In the world of sports, live content has established itself over the last few years. Players' interviews, backstage, training,.. off-matches content are now plebiscite by sports fans worldwide. On social media platforms, live content has become an indispensable tool to keep fans engaged while games are not playing. 

This being said, let's now discover what is a secondary stream, why the sports industry has to use it and what's the best way to do it. 

What is a secondary stream?

Nowadays, fan engagement in sports area is not only during sports events. One of the main objectives of sports clubs, leagues or federations is to keep fans interested and engaged outside these sports events.

Secondary streams are made for that. They include all the live content you can create around sports events. Thanks to the secondary streams you can keep your fans engaged 24/7.

Thanks to easylive.io plenty of our users create everyday content for their fans. They provide their fans with exclusive moments in which they share the latest news, training or players' and coaches' reactions.

For example, French Football Federation broadcasted its press conference simultaneously on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube using our Multistream feature. 

Another European example, the AS ROMA decided to create new formats to engage fans live. 

A new relationship with the fandom where content is key!

The relationship between fans and sports organizations has changed over the last decade to evolve into a complex ecosystem that has pushed organizations to engage with their supporters through more than just their “sport location”. Sports organizations have now the opportunity to innovate and find new solutions to drive fan engagement.

According to the Sports Business Institute, 87% of sports fans use a second screen while watching a live sports broadcast, with some even triple-screening or more.

Even the biggest organizations as the Major League Baseball (MLB) had to innovate to keep their fans engaged during the covid crisis. MLB used our #FanWall.tv technology to create a unique experience for their fans and sponsors. 

Our #Fanwall.tv is used all over the world here's an Indian example from Star India: 

Additional content, original content and secondary stream are complementary and even an independent extension to the main game is the key to create engagement with the fandom. 

The Los Angeles RAMS, a professional American football team, succeeded to create a strong relationship with their fandom. They reach and engage their fans all over the world. In addition to broadcast their press conferences, they created original shows published on social media platforms for their fans. 

Challenges and solutions

Creating multiple live events could be challenging. In fact, sports teams need to have technical equipment such as cameras and encoders to start creating their events. Also, viewers and fans are now more exigent regarding the content they are going to watch in terms of creativity and quality. In fact, they are now waiting to have TV quality live stream. 

One of the main advantages of producing your own secondary stream events is that you are off distribution rights. Displaying press conferences, backstage, training... don't usually come under distribution rights. 

Become your own producer: create and live streams without limits!

easylive.io, a LiveU company, is a cloud-production studio giving sports organizations the possibility to generate and create their own content without limits: 

• Become your own producer. No need to have an external production company involved. You are the source of the content.
• Go live as you want. You decide when you publish because no distribution rights and requirements are involved. Engaged your fanbase 24/7!
• Don't compromise quality. Broadcast your content using TV and high-quality stream feeds.

Interested? Let’s talk about your projects!