Gareth Capon (left) and Thierry Henry, an investor in Grabyo (right)
The following interview is part of our ongoing Expert Series that asks C-level professionals, team presidents, league executives, athletic directors and other sports influencers about their latest thoughts and insights on new technologies impacting the sports industry.
Name: Gareth Capon
Company: Grabyo
Position: Chief Executive Officer
Gareth Capon is the Chief Executive Officer of Grabyo, which enables broadcasters and content rights holders to live stream, edit, share and monetize real time social video on any platform. Current partners include La Liga, Formula E, AELTC Wimbledon, Chelsea FC and ATP Media.
Sports stars and influencers like Thierry Henry, Robin van Persie, Cesc Fabregas and Tony Parker are all investors in Grabyo along with leading investors Jorg Mohaupt (MD, Access Industries) and Oliver Slipper (Founder, Perform Group).
1) What utilization of Grabyo’s live streaming and mobile editing/social sharing tools around professional or college sports has recently blown you away and why?
As well as using our technology to deliver sponsored live streams on Facebook, BeIN Sports USA has also been posting instant highlights on Facebook and promoting them via the televised broadcast — so pushing viewers from TV to social to drive consumption and sharing. It is an innovative approach and it’s proving effective in helping them build their digital fan base and recognizes the value of fans sharing content with their friends on social platforms to drive awareness, tune-in and promotion for key content formats.
2) If money were no object, what technology would you build or buy to help you do your job better?
We hear a lot from our clients that they don’t want to be dependent on broadcast production teams to deliver high quality TV-like shows on Facebook Live and they are constantly having to rein in their plans due to resource or capacity restrictions. This challenge is exacerbated by the need to bring the audience closer to the live productions taking advantage of the connections and community inherent in live streaming on social platforms. It’s actually something we’re working on so watch this space.
3) As a sports fan, what sports-related service, app, product, etc., could you not live without and why?
The most exciting thing about being a sports fan today is that there is an app for almost everything, from OTT video and sports news, to data and performance improvement. Yet given the real-time nature of sports, and the rapid growth of social video, Twitter remains an important part of my sports experience as a fan. From goal highlights from the Premier League and Champions League, live streaming of the NFL, updates from my favourite teams and combined with all the real-time conversations happening around games, Twitter is my go-to app when my favourite sports are on.
4) How is Grabyo adapting to the way sports is consumed and shared online in 2017?
Thanks to the growth of video consumption on social platforms, rights owners are facing intense competition for audience. They’re having to ramp up video production for multiple digital platforms in order to engage audiences and maintain a loyal fan base. We’re very mindful of the pressures they face and are focused on eliminating the barriers to video production. The demand for content is immediate and everywhere. Sports fans are not willing to wait to see the highlights of their favourite sports or have to find a TV to watch a game live — they expect the action to be available right now wherever they are. This is why our move into live streaming on social platforms is important and also why we have launched new tools to create social video highlights in real-time in a web browser. Using Grabyo, you can share sports content in multiple forms across a myriad of platforms in a matter of seconds, which is what today’s sports fans demand.
5) If you had to project 20 years into the future, how will most fans watch their favorite sports teams and athletes?
Given the rapid pace of change in the sports industry it’s hard to predict that far ahead, what is certain is that the relationship between sports and TV will have fundamentally changed and OTT will be the dominant form of distribution for both live sports and VOD. VR and AR technologies will be much more advanced and distribution of devices will be mainstream — as with smartphones today. The opportunity for AR use within sports venues as well as in the home fascinates me — no more having to “guess” if that last try was scored in the far corner of the stadium, just check your heads-up display in your sunglasses for an instant replay. One thing that won’t change is the demand for watching sports live; there is little that can match the passion and excitement of being in the stadium. The music industry is a good reference for this: we can carry all of the world’s music on our phones for $10 a month, but it still does not beat being at the front of the stage for the headline acts at Glastonbury…even with all that mud!
6) Give us your bold prediction about a form of mobile technology that will be integral to sports in general over the next 12 months and why?
Mobile video. With billions of smartphones to be connected in the next 12 months, the opportunity for rights holders, broadcasters, teams and players to reach this audience is unprecedented. Mobile phones are not just communication devices, they are a mini-supercomputers combined with a connected HD-TV that we carry around in our pockets every day. When mobile is considered in that context it’s the most powerful video platform out there.
