With the new football season about to kick off and the Commonwealth Games taking place in Birmingham, Roger Franklin, general manager, full-time business unit at LTN Global, takes a look at how the right technology partner can help media companies use audience engagement to drive their competitive advantage
By Contributor
Published: July 28, 2022
With the new football season about to kick off and the Commonwealth Games taking place in Birmingham, Roger Franklin, general manager, full-time business unit at LTN Global, takes a look at how the right technology partner can help media companies use audience engagement to drive their competitive advantage
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>
Virtual fan engagement has become critical, from make-shift home studios and live fan feeds shot on smartphones to fans interacting digitally. It has given broadcasts the live audience feel' and raw emotion from family and friends.' There is no doubt the impact of Covid-19 accelerated the demand for more interaction when in-person attendance was not on the cards. However, even as fans return to full-capacity stadiums worldwide, ensuring live fan engagement remains at the heart of the agenda will empower new content experiences and monetisation opportunities.
Social media platforms have helped change the playing field, with media companies leveraging their power to deliver instant, user-generated content right from the field of play. Now, broadcasters need to take this to the next level and re-engage fans, stand out from their competitors across the industry, and take advantage of new revenue streams such as addressable advertising and sports wagering.
Although live fan engagement requires strategising and planning, it is essential to understand that it doesn't need to be complex. Implementing the right technology and utilising an experienced managed services partner is key to this success and can ensure the deployment runs seamlessly, end-to-end.
The strands of the live fan engagement ecosystem At the 2020 Summer and 2022 Winter Olympics in Tokyo and Beijing, respectively, audiences watched some of the world's best athletes virtually celebrate their success on the podium. Audiences participated in virtual watch together' parties, tuning in live via multiple platforms. However, live fan engagement can take different forms depending on the use case.
Interactive advertising and polling: Interactive advertising and polling require a direct response from fans. It can be simple yet effective by asking who the player of the match was or encouraging audiences to share their score predictions. It's also common to see sports leagues encourage worldwide fans to engage by offering requests in different languages, creating a global community. Proper planning ensures audience engagement runs smoothly and adds value to live linear broadcasts.
In addition, media companies are deploying interactive advertising campaigns in various ways. During last year's European football championship, the LED boardings would promote adverts from different companies depending on the viewer's geography. For example, a viewer in London would see a different advert on the boards than one watching in Paris, even if watching simultaneously. From this, we can see how advertisers target specific audiences across regions, paving the way for new ways to reach and engage consumers.
Roger Franklin Bringing live fan feeds into primary broadcasts: Enabling fans to become part of a live broadcast isn't a new concept. Sky Sports is one company that has been doing it for years, with live player cam' and fan zone' amongst others. But, live fan contribution is becoming more straightforward and faster. For example, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics broadcast relied heavily on integrating live fan feeds to compensate for the lack of at-venue audiences.
Fan engagement and secondary content and platforms: Enabling fans to actively engage with a different medium parallel to linear broadcast is made possible through secondary content. Sports betting is one way to achieve this where fans can place bets in real-time while participating in watch together' and bet together' communities. We are also seeing social media platforms broadcast live sporting events, with fans able to comment and interact during the game.
What innovation is driving live fan engagement? Live streaming is becoming ubiquitous. Media companies and content creators can stream from any device. Similarly, viewers consume content across multiple devices, meaning these media companies need to take advantage of the live streaming boom with the right technology.
As the industry moves into a new era, some practices that became prominent during the pandemic look set to remain and are even being enhanced to reach new heights. These include hybrid events, virtual stands, virtual tours, and live chats with athletes, which will become even more inclusive and bring audiences together.
While acquiring live fan feeds from different locations seems straightforward in today's world of fast connectivity and intelligent video sharing tools, integrating these live feeds into live professional productions can prove challenging. Media companies need a scalable live video router solution that aggregates and ingests multiple feeds from different locations and securely delivers them to the right production systems and platforms with ultra-low latency and in the correct formats.
Ultra-low latency is critical for delivering compelling, interactive viewing experiences and enabling use cases like sports betting. Latency hinders the monetisation potential, including sports betting and micro-betting opportunities. To overcome the latency challenge and avoid being left behind by their competitors, media companies need
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
With the new football season about to kick off and the Commonwealth Games taking place in Birmingham, Roger Franklin, general manager, full-time business unit at LTN Global, takes a look at how the right technology partner can help media companies use audience engagement to drive their competitive advantage
