Technology also allows broadcasters to ensure optimum video quality, further enhancing the experience at home
Sport remains a staple of live broadcasting around the world, which was no more evident than in 2024. The Euro 2024 football championship set a record for TV audiences in the countries of the participating teams, with a global cumulative audience in excess of 5bn. Alongside the global appeal of football, the 2024 Paris Olympic Games was streamed a record-breaking 218m times, more than double the 104m streams during the Tokyo Games three years earlier. With global viewership so high, Nevion’s consumer findings support the popularity of live sport.
The experience at home
Live sport carries a potent ability to deliver high levels of drama and action. Viewers enjoy witnessing big moments in real time and often feed off the sense of community it offers. A growing number of sports fans, however, are watching live coverage from home. The English Premier League, for example, is broadcast to 189 countries, with 1.87bn people now following it.
But what’s driving this shift towards home viewing? According to Nevion’s research, 45% of people like to watch live broadcast events with other people in the same room.
Online communities are also being built and fostered, where viewers can voice opinions, commiserate on defeats and celebrate victories with others on social media platforms. Sports clubs themselves have also set up official accounts to post real-time updates during matches and share exclusive videos.
Our research shows that consumers use social media and messaging platforms to message friends and family directly about key moments (59%), followed by an interest in other people’s opinions on what’s happening (46%) and sharing thoughts with the wider community (33%).
Navigating cost pressures with enhanced experiences
For the most popular sports, the cost of attending games in person has become prohibitive. This is also driving consumers towards home experiences. For example, the cost of English Premier League tickets increased by an average of 6.7% this year. A combination of a high level of demand for live sports content on a global scale and cost pressures is placing a bigger emphasis on the service offered by broadcasters. IP technology is, therefore, the key for broadcasters, enabling them to benefit from distributed production. This allows the people, places and processing resources involved in a project to be connected, used and shared optimally as part of a wider ecosystem, regardless of where they are around the world. Equipment such as studios, OB production trucks, live venues, mixers, video and audio processing solutions don’t need to be present at the venue. Staff can access them from any location. Production staff can produce multiple events in different locations at the same time, and tailor to time zones around the world. This reduces the need for expensive shipping of equipment to different locations, enabling broadcasters to pass on the cost savings to their customers. Sports events also often require meticulous planning to attract viewers, with visual quality and latency under the spotlight. Specialist solutions as part of this distributed ecosystem can allow providers to prioritise the transmission of low-latency broadcasts, so that viewers can experience a live sports event in as close to real time as possible. Technology also allows broadcasters to ensure optimum video quality, further enhancing the experience at home. With live sport increasingly accessible from home, broadcasters are seizing the opportunity to elevate the viewer experience with advanced technology and innovative approaches.
Olivier Suard is VP of Marketing at Nevion.
