FOX Sports and Twitter are collaborating on live daily online show FIFA World Cup Now streamed directly to Twitter using Telestream’s Wirecast live video streaming production software.
According to the most recent Ericsson Mobile Report, UK viewers now watch over a billion minutes of TV content online per week. With the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime investing enormous amounts of budget in original and exclusive content – not to mention the online content licensing that’s needed alongside it – the streaming services industry has quickly become a content arms race, with those with the biggest budgets often coming out on top. For smaller content producers, this means having to invest in the speed and efficiency of their content supply chains sooner rather than later. The key to Netflix’s success – perhaps surprisingly, above even its famed user experience - has been its own unique supply chain. This supply chain ensures that every piece of content published on the site, including those targeted at regional and niche demographics, is more likely to be a hit than a miss. By effectively utilising the data in the supply chain, content producers will have a better understanding of both the cost of production and of which audiences are engaging with what content so that they can react accordingly. Visibility into these data sets means that businesses can effectively calculate their return on investment in content production without taking as many risks – provided the right technology is in place to do so.
_460_307_70.jpg "Globecast says the Digital Media Hub has been developed in conjunction with a number of rights holders.")
The Digital Media Hub allows a live feed to be treated in multiple ways to create content suitable for cross-platform use, in both real-time or for use at a later date.
Most CDNs (Content Delivery Networks) and the video streaming services they support have coped well with the peak time loads of the current FIFA World Cup, beyond a few well publicized glitches.
The Streaming Video Alliance (SVA) has been urging online service providers and vendors of technology for delivery of video over the Internet to rally behind common standards.
The Cloud itself is pretty simple, but for broadcasters, leveraging it can be complex. It isn’t that difficult technically, but Broadcast still straddles requirements that demand real time, high resolution, quick turnaround solutions; and this is coupled with the need to connect geographically separate locations, reduce costs, and extend access to assets regardless of where the data is stored with multi-format distribution capabilities.
