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Live streaming is the hottest must-have in the sports industry; from club to college to pro, audience reach across the internet, social, and OTT platforms has become a necessity.
Whether it’s watching someone play “Fortnite” on Twitch or checking out an NWHL game on Twitter, live streaming has taken social media platforms — and the content that could be placed on them — to new levels.
As platforms have evolved, the biggest problem that has arisen is that in order to live stream, say, a game to a Twitter account, a Facebook page, and maybe even a Twitch account at the same time, you would need different streams and even, in some cases, different cameras.
That’s where Transmit.Live comes in. Using the cloud, the live-streaming service centralizes live-video operations, giving users the ability to manage, distribute, analyze, and expand audiences for live content.
“We are giving our clients the ability to build a new media affiliate broadcast network.” – Scott Young, co-founder and CEO of Transmit.Live
For example, imagine if you were an NBA team that wanted to live stream practice through the team Twitter account along with the accounts of all of the players. Thanks to Transmit.Live, all you would need is one stream and the technology will do the rest, taking that stream to every single account that you want.
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If you were to do that with today’s Lakers team, the potential audience from your stream would go from 7.41 million on just the Lakers’ Twitter account to over 54 million if it was distributed via all of the players’ accounts.
It’s this opportunity that Transmit.Live has capitalized on for a list of clients that includes the NFL.
“The struggle is, because of the fragmentation of all the platforms, it is difficult for entities to broadcast and reach a larger audience in the moment,” said Scott Young, co-founder and CEO of Transmit.Live. “We’ve essentially built a broadcast platform that empowers leagues, teams, and talent with the opportunity to centralize their streaming operations, maximize fan engagement, and build larger sponsorships, all while giving them the chance to have one set of data reports.”
One of the platforms in which the company has found success is on Twitch, which generally has proven to host the coveted demographic for so many advertisers.
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Collaborating with Viacom and Nickelodeon, Transmit.Live was able to identify a sponsorship opportunity for the entertainment brand and, in teaming up with Esports Arena, hosted an esports tournament in Oakland.
“Nickelodeon was looking to promote the new ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ premiere, and we were able to take content from the event and distribute it via 50 different social platforms and about one thousand different web pages, while creating 100 percent more sponsor integration touchpoints.”
Racking up four million views over the course of five hours, Young says that without the distribution, viewership numbers on the stream “probably would have reached over 500% fewer viewers.”
A sponsorship that was once selling experiential branding at flat ratesbecame one that could be sold for three to four times that figure by delivering guaranteed viewership.
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While it may make sense that something like this can work well with the digitally native audience that Twitch presents, Young was quick to point out that this isn’t just a technology for esports or for leagues.
“The goal is to unlock new content that will enhance the 360-degree fan experience. I look at all of the successful programs like ‘All or Nothing’ on Amazon have had, and teams should be able to have the opportunity to do that themselves no matter how big or small an organization may be.”
In today’s media environment, even though content might be king, without distribution, you have a king locked in his castle.
