The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics are just around the corner and, at this exact moment, millions of sports fans are wondering “Where can I watch the Olympics?”. With over 300 events divided into 32 sports categories, it can be hard for viewers to gain full access to the complete schedule and real-time transmission on traditional TV broadcasting. On the other hand, with so many competitions happening simultaneously, it can be hard for media outlets to decide what to cover.
It is expected that the 2024 Olympics will have a thunderous impact on the U.S. streaming market, with over a quarter of all SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand) subscribers signing up for a new streaming service just to watch the games, according to new research conducted by Bango. The vast majority (87%) of those paying for sports VODs are also calling for a content hub that can centralize streaming, blog posts and analysis of the competition, further facilitating access to the Olympic events.
In this scenario, there’s incredible competition for sports broadcasters and advertisers to attract and hold the attention of their audiences. The average viewer not only wants to watch the event with live professional commentary but also interact in a more meaningful way with other sports fans and delve deeper into the Olympics. After all, it only happens every four years, and they need to make every second count.
Why build a strategy to stream the 2024 Olympics?
The Olympics is a truly iconic occasion and one of the very few global events that is able to unite and engage different sports fans around the world. Starting July 26, the 2024 Summer Olympics are expected to have a global audience of over 1 billion people during its 18 days of competition, which makes it a perfect opportunity for media companies to invest in their streaming services.
The timing to make this investment couldn’t be better, especially after the great success that companies who have betted in Olympics live streams have shown us over the last few years.
During the Tokio 2021 Olympics, NBCUniversal used its various platforms to launch a special sports coverage, describing it as the “biggest media event ever”. With this initiative, the company saw outstanding results, amounting to an audience of 15.5 million people, with viewers streaming a record 5.5 billion minutes of events across social media and platforms such as NBCOlympics.com, NBC Sports App and streaming service Peacock.
As for the 2024 Summer Olympics, the games haven’t even begun and the company is already seeing impressive numbers. Months before the opening ceremonies, NBCUniversal had announced that it had already sold $1.2 billion in advertising space during the Olympics, with $350 million coming from first-time advertisers.
If you are a sports, entertainment, or news broadcaster, you are probably wondering which is the best way to stream the Olympic games in real-time. What if we told you that there is an easy-to-use, no-code tool that can help you enrich your audience experience?
Keep reading to learn more about Arena Live Blog and why it is your biggest ally in broadcasting the Paris 2024 Olympics in a more engaging way. Make sure to check out how Fox Sports Australia leverages the tool and, boy, will you be amazed.
What Is a Live Blog?
A Live Blog is the natural evolution of traditional blogs. Also called live updates, journalists and publishers have been using live blogs to cover events for years.
By bringing together words, images, audio, and video, you can offer a unique experience to your audience. The result? More interaction, higher viewership, and a loyal audience that keeps coming back to your content over and over again.
How can a Live Blog help you monetize content?
One of the biggest benefits of having a Live Blog set up on your website is the possibility to not only create your own content but also using different sources to enrich your content timeline. What we in Arena call a “Social Stream” allows you to bring your audience from social media to your website, thus having greater control over what they consume, how they interact with your company and each other, as well as choosing the right advertisers that truly connect with your audience.
Here are three simple ways you can enhance your content strategy and monetize your 2024 Olympics coverage with Arena Live Blog:
- Monetization Strategies: Arena Live Blog leverages AI to maximize ad revenue through optimized ad placements, leading to higher click-through rates. Additionally, publishers can implement subscription models offering premium. By collaborating with brands, Arena enables the creation of AI-generated sponsored articles and videos, providing new revenue streams through branded content.
- AI-Driven Content Creation: Utilizing AI, Arena Live Blog automates the generation of real-time highlights and event summaries, keeping audiences engaged with high-quality live content. Predictive content features allow publishers to deliver insights and updates on upcoming events, while personalized content enhances user experience by catering to individual preferences and interests.
- Multi-Channel Integration: Arena’s AI tools seamlessly integrate with publisher websites and mobile apps, offering real-time coverage and interactive features. Publishers can not only pull content from their social media accounts but also share AI-generated content from Live Blog on their social platforms like Twitter, driving traffic back to their sites. Additionally, the platform allows you to connect your YouTube live transmissions with your Live Blog live streams, providing an opportunity to double your monetization for each piece of content. By using social media as a top-of-funnel tool, this strategy attracts and retains a broader audience, ultimately boosting website engagement and overall monetization.
Using Arena Live Blog In Your 2024 Paris Olympics Coverage: Step By Step
Getting started with Arena Live Blog is easy. In the following steps, you will see a few ways to use the app to make your coverage more engaging for fans.
Step 1: Create an event in Arena Live Blog
The first step is to create an event using the Arena Dashboard.
Choose your sport from the list and get started. If you don’t see a certain sport listed (e.g. Track & Field), click the “Other Sports” option.
To stay organized, give your event a name (e.g. 2024 Olympics Coverage – Basketball Game 1), enter the date and time, and description. You can also add tags and images to the event to make it even more visually appealing.
Tip: Is your event starting in just a few minutes? Choose the “Live” event status to start your event right away. If you are planning your Olympics coverage in advance, choose the “Upcoming” option in Event Status.
To keep sports fans engaged in your coverage, there are two critical features you should turn on: Enable Comments and Chat Room.
In some cases – like a high-stakes final event – you might want to turn on the profanity filter to keep inappropriate comments out of the chat.
Adding Advertising Revenue To Your Coverage
If you have a paid account, you can add advertising to your Live Blog easily.
Simply add sponsored ads during the post flow.
Step 2: Add Social Media Directly To Your Coverage with Social Stream
Live Blog Arena allows you to add channels and social media profiles to further enhance your Paris 2024 Olympics broadcast.
You can enrich your Live Blog with content from:
- YouTube
- Web content
- Other (RSS)
Important Note: Some content may be protected by copyright. Arena is not responsible for any copyright violations. To reduce the chance of copyright problems and complaints, contact social media users in advance of adding them to your coverage and ask for permission to include them in your Live Blog.
To learn how to set up and customize your Social Stream, click here and access the complete walkthrough.
Step 3: Plan Ahead For Surprises With Publication Planning
When you cover a global event like the Olympic Games, it is important to be ready for surprises and major accomplishments. For example, a country might win its first gold medal. In the Rio Olympics in 2016, Joseph Schooling won the first-ever gold medal for Singapore.
It’s not just medals. Athletes can suddenly suffer a surprising injury or break a world record that changes the outcome of a competition.
Anyone covering the 2024 Paris Olympics needs to be very well prepared for surprises. That’s why Arena’s Live Blog lets you create content in advance.
In essence, you can create a “reserve” of content to use when you need. For example, you might ask your assistant to write profiles on the top 10 tennis players at the 2024 Olympics because some of the most famous tennis players like Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem are not competing in Paris. By having short profiles on potential winners prepared in advance, you can impress your audience who may not be familiar with less well known players.
By enriching your live blog coverage in this way, you will not be at a loss when a sudden surprise happens. That means your audience will stay glued to your coverage and keep returning to your coverage over and over again
Step 4: Keep Your Audience Coming Back To Your Coverage
It’s a fact that sports fans have many different options to watch the Olympics. Even if a sports fan likes your coverage, they might get distracted and start watching a different broadcast. Offering high quality coverage is one way to keep fans coming back. But that’s not your only option.
You can also send reminders to your audience to invite them back to your sports coverage each day. Use the Conversion Cards feature in Live Blog Arena to invite fans to stay engaged with your Olympics coverage.
To activate and configure Conversion Cards, click Engagement in the left menu.
Step 5: Set Up Real Time Tracking
Besides sports knowledge, there is one more way sports broadcasters can get ahead: showing their numbers. When you can show your executives and advertisers that your audience is highly engaged, you can get promoted and assigned to more coverage.
The best part? You don’t have to wait for the event to end to get stats. With the Arena Dashboard, you can easily follow your streaming statistics in real time.
By clicking on Analytics in the left menu, you can see your audience engagement through metrics such as Page Views and Online Users. You can also track these metrics throughout your session.
By using analytics, you will never have to guess what fans are most interested in. Instead, you can look at the analytics data to improve your coverage.
For example, you might see that engagement spikes up when you respond to comments from sports fans. In that case, you might set a reminder to yourself to glance at the comments every few minutes.
And just like that, you have created a personalized event for your audiences, using only a no-code tool and embedding the code to your website!
Prepare to hit the ground running
As we write this, many of the world’s leading sports broadcasters are arriving in Paris to prepare their Olympics media coverage. To compete with their reporting, use Live Blog Arena to make your Paris 2024 Olympics news broadcasting an unforgettable experience for your audience.
If you need any help to start planning your Live Blog, make sure to schedule a free demo with your sales teams to understand how Arena can help your company reach the next level.
