Olympics in Japan and the 2021 UEFA European Championship, a Lions Tour of South Africa, and a Rugby League World Cup. All good news for sports fans and broadcasters.

Of course, there are caveats. Big ones. Aside from the now familiar uncertainty around events going ahead, teams and athletes likely to continue to miss matches and forfeit league positions due to COVID-19 outbreaks, the virus will be the catalyst for a considerable amount of congestion in the sporting calendar. This will be a significant problem towards the middle of the year as events originally scheduled for 2020, such as the Olympics, will now clash with other 2021 major sporting events such as the Lions Tour to South Africa.

Keep eyes on the prize There are a range of issues here. First, multiple events will squeeze audience numbers. Even if some die-hard fans choose to watch multiple, concurrent events on a second or even third screen, most won't.

But getting eyes on content won't be the only problem: scheduling will be tough too, particularly for broadcasters with just one or two linear channels. It seems likely that many will look to leverage investment in online players, and on-demand and catch-up services in response.

I think we'll see broadcasters exploring ways to use new technologies like cloud contribution and distribution to quickly spin up (and then shut down) channels on OTT platforms, affording them more opportunity to combat congestion and reach audiences.

It's not just content availability that will help win the fierce battle for eyeballs in a congested market. The viewing experience for audiences will also be a critical factor too.

Create atmosphere in empty stadia The resumption of live elite sport in 2020 highlighted the issue of empty stadia when it comes to the viewer experience. For many, the lack of a crowd detracts considerably from the excitement. Alongside the option of adding crowd noise, broadcasters have been experimenting with some interesting ways to enhance the experience by adding augmented and virtual reality feeds.

We've also seen some interesting examples of adding real time fan commentary and streamed video of fans to create stadium atmosphere. In one example, basketball's NBA displayed live webcam feeds from remotely attending celebrity viewers and fans on big screens around the court.

These have worked well in some instances, most notably in the National Basketball Association's (NBA) bubble games that closed out the final games of the 2019-20 season and playoffs. It was great to see this kind of innovation, albeit underpinned by a lot of behind the scenes work (in terms of production and logistics) to ensure viewers' high expectations were met.

Experiment but stay focused With necessity the mother of invention, it's important to take these (and other) learnings into 2021 and continue to think out of the box. Whether that's looking at new distribution models, augmenting linear channels or developing new approaches to production. In doing so, we'll be turning live sports events into true media and entertainment showcases, something that will stand us in good stead as social distancing regulations look likely to keep fans out of stadiums for some time.

By definition though, experiments can fail. When you're looking for returns on major sporting investments, there's certainly an element of risk in doing so. The key, I would suggest, is to experiment around production, while ensuring the basics of acquisition and delivery are handled brilliantly (and reliably).

Get comfortable with uncertainty Audience experience aside, there remains a very real threat that many planned events won't go ahead. Despite the best efforts of governing bodies, broadcast partners and others, scheduling in a pandemic is something of a matter of guesswork, and multiple programming contingencies are needed to fill gaps in the schedule when (and if) things don't go to plan.

To my mind this requires something of a cultural shift to ensure broadcasters and rights holders become comfortable with uncertainty. For this to happen, they'll need to be confident in their ecosystem and supply chains. This means that their aggregation, media processing and distribution partners have the technology, the expertise and, crucially, the ambition to adapt to changing circumstances with both agility and confidence. In short, it's a matter of trust.

Work with trusted partners As we move into what is likely to be a very constricted and fluid sporting calendar, it's imperative the industry comes together to plan for uncertainty, so, we can be confident in it. We need to know what works and what doesn't in different scenarios, the kind of contingencies we'll need, when to be experimental and when to double down on what we know works. This way, we'll be prepared for whatever happens. If you'll excuse a final sporting pun, it's about all working together as a team to get the right result.

Talk to Arqiva today about staying in control through uncertainty at sportsandevents@arqiva.com.

Published

15/02/2021

Author

Chris Alner, Director of Commercial Broadcast and Radio
LINK: https://www.arqiva.com/news-views/views/live-sports-broadcasting-in-20...
See more stories from arqiva

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

07/07/2026

Comcast's Sky to Acquire ITV Media and Entertainment

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/07/2026

Digital Alert Systems Details ATSC 3.0 EAS Capabilities to FCC

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/07/2026

New appointments to Screen Australia board

New appointments to Screen Australia board 7 July 2026 The Albanese Labor Government has made new appointments to the Screen Australia board. Dr Tania Chamber...

07/07/2026

The right team. The right time.' How The Killings at Parrish Station stuck to their creative guns.

The right team. The right time.' How The Killings at Parrish Station stuck t...

07/07/2026

July 06, 2026

Scripps Research scientists train the immune system to make antibodies against numerous HIV strains Preclinical findings mark progress toward a long-sought vacc...

06/07/2026

Inside OneSoccer's FIFA World Cup Ops: Canada's Soccer Network Goes Behind the Scenes for CanMNT's Historic Moment

Long-developed relationships and informal access, three production models, and c...

06/07/2026

Lumine Group Acquires Imagine Communications, Continues To Build Portfolio of Media Businesses

The deal follows Lumine's recent acquisition of Synamedia's video-networ...

06/07/2026

SVG All-Stars: Stuart Mitchell, Senior Coordinating Producer, Spectrum SportsNet LA

This former SportsCenter producer is shaping local-team studio coverage to surro...

06/07/2026

Case Study: How IMS Productions and FOX Sports Scaled Coverage of the 109th Indianapolis 500

IMS Productions and FOX Sports deployed more than 100 cameras, 32 onboard feeds,...

06/07/2026

Lumine Group Completes Acquisition of Synamedias Video Network Business

Lumine Group Inc. has announced the completion of its acquisition of the Video Network Business from Synamedia. The business will operate as a standalone compan...

06/07/2026

NASCAR and Motorsport Network Announce Content and Commercial Partnership

NASCAR has announced a content and commercial partnership with Motorsport Network, a motorsports and automotive media platform, to distribute NASCAR original co...

06/07/2026

Versant To Acquire Full Swing for Approximately $530 Million

Versant Media Group has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Full Swing, a sports technology company, from Bruin Capital and a group of minority investor...

06/07/2026

DAZN Secures Global Rights to 3ICE Hockey

DAZN has announced global broadcast rights to 3ICE, a professional hockey format featuring three skaters and a goalkeeper per side, with no power plays or offsi...

06/07/2026

Synth Anthology 5 From UVI

Bundle gains 100 new synths & more Synth Anthology 5 the largest and most feature-packed edition of UVI's hardware synth emulation bundle, bringing toge...

06/07/2026

MOTU 16A, 848 & 10pre gain Milan certification

Available now via free firmware update MOTU have just announced that three of their popular audio interfaces now boast official Milan Certification. The 16A...

06/07/2026

Rohde & Schwarz completes Hunter Preliminary Design Review for the Integrated Communications System

Rohde & Schwarz completes Hunter Preliminary Design Review for the Integrated Co...

06/07/2026

The R&S IMAGER from Rohde & Schwarz uses millimeter wave imaging to inspect the quality of packaged goods in real time

The R&S IMAGER from Rohde & Schwarz uses millimeter wave imaging to inspect the ...

06/07/2026

INVITATION FOR SOUTH AFRICAN FILMMAKERS TO SUBMIT FILMS FOR THE 99TH ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS (OSCARS) INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM CATEGORY

The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...

06/07/2026

Digital Domain Appoints Industry Veteran Patrick Davenport as Executive Vice President, Operations

Digital Domain Appoints Industry Veteran Patrick Davenport as Executive Vice Pre...

06/07/2026

Gravity Media USA appoints Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development

Gravity Media USA appoints Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development Brie Clayton July 6, 2026 0 Comments The strategic new appointment supports...

06/07/2026

Remote Editing Without Cloud Storage in Resolve

Remote Editing Without Cloud Storage in Resolve Michael Cioni July 6, 2026 0 Comments This is a step-by-step guide that demonstrates how to setup your...

06/07/2026

Automatic Caption Translation in Adobe Premiere Pro

Automatic Caption Translation in Adobe Premiere Pro Colin Smith July 6, 2026 0 Comments Here I showcase the innovative automatic caption translation f...

06/07/2026

Flavor's FirstEver Managing Director Neal Cohen Retires; Longstanding Executive Producer Kate Smith Rises to Lead the Studio

Flavor's First Ever Managing Director Neal Cohen Retires; Longstanding Execu...

06/07/2026

How Adam Rosenwach Pivoted from Music to Medtech Without Missing a Beat

How Adam Rosenwach Pivoted from Music to Medtech Without Missing a Beat What do the rehearsal room and the boardroom have in common? More than you might think...

06/07/2026

Zhongyi Optics unveils the Dreamy Zone T1 FF Cine Lens Series on Indiegogo with the first drop

Zhongyi Optics unveils the Dreamy Zone T1 FF Cine Lens Series on Indiegogo with ...

06/07/2026

NVIDIA and Hugging Face Bring New Models and Frameworks to LeRobot for the Open Robotics Community

Open source AI has shown how quickly developers can innovate when models, data a...

06/07/2026

Techtel debuts insyght: making ST 2110 media discovery easy

Techtel debuts insyght: making ST 2110 media discovery easy intellisphereinsyght2026 6 July Written By Suzanne Costello Sydney, Australia - 06 July 2026 T...

06/07/2026

Sky agrees to acquire ITV Media & Entertainment, creating a commercial streaming champion for the UK

Monday 6 July 2026 Sky agrees to acquire ITV Media & Entertainment, creating a ...

06/07/2026

Pico Lopes joins RT's FIFA World Cup 2026 Live panel

Fresh from his World Cup heroics with Cabo Verde, Roberto Pico' Lopes will join the RT panel for Argentina v Egypt tomorrow and for the England v Norway q...

06/07/2026

How Nations Are Deploying AI for Strategic Priorities

Nations have long invested in domestic infrastructure to advance their economies, protect and use their data, and take advantage of technology opportunities in ...

06/07/2026

How Open Models Are Driving AI Research

Every year, the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) reveals where thousands of AI researchers have decided to put their work. This year's ...

06/07/2026

New RT documentary The Girl in the Water follows one family's search for answers following the death of their 23-year-old daughter

A death can be unsuspicious, but it has to be explained What happened to Ke...

05/07/2026

Fox Sports AR/XR Studio Graphics Team Shows Power of Next-Generation Operations

We've gone to another level of integrating the graphics into the set architecture' - Zac Fields, SVP, Graphic Technology and Integration, FOX Sports...

05/07/2026

Free Behringer Synth Editor

Browser-based and desktop apps available Digital Sunset Studios have been busy working on an interesting project: a free software tool that provides compute...

04/07/2026

Inside OneSoccers FIFA World Cup Ops: Canadas Soccer Network Goes Behind the Scenes for CanMNTs Historic Moment

When Canada qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026, OneSoccer knew this wasn'...

04/07/2026

Rhodes to launch the MK8/80AE

Celebrates company's 80th anniversary Rhodes have recently revealed that they will be producing a limited run of electric pianos in celebration of their...

04/07/2026

Blackmagic Design Cameras Empower Youth Broadcasting Program

Blackmagic Design Cameras Empower Youth Broadcasting Program Brie Clayton July 3, 2026 0 Comments Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and Blackmagi...

04/07/2026

iZotope Joins Boris FX

iZotope Joins Boris FX Boris Yamnitsky July 3, 2026 0 Comments iZotope, the team behind RX and Ozone, is joining Boris FX. A letter from founder Boris...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

03/07/2026

VSL reveal Synchron Brass (muted)

New bundle & three Single Packs Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...

03/07/2026

London Symphony Orchestra upgrade LSO St Luke's

Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...

03/07/2026

Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV

Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV 3 July, 2026 Media releases National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...

03/07/2026

2023

1 February 2023 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...

03/07/2026

Broadcast Solutions Acquires BFE

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/07/2026

AdClarity Expands CTV Offering to 20 Countries

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...