NeuLion Leverages Xbox One Platform To Deliver Live Sports Content in 60 fps

With each new gaming console and over-the-top service, sports fans have yet another platform on which to consume content. Through a partnership with Microsoft, NeuLion is ensuring that fans purchasing the Xbox One system have access to high-quality live video, real-time stats, and more.

NeuLion software delivers NFL video and real-time stats to Xbox One, which enables interaction with the content as well as with other fans.

As part of a multiyear agreement inked last month, Microsoft has licensed the NeuLion Sports Platform, along with NeuLion-provided services to develop, host, and operate the delivery of specific live sports content on Xbox One.

“Microsoft hired NeuLion to provide all the video, so we took advantage of the new Xbox One platform. That means much higher frame rate: 60 frames a second,” says Chris Wagner, EVP/co-founder of NeuLion. “If you saw it, it would blow you away. It’s really incredible.”

Xbox One, released last November, boasts upgraded hardware, technical capabilities, and graphics processing than its predecessor, Xbox 360.

According to a Microsoft spokesperson, Xbox One is currently streaming NFL Network through cable authentication (the application is free with an Xbox Live Gold subscription). NeuLion’s software captures the live linear feed on its cloud-based service, formats the content, and delivers to Xbox One in seven different bitrates (up to 6 Mbps per stream).

“One of NeuLion’s core strengths is our ability to get our partners to market fast with an integrated experience,” says Wagner. “Our sports platform has helped to reduce the complexities involved and deliver for Xbox fans a tremendous live sports experience on the game console.”

Although NFL Network is the only sports content currently available on Xbox One, Wagner foresees upgrading NeuLion’s Xbox 360 offerings to the new system. Xbox One offers an optimal platform for live video, real-time stats, and interacting with the content as well as with other fans.

“Streaming’s moved on, in my opinion, into these more-interactive services,” says Wagner. “How fans interact with live sports, I think, is more important than just streaming the game. How you interact through stats, through instant replay, through slow-motion replay, [through] highlights—all those things are more interesting with live sports when you can interact with it versus just doing a stream of the game.”