Technology and Sports

Entertainment providers, producers, and content owners alike have been dramatically affected by the explosive popularity of digital technology. Cable, satellite, and on demand services see revenue increases today that are incomparable to broadcast entertainment. More than two-thirds of US households are now subscribing to cable and satellite TV services, and the movement toward pay TV continues at a rapid rate - despite the significant costs involved compared to free airwave reception.

New technologies attract consumers and are woven into their everyday lives when that adoption adds value and quality to their lifestyles. The advancement of broadband and on demand services offer consumers greater control over their media, more productive use of their time, and greater access to entertainment - three powerful prerequisites for today's busy consumer.

With broadcast content becoming more and more viewer-controlled, content producers must find ways to make their programs more appealing and relevant to viewers. Maintaining a significant presence in the on demand world presents constant challenges for the professional sports organizations, whose revenue depends significantly on viewer appeal as well as on merchandising success - which is always affected by decreasing interest. For this reason, sports content producers and providers need to explore possibilities to exploit new content as well as leverage the value of existing content, to differentiate themselves from one another and meet the higher demands of sponsors, advertisers, and viewers.

InspireWorks Helps Sports Organizations …

• Maintain complete control of content and maximize digital efficiencies by utilizing self-sustaining broadcasting methods

• Realize greater flexibility and freedom with new and existing content by adding dynamic, interactive features to traditional sports programming

• Save money, time, and effort with the most comprehensive visual media management solutions available on the market today

• Enable professional and college sports teams to maintain their own on demand TV stations

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Ineffective Content Loses Appeal

PROBLEM: Traditional game broadcasts are not very appealing to the viewer who can create his own production of the highlights of the game, cutting out commercials and any other content he does not wish to see - which can and does include valuable product brand merchandising content. Entire audience groups as well as advertising bases can be compromised as viewer control increases. If organizations want to keep hold of their waning audiences as well as increase viewership, a more targeted approach to content delivery needs to be adopted - quickly.

SOLUTION: Sports organizations can broadcast their events - archived and current - through InspireWorks' online server, which delivers on demand services to millions of viewers. The events become relevant and meaningful to many different audiences with the application of InspireWorks Hot Spot Solution - a mapping application that allows content to be enhanced with bonus sections that add new content to the existing presentation. Sports organizations can add whatever additional content they choose. Statistics of players and teams, commentaries and annotations, product advertisements, announcements of upcoming games - all of this and more can be added to the Hot Spots, which appear on the perimeter of the presentation without interrupting the broadcast.

Hot spots can also be interactive, allowing viewers to select and link to further information, which can offer anything from additional content to instant purchase opportunities. This point of sale interactivity, which broadband and Internet services already benefit from tremendously, satisfies instant gratification for the viewer and generates increasing transactional revenue for the organization. This, in turn, increases audience loyalty and sponsor commitment for the broadcaster on a scale unobtainable with traditional content delivery methods.

InspireWorks Vision For Sports

InspireWorks' solutions enable sports teams and organizations to maximize on demand capabilities and leverage broadband interactivity to create their own TV stations, with minimal FCC regulatory requirement limitations, to deliver the most advanced, relevant viewing experiences to wider audiences - anytime, anywhere, instantly.

The InspireWorks' Sports Solution takes advantage of the following product:

• InspireWorks Media Management System

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