Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

IRONMAN Group Goes Virtual; Facebook Watch at Center of Strategy

25/03/2020

IRONMAN Group Goes Virtual; Facebook Watch at Center of Strategy By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director

Wednesday, March 25, 2020 - 3:23 pm

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

For Matthieu Van Veen, The IRONMAN Group, chief revenue officer, and his team the challenge was simple: how can they use social media platforms to give IRONMAN triathlon fans a chance to get closer than ever to the sport they love. As a mass-participation sport IRONMAN found its core fans and athletes were underserved by the traditional media market where live coverage of a 10-hour event was simply not an option.

Enter Facebook Watch and its ability to give IRONMAN a platform that engages its community in a whole new way and also provides a great outlet for coverage of complete IRONMAN events.

Matthieu Van Veen of the IRONMAN Group says Facebook Watch allows triathletes and fans to consume more content than ever.

We have 280,000 competitors and a big community that was starved for content, says Van Veen. That helped lead us to the initial conversation with Facebook as it is a platform that brings people together.

But now, with the world in a health crisis, IRONMAN has needed to postpone and even cancel some of its upcoming events and the team at IRONMAN has decided to go virtual, with a virtual racing series set to debut on Facebook Watch on April 4.

(l-to-r) Matthieu Van Veen of IRONMAN Group, Devi Mahadevia of Facebook, and Ken Kerschbaumer of SVG discussed how IRONMAN Group makes the most of Facebook Watch at Sportel Americas.

We believe that under extraordinary circumstances such as these, athletes should be able to maintain the structure and continuity that training and competition provides, says Andrew Messick, President & CEO for The IRONMAN Group. The IRONMAN Virtual Club is an innovative digital platform that enables our athletes to continue training with purpose, remain connected to our community and provides an opportunity to compete through the IRONMAN VR Series.

Athletes will compete in traditional age-group categories and for select virtual races. They will also have the opportunity to earn qualifying slots to the 2020 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship, set to be held in Taupo, New Zealand, in November of this year.

The format and distances may vary each race weekend. The IRONMAN Virtual Club platform will utilize connected devices and be compatible with most wearable technology and app trackers.

Devi Mahadevia of Facebook says the IRONMAN community is a natural fit for Facebook Watch.

Devi Mahadevia, Facebook, director of emerging and digital sports partnerships, says that there are more than 40,000 fitness-related groups on Facebook and that the communities on Facebook are built by the athletes.

When you marry those groups with the right content the magic happens, she says. When the groups share content, they become the marketing channel and drive where the content goes.

The IRONMAN season consists of full-distance triathlon events and the IRONMAN production team uses seven cameras (four on motorbikes, two located at the transition areas, and then a drone) and a bonded-cellular backpack to send the signals back to Boulder, CO, where the announcers are located.

What interested us in Facebook as the ability to be non-traditional and engage people when they are watching the content, says Van Veen. With a 10-hour window how do you keep people watching? And how could we make things like polls or the ability to ask a question seamless to the user?

While the races are going on the IRONMAN team gets to see viewers from around the globe join as they wake up. The good morning from the U.S.! or Good morning from Japan! messages hit the chat board and the engagement climbs. More than a million people watch over an hour of IRONMAN content in one sitting a year, so the engagement is there. And then the questions start coming into the announce team.

They ask questions that really matter about things like nutrition strategy and our announcers can react to the questions which means greater engagement, says Van Veen.

Adds Mahadevia: The question tool brings viewers into the broadcast and they get more involved. IRONMAN has gotten 5,000 responses from the audience using these tools.

The platform also lets IRONMAN know more about what the viewers are doing while they are watching the races. Triathletes not competing in the competition on Facebook Watch will tune in during their own marathon or triathlon training sessions and even the sponsors can get involved during the broadcasts.

Our sponsors can be broadcasters as we give them the ability to put the content into their Facebook page so that people can watch it in other groups, says Van Veen. The more the better.

During the races the IRONMAN team also created edited clips for things like first out of the water and tagging partners on a minute-to-minute basis. And the athletes also respond to the chat trends. Heather Jackson, a U.S. triathlete, once held a banana in her hand while riding for miles and the chat feed lit up with viewers cracking jokes and wondering what was going on. The production crew responded by creating Banana split times and at the next race Jackson herself embraced it with complete banana racing kit and bike.

It shows the power of being relevant to this community, adds Van Veen.

In the past two years more than five million people have watched at least one minute of IRONMAN content on Facebook Watch. Much of that is due to the groups, where authentic social relationships are the glue, and also by sponsors and even the tourism boards for locations where the races are held.

The tourism boards can showcase their destinations and it is a meaningful platform to promote destination events, says Van Veen. They aren't just targeting eyeballs but our community which helps decide th
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2020/03/25/ironman-group-goes-virtual-face...
See more stories from svg

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 ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

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...

31/07/2026

Savannah Bananas Hits a Broadcast Home Run with Calrec

The Savannah Bananas has built its reputation on refusing to play baseball by traditional rules, and the team's production arm Banana Ball TV (BTV) has draf...

31/07/2026

How Valuable Is TV to Smaller, Independent Cable Operators?

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

31/07/2026

Early Registration Opens for the 2026 SMPTE Media Techno...

SMPTE, the home for media professionals, technologists and engineers, today opened early registration for the 2026 Media Technology Summit (MTS) and announced i...

31/07/2026

Central Christian Church Connects Remote Production Teams...

Clear-Com announced that Central Christian Church has transformed communication across its live production operations by implementing Clear-Com's LQ Seri...

31/07/2026

Haivision To Feature Makito ONE, Falkon X4 At IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

31/07/2026

ABC Stations Tout Community Support for License Renewals

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

31/07/2026

Finalists Announced for IBC2026 Innovation Awards

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

31/07/2026

IBC2026 Innovation Awards finalists unveiled honouring co...

IBC has unveiled the finalists for the IBC2026 Innovation Awards, recognising collaborative projects from around the world that solve real-world challenges and ...

31/07/2026

From focus puller to colourist

From focus puller to colourist Caroline Shawley July 30, 2026 0 Comments Ana Mar a Ormaza shares her story of instinct, storytelling and finding a cre...

31/07/2026

Amazon Prime Documentary Andata e Ritorno Relies on Blackmagic Design

Amazon Prime Documentary Andata e Ritorno Relies on Blackmagic Design Brie Clayton July 30, 2026 0 Comments DaVinci Resolve Studio and Blackmagic Clou...

31/07/2026

Krotos Launches Video to Sound Plugin for DaVinci Resolve

Krotos Launches Video to Sound Plugin for DaVinci Resolve Brie Clayton July 30, 2026 0 Comments AI-assisted workflow helps editors add synchronized, p...

31/07/2026

Half-Year Report on SES's Liquidity Contract

Luxembourg, July 31, 2026 - Pursuant to the liquidity contract entered into by SES with BNP Paribas as of 7 April 2026, please see the below update on the progr...

31/07/2026

SES Publishes FY2025 EU Taxonomy Restatement

Luxembourg, July 31, 2026 - SES today published a restatement of its FY2025 EU Taxonomy (Article 8) disclosure. The restatement updates the FY2025 EU Taxonomy d...

31/07/2026

Mercedes-Benz Ireland returning as the official car partner of The Traitors Ireland

RT Commercial has today announced Mercedes-Benz Ireland will return as the offi...

31/07/2026

RT Supporting the Arts is supporting 15 cultural events nationwide this August

RT Supporting the Arts is delighted to spotlight a diverse range of arts, culture and heritage events taking place across Ireland this August. From major festi...

30/07/2026

CP Communications Provides Broadcast Support for 2026 MLB All-Star Week in Philadelphia

CP Communications provided RF audio, RF video, communications, RF coordination, ...

30/07/2026

OpenDrives Named to 2026 CRN Storage 100 List

OpenDrives has been included in CRN's 2026 Storage 100 list in the Software-Defined Storage category. The annual list, selected by the CRN editorial team, r...

30/07/2026

SES Selected by LATAM Airlines for Multi-Orbit Satellite Connectivity

LATAM Airlines has selected SES to provide multi-orbit inflight connectivity to its fleet of Airbus and Embraer aircraft. More than 60 aircraft - including Airb...

30/07/2026

Tagboard Launches Producer API with Elgato Stream Deck Integration

Tagboard has launched the Producer API, an open interface that allows key commands in Tagboard's live production environment to be triggered from external d...

30/07/2026

FOX Sports Adds Del Mar to Horse Racing Coverage in Multi-Year Deal

FOX Sports and the New York Racing Association (NYRA) have announced a multi-year agreement with Del Mar Thoroughbred Club that will make FOX Sports the exclusi...

30/07/2026

ABC Commercial Launches Four FAST Channels on LG Smart TVs

ABC Commercial has launched four free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels on LG Smart TVs across North America, Great Britain, and select countrie...

30/07/2026

Six Kings Slam Returns to Netflix in October with Sinner, Alcaraz, Djokovic

The Six Kings Slam exhibition tennis tournament will return to Riyadh on October 21, 22, and 24, streaming live on Netflix at no additional cost to subscribers....

30/07/2026

Central Christian Church Uses Clear-Coms Gen-IC to Connect Remote Production Teams

Central Christian Church in Mt. Vernon, Illinois has deployed Clear-Com's LQ...

30/07/2026

Blackmagic Design Releases UltraStudio Express 3G Capture and Playback Devices

Blackmagic Design has released the UltraStudio Express 3G family, a pair of USB4 capture and playback devices compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux computers ...

30/07/2026

ESPN Secures Media Rights to Womens Pro Baseball League

ESPN has reached a media rights agreement with the Women's Pro Baseball League (WPBL), making ESPN the national streaming home of the league's 2026 seas...

30/07/2026

Most Valuable Promotions and Professional Fighters League Merge

Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) and the Professional Fighters League (PFL) have announced a merger that will operate under the MVP banner. PFL CEO John Martin wi...

30/07/2026

Columbus Blue Jackets To Simulcast TV and Radio Broadcasts Beginning 2026-27

The Columbus Blue Jackets will simulcast all game broadcasts across television and radio beginning with the 2026-27 NHL season. Under the new format, the televi...

30/07/2026

TMRW Sports Selects Populous To Design Professional Flag Football Stadium

TMRW Sports has selected Populous as architect for a purpose-built stadium for its professional flag football league, being developed in partnership with the NF...

30/07/2026

SiriusXM Launches Sports Pass Subscription at $5 per Month

SiriusXM has announced SiriusXM Sports Pass, a new subscription plan launching September 1 that bundles the company's sports audio programming into a single...

30/07/2026

SVG Cloud & Content Workflows Summit Focuses on Live Production, Content Management, AI

Leagues, broadcasters, and technologists gather to tackle cloud economics, distr...

30/07/2026

AWSs Jason Dvorkin on the Power of AWS Elemental Inference, Agentic AI in Live Sports Production

A major player in the cloud-based solutions, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has conti...

30/07/2026

Minnesota Timberwolves Ink Local-Media-Rights Deal With DAZN

The NBA will provide production for all local game broadcasts, including pregame and postgame coverage...

30/07/2026

Cosm Detroit To Open September 10

Cosm will open its fourth immersive sports and entertainment venue in downtown Detroit on September 10. Located at 25 Cadillac Square, adjacent to Campus Martiu...

30/07/2026

NFL Network Added to ESPN App Beginning July 30

NFL Network will be available on the ESPN App beginning July 30 for Unlimited plan subscribers. The addition brings NFL Network's live games, studio program...

30/07/2026

NEP Platform Adds Riedels SimplyLive Production Suite

NEP Group has added Riedel's SimplyLive Production Suite to NEP Platform, giving customers access to the live production software through NEP's orchestr...

30/07/2026

SUNDANCE INSTITUTE NAMES TRISTA SCHROEDER GENERAL COUNSEL & CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

LOS ANGELES, CA, July 30, 2026 - The nonprofit Sundance Institute today announce...

30/07/2026

Waves release Atlas Reverb

A new take on classic algorithmic reverbs Waves have just introduced a new flagship algorithmic reverb plug-in that offers the company's take on the ico...

30/07/2026

Arturia's Summer Sale now live

Save up to 30% on virtual instruments & plug-ins Arturia have recently launched their annual Summer Sale, which sees discounts of up to 30% applied across a...

30/07/2026

SSL unveil the Odyssey console

ActiveAnalogue technology powers new flagship modular console A year on from the launch of the Oracle, SSL have revealed a new flagship console which they s...

30/07/2026

DT 275 Pro from beyerdynamic

Up to 22dBA of passive attenuation The latest arrival to the beyerdynamic range introduces a new compact monitoring headphone that's been designed to ta...

30/07/2026

Apprenticeship success at SGL Carbon in Meitingen

As part of its traditional graduation ceremony, SGL Carbon honored the achievements of a total of twelve young professionals who successfully completed their ap...

30/07/2026

Premiere date revealed for SBS Original drama The Airport Chaplain, starring Hugo Weaving and Shabana Azeez

Premiere date revealed for SBS Original drama The Airport Chaplain, starring Hug...

30/07/2026

TVNZ Works with Evergent to Successfully Debut New Stream...

TVNZ and Evergent are celebrating a major TVNZ milestone - the evolution from a free-to-view, ad-supported business into a hybrid model, offering premium sport...

30/07/2026

WebMiere Adds Native VP9/AV1 WebM/MKV Import to Adobe Premiere Pro

WebMiere Adds Native VP9/AV1 WebM/MKV Import to Adobe Premiere Pro Brie Clayton July 29, 2026 0 Comments Brought to you by KawaiiEngine, WebMiere is a...

30/07/2026

Comments on FCC License Renewals for ABC Stations Top 150,000

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/07/2026

CW Sports Live Streaming to Launch Aug. 4 on the ESPN App

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...