The return of the Olympics

S08E08: Game of Streams (The return of the Olympics)

The 2024 Paris event marked the return of the Olympics. This summer brought back the excitement and unity people hadn’t felt for two decades. Just like in the past, the games became a global event that everyone was talking about. Families and friends gathered around their TVs, cheering for their favorite athletes and discovering new sports they hadn't paid much attention to before.

The Olympics became more than yet another Olympics with a series of competitions. They were a celebration that brought people together, with even the smallest sports getting their time to shine. It felt like the world was once again united by the joy of sports, just like it had been 20 years ago.

Television and Streaming

A significant factor in the success of the 2024 Olympics was the role played by television and streaming services. Compared to the last Olympics the media companies, Warner Bros. Discovery , Comcast , and others, managed to deliver the event to the viewers in a much better way. ?

The way these events were broadcasted and streamed to global audiences greatly enhanced the overall experience. The broadcasters embraced modern technology, offering a blend of traditional TV coverage with more innovative streaming options.

This approach allowed viewers to enjoy a curated main feed that showcased the most popular events, while also providing the flexibility to dive into special feeds dedicated to any sport they desired. Whether someone was interested in high-profile events like track and field or had a passion for niche sports like table tennis or pistol shooting, they could easily find and follow the action in real time.

The curated feed was filled with the most popular events, highlights, studio talks, and stories about the athletes. Easy navigation and notifications guided the viewers when an event started on an alternative feed, or when an important game was about to be decided. A healthy mix of curation and personalized on-demand content.?

Social media and highlights

Without seeing any official statistics, I believe a lot of viewers experienced the Olympics mostly through highlights and clips, only tuning in at the most important finals. Today it has become a necessity to quickly generate highlights and clips to create engagement and reach a wide audience.

To paraphrase a quote from David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros Discovery, around bundles, “If we don't do it to ourselves, I think it'll be done to us.”. If a provider, broadcaster, or streaming service, doesn’t create these clips themselves, they will be created by someone else, and by that losing the connection to the viewer and the possibility to drive revenues to your service. Clips posted on social media might be one of the best roads to engagement.?

One size doesn’t fit all

This clearly shows that there is no one-size-fits-all in content packaging and delivery. There are multiple ways to consume the same content. A lean-back approach with a curated feed, a more active lean-forward approach to consume specific feeds or on-demand content or through highlights and clips.

Even if sports and the Olympics are good examples, the same goes for all kinds of content. As broadcasters and service providers you need to provide different ways to consume your content This is specifically important for ad-funded services where viewing time is of the most importance.

With today's advanced technology, it has become relatively simple and cost-effective to repurpose the same content across various formats. If you have the end goal in mind and think of online distribution already from production to content preparation, broadcasters and content creators can easily produce linear feeds for traditional TV, on-demand options for streaming platforms, and short clips tailored for social media.?

Instead of one production pipeline for linear distribution and a separate pipeline for online and social media you should produce and manage the content in a format that can be used for all purposes. By embracing cloud-native tools, content creators can streamline production processes, allowing for real-time collaboration, scalability, and more efficient management of assets.

AI plays a crucial role by automating editing, tagging, and formatting, which are vital for repurposing content across various channels. AI-driven tools can automatically generate clips, highlights, or even personalized content packages, ensuring that the right content reaches the right audience at the right time.?

This flexibility allows for the same event or show to reach a wider audience across multiple channels, catering to different viewing preferences and maximizing engagement.

To watch out for the coming months…

As IBC - International Broadcasting Convention approaches, it presents a perfect opportunity for industry professionals to explore the latest advancements in content packaging and distribution. This year's event will showcase cutting-edge technologies, including AI-driven solutions and internet-native tools, that make it easier than ever to create and distribute multiple content formats.

We can expect to see demos and showcases of how these innovations can streamline the process of producing linear feeds, on-demand content, and social media clips, all from the same source material, offering new ways to enhance audience engagement and efficiency in content delivery.?

Magnus Svensson is a Media Solution Specialist and partner at Eyevinn Technology. Eyevinn Technology is the leading independent consulting company specializing in video technology and media distribution.

Follow me on LinkedIn and X (@svensson00) for regular updates and news.

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