As a new generation of highlights-first fans moves into the sports fandom mainstream, sports broadcasters need the agility and tech-savviness to produce and monetize personalized, short-form sports content at scale that meets the experiential demands of millennial and Gen Z fans. Fortunately Gen AI is a game-changer for sports highlights and personalization, as Play Anywhere’s Pete Scott and Ring Digital’s Brian Ring discuss in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2025.
Asked by Ring how he sees sports media companies changing their playbooks and leveraging Gen AI to serve a generation that would rather "watch highlights and talk trash to each other" than sit through entire live games, Scott discusses strategic moves by companies like Bleacher Report to secure highlight rights and deliver sports content tailored to the preferences and expectations of that demographic.
"My old company, Bleacher Report, in the last new renewal [of their contract] with the NBA, paid a separate fee to have highlights for NBA games, and they wrote a big check for that. That was symbiotic because Bleacher has such a young demo, they're basically munching on those highlights instead of watching a live game," he explains. "If you aggregate live rights and highlight rights, you could one day have them competing against each other in the sense of the value of those rights. WSC Sports and others who have automated the clipping of highlight allows all of that to happen."
Scott goes on to explain that sports rights and content owners who have the data to know that "a user is a fan of a particular team or player," can now use an AI-powered solution like Databricks or Snowflake to "create a personalized SportsCenter for every single person."
Scott describes this capability as "super-valuable" and readily monetized. "Your chance of engagement, clickthroughs, and associations with advertisers just grows. because at scale with large-language models and with AI, you're able to hyper-serve every single individual with the right content in the right place and on the right platform."
Delivering sports streams at scale even on a regional level means managing compatibility challenges in a fragmented device market where users are watching on a range of devices and platforms, but those challenges are magnified exponentially for global sports delivery when a morass of legacy devices come into play. How do you ensure optimal viewer experience to all of these devices, and is it even possible? YouTube's Sean McCarthy, Akamai's Will Law, Swerve Sports' Christy Tanner, EZDRM's Olga Kornienko, and SVTA's Jason Thibeault discuss these issues in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2025.
03 Mar 2025
Streaming Media Connect 2025 featured a session on using generative AI in news, sports, and entertainment, moderated by Brian Ring of Ring Digital. The panel included industry veterans Andy Beach, Pete Scott, and Raffi Mamalian, who discussed the transformative potential of AI in media production. Key topics included the ethical use of AI, the challenges of AI dubbing, the future of personalized content, and more.
02 Mar 2025
Streaming Media presented its 16th Connect virtual conference February 25-27, featuring speakers from YouTube, Meta, Amazon, Roku, Akamai, Google Cloud, Plex, DAZN, Fremantle, A+E, Vevo, Philo, Tubi, The Trade Desk, Sinclair, Vizio, Revry, and more, and session topics ranging from live streaming delivery and FAST infrastructure and monetization to app and UX to programmatic vs. direct advertising to CTV and the OS wars.
28 Feb 2025
BB Media's report on the 2025 Super Bowl explores how sports have become the dominant force in niche streaming. With 133 specialized sports platforms in the U.S., the industry surpasses other categories like reality TV, science, and news. The Super Bowl's digital expansion in 2025 further highlights this shift, with Fox streaming it for free on Tubi for the first time. As platforms experiment with ad-supported models and interactive features, sports continue to redefine the streaming landscape.
18 Feb 2025
Interactivity revenue generator Play Anywhere and ultra-low-latency live streaming platform Phenix Real Time Solutions partner for real-time SSAI at scale
03 Feb 2025
The applications of Generative AI in streaming are seemingly endless, but what are specific ways that AI can make streaming content more discoverable, more personalized, more engaging, interactive, and more effective for advertisers in leveraging targeted content to reach the right customers? Microsoft's Andy Beach, Vecima's Paul Strickland, mireality's Maria Ingold, Alvarez & Marsal's Ethan Dreilinger, and Reality Software's Nadine Krefetz explore the possibilities in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2024.
17 Dec 2024