By the day, sports fandom is becoming increasingly a long-distance pursuit. But with the epoch of cord-cutters and Cord-Nevers, fans all around the world can still support their teams/players despite the location roadblock. And live streaming is the most interactive way of connecting with your audience. This engagement also helps establish your presence in the market.
But live streaming on OTT platforms has its challenges — one, ensuring the delivery of high-end quality stream to the targeted audience. And two, to monetize a live sports streaming. Generating revenue while streaming entertainment to a worldwide audience is only logical in the day and age of the Internet. It has given the power to the viewer to replay instantly, playback or pause, all while devouring a great live stream experience—this combination guarantees steady revenue generation.
Live streaming is entirely different from other video-on-demand services that are pre-programmed. In VOD, the system is already aware of all the ads to be played pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll. But in a live stream, ad requests are a real-time business. And delivering the best service even during unexpected intervals is crucial to maintain the TV-like quality the viewers expect.
Are you planning to start a video monetization service on a live sports stream? Then the following points must be kept in mind to pull it off seamlessly!
- Pre-plan:
Planning and preparing for every aspect in advance, and determining the date and time is vital. Proper organization and strict schedule form the basic structure of live streaming sports. Broadcasting trailers and promos not only captivate the attention of your present audience but also attracts new audience by sparking curiosity.
- Promote online and offline:
Unlike the preconceived notion, print advertising is still relevant and, in fact, has a lot of untapped potencies. Such ads are an excellent way of attracting a new, curious audience to your platform. Apart from this, ads on social media, blog posts, and press releases are packaged deal to monetize a live sports streaming.
- Subscription:
To get a solid ROI, pricing a stream plays an intrinsic role. There are many subscription models like – paying for the entire year or half a year or even monthly. But mainly, it should depend on targeted demography, demand for the sport, and current trends.
However, all the above efforts and more will go in vain if the OTT provider does not opt for the most-suited targeted advertising platform. Client-side ad insertion, an option chosen by many, is ineffective against ad-blockers, thus incurring a loss in revenue. Server-side ad insertion provides more ad revenue, i.e., monetization is better. Amagi’s dynamic ad insertion technology solution acts as a fully managed service. It gives real-time ad impressions, analytics, and network statistics. This improves viewer experience on the go by inserting appropriate ads based on user interest.
To start a video monetization service, one must move on from the fixed-programming era to a personalized-programming era of ad insertion. This will help the networks, broadcasters, and content owners retain and expand their audience and revenue.
