Industry Insights: The changing sports production landscape and OTT

How do you envision eSports fitting into the production ecosystem?

“eSports coverage is similar to sports coverage, except the action takes place virtually via an electronic game console. You need a feed from the console, of course, but much of the drama comes from the shots of the live participants and the audience. When it comes to eSports, it’s not about production workflows, it’s whether or not the content can attract a large enough audience to warrant continued coverage,” explained D’Amico.

“The potential for eSports is off the charts. Its OTT viewership is already in the same neighborhood as more traditional sporting events, including the Super Bowl and Formula 1 racing,” said McCoy. “We see it as a particularly interesting opportunity for fan experience enrichment. Multiplayer games in particular, like ‘Call of Duty,’ create the opportunity for tremendous personalization, such as enabling fans to switch between the perspective of competitors.”

“With massive worldwide events, the production workflows often rival that of leading live production and sports events and broadcasts. The demands are no different either, as the eSports production ecosystems require professional tools and broadcast-quality results to reach global audiences in real time and across platforms,” notes May.

[quote]When it comes to eSports, it’s not about production workflows, it’s whether or not the content can attract a large enough audience.[/quote]

“eSports is creating an entirely new production ecosystem that involves working with sources we’re not used to seeing in traditional production. For example, in sports production, the live feed typically comes straight off of the main cameras, whereas with eSports, the production manages a live feed of the event in addition to live feeds of the gameplay from player PCs/Macs/consoles. One way to manage these sources is to use scan converters that can adequately convert the action on the desktop into a video signal, and then switch that conversion alongside more traditional video signals that can be output via a streaming device to a CDN,” said Button.

“We are doing a lot of work with eSports. At the moment, eSports is adapting to the tools we traditionally use in sports broadcast. However, with time, we will see eSports generating and requiring its own toolset, especially on the virtual and analysis production space,” explained Jorba.