A new era in youth sports is dawning, thanks to recent announcements that make live streaming and on-demand video a reality for many organizations and leagues.
In mid-October, NBC Sports Next announced the launch of SportsEngine Play — hailed as a first-of-its-kind subscription streaming service that “will enable organizations, leagues, coaches and parents to unite teams, families and young athletes around the sports they love like never before,” according to a press release from NBC Sports Group.
Here’s more:
Not only does SportsEngine Play deliver live and on-demand streaming of youth and amateur sporting events anytime, anywhere and on a variety of devices, the service offers video editing tools, so teams can capture magical game moments and athletes can create their own highlight reels. SportsEngine Play is also building the industry’s most comprehensive collection of player development and training content, including exclusive instructional videos from more than a dozen world-class athletes, including Michael Phelps, Larry Fitzgerald, Shaun White, Maria Sharapova, Kerri Walsh Jennings, Justin Jefferson and more. In addition, the service will continue to build its selection of elite amateur sports competitions, such as the NXTPRO Sports’ PRO16 Basketball Circuit, with more content being added to the platform every day.
The collection of combined offerings on SportsEngine Play is unprecedented and designed to cater to the rapidly growing number of athletes and their families, as well as the people working and volunteering in youth sports.
“A number of years ago, we started thinking about this idea of what if we became the home for live streaming and on-demand video content for youth and recreation sports at a national level in the U.S.? That is easy to say. It is incredibly difficult to achieve,” Will McIntosh, president of the NBC Sports Next digital platform and Fandango, which oversees SportsEngine Play, told Forbes.com. “It’s why nobody’s been able to pull this off yet. It’s incredibly complicated. You’re talking about tens of thousands of small deals [in youth sports] as opposed to a Sunday night [NFL] football game where we might have 20 million people tune in to NBC or Peacock [NBC’s streaming service] to watch. This is like 100 or 200 people at a time tuning in. It is much different and much more complicated from that perspective.”
SportsEngine Play, reportedly in beta mode since summer, will allow viewers to watch livestreamed youth sports events across the country for free, plus highlights and other videos on-demand for a fee, Forbes.com notes. Plans also call for NBC Sports Next to introduce a SportsEngine Play-connected TV streaming app in 2024, providing athletes and their families with an additional way to view content at home.
Video streaming through SportsEngine Play can originate from a variety of camera sources, ranging from a personal phone with video capabilities to autonomous cameras professionally installed at sporting venues.
“NBC claims more than 30,000 youth sports organizations use its technology platforms and applications for tasks such as registering kids for sports and communicating among the team’s parents and coaches, so it is hoping that built-in audience will migrate and use the SportsEngine Play service,” according to Forbes.com.
As of right now, NBC Sports Next says more than 90 cameras have been installed at more than 85 sporting venues — numbers that will continue to grow as more organizations join the platform. Hundreds of hours of live and on-demand streaming content are being — or have been — captured on SportsEngine Play already, representing football, basketball, baseball, hockey, volleyball, soccer lacrosse, cheer, dance, figure skating, gymnastics, martial arts and more
NBC Sports Next also is building client-branded SportsEngine Play platforms for its partner organizations. For its recently established relationship with Frisco (Texas) Independent School District, one of the largest in the state, NBC Sports Next launched a “Frisco Sports Live” web portal powered by SportsEngine Play, which will stream approximately 4,000 sporting events for the district’s 12 high schools and 18 middle schools during the school year, according to officials.
Meanwhile, GameChanger — a top-rated youth sports app for live streaming, scorekeeping and team management — recently introduced AutoStream to its basketball mobile streaming lineup. This free feature “leverages proprietary AI software to automatically track basketball game action, requiring only a mobile device,” according to the company. “Coaches and parents will no longer need to set up complex and costly camera systems, worry about missing crucial plays or depend on a dedicated camera operator to stream the game. With this feature, setting up a stationary mobile phone is all that is needed. The new state-of-the-art technology, which was built entirely in-house by GameChanger, takes care of the rest, following the fast-paced hoops action on the court with precise and reliable camera panning.”
AutoStream will be available to iOS GameChanger hoops users in November. (GameChanger is owned by DICK’S Sporting Goods and has partnerships with Prep Hoops, NY2LA, Mid America Youth Basketball and other organizations.)
“Artificial intelligence is at the heart of GameChanger’s vision for the future, and our latest milestone, AutoStream for basketball, is a testament to our belief in the limitless potential of this technology,” GameChanger President Sameer Ahuja said in a statement. ”This is only the beginning of how we envision AI reshaping the way youth sports are experienced in the years to come.”
Just don't get the idea that network broadcasts are becoming obsolete; Front Office Sports has noted, "streaming might be the future but over-the-air sports aren't going away."
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