BT Sport App’s new feature leads the new viewing experience

This week, as part of the UEFA Champions League clash between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich, followed by that of Tottenham Hotspur and APOEL Nicosia, BT Sport launched a new feature on its App: 360° highlights and instant replays.

Between now and June 2018, BT Sport is going to show for the first time in its App highlights and replays in 360° for a minimum of 20 sporting events including the Champions League, Premier League , the FA Cup and boxing world title fights. The next one will be the Premier League clash between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur on December 16th.

To enjoy these 360° videos, users don’t necessarily need a VR headset. They are able to select different camera angles and viewpoints, not normally seen in TV broadcast, and to re-watch key game moments in 360° in their own way.

This new feature on BT Sport App follows the broadcaster to immerse their viewers inside the game allowing them to watch more sports in Virtual Reality and 360°.  Last season, BT Sport already showed the UEFA Champions League final through a number of 360°streams on YouTube.

Jamie Hindhaugh, Chief Operating Officer of BT Sport, said on broadcaster’s website: “It’s another step forward in broadcast innovation. We’re passionate about and technology and want to continue to explore new ways to combine them for the benefit of our viewers and bring them closer to the action.”

Where is the viewing experience heading?

Since the first football match was broadcast on TV at the end of 1930s in England, people watch all sporting events in the same point of view. VR and 360° technologies are here to personalise more this watching experience which is becoming a viewing experience.

To offer the best and most original viewing experience to fans, that’s a new goal for sport broadcasters. To bring viewers closer to the action and players, to stream games or replays via differents angles, to provide live stats and comments on the screen, to use mobile as broadcast support via social media and apps… this is maybe the new key success factors for sporting broadcasting.

These new practises correspond to people’s consumption of Internet, video and technology. According to Cisco, video traffic will be 82% of all consumer Internet traffic by 2021 in the world, up from 73 percent in 2016. In the same time live Internet video will account for 13 percent of Internet video traffic by 2021 and VR traffic will increase 20-fold.

The consumption of videos on mobile being always more huge year on year, that’s maybe the best opportunity for broadcaster and technology companies to personalise the viewing of a sport event. And they are already working strongly on it.

The question here is: can Internet and mobile, via videos on apps and on social media, become the first place to watch sport ahead of TV?

About author

Adrien Danjou
Adrien Danjou 140 posts

Adrien is a Digital Marketing Manager in France and a Digital Sport lover. Follow him on Twitter: @Adrien_DH

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