Connected TV World Summit 2025
Live sport delivered on over-the-top (OTT) platforms is gaining popularity, but providers must contend with three interrelated issues: latency, buffering and the seamless working together of hardware and software.
During a talk on the opening day of Connected TV World Summit, Till Sudworth, head of the QoE [Quality of Experience] business unit at video analytics service NPAW, highlighted the recent rise in live sports delivery over OTT.
He noted that during the Euro football championship in June-July 2024, 25% of viewership was over OTT. There was a 6% increase in daily average plays and 19% rise in subscribers versus the previous 90-day period.
Growth was even more pronounced for the Olympics: average daily playtime was up 15.7%, with subscribers rising 16.8%.
For Sudworth, OTT platforms must balance three key challenges. First and foremost is latency, citing fans’ frustration of hearing a neighbour celebrate a goal ahead of them. “Focus on reliability and quality,” Sudworth urged.
At the same time, platforms must balance the latency issue with that of buffering. “With live sports content, that’s a trade-off you have to manage,” he added.
Central to both of these challenges is the combination of software and hardware, which has thousands of mutations among customers. “Each could potentially fail,” Sudworth cautioned. “It could lead to a lot of errors and complaints from customers.”
As illustrated by some of the problems raised during Netflix’s broadcast of the Mike Tyson versus Jake Paul boxing match last November, “something can go wrong all the time”.
In light of the unpredictability of live sports, what is the key answer to these challenges? “You need to ensure you do your homework, but you have to be flexible and act fast,” Sudworth observed.
The most important approach is to use multiple content delivery networks, he suggested.
Sudworth argued that ultimately it all comes down to providing a quality and reliable user experience, given that consumers are still developing brand affinity for live sports streamers. With most customers not yet loyal to any platform, the focus remains converting users viewing a particular sports event into permanent subscribers.
“They’re very expensive, these content rights,” Sudworth stressed. “You need to ensure the experience for the customer is a very good one.”
Sudworth spoke in discussion with session chair Inga Alika, founder and CEO of Alika Media & Tech.
