Tom Middleditch: Eleven Sports, OTT, Watch Together, Piracy, New Territories
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Tom Middleditch: Eleven Sports, OTT, Watch Together, Piracy, New Territories
Since they launched in 2015, Eleven Sports have been at the vanguard of sports broadcasting via an over-the-top platform.
They led the way in the development of Watch Together technology and recently announced perhaps their most significant deal as the domestic broadcaster for the Belgian League.
Their business is not restricted to OTT but my conversation with Tom Middleditch, Global Head of Digital, centred on this relatively new technology.
For the last few years, talk has grown about OTT’s ability to redefine the sports rights landscape. It is likely that Covid-19 will only accelerate this process.
This is an area with huge potential given the ability of rights-holders to go direct to consumer via OTT and the deep-dive data it can provide. However, there are major technological hurdles such as piracy and latency. We discuss all these in a wide-ranging chat.
Presented by: Pro Academy Footballers agency Website | Contact
TOPICS
What was the state of the OTT pre-Covid-19?
Tom Middleditch
The rights gained by Eleven Sports. Starting in Belgium, Poland, Thailand and Singapore then growing
Becoming the Belgian League’s domestic broadcaster - and why its a game-changer
How does the OTT product differing in different markets? - the importance of localisation
The stability of the stream - the fundamentals
The recipe for taking on Serie C and D in Italy - serving an underserved market with a passionate fanbase that may accept a lower broadcast standard
Why it is not about the big rights all the time.
The opportunities thrown up by lockdown - the acceleration of esports, looking at other rights, behind closed doors games
The Watch Together function - why it was launched two years ago, why it has evolved, and the boost from lockdown
The tricky issue of synchronisation, the VIP function
The acceleration of digital communities because of lockdown
The piracy problem - “It’s part of the reason we left the Singapore market”
The need for broadcasters to unify on piracy.
Data - the problems on traditional llnear TV data and big advantage of OTT in this area
Amazon’s entry into the Premier League market
The way Eleven can use its data
No getting ‘bogged down’ by data
Combatting churn “is tough everywhere” - but is it different in OTT?
How and where Eleven looks outside of football
AI - how it affects production flow and the potential of OTT?
The Netflix UX/UI - I that the blue riband experience? Can this be replicated in sport
The do’s and don’t of set up an OTT channel
The terror of the last-minute crush into live events
Where is OTT going in the next 5-10 years?