How Technology Is Changing the Way Fans Discover and Consume Content

Digital innovation leads to more-diverse, targeted, and communal experiences

Digital innovation is top of mind for of senior-level sports-business executives strategizing on how to cater to younger and more-diverse audiences, leverage data to power direct-to-consumer content, and deploy different distribution platforms and technology, such as artificial intelligence, to create communal experiences for the end user: the sports fan.

Executives at the NBA, Infinite Athlete, and HANG Media discussed the transformation occurring within the sports-technology ecosystem as part of a digital-innovation track at the SBJ Tech Week conference in New York City this month.

“My experiences have taught me that you always know less than you think you know,” said Jon Klein, co-founder/CEO, HANG Media, a startup fan-experience platform that enables fans to watch live games alongside celebrities and former athletes. “You’re way better off leaning on everybody, the hive, because all of this is brand new and it’s changing so fast. You couldn’t possibly have the answers, so you better create a culture in which everybody contributes to building the answers.”

From left: NBA’s Chris Benyarko, Next League’s Juan De Jesus, Tempus Ex’s Charlie Ebersol, and HANG Media’s Jon Klein at recent SBJ Tech Week

He highlighted two brand — Toyota and Coors Light — case studies that combined tailored content and influencer marketing with precision targeting, human creativity, and artificial intelligence to connect with a specific consumer and sports fan. “Where precision marketing and targeting is going is someplace where your best bet is to let your imagination run wild,” he said. “Think about what’s the absolute optimal situation if you’re a publisher like us. What’s the best you could hope to deliver for a client in your dreams, because AI does make the dreams come true.”

Chris Benyarko, EVP, direct-to-consumer products, technology, and operations, NBA, explained how the league thinks about its global audience and leverages technology to produce some of its content: “When we think about the actual live game content, we think about creating ultimate feeds. We’re very much focused on creating those feeds with different thematics, different languages. That becomes a core piece of our offering.” He noted that about 25% of NBA players are born outside the U.S.

“We can apply AI and other tools to it,” he added, noting, “That allows us to create a lot of different types of derivative content. We can make a 2-minute highlight. We can make a condensed game. We can do that in another language. Providing that volume of content and optionality is where we’re focused on serving the global audience.”

He also addressed the communal aspects of sports and how fan engagement is cultivated by the NBA, which is known for its #NBATwitter community on X (formerly Twitter). “You create that foundation: we have the game, we set what time it’s being played, and then the communities come. They organically do what they want with it. They share clips, they talk about insights.”

Klein explained how HANG Media is intentional in casting former teammates, sports rivals, and, sometimes, friends, who would have natural “chemistry” during the live-streamed hangout session with fans. “If you hit the nerve and find an underserved community that’s dying to be together, they’ll take the ball and run with it,” he said, pointing out that fans can play an integral role in igniting a grassroots marketing effort around a specific branded campaign.

“Sports carries with it that innate passion,” he added. “You want to make sure you are overdelivering to fans so that, when you’re in the room, they’re blown away by coming face-to-face with these heroes. Keep the bellows going on the embers of their memory of it so that they tell everybody.”

The executives suggested various takeaways around digital improvement.

“For me, it’s the possibilities that all of this opens,” said Klein about continuous innovation in sports. “Our mantra at HANG is, we want to look back three months and realize how stupid we were. If you’re conscious of that and own that, keep getting smarter and let yourself aim super high because everything is possible.”

Benyarko, explaining how the NBA provided a “multi-vertical experience” to fans during the recent inaugural in-season tournament, advised the audience to “always focus on innovation.”

Charlie Ebersol, CEO, Infinite Athlete, a sports-data–technology company, opined, “The best ideas are going to come from all of the places we aren’t looking.”