Transcript – How Sports Rights Holders Can Generate More Revenue With a New, Intelligent Marketplace

SEASON 2 EPISODE 11 “EE: We’re yet to speak to a sports federation organization that isn’t looking to grow their audiences outside of their core domestic market and that might be new markets, it might be new generations, the fans but they’re all looking for that expansion and that’s really challenging for them. So this SPORT X to enable to growth and the scale to support them with that is absolutely central to their strategies.” [INTRODUCTION] [0:00:25.2] MM: Welcome to Veritone’s Adventures in AI, a worldwide podcast that dives into the many ways technology and artificial intelligence is shaping our future for the better. I am your host, Megan Mintchev and I’m here with Elizabeth Eastham, who goes by Liz and she’s also the managing director of SPORT X at Veritone. Liz is here to talk about a new intelligent marketplace that’s recently launched. [INTERVIEW] [0:00:52.8] MM: Welcome Liz, it’s great to have you on Adventures in AI. [0:00:56.3] EE: Great, thank you so much for having me. I’m really excited about what we’re going to cover. [0:00:59.9] MM: Yeah. So recently, we had Corey Hill on the podcast to talk about AI voice and sports data and today, you and I are going to be going in a little bit of a different direction but staying within that sports realm and that is a newly launched marketplace called SPORT X. So let’s dive into this, what is marketplace all about? [0:01:23.4] EE: Yes, so SPORT X, it has just gone live and it’s a really exciting place for us to be in the wider sports market but if we go right back to where this started, SPORT X was born out of a need really. There’s been a big explosion in the production and the consumption of short form sports video content and federations and buyers equally have the same challenges when it comes to coming together and purchasing and licensing that content from each other. So SPORT X came to fruition from lots of conversations with federations who are really looking to reach media buyers and looking to scale the sale of their video clips and on the buyer side, sports buyers, looking to consume sports clips and buy them but the process can be really challenging. The sports market is complicated, lots of organizations, all with different parts of the right cycle and it’s really difficult for media buyers who are looking for sports clips and often looking for them quickly to fulfill the editorial agenda to find and licensing those clips and to SPORT X. [0:02:27.1] MM: Are there already any federations or right holders that have adopted SPORT X? [0:02:32.6] EE: Yes, really exciting first group of partners on board, we have EuroLeague Basketball, SNTV who are going to be providing some really, really exciting content from the upcoming world cup. ATP Media and Extreme E, who are existing partners of Veritone and following that was a long pipeline of interested federations and rights holders who will be fast follows in terms of signing up. But in terms of adoption, I think what’s been really exciting and interesting process for both the SPORT X development team but also the federations themselves is just how involved they’ve been in the process. From the very beginning we wanted to build a product that serve their needs and so all the features have been developed. We’ve had import throughout the way from federations. So at the point that we go to market, this product isn’t a surprise to any of the federations and it has all the features that they’re looking for to enable them to sell their content. [0:03:27.2] MM: That’s really awesome and it sounds like it’s global, is that correct? [0:03:30.2] EE: Yeah, so sports itself is truly global and we’re yet to speak to a sports federation organization that isn’t looking to grow their audiences outside of their core domestic market and that might be new markets, it might be new generations, the fans but they’re all looking for that expansion and that’s really challenging for them. So the SPORT X to enable the growth and the scale to support them with that is absolutely essential to their strategies. [0:03:58.0] MM: Got it. Okay, so it sounds like there’s definitely a need for this marketplace but how is it that these federations and right holders are going to be using this marketplace? Can you provide us a little bit of a snapshot of that? [0:04:10.0] EE: Absolutely. So just to start, which is quite operational, so getting the content onboard, setting the restrictions and getting the federations content into the marketplace and everything all setup but once that’s up and running, what’s really exciting for the federation is that they have full visibility on the performance of their content and over time, they can adapt their content strategies to optimize the revenue that’s been generated from the marketplace as well as capitalize on the inside. So all the research work that we did with the federations, they were all looking to get something slightly different from it. So some, as I said before, we’re looking to getting to new market so they were really looking to scale. Others have content to sell but they really had to be protective of their core broadcast rights. So if they were really looking for control and others, perhaps newer federations, US Sports, new events, taking place, we are really looking for just support in all areas really to enable them to build the awareness of their content and their events. So everyone I expect will use and get out of it something slightly different, which is really exciting. [0:05:15.3] MM: Then how is this different from other marketplaces that we might be familiar with? [0:05:21.3] EE: In terms of the marketplace itself, this is the only one dedicated to sports specifically. Obviously the concept of marketplace, this isn’t new but this is really focused on sports and sport sellers and really focusing on the sports buyers. You know obviously, it’s one thing that the federations and helping support them with what they are trying to achieve but the media buyers is essential to this as well. Though the sports buyers, they are looking to like this content and they are looking to do it quickly in real time and SPORT X takes what’s an existing process, you know, the purchase and the sale of the content isn’t new but actually does it in a way that can speed up the process significantly for the buyers. [0:06:01.4] MM: Right, making things more efficient, which is I think what everyone wants nowadays. [0:06:07.6] EE: Absolutely and you know, through the use of the AI ware platform, we’re able to marry the buyers and the sellers together. So overtime, we will have great insights as to who is searching for what content, what content is being bought in particular territories and we can surface that relevant content to those buyers and we wouldn’t be able to do that without a technology solution behind it. [0:06:29.3] MM: What would you say is the ultimate goal of SPORT X? [0:06:33.2] EE: So the ultimate goal I would say, success for the federations. Ultimately if they are successful in driving media buyers to their content and enabling the sale of that content and transaction they’re going through and they are able to do that at scale, then we have been successful in what our aims are. So if media buyers can find the content, fellows can sell and generate new revenue streams off that content, then we’ll all share in that success. [0:07:05.4] MM: With this intelligent marketplace, what exactly does this mean for content providers? [0:07:11.7] EE: So for the first time, content providers will really have true insights on the sale of their short form content. So understanding the data and the performance and the AI driven visibility on what’s performing well and where is really quite new for them and they were all interested in that when we did the research. So this really gives them access to reach and to revenue that previously they haven’t been able to achieve. [0:07:37.1] MM: That’s wonderful and does this relate in any way to the stats performed partnership that we recently announced? [0:07:45.4] EE: Well, SPORT X doesn’t directly relate to stats performed of seeing in part of the growing and the wide offering but Veritone office in these sports and we’re really excited to be growing that with the SPORT X product, as sports is such an exciting part of the market to be in. Everyone is interested in sports and it is a great place for us to be growing into. [0:08:06.8] MM: If I wanted to maybe found out more information about SPORT X, is there a website? [0:08:11.8] EE: Yeah, absolutely, sportx.ai is the place to go and there’s lots of information about SPORT X as well as how you can join and see what it is all about. [0:08:21.8] MM: Wonderful. Thank you Liz. We’ll be keeping a pulse on SPORT X and how it continues to roll out over the next several months. So we will be sure to continue updating all of you here as well. [END OF INTERVIEW] [0:08:34.9] MM: This has been another episode of Veritone’s Adventures in AI, a worldwide podcast that dives into the many ways technology and artificial intelligence is shaping our future for the better. Talk with you next time. [END] Subscribe