The year that changed everything: How the viewing experience has evolved in Europe and the US

Name: Pete Burns
Role: VP, EMEA Business Dev & Account Management
Region: Europe

How the viewing experience has changed

During the initial 'lockdown', where sports were able to put on live events, audiences flocked to live in even greater numbers than before. This thirst for live sport has continued to perform high even as we've reached a bit of 'normal'. Many broadcasters have reported big increases, including Sky Sports with their 'best ever day' only last month.

The other big trend is the growth in digital. Society in general is now far more accustomed to digital in life, whether that’s ordering groceries, buying clothes, or hosting Zoom calls with family. The digital adoption across all demographics has accelerated during this time with greater consumption across big screen devices as more people are at home.

The opportunities as a result of this trend

There’s a huge opportunity for fan engagement. Not only is digital a growing channel for audiences to consume through, but it offers the chance to differentiate from traditional channels and provide innovation; with many sampling watch parties and fan engagement features to encourage fans to 'lean in' during live.

How our clients can prepare for this shift

In the sport space, building a direct to fan relationship. That means having a clear strategy in growing the value of their brand and then communicating, acquiring, and retaining audiences through a value exchange that fans want. You can hear more about this from our recent Field to Fan podcast.

How we’re helping our clients to prepare

We’re working with our clients, bringing data and insight from international delivery to local audiences. Through analysis, validation, and design of strategy and solution to help them deliver growth across their business.

Predictions for how the viewing experience will continue to evolve

In the entertainment space, we’ll continue to see evolution in terms of content formats, as a direct response to audience data from the big players (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Disney+), whether it be recommissions, timing of releases or completely new formats.

It will be interesting to see how sport demonstrates a similar flexibility to continually drive entertainment; as well as building and growing their brands to establish continued growth of fan share.

Name: Alex Drosin
Role: Head of Worldwide Business Development
Region: USA

How the viewing experience has changed

The viewing experience itself hasn’t changed that dramatically as it takes time to implement complex roadmap changes across large legacy OTT ecosystems – especially as it relates to gamification and betting which are two of our key areas of focus these days. But with more customers watching their screens in general due to Covid-19, it’s obvious that they have come to expect a truly seamless UI experience between their devices as well as a higher refresh factor of editorial, statistical, and video content.

The challenges and opportunities as a result of this trend

The challenge comes down to making sure we are always ahead of the curve technologically in order to satisfy the new trends that our clients’ customers have come to expect across all their devices. Flexibility around real-time management of the user interface is crucial as well as making sure that key data is always helping drive a more personalized experience.

How our clients can prepare for this shift

Being understanding of the effort required to deliver bespoke roadmap items and features that have been in very high demand lately. Most clients though are very happy to take advantage of the out-of-the-box functionality that our products offer.

Predictions for how the viewing experience will continue to evolve

I predict a surge in slim bundles being offered up by the large content owners or sports leagues which will allow customers to watch their favorite sporting events or movies and TV series at reduced price points—and not require a full subscription commitment. Betting will become the biggest revenue driver for sports D2C services over the coming years.

Join the conversation over on Twitter or LinkedIn. Any questions for the team? We’d love to hear from you.