Live Sports Streaming: How To Maximize Exposure And Drive More Viewers

Getting more views on your live streams is not only beneficial for you as the host of the game, but it is also tremendously encouraging to players to know that they have a digital audience that is interested in their performance. Together for the host and the team, the only way to really gauge their growth in terms of entertainment value is through the viewership that they are able to capture.

While the location of the game, the skill of the teams, and the choice of the audience that you direct your marketing efforts towards are all important things to consider, you can’t sideline the impact that the quality of the stream has on attracting and engaging viewers. If that were the case, pro-level games would only be hosted in camera-friendly arenas, and the only teams that would play would be those that got a good viewership. Luckily, this is far from reality and there are many other things you can do to grow the size of your live stream audience. The tips below will help you get started.

Platform Performance

Most clubs, colleges, and sports communities choose to either air their live streams on their own websites or through social media platforms. When you decide to live stream on your website, it is very different from uploading a video to the website. In terms of the capabilities that your website should have, it needs to be optimized to handle high-quality live streams and be able to deliver this content to viewers smoothly. If you are setting up your live stream on your own website, make sure it can handle the traffic that you are likely to get if you can deliver quality live streams.

If you are using a social media platform, most of these things will already be taken care of and you won’t have much access to these areas of the social media platform either. Overall, the internet receives nearly 5 billion daily users, so regardless of which platform you decide to use, there is no shortage of demand.

Partnerships

While a lot of people think of gaining sponsorships as a means to make more money in the form of the amount they are paid by the sponsor, they don’t understand that the right sponsors can actually help them grow and earn more money overall. When you partner up with a big sponsor whose products, services, or corporate values are in line with what you are providing as entertainment, the sponsor is likely to promote you on their own networks in order to get a better ROI.

If you take a look at what is going on here, you will notice that while improving the quality of the stream is important, integrating sponsorships into the stream is just as important. The sponsor wants to get as much attention as possible, and if the sponsor can direct some of their own audience towards your stream to maximize their investment, they also help make you some more money and build a bigger viewership in the process.

Quality

This refers not only to the quality of the video but how the video content is put together and the extent to which it engages viewers. Getting a really high-quality camera and a blistering fast internet connection are not the only factors in video quality. Things such as editing and in-game engagements make the viewing experience far more entertaining. Mainstream TV sports broadcasting is a multibillion-dollar industry, each game generating millions of dollars. One of the things that make it this valuable and engaging is the way these games are broadcasted. The use of on-screen stats, the detail of these stats, the different viewing angles, and slow-mo replays, along with a lot of other clever production strategies make these games worth watching. In fact, many people prefer watching these games on TV rather than going to the game because of these features of TV broadcasts.

While channels and producers spend tens of thousands of dollars on these edits and the hardware that makes them possible, you can do something similar for your stream, at a fraction of the cost. A lot of modern production tools can add a few simple things to your live streams which will completely transform the outlook of these videos.

Live Sports Streaming

Video editing is a field in itself, and if you can get some video editing expertise and use that, that’s great, but if you can’t, then you should consider a premade solution that can do the job for you. Regardless of how much you market your live streams, if they don’t have the kind of quality which enhances the game’s experience for viewers, there is little reason for them to stick around. Whether your audience pays to watch or has free access to the stream, the number one thing they want is entertainment.

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