StreamUK and Enda Sports and Media will be producing the first of a series of live sporting events this weekend when they broadcast the International Football Cup from Antalya, Turkey. The costs of delivering the event over the internet will be met by providing betting opportunities to viewers in place of the normal advertising or pay per view models.
The tournament includes top teams from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Kazakhstan, Azerbaidjhan, Uzbekistan and Albania and will be broadcast live to the club websites. Including:
http://www.trt.net.tr
http://www.chechensport.com
http://www.fc-terek.ru
http://www.metalist.ua
http://www.laola1.tv
The match will also be shown at http://www.streamuk.com/antalya.asp
Matches take place from Saturday 1500 GMT with the full schedule being:
Match 1 : 28 Jan. 2012 Terek Grozny (Russia) vs Ordabasy (Kazakhstan)
Service start: 12:45 GMT
Service ends: 15:00 GMT
Match 2 : 30 Jan. 2012 Methalist Kharkov (Ukraine) vs Phaktakor (Ozbekistan)
Service start: 12:45 GMT
Service ends: 15:00 GMT
Match 3 : 01 Feb. 2012 Terek Grozny (Russia) vs Rapid Bucharest (Romania)
Service start: 12:45 GMT
Service ends: 15:00 GMT
Match 4 (Final) : 03 Feb. 2012
Service start: 14:45 GMT
Service ends: 17:00 GMT
‘Exploring the possibility of replacing ads with betting opportunities opens a whole range of possibilities for content owners. It puts the question to advertisers: can you beat the CPM available? The potential is obvious and we have not even utilised our targeting capabilities yet.’ Said Duncan Burbidge, CEO of StreamUK.
‘This represents a fantastic new outlet for our high-quality content. It marks the start of what I expect to be an important partnership.’ Commented Metin Dalman, VP Media Operations for Enda Sports and Media.
Choosing the right online video platform is crucial to having a successful online video strategy. As a platform that enables your audience to access your content, it’s also a device that you can use to measure the success and learn more about your audience to build a community and increase engagement.
Content owners frequently ask about the benefits of StreamMP over video hosting sites such as YouTube, but I must first explain that although they serve some similar requirements they are two quite different platforms.
YouTube by nature was born to serve the user generated content network. Today it has become arguably the most efficient tool for Joe Public to upload, share and distribute media content with a global community, whereas StreamMP is a customisable media management platform controlled independently by its user. Not only does the content owner manage their content via StreamMP, but they can also control the distribution and manage their own online community.
This brings us on to the first component that sets these two platforms apart. 48 hours of content are uploaded to the YouTube community every minute, contributing to a staggering 8 years of content every day. Content owners that hope to benefit from YouTube would be aware that although they may have their own channel, their content becomes no more unique, specialised or customised as the billions of clips that inhabit the entire community. This can also become problematic for content owners who want to increase web traffic, as YouTube benefits from the video hits. StreamMP holds the advantage here as the player can be embed within your site and does not divert back to a video hosting website. The player is also customisable enabling the opportunity for the content owner to brand the players face, features and functionality to match the brand.
If a content owner takes branding, web traffic and audience figures seriously, then monetisation and other advertising options would most likely be the next step forward. Video hosting websites as well as YouTube really do take the wheel from the content owner here. Not only has it become increasingly difficult to secure monetisation within YouTube, but the adverts that appear on your content will be non-consented, as will the ads that appear as thumbnails alongside the player, or amongst your competitor’s thumbnails who may be releasing content on a similar subject. Therefore there is a lot more to be gained through managing and dictating your own commercial affairs, especially if you are working within a competitive environment or simply want to take advantage of more advertising opportunities.
The third distinguishing component and possibly the most important is the access to analytics and statistical data. Only by having access to relevant, current and comprehensive analytics can a content owner reflect on their online video strategy and implement fundamental changes that work with the habits and attitudes of their audiences. This year YouTube added a very basic analytics function giving users access to the number of views over time as well as couple of other statistics such as “likes” and “dislikes”, analytical data that would most probably fall short of the requirements of even the smaller content owner today. In comparison this is where StreamMP really wears the crown, giving access to detailed statistics covering location, average viewing time, player impressions ratio as well as content drop off statistics that paint a clearer picture of your audience.
The truth is that when it comes to the components that help drive an online video strategy, YouTube lacks the support and opportunity that aids development. There is however an important reason for this and one that is often forgotten. YouTube and similar rival video hosting sites have never hid the fact that they are primarily a C2C service. It works as a very democratic community that restricts commercial individualism, something that is absolutely critical to a content owner who is distributing online. I would always recommend the use of a YouTube channel for SEO purposes, as it’s always a great idea to duplicate content on multiple platforms to simply increase online presence. But when it comes to utilising your content with the desire to build audiences and enhance engagement, choose a media platform that can represent your brand and better still, choose a media platform that can represent your audience through great statistics and detailed analytics.
StreamUK CEO Duncan Burbidge announced the latest in a line of StreamMP developments during an interview with TV Bay Magazine & www.broadcastshow.com at BVE North 2011.
The world renowned scotch whisky brand Glenfiddich has called upon Stream ES to stream, encode and create a microsite for an innovative virtual whisky tasting event, hosted by the Glennfiddich brand ambassador Ian Miller in Madrid.
The live streaming event will also include coverage of the brands distillery in Aberdeen Scotland, all part of a major marketing campaign that stems from a blog called ‘The Trend Explorer’, a Glenfiddich sponsored site that covers business, technology and lifestyle for those who like to keep up with the latest modern trends.
Stream ES was chosen due to its commitment and reliability for providing high quality streams despite capturing content from two European locations, which are over 1600 miles apart.
StreamUK CEO Duncan Burbidge announced the latest in a string of developments for the video management platform StreamMP, in an interview by TV Bay magazine at BVE North last month.
The latest development enables StreamMP users to time capture significant moments within live and on-demand video content. Becoming increasingly relevant to the sports industry, the new feature promises to increase user engagement whilst simultaneously enhancing share options for consumers.
The new StreamMP feature was recently utilised by Madrid’s BBVA benefit race, a marathon in which 12,000 runners were able to capture the moment they crossed the finished line and find that moment on-demand when watching it back online. The new development is also a great benefit for football fans and content owners when tracking goals and other events time specifically.
