Gamification is changing the rules of the game for live sports, and now is the right time for media companies and sports organizations to take notice. Gamification is driving greater fan engagement and increased monetization opportunities at scale for industry players to notice.
Live video scale means the number of feeds for a given event. Until now, the latency between the location where the live sport takes place and the device where fans watch the match has averaged about 30-40 seconds.
As a result, live content arrives 30-40 seconds late to the consumer platform, severely damaging the ability to create deep, meaningful, and lucrative fan engagement. Increased latency is the result of existing complex, cost-effective workflows that rely on the cloud to do the heavy lifting when processing live feeds.
Edge computing for live video changes all of this, removing the challenges of latency in live streaming by simplifying workflows and augmenting the cloud by adding powerful processing capabilities at the point of video origin.
Edge computing at the source of live video creates a unified experience for live sports fans and bites, enabling broadcasters and sports leagues to consistently engage their audiences at scale. Live sports consumption is moving from passive to active, enabling media and sports organizations to unlock more scalable monetization opportunities.
Why ultra-low latency at scale is critical to live video monetization and viewer engagement
Live video has exploded, with streaming audience expected in the US 158 million in 2022. Livesport is one of the leading industries driving this growth across platforms. Broadcasters and sports organizations need to take advantage of the exponential growth of live video to exploit its monetization opportunities.
Today we are already seeing that live video platforms offer active viewer engagement rather than the more traditional ‘passive’ linear TV viewing experiences. Live social commentary, betting and performance tracking are examples of increased fan engagement that are widely available.
Live streaming workflows need to change to deliver compelling live sports content. Current methods of sending a live video feed to the cloud for processing create workflow complexity that increases latency and costs, and degrades video quality.
Ultra-low latency (ULL) is critical to sports gamification, as any delays will result in a worse rendering of the display and limit the fan’s immersive experience. By overcoming the latency challenge, media and sports organizations can engage fans and monetize through sports gamification at scale.
Edge Computing: Expanding Cloud Capabilities and Monetizing
Research has shown that in 2022 197 million American adults will watch content on a second device while watching a digital video or traditional TV. A second screen becomes an essential source of personalized content for audiences who can consume content on the platform they want, often in conjunction with a linear program. It creates an excellent opportunity to pioneer secondary, often lightly produced content, including various camera feeds or commentary options that are usually accompanied by on-screen statistics and graphics. These additional options allow viewers to have a gamification experience, providing an extra layer of game insight and data analysis.
But for this to happen, media companies need to ensure that the live content reaches consumers with ultra-low latency. A video edge computing platform can revolutionize live streaming workflows by putting advanced computing and processing power on-premises, right at the source of the video, rather than relying on the cloud to do the heavy lifting.
Changing how we package live video feeds to bypass or extend cloud features can enable direct output of HLS and DASH in a low-latency format. The feeds can then be pushed into the CDN and delivered to viewers around the world. These scalable workflows can be adapted to HTTP, SRT or WebRTC at the same time, providing the same ULL.
A video edge computing platform is also tackling the OPEX challenge and shaking up the economy of the cloud. By optimizing their reliance on the cloud, media companies can run and complete critical processing tasks on-premise in a standards-based streaming environment.
In addition, organizations can take advantage of the scalability of edge computing and build and deploy the features they need — tailoring their platform to meet their business needs, now and in the future. Workflows are simplified as the steps for sending feeds to and from the cloud are removed from the supply chain.
Depending on the usage situation, this drastically reduces the latency to less than 3 seconds or even less than a second. Let’s take the example of Web RTC. Bypassing the cloud directly to a web RTC gateway can reduce latency to less than 1 second. Audiences get an improved quality experience, reduced latency, and a unified experience across platforms at scale. In today’s increasingly competitive marketplace, this can give video producers a much-needed edge as it provides the fan with the experience they want in a scalable and unique way.
Harnessing Gamification and Fan Engagement with Edge Computing for Live Video
Gamification is changing the way we consume live sports and opening up numerous monetization opportunities for media and sports organizations, provided they solve the critical latency challenge and achieve real-time content delivery.
A video edge computing platform is revolutionizing live streaming workflows by creating powerful on-premise computing and processing capabilities, at the source of live video. Therefore, an encoder no longer needs to send live feeds to the cloud for processing before reaching a CDN. The live video supply chain is getting shorter, simpler and more efficient. Media companies are optimizing costs and delivering content to consumers with ULL, creating consistent fan engagement – and scalable monetization doors open to live sports gamification.
We are just beginning to surface what gamification and consistent fan engagement can bring to the media and broadcast industry. As the growth of live video explodes, a video edge computing platform that delivers at scale is changing the realm of opportunity for media and sports organizations, opening up new viewing and large-scale monetization opportunities that we shouldn’t. to miss.
