With European soccer returning, now’s the time for broadcasters to innovate and come back stronger. (Clone)

Introducing Wildmoka's StoryBot.

When coronavirus lockdowns were implemented across Europe, sports broadcasters were hit hard. However, with the announcement that Europe’s major leagues are returning this month, broadcasters have a golden opportunity to innovate and come back stronger.

The first league to restart after the suspension was Germany Bundesliga in mid-May. Spain’s La Liga will return on 11^th June, the English Premier League on the 17^th and Italy’s Serie A on the 20^th.

In recent years, football broadcasting has been radically changed by innovations in digital technology and evolving audience tastes. Fans expect content on demand, personalised to their preferences and accessible on any device.

When the different leagues return, there will only be a few weeks of matches to play before the seasons end. This represents a unique opportunity for broadcasters to innovate with their processes and try out new techniques which will match the tastes of today’s audiences.

Have no doubt – football fans are desperate for fresh content about their favourite sport. One survey in the UK found football was the sport people were missing most, and many fans were re-watching classic matches under lockdown because they were so hungry for the sport. As leagues start again, we can expect a surge in demand.

Broadcasters need to meet this demand in a way which corresponds with how football fans now wish to engage with football. Editors need to:

• Be the first to publish content (on digital OTT and Social Networks)

From goals to match summaries, broadcasters must be the first to get content to viewers. This makes them the ‘go-to’ source for news and wins new subscribers.

• Produce richer and more relevant content

It is no longer enough to create one single match summary and distribute this to all channels. Fans are seeking more content and they will go elsewhere if you cannot provide it. Broadcasters should explore how they can:

1. Create clips of various lengths
2. Complete numerous flavours of match summaries for every individual games
3. Publish ‘Best of’ content about the top players
4. Create ‘Battles’ to compare players’ performances
5. And much more
   

• Adapt content to each channel

Sports fans engage with content on multiple platforms. A variety of content types needs to be produced for different channels and formats including your:

1. Own OTT platform
2. YouTube channel (longer format summaries of 10 min work well for fans)
3. Facebook (summaries should last 3 to 5 min)
4. Twitter (many clips of 10 to 30 seconds are more suitable than long summaries)

Now, sports broadcasters know very well that fan tastes are changing – but without hiring a whole new team of editors before the leagues start again, is it possible to meet these new expectations?

Introducing Wildmoka’s StoryBot 

StoryBot is Wildmoka’s AI/ML- automatic content creation tool. It ingests live feeds of football matches and applies artificial intelligence and machine learning to create summaries and highlights of entire games in seconds. Your editors pre-define the kinds of stories they would like produced, and StoryBot does the rest.

For example, you may wish to produce:

• 15 second clips of each goals to be promoted across social media during the live game
• 3-minute summaries of the match uploaded to Facebook moments after the final whistle
• A variety of other highlights distributed on social media and your OTT platform after the match – such as ‘best of’ moments for one player or ‘best of’ all the goal saves.

To produce this sheer variety of content manually would require a whole new team of editors trained to produce it. This is intensive, time-consuming yet relatively un-creative work. It is tiring for humans, but the perfect kind of work for the StoryBot.

StoryBot lets you:

• Harmonise content plans

Your editors become essentially storytellers. They define the scenarios of the stories they want the StoryBot to produce. This is then done automatically and consistently for every single game you broadcast.

• Reduce human error

Rapidly producing hundreds of clips and summaries of sports matches is mentally exhausting yet uncreative work for editors. StoryBot does not get tired or make mistakes.

• Be the ‘first to market’

StoryBot can produce complete summaries of 90-minute football matches in a couple of seconds and post them to all your digital destinations. When fans see your brand produces content first, you become the ‘go-to’ provider.

• Immediate regionalisation

European football is a global form of entertainment. And StoryBot allows you to reach your global fans faster – thumbnails, video templates and other information can be immediately duplicated in several languages – from Thai to Turkish. The story created can also differ depending on what the fans prefer in one region versus another.

Most importantly, all these features remain controlled entirely by your editors. They define the length of different clips and summaries, what actions will be included, how it will be decorated, what brandings are overlaid and where these pieces of content are published. This means they still define the ‘story’ of each summary, but can produce hundreds more than they would manually.

Get started with the leading automation tool for football content creation

Wildmoka’s StoryBot is the world’s leading editing automation tool and is already used by several major football broadcasters. And now is the perfect time to see if StoryBot can support you.

With only a few weeks left in the season, this is a unique opportunity for broadcasters to experiment with new technology – with less commitment than investing up front for a whole season. StoryBot can be set up and begin ingesting and producing content for your live games in a matter of days – well in advance of the relaunch of most European leagues.

Contact us today about using StoryBot before the leagues you broadcast start again.