Sky Sports: The New Differentiator in Broadcasting?
(SPORTS TECHNOLOGY)
Right now is an exciting time for broadcasting, and there’s a lot going on in the name of entertainment. Britain's dominant Pay-TV provider, BSkyB (News 
- Alert), and Telecom giant BT are slugging it out in the middle. Although both of them are on opposite sides of the pole, they have one thing in common- trying to get each other’s customers.
When BT’s (News - Alert) core subscribers began moving to BSkyB, BT launched a new TV service in August showing Premier League soccer free to its existing broadband customers. This was an attempt to hold on to its subscribers. BSkyB retaliated by striking a deal with social networking site Twitter (News - Alert) to show clips from European Champions League soccer matches.
BSkyB decided on the deal when a trial generated over 570,000 clip views in 12 hours and saw more than 6,000 clips being shared across social networks which reached more than seven million users.
The broadcaster is working with Grabyo, a cloud-based service that enables broadcasters to instantly grab, edit and share clips in real-time. Grabyo will also help generate additional advertising and sponsorship revenues by offering brands an integrated cross-platform tool to own the conversation on social media.
The Champions League soccer clips will be promoted by NOW TV, powered by Sky, which provides pay-as-you-go access to live Sky Sports and also instant and easy access to hundreds of films from Sky Movies on demand.
By doing so, BSkyB hopes to promote its new contract-free online service NOW TV and also retain its lead in the Pay TV market after facing some stiff competition from BT.
Sky Sports is set to Tweet clips from the UEFA Champions League almost as soon as they are broadcast.
BSkyB hopes to underscore the benefits of instant, pay-as-you-go access to Sky Sports via NOW TV. It hopes to attract more subscribers by allowing viewers to pay for 24-hour access to content rather than sign up for the full service.
"We know that lots of people want access to great Sky Sports content but would rather dip in and out rather than having a full subscription," said Gidon Katz, director of NOW TV.
Sky has been unrivalled in televised sports in the U.K., at least until now. With the bigwigs competing so strongly, the battleground could heat up producing more innovative sparks. Let’s just hope they don’t burn each other.
Edited by Alisen Downey
