Sports are one of the main forms of entertainment for Dutch people. Over 55% of the Dutch population older than six watches at least one sporting event each week (RIVM, 2022). Additionally, 73% has watched at least one event of the 2024 Olympics (NOS, 2024). It indicates that sporting events, for many, are an integral part of their lives.
However, the focus of broadcasters in the Netherlands mainly lies on broadcasting popular sports such as football, formula 1 and cycling. Which is logical. It does not make sense for large broadcast platforms to put a focus of resources such as expensive human capital on sports that receive little attention. Broadcasting less popular sports such as badminton, fencing and curling for example do not deliver enough views to justify high fixed broadcasting expenses. This is where our Generative AI-model will make a difference. Our company, GameChanger, will transform raw footage and data of sporting events into high-quality summaries, both textual and visual. This allows for a new consumer segment to be served in the broadcasting industry: the niche sports fan. This fan will be able to read about and watch highlights of his/her favorite sport. In addition to providing products for a new consumer segment, existing customers receive the opportunity to explore new sports and potentially find new hobbies and interests.
Our model will not only be beneficial for consumers, but also for our potential partners. GameChanger provides products that are of high-quality, easy to produce, requires low-resource input and most importantly, will be available in large numbers. Existing broadcasters such as ESPN, Viaplay and NOS Online can provide content to their customers with a large catalogue, tailored to their own preferences.
This personalization has proven to be effective in retail and social media for example. According to a McKinsey & Company report (2021), two-thirds of customers found personalization in the form of tailored messaging and recommendations was an important factor in their purchasing. GameChanger will aim to leverage this personalization needs to create customer value.
A prosperous business model is not without challenges, and for our mission these also exist. Our solution needs to carefully consider legal issues by ensuring the licensing of data is secure for example. In addition, the collected data needs to be of the highest quality and produced content needs to be consistent overtime. To mitigate this, human gatekeepers are needed, and this will eventually ensure iterative improvement of the model.
To conclude, GameChanger has the possibility to revolutionize the sports broadcasting industry through effectively using GenAI in providing long-tail content in the form of both textual- and visual summaries. Once the model is properly trained and the initial challenges are mitigated. With promising partnerships in combination with serving new and existing consumer segments, the future looks promising.
References:
McKinsey & Company. (2021). The value of getting personalization right—or wrong—is multiplying. McKinsey & Company.
NOS. (2024). Kijkcijfers Olympische Spelen.NOS. https://over.nos.nl/nieuws/7-op-de-10-nederlanders-beleeft-de-spelen-bij-de-nos/#:~:text=12%2C2%20miljoen%20Nederlanders%20hebben,gemiddeld%202%2C7%20miljoen%20kijkers.
RIVM. (2022). Sportfan via media. RIVM. https://www.sportenbewegenincijfers.nl/kernindicatoren/sportfan-media
