Eurosport teams with Grabyo to scale its social video presence

Sports broadcaster Eurosport has teamed with cloud-based video speciality Grabyo in an effort to amplify its distribution of live streams and real-time highlights across social platforms.

The partnership included the use of Grabyos services throughout the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang this February, where the company helped Eurosport successfully deliver its first truly digital Games across Europe.

Grabyo is now being used by Eurosports content teams across key European markets including the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Norway and Sweden. Grabyos platform enables digital teams to distribute highlights from live broadcasts straight to audiences on Facebook and Twitter, as well as Eurosports web and app channels.

Social video is being used by Eurosport to promote its video services available on its website and via its Eurosport app, driving tune-in and promotion for its OTT service. It also provides the broadcaster with accelerated video editing and publishing, and a simplified workflow to monetise social video on Twitter and Facebook.

“We are delighted to be partnering with Grabyo to bring more content to our audiences across our key territories,”  said Sameer Pabari, senior vice president of content & business development for Discovery and Eurosport. “With so many sports properties to cover, Grabyo provides our teams with a simple, highly-scalable workflow to quickly distribute content to multiple digital platforms and social accounts.”

During the PyeongChang Games, Eurosport has a 70-strong digital production team on-site, complemented by an additional 80 staff working in local market digital editorial teams in Europe, and 20 of the biggest digital influencers from across Europe, who were embedded into international and local editorial teams.

By working with Grabyo, the Olympics team was able to bring key moments, highlights, storylines and reaction to audiences in real-time across a broad range of platforms. Following the conclusion of the Games, Discovery, Eurosports parent firm, reported 4.5bn video views, 1.7bn hours of video watched, and 386m viewers during the games. Eurosport also saw 8.1m engagements around the Olympics across its social accounts, and Discovery and Eurosports digital and social platforms reached a record 76m, more than doubling the average number of users.

“We are excited to work with the Discovery and Eurosport teams to enhance production processes and engage millions of digital fans across key markets in Europe,” said Gareth Capon, CEO of Grabyo. “The need to bring content to viewers in real-time is now more crucial than ever. Grabyo is designed with speed and simplicity at its core, giving Eurosport the tools it needsd to meet the demands of modern sports fans.”