SES, the global content connectivity solutions provider, has renewed its contract with American football’s NFL to deliver the league’s game content to over 35 broadcast partners across Europe, Asia, and North and South America.
SES has said that to meet the NFL’s requirements going forward it has offered a combination of IP-based transport protocol (SRT) and its global satellite fleet to deliver all game content.
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The new contract includes adding the company’s new content orchestration platform SES SCORE and Astra 1 Sports platform in Europe, as well as renewed prime satellite capacity for the Americas and Asia to distribute over 150 upcoming games, with an option to add more games in the future.
Michele Gosetti, head of sales, sports, and events at SES, said: “We are delighted to continue our partnership with the NFL as they again put trust in our hybrid delivery model, utilizing our satellite network paired with extensive terrestrial infrastructure.
“Our track record with the NFL spans nearly 20 years, and as the league expands into more international markets, we have both the infrastructure and innovative video capabilities to meet their needs today and in the future.”
The renewal continues a partnership between SES and the NFL, which first started in 2005. The partnership now sees five simultaneous feeds for NFL games across its global content delivery network, with the ability to expand to 14 feeds if needed.
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By GlobalDataThe contract renewal comes as global interest in the NFL continues to rise, while the NFL also looks to boost its international profile elsewhere.
The league is staging five international regular-season games this season in London and Frankfurt, Germany as part of its international growth plan.
The league has prioritized increasing its international presence after awarding IHMAs to 18 of its 32 franchises across eight countries to build its brand appeal and fanbase globally.
The eight IHMAs are the UK, Germany, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Spain, China, and Australia. Franchises are not limited to just one and indeed in some cases now have access to three.
Last month, NFL executive vice president Peter O’Reilly said the league is preparing to play future international regular-season games in Spain and Brazil as soon as next season.
Jeffery Lombardi, NFL’s senior director of international production operations, said: “The NFL is committed to reaching more fans around the world through both live events and expanded broadcast engagements, including the NFL International Series, and making our games and content available in more countries via a growing ecosystem of broadcast technologies.
“Thanks to the strong hybrid delivery model SES offers us, we are able to provide game content to more people and places around the world with the quality and reliability that ensures an enjoyable fan experience.”
Meanwhile, SES has announced it is launching a new platform that will allow content owners and rights holders to deliver live sports and events content more easily.
SES has described its Sports Content Orchestration Enabler (SCORE) as an “easy-to-use centralized platform that connects content owners and rights holders with takers worldwide.”
It added the product is aimed at the federations or sports rights holders, who can set prices for multiple feeds, different audios, or metadata.
Michele Gostti, head of sales, sports, and events at SES, said: “Our strength is in orchestrating the live content. Federations that are interested in bringing more value, more content, more valuable content to the broadcasters, broadcasters, who are happy to receive that. Here it is. Everything into one single interface.
“The principle is that is you have a place where, as a broadcaster, you log in, you see what’s available to you, you have paid the rights for it, and you see only what you pay the rights for, and you download it.
“So, if the signal is on satellite, you can receive the signal inside it. You’re interested in that same signal to receive it on SRT. Because your infrastructure is SRT, you can select not to have it on the satellite, but to have it over the SRT.”
In February, SES was brought on board to distribute the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships by Infront, the marketing and media rights partner of the FIS governing body.
