ELEVEN Portugal is the Lisbon-based arm of the multinational group of sports television channels, Eleven Sports. In Portugal, it owns the rights to UEFA Champions League, La Liga Santander, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 Uber Eats, Jupiler Pro League, English Football League Championship, Scottish Premiership, Formula 1, F2, F3, Formula E, NASCAR, Porsche Super Cup, NFL, WTA 1000, ATP 250, Liga Endesa and more. The channel slogan is ‘By the Fans. For the Fans.’
Field of play
ELEVEN wanted to offer something new and exciting to its audiences. Thanks to Vizrt’s XR Playbook, it was able to bring very powerful 3D analysis to TV programs. This tool allows presenters to explain complex play by play match tactics in an authoritative yet audience-friendly way. It can build more drama and suspense in shows, create a wow factor, and help get the most from sports rights by engaging the audience with unique insights and knowledge of strategy.
Vizrt’s training and services teams were deployed to Lisbon to educate the ELEVEN editorial and production teams on how to best use this software. “The learning curve was really fast, and by the end of the first six months of using XR Playbook what we were able to achieve was really impressive,” says Maia.
As well as winning fans over with tools for tracking player speed and movement, the broadcaster makes great use of Virtual Stadium, an augmented reality set that gives a bird’s eye view of the venue. “When people see the stadium, you immediately catch their attention. It offers a key visual aid to explain where the match is being played,” says Maia. “This is a feature that people really love; they can believe they are part of the live action.”
Other broadcasters should take note, says Maia: “It has a positive impact on your audience’s engagement, and it makes the production more fun”.
“We are not finished with offering new experiences,” he continues. “We have more people inside our team comfortable with using the tool. We will be using it in more productions during the next season of the UEFA Champions League, where we really want to move to the next step and use the Virtual Presenter feature.”
“This is a new way to talk about sports, and since we started using these visuals in our studio, we have been approached by some brands who wanted to be part of the premium sports analysis content” adds Maia. “Our commercial department was quickly able to sell advertising on the XR Playbook”.
New Sponsorship Opportunities
Enthusiasm for the tool has created additional sponsorship opportunities and its own set of challenges. “The sponsors demanded that we should have three clips of XR Playbook per Champions League match, thirty minutes after the game,” says Maia. “So, after watching each match, we needed to identify the clips, edit, do the work in XR Playbook and go on air all within thirty minutes.”
“From the feedback we have received, we know that people stay to watch the analysis, because they know we will give them something different. This has had a key impact on audience growth, especially on the UEFA Champions League.”
Additional Sports Programs
This tool is also now used on motorsports. “We feature XR Playbook highlights for Formula 1 in a pre- and post-race extended show which goes out live, then we repeat it during the week” says Maia. “We’re revitalized the passion in Portugal for Formula 1, and it’s now one of the biggest assets we have.”
Maia’s team is also leveraging this solution for its American football coverage to further engage with NFL fans in Portugal and to attract new audiences.
“We have presenters who are real specialists, but they cannot fully express sports tactics by just talking about a video,” says Maia. “Now fans are able to view the game through a specialist perspective.”
Powering Ahead
Maia describes XR Playbook as the perfect tool to allow someone who doesn’t understand a sport to view it through the eyes of an expert.
“We show our audience the sport the way our specialists, or the players or the drivers really see it,” he explains. “If the viewer wants to know why the player made this move, or why this event happened, then we can really get them immersed in the action. And we can make it easier for fans to enjoy the game.”
His advice to other sports broadcasters who are thinking of using sports analysis tool is, “try XR Playbook in a show and let your team play with it, get comfortable with it.”
“You’ll be surprised at the positive outcome of what you can achieve with these clips.”
Don’t worry, this section is already hidden =)
Special Instructions:
Don’t forget to include:
“Our mission is to be near our fans, to bring them inside the broadcast, and try to put them inside the games. With Vizrt, we saw the opportunity to do something really different in this market.”
Pedro Filipe Maia
Editor in Chief at ELEVEN Portugal
ELEVEN PORTUGAL partners with Vizrt to deliver new fan experience to Portuguese audiences.
ELEVEN Portugal is the Lisbon-based arm of the multinational group of sports television channels, Eleven Sports. In Portugal, it owns the rights to UEFA Champions League, La Liga Santander, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 Uber Eats, Jupiler Pro League, English Football League Championship, Scottish Premiership, Formula 1, F2, F3, Formula E, NASCAR, Porsche Super Cup, NFL, WTA 1000, ATP 250, Liga Endesa and more. The channel slogan is ‘By the Fans. For the Fans.’ “Our mission is to be near our fans, to bring them inside the broadcast, and try to put them inside the games,” says Pedro Filipe Maia, Editor in Chief at ELEVEN Portugal. “With Vizrt, we saw the opportunity to do something really different in this market.”
