The most watched spectacle on television these days isn’t linked to traditional sports like football or basketball, nor is it the rising trend of pickleball. The reigning challenge captivating audiences is the quest of locating your preferred team’s match on an increasingly complex viewing landscape. As an increasing number of digital platforms funnel resources into carrying sports content, enthusiasts are spoilt with an array of choices for viewing games. However, the issue lies in navigating this multitude of options to find the exact match a supporter yearns to view.
Nielsen’s subsidiary, Gracenote, is set to debut a revolutionary product designed to eliminate this confusion. It’s a new service equipped to function across both streaming and conventional linear video services, providing users the convenience to identify and access live sports they wish to view, when they want to.
The beauty of this system lies in its efficiency and simplicity; for each streaming service, like Max or Peacock, Gracenote’s product provides an exclusive method of spotlighting live content, thereby accelerating the process of connecting users to the sporting event they’re eager to view.
Interestingly, Gracenote’s solution is not limited to couple of games or leagues. It offers a unified application programming interface, or rather an API, that encompasses over 150 different sports leagues and competitions. This far-reaching range ensures fans aren’t limited in their sports viewing options.
Fan engagement doesn’t stop at locating and viewing the game. The Gracenote application provides further features like extensive data on games, access to live sporting event schedules and potent search technologies. In a forward-thinking move, the company hints at future enhancements such as displaying match scores, team rankings, and even mentions of athlete cameos within entertainment content.
Complexities while sourcing live sport events is a growing concern for digital platform users. As per Gracenote, a staggering 93% of Major League Baseball (MLB) games in the 2024 season were scattered amidst regional sports networks, local stations, various digital platforms and fresh internet outlets fostered by individual sports leagues.
No wonder, a substantial number of sports enthusiasts face a daunting task to merely find a live broadcast of their preferred team participating. As the variety and spread of sport content increases, viewing access has become fragmented and scattered around a maze of different providers and platforms.
The rise of online streaming platforms coupled with the dispersion of sports rights has pushed conventional viewing habits to evolve. Take for example, out of the 2,430 Major League Baseball games that happened during the 2024 regular season, a nominal 150 games were broadcast nationally on traditional channels or streaming services.
The remaining significant majority – 93% of games, to be precise – were divided amongst regional sporting networks, local channels, various streaming services and new direct-to-consumer initiatives rolled out by the leagues themselves. This distribution means professional baseball supporters often have to navigate a confusing, circuitous route to watch their favorite teams’ matches.
In summary, the current era of sports broadcasting pushes fans to turn detective, hunting for the specific game they want amidst an increasingly dispersed media landscape. The exponential rise of streaming platforms and concurrent spread of sports rights has fragmented access to live sports more than ever before.
Gracenote’s groundbreaking service offers an answer to this modern-day conundrum, aiming to provide a unified, simplified and efficient method for fans to locate and view their favored sporting events. The introduction of this service could revolutionize the way sports fans interact with content providers and navigate the broad spectrum of sporting events available.
The transition from the mostly centrally distributed sports content to a broadly dispersed and platform-split broadcasting setup, now sees fans faced with a unique challenge of discovering their preferred games amidst multiple platforms. The sports viewing landscape is constantly being reshaped and Gracenote’s innovative solution is an attempt to streamline this evolution for the everyday enthusiastic fan.
As fans eagerly await the introduction of the Gracenote’s new service, the future of sports viewing seems poised to redefine the user-experience. Bridging the gap between the multitude of sports broadcasting sources and the end user, the Gracenote service could well change the game.