Sports fans can expect their viewing experience to get much more personalized
By Amanda Oye
TORONTO – Sportsnet announced today it has partnered with Firstlight Media and Deltatre to redesign and relaunch its over-the-top (OTT) media service SN Now this fall to deliver a more personalized and engaging experience to fans and the highest quality streaming.
The redesign will be rolled out in a phased approach. In the fall, SN Now will incorporate features such as content personalization, improvements in latency and quality, real-time editorial content, pricing and packaging flexibility as well as a refreshed user interface, powered by Microsoft Azure. In time, users will be able to enjoy stats overlays, timeline markers and other interactive features.
“I would anticipate that every three to four months you will see significant feature enhancements for at least the next 12 to 18 months,” said Alfredo Tan, senior vice president of strategy, data, and products at Rogers Sports & Media, Sportsnet’s parent company, in an interview with Cartt.ca.
One feature they are looking to roll out in the future is the ability to create tailor-made game coverage. “We should be able to create consumer experiences that are tailored to you as an individual,” said Tan. For example, an Edmonton Oilers fan will be able to come home from work and watch game highlights that are customized in terms of length and to consider what the fan is most interested in, he explained.
Deltatre is in charge of the front-end user experience of the SN Now redesign. Firstlight Media is responsible for the foundation. The company is building “the entire platform that you need in order to build streaming services on top of it,” said Andre Christensen, CEO and co-founder of Firstlight Media, in an interview with Cartt.ca. This includes things like content processing, the encoding, management of video and live streams and creating highlight reels “and all of that back-end stuff that goes on,” he explained.
The redesign is built “with what we call the fifth-generation architecture,” Christensen said. It is “built for the cloud, in the cloud” and uses artificial intelligence, making it possible for everyone to have a different experience, instead of the traditional experience of watching sports, which is one-size fits all, he explained. Customization can be based on things such as what type of screen the user is watching on, what sports the user is a fan of and if the user is more interested in a specific player rather than the game. This targeted streaming experience “is brand new, it hasn’t been done before, there is no other sports services that are able to do that,” Christensen said.
The SN Now relaunch is coming at a time when changing technology, cultural shifts and the penetration of high-speed internet and mobile are “all converging into one area,” said Tan. Sportsnet was the first major sports organization to have a direct-to-consumer product in North America, “so, we want to be ahead of the game as well as consumers start to evolve.”
Sportsnet’s partnerships, including with Firstlight Media and Deltatre on the redesign, are essential to this goal. “The ability to build world-class consumer experiences will increasingly involve great partners from around the globe. As the pace of change continues to accelerate, building the future can’t be done alone,” said Tan in a press release announcing the SN Now relaunch.
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