[ad_1]
Choice. Jim DeLorenzo, the head of sports at Amazon Video, has used the word four times to discuss the company's new features on Thursday night, which begin Sept. 27, when the Rams welcome the Vikings. Last year, Prime subscribers could watch games all over the world, on a large number of devices, in three different languages. Get ready for even more options this time around.
Amazon made the headlines earlier this week, announcing a new audio feed of Hannah Storm and Andrea Kremer (listed under the Storm-Kremer languages). On FireTV devices, fans will be able to call up stats, play history, team information and a shopping experience – all thanks to the company's X-ray team. Then there is the Twitch platform owned by Amazon, which will host its own game flow, with an interactive prediction challenge, the platform's native chat feature, and an additional audio option. FOX audio.
Each addition brings us closer to the dream of a truly personalized production. Viewers will be able to select their favorite audio stream, choose which graphics to display in parallel with the action and even interact with the presentation. Overall, Amazon's offer on Thursday night could represent today's most forward-thinking online sports offering, as well as a clear incarnation of why the Internet is the future of the future. sports programs. Choice of course.
That said, there are still years before flows dominate. Before each fan can take advantage of new choices, availability and quality issues need to be addressed. TNF Season 1 has 2.5 stars on Amazon, with nearly twice as many star ratings as five stars and a list of video error windows among user submitted photos. DeLorenzo said his team is focusing on customer feedback, adding that important work has been done on the technology behind the feed, while refusing to offer specific details.
No matter what Amazon does, the stadium, communication and home infrastructure is still largely designed for traditional broadcasts, giving FOX a major advantage on the ground. The network will attract an overwhelming majority of viewers each week and for good reason. "A lot of people will watch on FOX and some will prefer to watch Amazon," said DeLorenzo. "I think it's great."
Yes, Amazon has spent $ 130 million on NFL rights to beef up its premium offer in the here and now. But even if the company focuses on a compelling experience, it also works to understand What should this experience look like? "You'll hear people from Amazon talking about the first day here," DeLorenzo said. So no, there will be no launch party for Thursday night. "We're going one step further and doing more work, focusing on customer feedback, looking at how we've worked and improving our work." This flexibility is another benefit of working online. fans get their hands on the new features.
Some details about what is in store …
CREATION OF STORM-KREMER
Amazon did not engage with the intention of presenting the first NFL women's duo. "Our goal was to find the best advertisers and sports journalists we could," said DeLorenzo. "We did not go with the idea of an exclusively female crew. It worked like that, and we could not be happier to have it. They approached for a long time Sports Center anchor Hannah Storm and former Sunday Night Football reporter Andrea Kremer. (Both also have several other relevant work experiences.)
In general, Storm will air broadcast, enter and exit commercials and transmit live information, while Kremer will play more of the role of analyst, but their official titles are purposely undefined and both hope to contribute to a more meaningful conversation. seated. -with-you-in-the-lounge atmosphere. Guests will also participate, including former coach Brian Billick and former Packers executive Andrew Brandt (who is also an IS contributor). Baseball note: The four are represented by the Octagon agency and a spokesman for the company said that President Phil de Picciotto had played an active role in training the team.
Amazon gave Storm and Kremer the power to train the rest of the production team and they brought two more women: producer Betsy Riley and content producer Lauren Gaffney. (This week's SCREENSHOTS column contains more articles on the historic broadcast booth.)
As for why Amazon wanted to offer an extra set of advertisers, you already know the answer. "We truly believe that we must offer our customers more choices," said DeLorenzo. The possibilities of future flows (Storm and Kremer are registered for this year) are almost infinite. ESPN has already experimented with a variety of voice choices during its mega-sounds, but only for larger games.
Bring X-rays to sports
Amazon's X-Ray product was launched more than five years ago to help readers discover the terms used in Kindle books. It has since grown to provide information on movies and TV shows on the Prime Video platform. Shortly after Amazon obtained the rights to the game Night Night in 2017, Alex Kravis (a native of New England, but Seahawks converted), X-ray product manager, wondered how this tool could complete a show live sports.
Although it has the same brand name, TNF's X-Ray functionality was to be largely custom-designed for the NFL. It extracts live data and updates it between readings, while IMDB data used for on-demand entertainment is much more static. And because users do not want to pause the game to read the information, the experience must be designed for quick interactions. The current product has many similarities to the real-time statistics that DirecTV offers with Sunday Ticket and what YouTubeTV has recently launched for certain sports events. "Last year, we focused on bringing Thursday night football to give priority to viewers," Kravis said. "This year, it's about improving the experience and making it even better." In addition, after extensive testing of the tool, she adds "a ton of strange facts about stadium size and mascots in my head".
The limitation of FireTV devices is a drag, but again, the potential is exciting. Having a story running makes returning to the living room much smoother. The tool also presents a decent way to kill time during advertisements. In the end, you can imagine a video catch-up feature, which MLB.TV already offers on Apple TV. (Kravis declined to comment on future features.)
THE TWITCH OPTION
Twitch began broadcasting games Thursday at mid-season, but this year they have created an exclusive experience for their users.
On PC and mobile, a click will allow you to view live statistics and an interactive prediction contest with a ranking. Twitch built the feature as extensionalthough she can not come out before Thursday's match. (By the way, I'll be shocked if this overlay of statistics is not marked at the end of the year.)
The streaming presentation coincides somewhat with the other audio tracks of Prime Video, except that GoldGlove will speak with the audio of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. This is a common configuration in the field of eSports broadcasting, which Twitch's vice president of content, Michael Aragon, hopes to attract new viewers. "That's what really excited me about this job in general," he said. "We reimagine how the sport can entertain fans, and what really interests me, is how to attract the adjacent fans.
"What excites me is the potential."
Source link
