UEFA Club Competitions and EURO 2024 fans watching on ServusTV can now access Ease Live’s interactive overlays with real-time statistics, highlights and polls across web, mobile and tablets
Ease Live interactive graphics developer and private Austrian broadcaster ServusTV are continuing their collaboration on interactive streaming experiences across screens. Their most recent deployment is a new 2nd screen football companion app that adds a level of interactivity to Servus TV’s coverage of UEFA Club Competitions and the upcoming EURO 2024 finals.
Viewers of the UEFA Club Competitions – which include UEFA’s Champions League, Europa League and Conference League – can now access interactive overlays with real-time statistics, instant video highlights and fan polls across web, mobile and tablets, delivering both 1st and 2nd screen experiences. This initiative runs on Ease Live's software, which integrates data from Stats Perform and displays automated content to engage fans, and will continue to reach fans during UEFA EURO 2024.
Better Engagement and Brand Positioning
“The new second screen companion app is a way to engage viewers more deeply with favourite sports and teams. Doing this also means we can give advertising partners the opportunity to place their brands in emotional live sports environments,” said David Morgenbesser, Chief Commercial Officer of Red Bull Media House, which owns ServusTV. “The UEFA Champions League results indicate that almost half of the audience engaged with the interactive content, and 78% responded to live poll questions – leading to a marked increase in the time viewers spend watching.”
David notes that Ease Live’s interactivity puts fans in charge of the experience. A popular option, for example, is the chance to watch highlights on demand, immediately after the goal has happened. as soon as they have reached that point in the stream, 2nd screen users can see instant highlights tied to key game moments. This feature is achieved without cutting any video – it uses Ease Live's ability to jump in the HLS or Dash streams during live, to a selected data event. Once completed, the application returns the user to the live content.
From Engagement to Monetisation
Kjetil Horneland, CEO of Ease Live, said that delivering interactive experiences across the screens is mainly about engaging audiences in ways that will lead to new monetisation opportunities, automatically and at scale. “We determine exactly when the users are engaging with content, and can serve new ad inventory during critical game moments, generating impressions and ad displays,” he said.
Consumer brands, sponsors and video rights holders can launch Ease Live’s event-based advertising automatically, depending on event-based data. This done by integrating the video player with Ease Live sports data and content data partners. No changes need to be made to the ad operation workflow, SSAI vendors or ad server – the system integrates with Google Ad Manager, SpringServe or other ad servers, and produces full impression reporting.
“This capability has given ServusTV confidence in Ease live’s approach to fan engagement for live production, including during peak moments in the UEFA Champions League,” Kjetil said. “I’m looking forward to ensuring that ServusTV enhances the viewing experience of Austrian football fans during UEFA EURO 24.”
Ease Live Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) works as an interactive overlay platform for leagues and media companies that stream live sports and other live events, making tools available to create and build graphics and set up interactivity for fans and other viewers across multiple devices. The platform delivers graphical overlays, rendered in real time at the edge, adding interactive experiences to existing TV and OTT services and apps.
Such experiences might include interaction with in-game statistics, participating in watch parties, polls and trivia, accessing instant replays and gaming. Meanwhile, the main event continues as a live stream. www.easelive.tv
