Our Client
A major sports broadcaster in Asia, our client delivers premium coverage across multiple platforms. The organization is recognized for its commitment to innovation and fan engagement, and for setting high standards in sports broadcasting across the region.
Challenges Faced
The broadcaster wanted to transform how live sports moments are captured, edited, and shared. In today’s digital-first landscape, immediacy and personalization are critical, and the organization aimed to deliver smarter, faster, and more engaging experiences for viewers.
However, several obstacles in its editorial workflow stood in the way:
- Reliance on third-party providers: Standardized solutions from external suppliers were rigid, less customizable, and didn’t align with the network’s editorial perspective.
- Slow turnaround times: Manual editing and delayed data feeds limited real-time responsiveness in live sports.
- Evolving fan expectations: Audiences increasingly demand personalized recaps, mobile-ready highlights, and interactive “catch-up” features. Traditional workflows were too slow and inflexible to meet these needs.
To overcome these barriers, the broadcaster needed to internalize control of its data and deliver highlights instantly, without compromising creativity or editorial independence.
Paving the Way to Success
To tackle these challenges, the team launched an internal hackathon, “Open Innovation”, bringing together experts in AI, computer vision, audio processing, and broadcast production. The goal was to build a modular, real-time pipeline to detect key moments in sports broadcasts and automatically generate highlight videos.
The solution combined several advanced technologies:
- Speech-to-text: Transcribing live commentary to capture key actions and player mentions.
- Audio classification: Detecting crowd reactions, music, and silences to highlight key moments.
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR): Reading on-screen graphics such as scores and timers.
- Motion and scene analysis: Identifying replays, celebrations, and shifts in gameplay intensity.
These inputs powered an automated editing engine producing:
- Short clips for social media (30–90 seconds)
- Narrative recaps for streaming platforms (3–5 minutes)
- Smart Catch-Up features, allowing viewers to replay key highlights instantly
The system was built with an open, scalable architecture, enabling integration of new modules or human feedback loops. Compliance with standards such as EBUCore ensures smooth content exchange, archiving, and long-term preservation. Although initially designed for football, the system can be adapted to other sports like tennis, Formula 1, e-sports, or archival video indexing.
Benefits Unlocked
The project delivered clear, measurable impact:
- Editorial independence: Full control over metadata and content, reducing reliance on third-party providers.
- Real-time responsiveness: Automated highlights and structured data allow editorial teams to react instantly.
- Enhanced fan experiences: Personalized, dynamic, and mobile-ready content meets modern audience expectations.
Looking forward, the broadcaster is exploring advanced layers such as natural language processing, emotional recognition, and biometric insights, moving toward semi-automated storytelling, where machines complement journalists in narrating live sports.
Visit our Data & AI Center of Excellence to see how we help clients reinvent workflows, create engaging fan experiences, and stay ahead of the game.
