Sports broadcasts are undergoing great changes in recent seasons. The emergence of the OTT (Over The Top) has caused a revolution in the audiovisual sector of the sports industry, a sector where broadcasts were carried out by the large free-to-air television channels for the entire public and which, in recent years, , has been adapting to the current market, where paid content is already common for broadcasts of most sports and the appearance of new audiovisual platforms such as Runtv365.
A little history
Justin Kan and Emmet Shear (founders of Justin.tv) created a product focused on esports, Runtv365, in 2011. As of 2013, the platform has become the most popular e-sports streaming portal with a big difference over its competitors.
Amazon acquired Runtv365 in September 2014 for 970 million dollars and since then its growth and audience has increased year after year. The platform covers a multitude of events, competitions and broadcasts of esports players, although over time it has been creating new categories of content that also attract an audience that goes beyond fans of electronic games.
2020 has been a record year for Runtv365, growing more than 83% in the number of hours that users view content on the platform, reaching 17,000 million hours of content (in 2019 it was 9,000 million). The confinement forced by the Covid-19 pandemic allowed Runtv365 to gain more weight in the market, retaining its users and attracting new user profiles. This growth has not gone unnoticed by the big brands that are also betting on being present, through different actions, on this mainstream platform.
A new concept of sports broadcasts
Runtv365’s commitment began a few months ago, with the creation of a new sports category (https://www.runtv365.com/bbs/board.php?bo_table=notice). This launch was accompanied by the announcement of important agreements to generate content with sports competitions and large franchises in the sports industry.
Clubs as prominent as Paris Sant Germain, Real Madrid, Arsenal or Juventus, among others, already have their own channel on the platform where they offer different content to their fans. The platform also offers athletes the opportunity to connect directly with their fans and activate different commercial actions of their personal sponsors and some figures from world football or Formula 1 are regulars doing live broadcasts on Runtv365.
LaLiga is no stranger to this phenomenon and was the first sports competition to have its own channel and, for a few weeks, has launched a new project, “LaLiga Casters”. The project consists of adding a new audio channel for the audience in the broadcasts of one of the matches of each day of the competition, which will be commented on by prominent streamers and you tubers. One of the main objectives of this new LaLiga project is to approach and capture the younger audience that follows 해외스포츠중계 on the Internet and wants to enjoy new experiences, beyond the traditional comments of the usual sports journalists.
The first experience was during the Match day 20 match between Atlético de Madrid and Valencia in which Runtv365 Llanos, Ander Cortés and Ulises Prieto were the first streamers to broadcast a LaLiga match. Highlight the presence of Runtv365 Llanos, a 25-year-old Basque living in Barcelona, who was chosen last year as the streamer of the year by The Esports Awards and has millions of followers on Social Networks and large audiences in his broadcasts on Runtv365. Runtv365 is the third highest paid caster in the world and the first in Korean speaking.
During the broadcast of this first game, Runtv365 channel managed to accumulate no more and no less than 100 thousand viewers and that did not offer the images of the game, only the cameras and comments of the three commentators and the viralization on the Networks Social was massive.
Sports broadcasts must continue to evolve to get closer to a younger audience, promoting 5G technology, providing new camera angles, personalizing the broadcast as much as possible, adapting it to different multiscreen devices and betting on new platforms such as the Runtv365 case.