BE A WINNER WITH BETTER SPORTS METADATA

Sports fans are so-named because they are fanatical about their chosen teams or athletes. Whether it is English Football and American Basketball or individual golfers and race car drivers, fans want to know when their favorites are competing. Just as program guides and user interfaces use metadata to inform consumers about available content, metadata is also used to populate scheduling platforms and UIs with the details of upcoming sports programming. When it’s time for the big game or event, service providers must showcase the metadata most important to fans.  We spoke with our resident sports metadata guru, Andy Young, to gain insight into what makes sports metadata unique. 

One of the key differences between sporting event consumption and films or episodic content is that sporting events happen at a specific time. Fans want to know the correct start time and ‘channel’ where they can watch the game whether on a linear broadcast channel or a streaming service. 

The metadata that matters to sports fans differs from that used to describe entertainment content. Sporting events involve teams that sometimes have names that are similar to other teams. For example, Manchester has two well-known football teams – Manchester United and Manchester City. Metadata must clearly reflect the correct team. European football teams often play in several leagues during the course of the year so it is important for fans to understand whether the game they see scheduled is a domestic event (e.g., FA Cup) Premier League or even a UEFA Champions League match.

These details exemplify the challenges broadcasters or streaming providers face when consolidating relevant metadata for user interfaces. Descriptive metadata often reflects a program hierarchy that reflects seasons and episodes. When it comes to sports, that hierarchy may be structured to reflect an overarching brand such as Premier League or  FIFA World Cup versus the locations related to a known brand (e.g., F1 as the brand with races occurring in Italy, Australia, USA, etc.). For elimination tournaments, such as the US NCAA Basketball Tournament, the specific round is important. (e.g. First Round, Second Round, Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final Four) to fans.

It is also critical to distinguish gender. Tennis, cricket, swimming, gymnastics and football are just a few of the sports that are played by both men and women and viewers must be able to distinguish between the Women’s Ashes Cricket tournament and the Men’s Ashes Cricket tournament.

The rising nature of athletes as celebrities introduces the necessity of metadata reflecting key athlete names. Similar to the provision of cast and crew for entertainment content, sports metadata should include key players or managers. For US baseball, knowing the starting pitcher’s name may be important to avid fans. However, these names can change at the last moment due to unforeseen issues. The ability to update metadata on-the-fly becomes a necessity. 

The second screen (e.g., smartphone or tablet) is now the norm when consumers are enjoying any kind of content. This highlights the ongoing need for deep links to complementary content. While IMDb might be a “go-to” when watching movies and TV series, ESPN, Sky Sports or other domestic sources are the go-to for player stats, team standings or historical performance. 

Despite the unique nature of sports metadata, the structure, consistency, accuracy, detail and relevance of data (as noted in our last blog) remains crucial. If video service providers want to meet and exceed fan expectations and achieve targeted viewership, they must adopt a metadata strategy aligned to the content they provide and utilise a metadata management solution that provides the flexibility and scale required. 

MetaBroadcast has been helping video service providers organise, unify and cleanse descriptive metadata for over 10 years. Let’s talk about how our technology can help you elevate the value of your sports metadata and help sports fans easily cheer on their favorite teams and athletes.