Ease Live drives engagement and monetization opportunities by the gamification of the viewer and fan experience. Ease Live overlays graphical content onto live streams, which allows the viewer to interact with in-game live statistics, watch parties, polls and trivia, and sponsored betting and wagers without having to leave the event. With interactive graphics, content and rights owners can customize the user experience to increase both the level of user engagement and the length of time of engagement. This provides opportunities for monetization and new ad revenues that have not previously been available.

“As the cost of being a content rights holder becomes even more expensive and the competition for audience eyeballs grows, our customers are looking for new ways to drive fan engagement and monetize their content,” says Kjetil Horneland, CEO of Ease Live. “At NAB we will be showcasing how we’re engaging with the interactive fan using three modes – stats, watch and play. Ease Live makes it easy for content providers to quickly launch additional layers of ‘value added content’ that can help offset costs. Everything is published through the cloud, which reduces the need for app level changes and shortens time to market for new innovative features.”

One adopter of Ease Live that is having huge success with this format is the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network (YES Network). In 2021, YES Edge - an optional interactive graphic overlay within its YES App – was launched to create an immersive ecosystem directly in the App. In the months following the launch with Ease Live, the YES App experienced a 38% increase in average unique streams per game, a 26% increase in time spent per unique streamer per game, and the new overlays generated 60% response rates to factoids and 47% response rates on polls during live games.

An additional benefit to Ease Live is the ability to collect first party data and analytics which is generated from powerful cloud-based data tools. The knowledge gathered about user behaviours can be used to inform broadcasters on what content is resonating with audiences and can be used to identify and target specific audience demographics with paid content or advertisements.

In addition to the existing support for mobile and web-based touch devices, Ease Live will be launching at NAB new interactive experiences developed for Connected TV devices that allow the viewer to engage with content using their television’s remote control device.

Another unique feature of the Ease Live platform is the powerful Ease Live Data Service, which makes it very simple for customers to synchronize their live broadcast moments with interactive graphics in a frame accurate manner. It leverages Evertz’ years of experience in timing and synchronization to bridge the production timing and the OTT delivery platform to ensure frame accurate placement of interactive graphics on top of the customer’s video player. Getting the timing right is crucial for unlocking the commercial potential that interactive live streaming offers, as interactive content can be placed in relation to the game action and provide valuable clicks and conversions.