How to monetize live versioned events simply and effectively
Live versioning is the process of creating multiple, simultaneous feeds of a live event, like a sports game or concert. It allows you to customize your events’ language, commentary, ads, and other graphics for different audiences. In sports, many viewers are used to basic “versioning” when they watch a traditional broadcasted game, such as having local announcers and advertisements.
Today, you can do even more with live versioned events. You can customize your commentary into multiple languages. You can target ads not only by region, but by demographics, and even target different users within the same household. You can add in-game graphics. It’s also expanded beyond sports, with concert producers and other live events getting on board. It’s an exciting time to be in the industry — and the right time to learn how to monetize live versioned events.
Opportunities in live versioning vs. traditional broadcasting
While linear broadcasting offers some personalization, the advent of live streaming and OTT (over-the-top) content delivered via the internet means events need to be versioned in more than just one or two ways. Today, viewers can watch live events on their television, laptop, tablet, smartphone, or even in a movie theater. They can choose their own starting point, pause, and rewind.
Content consumption is a choose-your-own-adventure, and delivering the adventure each viewer wants is key to how to monetize content. Just a few opportunities for live versioning include the ability to:
Allow viewers to skip directly to a certain part of a live event, like a specific, popular song in a concert
Insert triggers for ultra-personalized advertisements
Overlay graphics or advertisements onto the video, like logos on the ice of a hockey game
Stitch together pre- and post-event commentary with the main event
Add commentary in multiple languages
Identify key moments and create highlight reels
Create immersive experiences like live betting or the ability to choose a camera angle
Automatically perform content switching for blackouts and other regional limitations
Quickly spin up and distribute multiple event feeds to global audiences
How to monetize live versioned events
Delivering one feed to a mass audience is no longer the right strategy. Instead, “mass customization” is the future. That term may seem counterintuitive, but it is achievable. In fact, it is the only way to truly monetize content.
Avoid the costs of proprietary infrastructure
There’s no way around it: To achieve the level of customization required in today’s landscape, you need infrastructure. You need to be able to ingest, aggregate, and decorate live content, then distribute it to screens all over the world. That means you need to make expensive CapEx investments — and as anyone who invested heavily in broadband will tell you, it often isn’t long until those investments become outdated.
To avoid the costs of building your own infrastructure, partner with a managed service provider who aids solutions such as LTN Arc, which handles every aspect of large-scale live event versioning. Our global IP network, state-of-the-art technology, and expert staff are completely flexible and scalable, so you get what you need, when you need it.
Improve ingest and aggregation
Before you can figure out how to monetize digital content with live versioning, you need to have it all in one place. The more content you can ingest and aggregate, the more versions you can make — and the more monetization opportunities you’ll have. But to maximize revenue, you need to be able to do it quickly, seamlessly, and efficiently.
LTN Arc leverages our global network to acquire feeds from around the world and deliver them to our technical operations center (TOC). Our network is fast, reliable, and fully managed, ensuring ingestion of as many feeds as you need, from any source.
Distribute more high-quality feeds
Creating the feeds is the real bread and butter of live versioned events. You only have seconds to decorate live content with graphics and voiceovers, add highlights, insert ad triggers and watermarks, and distribute it to hundreds or thousands of receive points. Low latency and high reliability are table stakes, but a high number of feeds can cause problems in these areas.
LTN Arc solves these problems so that you can send a flawless feed to any screen, any time, anywhere in the world. After ingestion, feeds are sent to our TOC for decoration, ad insertion and more, spinning up hundreds of versions at once. Then they’re sent back out over our powerful network, reaching their destination quickly and seamlessly. It’s the full tool kit that content providers need to customize feeds and maximize monetization.
Leverage automation
How can we do all of this while improving efficiency and lowering costs? It’s impossible for a single operator to version so many feeds in such a short amount of time. But the secret to how to monetize live versioned events lies in using technology and automation in concert with human expertise.
LTN Arc’s proprietary technology automates a number of tasks, such as determining where to put ad triggers and where to merge content, allowing a single operator to produce four times as many feeds. Our network leverages intelligent rerouting and automatic error detection, but is also fully managed, with end-to-end monitoring and control. Your feeds arrive at their destination quickly and flawlessly, while using fewer resources.
Get more from your live events
If you want to monetize content in today’s broadcast and media landscape, you need to version your live events — and you need to do it at scale. The only way to do that is with a combination of cutting-edge technology, global infrastructure, and industry expertise.
With LTN Arc as your partner, you can increase your ad revenue, reduce overhead, grow your ROI, and learn how to monetize live versioned events more efficiently than ever before. Contact us for a demo today to get started maximizing your monetization.