Federation Summit Spotlights OTT Strategy From UEFA, Olympic Channel, and Red Bee Media It's all about meeting the needs of passionate, demanding fans By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Monday, February 24, 2020 - 1:02 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Olympic Channel, UEFA, and Red Bee Media took to the stage at the International Federation Summit in Lausanne, produced by MEI in association with SVG Europe, to discuss the current and future state of federation-based OTT services. International federations are in a unique position when it comes to OTT, often having participants and fans who are passionate, engaged, and demanding. So, how do they keep them happy?
From left: SVG's Ken Kerschbaumer discussed OTT with Red Bee Media's Steve Russell, Olympic Channel's Luis Fuentes, and UEFA's Craig Hepburn.
Craig Hepburn, head of digital and marketing, UEFA, discussed UEFA TV, which launched only eight months ago. It's a free-to-access platform created to keep up with the changing way fans connect to content: on phones and on demand.
We wanted a platform to deliver that directly in a digital way to fans, he said. There's the youth leagues and the younger audiences and the younger competitions that we have. As much as UEFA is known for those big competitions, we have a whole range of other youth, women, freestyle, and really it is to be the home of those platforms and those competitions.
Hepburn, who has worked for such companies as Microsoft and Nokia, said that step one in building out a platform is to not try to build it on your own.
Unless you're a tech company, why would you build your own OTT platform? I think there are so many good tech products out there, he explained. If you're in the sports business and you're not a tech company, focus on what you know.
Building out an OTT service is a complicated process, and Steve Russell, head of OTT and media management, Red Bee Media, advises beginning with MVP: minimum viable product.
The idea is, you don't over-engineer everything, you don't try to think through every nuance of every bit of function you could ever want, he said. When you focus on getting something to market, make it simple as possible.
The reason? It's not until you get initial feedback from users (and you will get it) that you can reshape it to meet their needs.
You start to read the data so you start to understand how it works, he explained. You iterate, you listen to the fans, you see what people are saying on social forums, and you add functions over time. It's a very different way of managing a product, he added. That's my pitch: get to market, get simple, listen, learn, iterate, evolve.
Along with adding technology comes addition of personnel and figuring out how the product will be overseen, who will oversee it, and how the rest of the organization will get engaged.
You need to set up team structures, said Hepburn. The first thing for me was to set up product managers and actually put in place ownership across the web, the apps, CRM, and even the OTT service. Give accountability to key teams and bring in some key experts or find and identify the right talent in-house. Give them the autonomy, giving them the support to execute that project because that's the key execution and a lot of it is how you get that done. It's challenging, but, if you set the team up properly, it's achievable.
Luis Fuentes, director of special projects, Olympic Channel, discussed one of the biggest challenges facing a federation: how to localize an OTT service. Many jumping into OTT are looking at it as a means to reach fans around the world, and that requires things like not only local content but also translation and subtitling in local languages.
We're up to 12 languages because we recently added Hindi, he noted. Translation and subtitling can be super-challenging from a day-to-day perspective. It sounds very interesting, and it is very interesting. But the risk of getting it wrong is high, and it's costly. Just to give you an example, we have news in our platform. Some things need to go up there very quickly, and you can not spend a lot of time translating them. These things go to translators all over the world, and they come back in less that two hours, an hour and a half.
The need for speed increases the potential for translations to be done by someone who is not an expert in a sport, and that can be an issue.
The risk of getting a message across that is not exactly the message you want to get across is high, Fuentes added. On top of that, you're talking about sports and content for sport fans. They normally have their own words and terms that they use in specific ways. If you talk about sailing, for example, and you get something wrong in the translation because the guy who's translating into Korean is not an expert in sailing, then you may have the sailing community going up in arms, saying, How comes you guys, you're the Olympic Channel, you got this stuff wrong which is a very basic one.'
He recommended working a lot with translation companies to pass on your expertise and try to get their views on how to tackle a number of things. Even Spanish can be a challenge as there is Spanish for Spain and Spanish for Latin America.
Every time you translate something into Latin American Spanish, you get the Spanish consumers saying, We don't understand this very well,' he added. Arabic is also a super-complicated one because you have, as far as I know, a standard Arabic, which is difficult to write properly, and it's difficult to find the proper writers that not only need to be good writers in Arabic but experts in a lot of its disciplines.
Russell noted that Red Bee Media offers subtitling as well as audio descr
North America Stories
19/05/2026
Actus Digital, a LiveU company, and a leading provider of intelligent media monitoring and broadcast compliance platforms, announced today that METEO CONSULT ha...
19/05/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of managed services for the broadcast and media industry, today announced the completion of a major renovation of its Singapore fa...
19/05/2026
Following a major upgrade to its Connecticut remote production centre with the installation of three 60-fader Argo S consoles in 2023, RPS has switched one of t...
19/05/2026
PlayBox Technology today announced the launch of Celebro Play, a browser-based media orchestration platform designed specifically for broadcast facilities and p...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
LYNX Technik, provider of modular signal processing solutions for broadcast, post, and professional AV will showcase its latest signal processing solutions at B...
19/05/2026
Media Links, a leading developer and manufacturer of IP media transport solutions, has announced the integration of its Xscend platform with Skyline Communicat...
19/05/2026
Collaboration expands regional partner ecosystem as Media Links showcases IP media transport solutions on stand 4M4-4 and alongside Clearcast Asia on stand
Me...
19/05/2026
Company Highlights Labor-Saving Control and Custom Branding Opportunities Designed to Increase Integrator Profitability
LynTec, a leading manufacturer of ele...
19/05/2026
Mago Studio Moves AI Video Beyond Prompts with New Production-Focused Tools
Brie Clayton May 18, 2026
0 Comments
New Capabilities Bring Controllable, ...
19/05/2026
It May be Time to Stop and Take an AI Breather
Brie Clayton May 19, 2026
0 Comments
If the rock you stay on starts to roll, jump clean. Or you'll...
18/05/2026
Despite a bumpy start to the year, the provider of event-production support and ...
18/05/2026
Daktronics has partnered with the University of North Carolina to manufacture and install 11 LED displays totaling more than 10,000 square feet and more than 14...
18/05/2026
CBS LA has announced a multi-year partnership with the Los Angeles Rams, covering exclusive local broadcasts of Rams preseason games, weekly year-round programm...
18/05/2026
Skyline Communications has announced an integration between its DataMiner xOps p...
18/05/2026
eCLUTCH, the hybrid esports platform powered by iKOMG, has announced an expansion of its distribution across Europe, MENA, Africa, and Asia, along with new cont...
18/05/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
18/05/2026
With 22 games this season, the production team looks forward to tweaking and enhancing the coverage
After 8,660 days off the air, the WNBA returned to NBC yest...
18/05/2026
(L-R) Midori Francis and Natalie Erika James attend the Saccharine premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre on January 22, 2026, in ...
18/05/2026
The Australian Defence Force uses L3Harris T4 and T7 robots for explosive ordnan...
18/05/2026
Continued investment across Europe and Germany is expanding local teams and improving access to stock, regional expertise, and specialist broadcast support.
CV...
18/05/2026
Agentic AI inference at one-tenth the cost per token with NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL7...
17/05/2026
Back to All News
Oasis Premieres on Netflix June 19
Entertainment
17 May 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Summer, sunshine, the beach, parties. T...
16/05/2026
Boris FX Continuum Pairs AI Precision and Advanced Creative Controls
Jessie Electa Petrov May 16, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic de...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Seattle Sounders FC and Seattle Reign FC, in partnership with RAVE Foundation an...
15/05/2026
Dan Brumm has served as sound designer on Bluey, the Australian children's t...
15/05/2026
The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) and Shure Incorporated are accepting applications for the 6th annual Mark Brunner Professional Audio Schola...
15/05/2026
Netflix has announced an expanded NFL schedule for 2026 and beyond under a four-year partnership extension with the NFL through the 2029-30 season. Each season,...
15/05/2026
Ateme is supporting TVRI (Televisi Republik Indonesia) with a contribution and d...
15/05/2026
Concacaf has announced the launch of a new website and mobile app built on Deltatre's FORGE platform. Concacaf.com and the mobile app, available on iOS and ...
15/05/2026
Eutelsat has announced the launch of QBC Business Economic Channel by Qatar Media Corporation, broadcasting in 4K/UHD via Eutelsat's 7/8 West video neighbo...
15/05/2026
Major League Soccer has announced four original content series timed to the 2026...
15/05/2026
The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) has announced it will exhibit and present at InfoComm 2026, taking place June 13-19 at the Las Vegas Convention Cente...
15/05/2026
InfoComm 2026 will take place June 13-19 (exhibits June 17-19) at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The show will include sessions and exhibits covering broadcas...
15/05/2026
Tracy McGrady's Ones Basketball League (OBL) and FuboTV Inc. have announced ...
15/05/2026
Disguise has partnered with Creative Technology (CT) to deliver visual playback ...
15/05/2026
Sony Electronics has announced two new products for professional imaging: the Alpha 7R VI full-frame mirrorless camera and the FE 100-400mm F4.5 GM OSS super-te...
15/05/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
15/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
15/05/2026
For sports organizations, the most valuable assets are often the most sensitive:...
15/05/2026
The NFL's broadcast partners released their 2026 regular season schedules ye...
15/05/2026
Besides drawing on experience with boxing, the production integrates specialty c...
Federation Summit Spotlights OTT Strategy From UEFA, Olympic Channel, and Red Bee Media It's all about meeting the needs of passionate, demanding fans By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
