From AI to Personalisation: Lessons From IBC 2026

0:07Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the next episode of Streamtime Sports. My name is Chris Stone. The community joined as always by our CEO, Nick Meacham. Now, Nick, how I'm going to start things is the type of thing probably most people just don't even think about, but because of where we work, I was very interested. So I was at a wedding in Florence. So in my Airbnb, there was a smart TV. I was having some issues. I forgot to pack a converter so I couldn't like charge devices. So I couldn't, you know, log into the game pass on my phone and all that because I didn't have any power. So I had to go to YouTube to watch NFL highlights.

0:40So what I found really interesting Nick is I go on YouTube and I sign as a guest. So it's obviously got no data on me, no algorithm. And it was really interesting within about two video clicks, you know, watch highlights of the Bill's lines game and then click one video for analysis, how quickly all of a sudden YouTube had basically perfected the algorithm for me. Cause then it started picking up on some other things. And like, like I said, Nick, I don't think anybody else thinks about these things, but like for us always talking about personalization, data, YouTube and all that, it was really remarkable, Nick, how quickly the YouTube algorithm could completely readjust itself from having no data to within like three video clicks just serving me what i wanted they're kind of good at that aren't they they're pretty good at what they do uh i found pretty similar with uh twitter lately x whatever i don't know what do people still call it uh whatever you call it i feel a bit cliched even saying what do they call it but uh i found the same thing i now every time i go on i looked at a couple things on fantasy football in the nfl and now all i get served is is that type of content um so they're pretty quick at getting you into that funnel once they see that you've engaged in something they know is like in your sweet spot or know that typically does get good engagement and you can't get away from it and actually i realized looking at some of the youtube stuff that um i was looking at the disowned game pass and i was accessing that and they have the five minute clip or they have five minute highlights or they've got the 40 minutes which is basically getting rid of all the breaks for those that aren't familiar with it so that's how much of game time there actually is in an NFL match is about 40 minutes um and but they don't have anything in the middle and they don't have the 15 10 to 15 minute one which gives you a little bit more of the plays that aren't necessarily a touchdown or an interception or takeaway but something a bit of the stuff that you still think will be interesting and but that is only on YouTube uh and I felt like that's missing I felt like if I was DAZN and the NFL frankly i want to have that also in the mix with all the other stuff they've got because some of the other stuff they have on on platform is really cool but i'm not necessarily going to sit there and watch you know the coaching film for every game but watching a 15 minute highlight clip is right up my alley well what's interesting mentioning the zone and youtube is that not only did it start serving me videos but after the second video i clicked the ads i got served it was still an Italian was to sign up for NFL game pass via DAZN.

3:09So like, it wasn't even just like the video algorithm. It was also like, it very quickly started serving me ads to get NFL game pass in Italian. So yeah, like I said, it wasn't even just videos, even that the advertisements, they very quickly switched over. So yeah, it was pretty crazy. Well, think about what it would be like in the U S because they obviously have the relationship with Sunday ticket in the NFL there. I would guess that you would very quickly get served a lot of Sunday ticket stuff pretty quickly and get pretty much inundated with it pretty fast because of that strength of the relationship that YouTube has with the NFL.

3:44So I think if you had lived in the States, mate, still, you'd be getting absolutely drowned in that type of thing. Absolutely. Well, Nick, I think that also fits in nicely in the comments. Some of the stuff we're going to talk about today, which is we hosted our first Streamtime Sports Live in Amsterdam alongside IBC. And just giving some of our takeaway from that and what we think that means for the future of the industry. For those that don't know, and I'm sure everybody listening to the podcast is aware of IBC and the behemoth that it is as an event. You know, Nick, my understanding from your LinkedIn post, that's the first time you've been to IBC in seven years.

4:15And despite me being at Sports Pro seven years, that's the first time I've ever been at IBC. And it was quite an overwhelming experience, even for someone that runs events. at SportsPro and I've been to other events. I mean, Nick, it was just, it was on a completely different scale to I think anything I've ever seen from an event. Well, look, I think for those that are listening that maybe work in the sports space, it isn't that crazy if you're not familiar with IBC. It is a very much a broadcast technology trade show. But for people like us who sit sort of up the apex of that stuff quite often with the events we're running and the content we're talking about, and we're going to talk about a little later how much sport is being talked about these events, normally talking about an event isn't that exciting um except when it's ours of course but in this instance i think you can take a lot of signals about much more existentially what's happening across the sports broadcasting media and technology space by seeing how and what these companies are presenting so it was really good to go back and see all that some of it a lot of it's changed a lot of it's exactly the same as it was several years ago um but it was a good eye opener just to see who are some of the newcomers to the space.

5:24And like, you know, the big thing for me was seeing all the big tech companies, your Microsofts, your Googles, your Oracles, and AWS, who was there actually back then, really have major, they're not just booths, like for those people that contact. If you've not been to a trade show for 50 ,000 people or whatever the number is, it could be 30, I'm not sure, but it's tens of thousands. It's a whole different ballgame. They're building mini buildings inside where they can have demonstrations and meetings and stuff going on. It's a whole different experience to anything that you've been to that's sub, I don't know, 5 ,000 people.

6:00So it is a very interesting opener from that perspective to see these big tech companies especially who want to be like the conduit for how the industry operates. They're really throwing a lot of money at it and prioritizing it very closely. Well, one of the things I found interesting, Nick, and I can't claim to know every single tech provider that's in sports, But I feel like over seven years, you know, being able to work on things like the media awards, having our previous ignition tech event that we did. And even now, I feel like I know a lot of the businesses like I feel I'm pretty good. What I was really kind of taken by Nick was how many and I feel like almost exclusively every single booth had some sort of image or still like the application of its technology in sports.

6:42I'm like, I'm pretty sure you don't work in sports. But it just came across to me. It's clearly like, even if you don't work in sports, like someone like a Delta Trey or a Stats Perform or a MediaKind, these people that we know about in the ecosystem, that even the non-sports people, maybe they do work in sports. And I just don't know. Everybody was advertising sports. Well, I think AI image generation tools are getting a lot of work now in terms of creating the assets that they're using on their stands and that. because it was really everywhere. We're talking, I don't know how many exhibitions, like thousands of exhibitors.

7:16I'm not sure the scale, but it's pretty much all those eight halls. But yeah, there was sports branding everywhere. It basically is the talk of the town. And if you look at what we're hearing across the sports streaming ecosystem, sports is the talk of the industry, particularly because of that drive to live audiences and what it does to drive advertising to it. and that links with this whole ecosystem in and around it and everyone either wants to be part of that conversation or that opportunity and or thinks there is an opportunity to be had by being connected with it in some way shape or form but there are a lot of companies i'd never heard of before who are saying or at least even just i don't want to say pretending but positioning themselves as being someone that can work in sports and it was quite an opener because then when you try and dig a little quite often they didn't have many runs on the board let's say around that stuff versus a lot of the others in a lot of the others like you talked about that there's a whole bunch of others that we might know that many people in the sports space wouldn't know but are doing a lot of the behind the scenes uh stuff that are really powering the media tech space so yeah that was quite interesting to see how far it's come yeah and i took that as a positive because i think sometimes you know we do reality checks you know we we talked about your presentation you gave it Sports Pro London and certainly things to still be conscious of in this space.

8:41But it does feel like it's a positive that an event like IBC, everyone feels like sports is a positive thing to associate yourself with. And we've talked about as well with the rise in advertisement and things like that. Sports is one of the few last appointment viewings. You know, I think it's probably one of the things we've taken away from streaming is you lose that water cooler moment where people come in and talk about the latest episode of a show sports is one of the few last things that still i think represents appointment viewing in these days and i don't know nick that was at least my takeaway walking away even if i didn't recognize these people it's probably not a bad sign for sports that even those that aren't involved in sports still think sports is valuable to advertise themselves as definitely i think it's it's it's good for the sports industry to have this attention from for them i get a bit nervous though i do get a bit nervous about all these companies trying to position themselves in sports and the challenges that come with that, both the challenges for them trying to come into the industry that is actually much smaller than many people kind of realize.

9:43And also the difficulty it can be for a sports exec to try and navigate what do we need here to do what we want to do. Because I do feel like a lot of these companies that we were looking at, some of them bigger and who have been well-established as well, are kind of trying to be a bit of everything to everyone and are losing some of that specialization that I used to think was one of the key aspects of the industry. If you want this type of expertise, there's really two players. You go to one of them and go forward. Now, everyone seems to be trying to build out their sort of offering and proposition to maximize the value of each and every client, probably because the sports industry in terms of scale is actually smaller than most people probably take into account in terms of the number of potential clients you can win.

10:30um so i think it comes with some some risks attached to it particularly people are a little bit naive to it but it should also come with a lot of opportunity for the right people who play it the right way and i just do think though because it's become so noisy for those that really invest in the messaging the positioning the brand strategy and the awareness and i'm going to wrap credibility in there, you would have set yourself, set yourselves up to be just sitting above the parapet when it comes to all these others offering or saying they're offering the same kind of thing. Cause there is a lot out there and I don't, I wouldn't call myself an expert on this stuff, but I feel like I know a lot of the language and different things to some, a certain level.

11:13And I would just got the, you're all basically saying the same thing. And that, I mean, you have to ask about a dozen questions to get to what they actually do. And that's not a healthy way to run a business. I can tell you. Interesting. Scott Gutterman, formerly of PGA Tour, what he used to say to me, Nick, was his challenge with some of these companies that, as you say, are these do everything is often someone like a PGA Tour, they've got a lot of their infrastructure. The way he described it is like you're getting a suit for a wedding. He's like, I've already got the suit. I've got the shoes.

11:42I'm just looking for the perfect pocket square. He's like, I don't need the whole outfit. I just need that one complimentary piece. And he said, you know, he, you know, not to put words in his mouth, but the way I took it was when people come to him saying, hey, I can build you this. He's like, that's not what I'm looking for. I've already got this, this, this, and this. I'm just looking for the tie. I'm just looking for the belt. You coming to me saying you'll build me this white label product actually isn't even what I want, even if I appreciate the fact that you can do it. Now, again, PJ Torso, big, massive.

12:13They probably have the ability to do that where someone smaller does want a one size fits all. but I heard him say that analogy one time and I thought it was really perfect that doing everything is not always a plus. Well, that's the thing with someone like Scott. He knows what he wants and therefore wants just the tie and that's fine but I do think you're right. I think everyone gets a little bit too greedy again, trying to attach themselves to the bigger opportunity and others but others are smarter and they do go, right, we'll just give them the tie but we hope they buy the suit off us next year for the next major event.

12:45So, but he's actually, well, he's working for Next League. He is, I believe, yeah. Yeah, good operator. But yeah, I think you need those types of people at those types of organizations who can see the wood for the trees and know exactly what they do need, because otherwise it's a minefield out there. Yeah. So we mentioned it was Streamtime Sports Live, you know, alongside IBC. and there's obviously sports vendors there, but not necessarily, I think, a dedicated sports track, which is part of the purpose of us being out there hosting what we did, Nick. And we had speakers from broadcasters, public broadcasters like the BBC and STV out in Sweden.

13:21We had the Bundesliga as your rights holder, had platforms like Dine, but also I learned there's Dine and Dine Media because they're also building some products as well. And our headline partners for the event, Dolby being that sort of tech provider context for the content there. And I guess, Nick, what were some of your key takeaways from the content that we ran at our event? And I guess the follow-up to that question, Nick, and kind of putting the card in front of the horse, were you surprised at how synced up some of the messages were given the position that those companies all sit in? Yeah, I was definitely going to leave with that.

13:56I think what was quite shocking for us, we gave them a bit of a brief. and it was like we want you to present for between 10 to 15 minutes basically just trends the things that you're across and things what you think the industry needs to be focused on right now and case studies of things that they have done in-house and have implemented and they were so aligned with you know the narrative around efficiency around production moving to the cloud to be more effective. Personalization was absolutely the main focus pretty much in all case studies that we heard from. And yeah, just there seemed to be a really nice consensus there, which gives me confidence when the industry is so aligned that there is now a path of travel that people are focused on, which means that you can block out some of the noise if you know kind of what you're doing.

14:47The Dine example is a fascinating one. We've talked about it a lot, But now that they've gone from building quite a prominent OTT platform as a standalone into a fully fledged now service product, a proposition that they are selling on to different rights owners to manage their own content, it's a really cool journey to basically see how that stuff comes to life. uh equally with svt who i um did a presentation at their offices or for their internal conference about six seven months ago to hear some of the things they've done around uh remote production around the the world cup uh was really fascinating and it is a game changer for cost savings for the flexibility in production um which does make it so much more accessible for anyone to be able to manage live events at scale at a much more cost effective rate and not have to send people across the world and just remove some of the impracticalities of working across major events which can be quite cumbersome for those running it and the BBC's example was super interesting I think there's a bunch of data points that Aaron shared basically Aaron who was the BBC representative who basically talked about how BBC engages with audiences through a big event like that and it It was quite fascinating to see what things they were doing and how they were working.

16:07And I probably got some data points somewhere I can share sometime. But I just like it was a much more holistic view, which it should be, of how a major media publisher can define and measure engagement at an event like that, not just how many people watched a live event, which is quite often what you hear the industry just go to. It's always the default, but what was the ratings for that match? And that's fine, but it doesn't tell the full story. And that, I think it was really refreshing. I'm trying to remember, what was the term that Aaron used where he was talking about users that only came on like less than once every six months?

16:45Remember he had a specific term for it? Yeah. Wasn't it rare? It was like rare users or gosh, that's a good question. But that was a really interesting thing. It was something along those lines. Yeah. But anyways, the point that I thought was interesting about the rare users was like, you know, users that only come on once every six months. And he talked about the increased number that came through in the World Cup, which makes a ton of sense. Big major event. They're the broadcaster for it. But even he recognized and almost reminded me of the conversation we had with Ciprian Castaneda at League Un as part of our new Economics of Fandom miniseries.

17:17The BBC predicted that they would have more of these rare users coming on to the platform for the World Cup. Now the challenge becomes, how do you keep them on there? Like, yeah, we can post all these really great numbers that we had of people tuning into BBC. but that's kind of the expectation. Now, how do we keep them as football fans coming back to the BBC? So then they started talking about, you know, what are we going to do for the Premier League and other football competitions to make sure that these rare users don't come back to just being rare users again? And how do you take those moments?

17:47And I thought that was an interesting conversation on their part where they weren't thinking about what they were doing with the World Cup just as the World Cup, but how do we now keep people in our ecosystem once they've come in? Yeah, it was super interesting. They clearly had a different and more balanced lens on how to look at some of this stuff, which was really refreshing because I do think we often just focus on the wrong numbers across the industry. I think one of the other stats that he shared, which the one that sort out of something like 94 % of UK audiences consume some sort of World Cup content on BBC.

18:2194 is a pretty big number. Now, that's obviously through websites, through linear TV, through iPlayer, et cetera, et cetera. and there's a whole bunch of others but uh yeah really impressive they had that much more holistic view they had really thought about different formats and they were getting people to come back and i guess being ensuring that people understood the utility of bbc uh sport as a platform and not just as a destination to check out when england's playing uh and you know they sound like they've really they've got their eyes on the prize there a little bit absolutely and to circle back to what you're talking about with dine and s stv or svt sorry um talking about talking about the remote production you know one of the things andre is focused on i think you know they spoke about svt as well with their olympics coverage and specifically when there's so many events to cover is having a two-tiered approach to your broadcasting where the major events yeah you're going to want to have multiple different cameras multiple different camera angles, professional commentators.

19:23But Andre's talked about, we have some events where we just have automated cameras and there is no commentary. And then we have some events where we mix a little bit of both with AI commentary and basically being able to scale up. And it's the same thing with some of the Olympics coverages. Not all events are the same, but you want to cover every single event. And just the idea of having more efficient approaches to everything, that was, as you say, something that came across in all the conversations and that you can't have the bells and whistles for everything. If you're the NFL, maybe sure. If you're the Premier League, sure.

19:50But there's just a whole ecosystem that sits underneath that. And being realistic about when you pick and choose the level of production that you're going to have for everything, what you do in person, what you do in the cloud. Andres has obviously been using the glass-to-glass example since his time at Bundesliga Digital. But they did talk quite a bit about sort of the prioritization and the levels with which you go about your production. Yeah, definitely. I think I'm looking at, you know, even one of the things he presented, I just sort of brought, had a quick squiz at it now. And they basically had all modeled it all out.

20:25So, because I think when I've heard people talk about that stuff, sometimes I feel like it gets a bit lost as to like, yeah, it sounds a bit how long is a piece of string kind of thing. And therefore can get lost in like, it is up to interpretation. But they had five different tiers, which is completely automated. Then smart, which was wonderful. Then wonderful cameras. then next gen four to six then remote four to eight and then premium eight to 24 um and they would just dial it up or dial it down depending on what they thought was required for any any given event um so it's just having a simplified sort of playbook on how to approach these things and they've been particularly good at doing it for indoor events you know they have what i think it's like basketball handball and a few table tennis and a couple of others tennis yeah basketball Yeah, volleyball, handball, maybe volleyball.

21:17Gosh, I should know that by now. But a couple of different sports. I have volleyball, table tennis, field hockey, basketball, handball. I think I said basketball three times there. So you can keep up with me there. So, yeah, no, I just think that's a really simplified, nice approach to look at, dial up and dial down, and having a playbook to just pull to rather than, oh, should we add a camera here, or should we invest a little bit more on the ground there? They just, typical Germans, it's got to all sort it out. Yeah, they're very good. One of the things we talked about was personalization, Nick.

21:46And again, that was something that came up in every single conversation. Again, to your point, very interesting that no one else knew what the others were speaking about, but we got some similar themes. When it comes to personalization with sports, what does that actually look like, though? I mean, I think it's one of those things. It was a little bit like, I remember a couple of years ago, everybody was talking about Web3. Now everyone's talking about personalization. But practically, what does that actually mean for a sports fan to have personalization? What does that look like? And I know there are a couple of examples that were thrown around, but just more broadly speaking.

22:16How dare you, Jürgen Buster, compare Web3 with personalization? Oh, my gosh. I mean, look, it was really good, actually, because we had Dolby, who were the presenting partner for the event, who really specialized in this space. They gave a really interesting presentation to sort of give a bit of a sense on how practically these types of organizations can. And I think whereas we heard from the broadcasters a little bit more aspirationally what they are focused on. They are all focused on how to improve it. And I think personalization is not at a point where everyone is like, oh, we've done it now.

22:48What's next? They are kind of like, these are the layers we are looking to improve. I'm trying to work out a way to answer this succinctly. I guess there's different layers of personalization, right? Like personalization is the experience when you get on platform. So what you are served when you arrive on that platform. Personalization around what you are served mid experience, whether if you're watching a live match, do you get served? certain things along the way. I think one of the things that Dolby talked about was they can predict when someone's likely to go so you can then serve them things to keep them engaged before they get to the point of exiting.

23:24There's obviously the actual content itself, you know, depending on different countries and regions. We had the Bundesliga talking about some of that as well and how impactful that is. Love the Lego example. Yeah, yeah. Love that type of example and how they can use data to bring that sort of thing to life. But the ability to personalize content, I think a lot of people will be surprised at how much it's still a work in progress to truly create localized, therefore, say, call that personalized content across multiple markets, even for someone like the Bundesliga, who's one of the most innovative in this space.

23:55But they're making good headway. And the other bit is advertising. Personalizing on advertising. You know, what we just talked about, the algorithm serving as content. It's basically the same sort of thing in platform. How do you create ads and content that people are more likely to engage with because it suits their interests and needs? And all those facets together, what they add up to is generally creating a better user experience for everyone. Obviously, you're getting a more personalized view of what you want to have. And commercially, if you're serving more personalized content that's more aligned with my interest, then if you're serving me content for like a woman's clothing brand, it's probably not going to hit very well.

24:32Whereas if you're serving me something around my boring life of around sports and football or whatever, then you're probably more likely to get engagement from me. And that means they can drive a better CPM and a better return investment for advertisers alike and drive more financials out of that side. So it all has this kind of beautiful cycle or cycle of life, basically. to that, you know, the more engagement that should be able to lead to more return on investment, more engagement, more retention, et cetera, et cetera. Now, it's great in theory. It's clearly from everything we are seeing. It's not as easy in practice, but it's getting better.

25:12And it is a priority for pretty much everyone from every corner of the industry. And that's where I think it's quite an interesting space to follow. Even though it doesn't sound as exciting that I think some other topics i think it's actually huge if it does get to where the aspiration is maybe a bit like web3 i suppose maybe maybe and like so we we've seen some some cool stuff before um is it everts the uh the company based in new york is doing stuff at yes network um go check about they've won many awards at the the sports pro media awards some of the stuff that you can do in terms of live stats and i think that's kind of the interactivity personalization i would love to see nick where if i'm watching a sporting event being able to pull the stats up i want in real time um to your point there's i use the lego example those that they might have seen similar things the bundles league was talking about i think they're showing like 44 data points on a player every second and they're collecting all those in real time and basically for kids they could recreate the game but all the players were lego characters um and i forget how quick dominic said they could turn that around but it was like significantly quicker than i thought yeah i thought it was seconds and i was like i was expecting to say oh a week or a day and it was like no instantly uh hang on and i love i mean if anyone wants to see an example of that i'm sure we could get we could get a copy of that sent to you but it was literally he i'm sure he said seconds because i was blown away i was blown away by two but basically just turns all the players into lego figures the idea of being might be more attractive for a five six year old because those are ultimately the future fans that you got to be able to engage with um but again to your point the personalization thing one of the things i found really interesting i think he might have only posted it this morning was our good friend Magnus Svensson.

26:48He's always got a great perspective on these things. And he had a LinkedIn post and I might butcher it word for word, but I'll hopefully get the meaning of it correctly, which was basically he thought IBC was slow to the draw a little bit in the sense of everyone keeps trying to find faster and faster horses. But the reality is the car's already been invented. So you need to kind of move your mode of transportation. And And basically, I think Magnus, not putting words in his mouth, was a bit like, there's a lot of stuff happening in the back end with production that's taking place that we keep trying to optimize.

27:24But it might already kind of be a thing of the past. And I thought it was a bit of an interesting comparison for Magnus to make kind of maybe some people denying some of the stuff that's taking place or holding on to some legacy technology. But I thought it was a really interesting way he framed that message. And like I said, go find him on LinkedIn, Magnus Svensson. spelled just the way you'd imagine a good Scandinavian name would be. But he's also a friend of the pod, friend of ours. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I wrote, I think, a comment just saying I love the analogy because I think it's very apt for where we are as an industry.

27:59If you think of all the different directions we've taken as an industry over the years, what we largely are coming back to is actually business as usual in terms of the product and proposition that we see on screen. and all it really is about refining the exact same product. And those that are looking for different things outside of the norm, typically just come back to the norm and see how they can just improve and find subtle ways to optimize what they're already doing rather than finding something that is completely outside of the square, particularly around live sports, but also other content.

28:33So yeah, I think he has it well summarized in his article there. And obviously everyone just focuses on anything that is not cloud-based, they're pushing to cloud-based. And hence my point before about the big tech companies, they all want to be some version of the arms and legs or the facilitator, the cloud platform, more literally, that people use to do and facilitate that. I mean, people that maybe not be aware, but like these big tech companies, they have a whole array of partnerships where in some instances, they will work with a service provider to really help, I guess, educate and create buy-in in moving to a cloud product on behalf of a vendor because the knock-on effect is that those big tech platforms will benefit from that.

29:19AWS offer actively funding and support to build new products and technology for those that are interested in it. So if you are looking at it, maybe worth speaking to them because they want you to spend lots of money using their platform in the future. But they see it as a win-win. They're just trying to be an enabler that they get a benefit from that and you get a benefit. So it's a whole new world out there, but the big tech companies seem to be ones trying to drive pretty much everything right now. Yeah. And then the last thing to sort of, for me to wrap on you kind of big level question, Nick, is sort of having left IBC, having had our event there, and you touched on a little bit earlier with some of the companies coming in.