It’s no secret that crafting compelling live television nowadays brings its own set of challenges. While still popular, professional leagues are not immune to these challenges. If live viewers aren’t attracted, it poses a risk to the entire team working on covering live sports – advertising revenue can decline, budgets can become tighter, and as a result, effect the overall quality of broadcasts.

But the challenge is two-fold: how do leagues attract and retain sports fans when they are mostly tuning into sports content via social media?

Research commissioned by Vizrt, conducted on the viewing habit of sports fans across generations, found that Gen Z watch more sports content on their phone – with 71% affirming they often, or very often, watch sports content on social media. 38% stated that they consume all their sports content on social media.

The research emphasizes: “In line with a more piecemeal approach to content, Gen Z prefers to watch sports highlights 23% more than other demographics. Many only ‘often’ (54%) or ‘sometimes’ (18%) watch a full match/game from start to finish, suggesting a deeper influence from the nature of so much social media content consumption.”

The objective for leagues, broadcasters, and rights owners becomes making their sports coverage compelling enough, not only to be chosen over competitors, but to be chosen over social media feeds. The answer? A combination of real-time and data-driven graphics and visually stunning analysis and replays.

Bring On The Visuals!

This solution has been implemented across varying projects. Notably, UEFA counted on the Vizrt sports solution (a combination of Viz Arena and Viz Libero) to capture the new generation of football fans with engaging analysis videos on its website and social media channels. By going where the audience is, UEFA was able to increase its social media engagement by over 78% – more than three times UEFA’s original goal of a 20% increase.

The UEFA content team does this by actively creating mini articles and stories designed specifically for social media. Additionally, the football body is also able to drive revenue through sponsorship and advertising deals for its unique analysis clips.

Attending to the diverse objectives of sports productions is at the heart of Vizrt’s sports solutions, Viz Libero and Viz Arena. While sports productions often feel the effects of the same issues in the industry – such as audience’s habits – how they set to tackle the issues varies. By developing a sports solution that considers the diverse needs of visual storytelling, Vizrt expands the possibilities of what sports productions can creatively do to achieve their goals.

Creating A Compelling Fan Experience

Faced with the trend of declining viewership from younger sports fans, the Portland Trail Blazers, the NBA team based in Portland, Oregon, selected Vizrt’s sports solution to address viewership challenges, enable innovation, and create dynamic visual storytelling.

“Our fans expect a lot from the team, they expect a lot from the broadcast showing them the team, to match that expectation we need our equipment to be at that level,” says John McConnell, Product Manager at Portland Trail Blazers. “We want all Blazers fans to be able to watch our games, wherever they are, however they do it.”

With Vizrt’s track record of diverse sports end-users – from leagues and broadcasters to rights holders and content creators of all sizes – the NBA team worked with the technology provider to implement a sports solution that elevated the fan experience and expanded advertising value for its games. At the heart of the solution are Viz Libero, the analysis solution that enables smart telestration and data-rich insights, and Viz Arena, the all-in-one live augmented reality (AR) suite for sports broadcasts and venue production.

Viz Libero enables the combination of live footage with unrivalled 3D camera flights, the power of AI and AR, and the most comprehensive set of telestration tools, to deliver compelling analysis. Sports productions can sync up data to create everything – from heat maps to AR player profiles – with a flexible turnkey solution to make sports storytelling simpler and more effective.

The analysis solution makes it fast and easy to enhance storytelling with unique data visualization tools, bringing fans closer to the action with clear, impactful visuals. With eight native data visualization options in Viz Libero, including penalty maps, attack maps, and player and team comparisons, operators can turn complex data into compelling on-screen insights instantly – turning a 10-minute task into a 1-minute job.

A simple selection and a click on the match or team auto-populates the graphics, ensuring seamless integration that keeps up with the pace, demands, and excitement of live basketball.

Viz Arena, the solution that adds hyper-real 3D AR graphics and virtual advertising over any live sports coverage, is purpose-built to keep sports fans engaged, sponsors satisfied, and costs low. Using Viz Engine 5’s advanced Viz Engine Render pipeline, Viz Arena delivers superior workflows, operator-focused control, and cutting-edge keying technology powered by Viz AI.

The Downstream AI Cut Detection feature in Viz Arena uses AI-driven automated insert graphics handling to detect an upcoming transition – a wipe, a cut, any DVE effect. Viz Arena then creates a mask to hide the virtual ads, so that where the AR graphic or virtual ad intersects with the camera cut or DVE, it appears seamless to the viewer.

The combination of both solutions elevates the fan experience, simplifies and streamlines workflows, adds efficiency through automation, and takes sports storytelling to the next level.

A Trailblazing Success

A recent industry report indicated that, while overall NBA viewership is down, the Portland Trail Blazers ranked number one in NBA teams’ growth in average viewership, with a +69% increase year-over-year. Although successfully attracting and retaining audiences is not a one-size-fits-all solution – some key elements, such as the visualization of data and analysis, have proven to drastically improve the sport viewing experience.

The same research that looked into habits of sports fans today found that visual elements play a significant part in their viewing preferences. According to the survey, nearly 79% of respondents agree that they are more interested in the sports content if virtual elements are used, with 57% more likely to watch content with virtual elements for longer. This can include augmented reality (AR) graphics, data analysis, and replays.

“The Portland Trail Blazers fans are so passionate and dedicated, we understand our responsibility in giving them the best broadcast possible,” says McConnell.  “These days, the bar for sports entertainment is increasingly high, and we want to exceed those expectations by making the Blazers’ broadcasts visually appealing, speedy, and full of detail. With innovative visuals and statistics, we can take a step further in entertaining and informing our fans.”

The goal, according to McConnell, is to take real-time stats and information, and present them during games in both informative and entertaining ways for the fans. With visual elements, the NBA team analyses player movement, positions, and strategies – providing viewers with further understanding in real-time of exciting moments and highlights.

But basketball is also a business, and keeping sponsors happy adds another layer of responsibility to the live production team.

The Portland Trail Blazers uses the same Vizrt sports solutions to maximize advertising value to its sponsors. McConnell affirms: “We want our cutting-edge visuals to present our sponsors in the best possible light and ultimately help our bottom line on the business side of basketball.”

Using AR graphics, this is done seamlessly. For example, by displaying the game’s stats in AR graphics over the live audience, sponsored by the Pacific Office Automation, or via the “Dunk of the Game”, presented by Alaska Airlines, which highlights and analyses with to take real-time stats and information, and present them during games in both informative and entertaining ways for the fans. With visual elements, the NBA team advanced telestration the most notable dunks of the game.

“Vizrt has been a great partner for us,” concludes McConnell. “With Viz Libero’s deep telestration toolset, our analysts can let their imagination really shine, bringing fans inside the Xs and Os of the game. With Viz Arena, we have the ability to create unique AR elements that stand out among conventional graphics.”

This next level of immersive storytelling is key to meet the needs of modern sports coverage: keep the game innovative, advertisers happy, and fans engaged.