<\/a>Brian Dailey, VP, sports digital media, Showtime Networks<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cWe were engaging back and forth with a lot of fans, just monitoring the conversation overall, which was incredibly positive. To be honest, very, very little negative commentary at all. People were very appreciative of the gesture,\u201c Dailey says. \u201cI think we really surprised people. I think fans have come to expect a lesser quality when it comes to streaming, and I think we over-delivered.\u201c<\/p>\n
Showtime was an early adopter of Facebook Live and has put boxing press conferences and weigh-ins on the social network for a year now. The move has been a win for Showtime and its viewers: press conferences and weigh-ins often come with substantial delays. Thanks to its use of Facebook Live, Showtime no longer has to worry about keeping a schedule. It can go live whenever an event is ready.<\/p>\n
Along the way, Showtime learned lessons about what works on Facebook Live. Fans love behind-the-scenes videos, such as locker-room interviews. They want online access to things they normally wouldn\u2019t see. Facebook Live is great for videos that complement the night\u2019s big attraction.<\/p>\n
Facebook Live plays a part in Showtime\u2019s larger online strategy. In the short term, it helps drive people to the evening\u2019s boxing card, especially since Showtime offers a free trial. In the long term, Facebook exposes viewers to the brand and leads to new subscribers. Following the Dec. 10 event, Showtime saw a positive spike for SHO.com viewing.<\/p>\n
Facebook Live is only one part of Showtime\u2019s social-network strategy. It posts real-time news to Twitter, shows its best pics on Instagram (and increasingly uses it for video), and spotlights an entire event with Snapchat. Facebook gets a little of all that, as well as the live stream.<\/p>\n
To judge the event\u2019s success, Showtime looked at three main metrics \u2014 total reach, views, and traffic to SHO.com \u2014 as well as the overall nature of viewer engagement. By all accounts, it achieved what it wanted to, Dailey says.<\/p>\n
Showtime partnered with Malka Media Group, a production house out of Hoboken, NJ, to stream the event. Malka created the event graphics as well. Showtime produced the event with Blackmagic production gear and Livestream hardware.<\/p>\n
Showtime made huge progress online this year, something it hopes to continue in 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom our digital standpoint,\u201d Dailey says, \u201cI think this was a big year for us in establishing our social ecosystem. We have 18 profiles now across the five main social platforms. We really took a big step in filling out our portfolio, making sure all of our brands, our shows, our franchises were represented across the board and really defining the voices of those handles on those platforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re really into storytelling and offering our fans quality premium content that you can consume and enjoy,\u201d he continues, \u201cwhile also making people curious as to what more is available behind the paywall \u2014 getting them in with a good experience and hopefully converting them to a Showtime subscriber.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is a great way to hype a fight: boxing fans were able to watch broadcast-quality multicam productions of two undercard fights on Facebook Live on Dec. 10, leading up […]\n More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":109689,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8899,9248],"tags":[9909,6628,4821],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109686"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109686"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109700,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109686\/revisions\/109700"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}