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Sports Video Group
July 2006
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Manchester United fans may still be brooding
over their country's untimely World Cup exit,
but their club team has come up with an impressive
distraction for the bereaved.
Manchester United Interactive teamed up with
Servecast, a company delivering audio visual sports
content over broadband and mobile applications,
to re-launch the club's broadband video service,
MUTV Online.
"Some of the fans obviously follow their
international teams, so post-World Cup they tend
to come back into club mode," explains Mark
Hargreaves, general manager of Manchester United
Interactive, regarding the timing of the site's
re-launch. "Certainly our traffic has grown
massively since the end of the Cup."
Piggybacking on the interest generated by post-World
Cup trade speculations, Servecast worked with
the Premier League team to redesign and reengineer
the club's website, www.manutd.com,
and its broadband portal, MUTV Online.
Expanding the club's online offerings will help
take advantage of the increasingly international
make-up of the team. Manchester United's first
team includes players from 14 different countries,
including Argentina, Norway, Serbia/Montenegro,
South Korea, Spain, and the United States.
"This is a very global brand, and the fan
base internationally connects it," says Darach
Deehan, CEO of Servecast. "It does start
to align itself with ManU's global brand ambitions
to reach a broader global audience," especially
with South Korean Ji-sung Park joining the club
in 2005 and bringing an unprecedented level of
Korean traffic to the site.
Strict television rights in the UK disallow Internet
broadcasts of in-season matches, but the subscription
service offered by the club is the next best thing.
ManU fans worldwide can choose a monthly (£4,
about $7) or yearly (£40, about $70) subscription,
which buys access to match highlights, player
interviews, press conferences, club news videos,
historical features, classic matches, and live
match audio commentary. The site also includes
a historical section and full coverage of the
Academy and Reserve squads, and subscribers can
opt to receive SMS alerts about the team on their
cellular phones.
"One of the good things that Servecast brought
that's fresh, apart from a new look and feel,
is you're able to browse all of the content that's
available, even though, apart from the free-view
channel, the rest of content is effectively behind
subscription," Hargreaves says. The free-view
channel includes a few selected video highlights,
including nominees for Goal of the Season honors.
"You can see all the content and have a
look at how in-depth it is before you purchase,"
he says. At the heart of the new site is Servecast's
Media Studio platform, developed specifically
for sports subscription services. The company
has been streaming sports content online since
1998 for clients including Sky Sports, Liverpool
FC, Chelsea FC, Arsenal FC, and Rangers FC.
"Our platform handles billing, ticketing,
digital rights management, content management,
and reporting, and has analysis capability,"
Deehan adds. "It's built for the sports industry,
and it's flexible to meet the needs of a strong
marketing brand in terms of promotional analysis.
The platform itself gives us a real advantage
in the marketplace from multi-vendor solutions,
since we do it all end-to-end to ensure a totally
seamless and effective platform."
In addition to categorized content offerings,
select preseason, tournament qualifiers, and friendly
matches will be streamed live through the MUTV
Online portal, including a pre-season friendly
against Preston North End on July 29, and the
club's season-opening friendly against UEFA Cup
champion Sevilla on August 12. The team's South
Africa tour will also be broadcast to subscribers
over the broadband platform.
"If you think of the Internet as a forward-leaning
experience as opposed to lean-back kind of experience,
this site allows fans to really indulge in the
club with which they have an affiliation,"
says Deehan. "It's a menu that's attractively
presented, constantly updated, and allows them
to keep abreast of current events within the club."
Despite the restrictions keeping live matches
off of the online portal, other content with limited
rights value, such as historical matches, can
only be seen over broadband. "Such content
wouldn't have any place in a television schedule
today," Deehan explains. "The Internet
provides a much better platform for that interactive
search capability for fans. Content that might
be historic, but not of value for the broadcaster
to put into a schedule, certainly fits within
the content of a premium service."
As far as future plans to expand MUTV Online
coverage are concerned, the decision lies outside
of the club's control. Any push to broadcast live
matches via the broadband portal will be contingent
on the wishes of the rights holders.
About Servecast
Founded in 1998, Servecast is the leading specialist
supplier of New Media Sportscasting delivering
advanced streaming media solutions for the Sports
Industry. Servecast's Media Studio™ Platform
enables Sporting Organisations and Rights Holders
to exploit their media assets to new broadband
and mobile connected audiences.
Through the delivery of high quality audio visual
sports content over broadband and mobile applications,
Servecast's Media Studio platform greatly enhances
the global fan sporting experience and enables
the delivery of significant new revenue streams
to the rights holder. Through our focus on sports,
Servecast has developed a deep partnership network
with major broadcasters, clubs and sporting bodies,
the online betting industry, technology providers
and content syndication partners. We leverage
these partnerships to ensure optimal business
success for our customers.
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