How Do You Get Started with Your Own Sports Streaming Platform?

Launching a sports streaming platform is a promising OTT revenue model. Since the pandemic locked us all indoors, the audience has recognized the convenience of live and on-demand sports video content streaming from the comfort of their living rooms. As a result, OTT sports platforms are steadily evolving as a lucrative and high-growth business model among sports content owners.

Netflix is exploring opportunities to target niche and amateur sports followers, a clear indication of the direction that sports viewing is soon to take.

No wonder launching your own sports streaming platform is profitable. But why does a sports streaming platform sound like a wise OTT revenue model? What are the factors that can add value to your sports OTT platform?

You will get answers to all the above questions in this blog.

Why OTT sports streaming solutions are lucrative

Many factors are responsible for the growth of OTT sports streaming services.
These include:

Market growth projections

Statistics state that the global live sports streaming market is set to grow to $93.016 billion by 2030 from its benchmark of $18.689 billion in 2021. Sports broadcasters must explore OTT sports streaming platform options if the market has such staggering potential.

More fan engagement opportunities

Fans cherish a special bond with sports. Sports news, various match formats, tournament information, and shoulder content like players’ success stories, lifestyles, and behind-the-scenes and ground-breaking unrivalled matches increase fan engagement and provide a strong reason for them to connect. For example, with the launch of FIFA+, a free digital platform, FIFA has given a realistic shape to its global vision – the democratization of football-related content on streaming services.

Scalability of OTT sports streaming

The global sports industry is projected to cross US $700 billion by 2026. Factors like the creation of new leagues, online sports communities, and social media streaming are all enhancing sports viewership.

For viewers, sports has no language, and this universal characteristic directly influences its viewership. Undoubtedly, the viewership for OTT sports streaming is only set to accelerate.

Better control over viewing experience

Fans love to watch their favorite sport without any hassle. High-quality, low latency audio and video streaming and excellent video content management systems (CMS) on a live sports streaming platform ensure an improved audience experience. Their absence can create a bitter yet lasting reputation, similar to what happened with Optus during the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

But such goof-ups highlight a hidden opportunity for sports federations and content owners. They can launch their own sports streaming services like FIFA+ and offer a robust viewing experience to their fans.

Opportunity to capture uncovered geographies

OTT sports streaming platforms can help content owners reach more geographies where there are no existing licensing relationships with broadcasters. Most linear television service content licenses are given for specified territories and time frames. It is very unlikely that any content owner will offer global broadcasting rights to any media partner. Therefore, sports content providers can extend their reach in untapped territories through DTC distribution platforms.

The need for a sports streaming platform is quite evident. But choosing between free video streaming services and a complete OTT sports streaming platform requires some deep diving into the pros and cons. Let us explore it in detail.

The emergence of 5G technology is set to revolutionize the way we experience live sports streaming like never before. As sports enthusiasts, we have always craved the thrill of watching our favorite teams compete in real-time, and now, with the power of 5G, that experience is about to reach new heights.

Read this article to explore how the rollout of 5G technology is poised to transform OTT sports streaming, ushering in a new era of faster speeds, lower latency, and unparalleled viewer engagement.

Why you should look beyond free video streaming services

Sports content owners can use free video streaming services like Peacock, Plux, YouTube, and Tubi. But it comes with its own hassles, which make launching your own OTT sports streaming services a more convenient and profitable strategy.

Limited customer support

Customer support is a significant decisive factor. Most sports streaming platforms offer dedicated customer support, this feature encourages sports content owners to launch their OTT sports platform in weeks. Free sports streaming platforms miss this capability.

Bandwidth caps

Live streaming requires sufficient bandwidth to play high-quality, low-latency sports content. Free video streaming services typically have caps on bandwidth. Buffering, poor audio, and video quality are common issues that can harm your viewer experience.

No control over advertisements

Free video streaming companies keep the advertisement rights for themselves. As a sports content owner, you will not be able to decide the frequency, advertiser, and advertisement rates. Your advertisers’ brand safety, too, stays on a third-party app and hence, is out of your control.

Lack of website integration

Another disadvantage of free video streaming is the lack of website integration and shareability. Due to licensing issues, you cannot add free video streaming to other websites. This will restrict your brand building and viewership.

ViewLift – The best sports streaming platform for launching your own OTT sports streaming channel

ViewLift is a preferred OTT platform provider that can help you launch your  sports streaming platform. This will let sports content owners take advantage of the growth potential of the OTT sports streaming industry.

ViewLift provides opportunities to boost fan engagement and more control over content monetization and ads and offers an unmatched live, linear, and VOD experience. Some of the top features and benefits of ViewLift include:

Excellent viewer experience

ViewLift’s OTT sports streaming platform provides a unified viewer experience with extended support for all workflows for live streaming. Whether you are starting your OTT platform with desktop encoding software, have on-premises hardware, or want to encode in the cloud, ViewLift will cover all workflows. As a result, your viewers will get an excellent viewer experience with live, linear, and VOD of sports OTT content.

Diverse monetization models

ViewLift offers multiple content monetization models like SVOD, AVOD, and Hybrid that allow you to monetize your sports OTT platform in a way that works for your advertisers, viewers, and you. With ViewLift, you drive revenue with programmatic advertising and draw several other benefits like e-commerce integrations, international currency collection, cross-platform discounts, and much more.

Scalability

ViewLift’s sports streaming platform enhances the seamless customizable app creation experience with easy-to-use templates, a centralized management platform, and an embedded player. These features also simplify content library creation and embedding of your OTT sports streaming solutions on the websites and apps of your partners and distributors.

Fan engagement features

Fan engagement is essential for your sports OTT platform’s growth. ViewLift offers a plethora of compelling features that cultivate engaging viewer experiences – live game stat tracker, easy ticketing through provider integrations, game tickers, and enhanced features like geo-targeting and geo-blocking to protect your agreements and compliances. In addition, you easily upsell SVOD subscribers with merch and tickets and invite your fans to special private team events. All in a click of a button!

Low latency streaming

Our OTT sports streaming platform allows your viewers to experience buffer-free, real-time live streaming of sports video content designed even for binge-watchers.

Vast range of other in-built features

To deliver the most compelling viewer experiences, ViewLift offers world-class CMS controls to sports OTT platforms. As a result, viewers get additional functionalities like game schedules, roasters, rankings, shareability, and more.

Betting app integrations as per local regulations

With betting app integration, your sports OTT platform can keep sports fans engaged with content for longer by informing them of the latest betting information and allowing them to place bets with betting operators during live sports streaming events. More importantly, these integrations comply with local regulations, protecting your reputation as a sports content owner.

Content protection with DRM

DRM is a digital licensing system that ensures complete content control for content owners. ViewLift’s OTT sports streaming solutions extend an advanced degree of content protection that prioritizes privacy and end-to-end encryption for your sports OTT platform. Plagiarized matches distributed on the likes of Telegram groups are a thing of the past with ViewLift.

Device-agnostic streaming

ViewLift’s device-agnostic solutions ensure consistent streaming across iOS, Android, TV, set-top box, and Web UI. So you meet your viewers where they are.

AI ML-based personalization and recommendation engine

Offer your sports OTT viewers a personalized experience. ViewLift’s OTT sports streaming solutions are backed with a recommendation engine that supports smart suggestions, user preferences, and device and region-specific sports and shoulder content.

ViewLift sports streaming platform: success stories

ViewLift has a proven record of successfully launching sports OTT platform services. Our OTT sports streaming solutions have given numerous reasons to sports content owners to create unmatched milestones and successes.

For instance, Lega Nazionale Pallacanestro (LNP) is an Italian professional basketball league connected to private, non-profit sports organizations. It is a vital participant at the National series A2 and series B Amateur Basketball Championship.

LNP started its DTC service hosted on ViewLift to grow its Italian basketball fanbase. With ViewLift by their side, LNP successfully streamed over 2000 live games in 2021-22 and experienced twice the growth in revenues and fanbase.

Launch your sports streaming platform with ViewLift

ViewLift is a next-generation, cloud-based, SaaS-modelled OTT platform provider with world-class OTT sports streaming solutions for an immersive UX. Its extended basket of top-notch features engages sports fans, enhances the OTT sports fan base, and cultivates higher returns for sports OTT providers.

ViewLift understands the nuances of launching OTT services, especially attributes like agility and quick go-to-market. We empower sports content owners to launch their OTT streaming services in just a few weeks.

• No tech expertise required; take your sports channel live on a highly functional and easy-to-navigate platform
• Comprehensive guides to launch your sports streaming platform profitably
• Complete control over and flexibility with content monetization models
• Highly effective content asset management
• Full tech stack and robust data & analytics capabilities to understand your viewers and deliver on their expectations and needs
• Excellent, empathetic customer support
• Fortified content security

Request a demo and launch your OTT sports streaming platform today!