Rise of football clubs as media content distributor

Football clubs have access to a wide range of exclusive material that consists of match footage, highlights, interviews, and press conferences. Given the need to retain and attract audiences, clubs have had to become media content distributors and this was one of the ways through which the clubs could interact with their fans and generate revenue.

When it comes to providing a better fan experience, clubs have had to be at the forefront when it comes to utilizing the latest innovation and technology. Providing a better fan engagement experience happens through providing more stats or data analytics which will contribute to a greater understanding of the game. Improving Interaction with fans creates room for better brand engagement and opportunities for promotion hence the several ways through which football clubs can drive more fan engagement are

Start with the basics

While watching a live stream of a match through a club’s channel, fans expect to see a high-quality picture with no buffering, the match should be accessible through any device and it should have the feature to be viewed from anywhere. Making sure options for tuning into matches are easy to find on the website, and any late-breaking team news or updates are displayed throughout.

Video on Demand

Clubs providing access to video-on-demand archives for matches highlight the perfect opportunity for the club to enhance engagement with fans. The clubs would be able to get creative on how the clips would be produced and uploaded for instance during a highlight video the club can focus more on game-changing moments hence the top goals, top acrobatic saves from the goalkeeper, and great pieces of individual skill can be highlighted here.

Post highlight clips draw a lot of attention as fans would be interested to view all the game-changing moments during the match. This not only creates interactions but also benefits fans who tuned in late by enabling them to catch up on what they missed.

Personalization

Personalization is another way of driving engagement and this could be structured as a premium tier subscription option. The offerings could be key moment alerts during matches such as goals scored, individual statistics of favourite players, results, target relevant ads and augmented reality overlays.

Innovation in the viewing experience

Broadcast coverage of sports includes highlight playbacks from multiple camera angles, here the broadcasters decide which camera angle to use. With the right technology in place, digital coverage through the club’s app will provide viewers the option to choose the camera angle by which they can watch the match.

A premium subscription plan would give viewers the option to watch multiple games at the same time on a split-screen. This would be a popular option, especially during playoff tournaments with multiple games on at the same time. An additional feature could be to consider key moment alerts with streaming cut-ins to that other live match stream.

Augmented reality overlays

With the advancement of 5G, there has been successful attempts at presenting individual player statistics during live play by overlaying small data points near a player on screen. Here football clubs can be very specific and they can view player statistics depending on the fan’s preferences.

Microtransaction

It goes without saying that some of the most exciting moments in sports come near the end of a match, with a tied or close score, overtime periods, or penalties to decide the winner. Some rights holders and platforms are experimenting with small fee access late in matches, triggered by key moment alerts to fans who may not have been watching the match.

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