While broadcasting has changed beyond belief over the past few decades with
viewers now watching what they want, when they want, and wherever they happen
to be, one thing that hasn’t changed is broadcasters’ need to appeal to more
viewers. Broadcasters employ a range of strategies to achieve this aim, from
promotional activity and special offers, acquiring rights, launching new services,
bundling, as well as expanding on to new platforms or into new regions. Another
strategy growing in popularity is alt-casting (alternate broadcasting).
In simple terms, alt-casting is the production and delivery of a secondary broadcast
that differs from the main event. It works particularly well with sports broadcasting
but also holds value for news and entertainment live events. The alt-cast is
essentially the same event but repackaged to appeal to different audiences. As such,
it may feature different commentary or presenters, follow a different tone or style, or
show the event from a different perspective using alternative camera angles, or with
different on-screen graphics, languages or captions. The overall aim is to appeal to a
broader audience by presenting the coverage in a different way.
Alt-casting itself is not a new phenomenon, having been employed by sports media
company, ESPN as far back as 1993 when it showed alternate broadcasts of sports
events on its sister channel ESPN2, including car racing exclusively from the
perspective of in-car cameras. What’s changed is that cloud-based infrastructure,
and particularly cloud playout, is giving broadcasters the flexibility to easily and costeffectively
create, launch and distribute alternate broadcast channels, making the
strategy much easier to experiment with and adopt. The cost and complexity of
spinning up these alt-cast variants has significantly decreased compared to what it
was before cloud working was accessible.
Some examples of broadcasters who have leveraged alt-casting in recent years
include CBS Sports and Nickelodeon who partnered to deliver a family friendly
alternate broadcast of the NFL Wild Card Weekend playoffs. The alt-cast used fun
AR graphic overlays including a slime cannon, kid friendly commentators and
featured favourite characters such as Spongebob Squarepants. Other examples
include ESPN’s Megacast, an alternative broadcast of the NCAA Women’s
Basketball Tournament’s Final Four on ESPN2 with different commentators to the
main broadcast, and the NFL Manningcast, an alt-cast of Monday Night Football, but
with a more casual and humorous take on the game.
Cloud solutions offer unparalleled flexibility for broadcasters. New channels showing
alternative broadcasts can be quickly spun up/down as needs require, and this can
be done without the heavy capex expenditure that traditional on-prem models
require. This makes it quick and cost effective for broadcasters to launch pop-up
channels covering an alternative broadcast, whether a sporting event or series, or for
news and entertainment of live special event.
Alt-casting isn’t there to replace the main broadcast, but rather to appeal to a wider
viewer demographic. Its value lies in that it gives viewers more choice because
events can be packaged and presented in different ways, with different styles and
tones. This can help broadcasters appeal to different audience demographics, in
different age groups, or in different regions.
For those broadcasters looking to grow their reach by appealing to a wider cohort of
viewers, alt-casting, with cloud playout’s inherent flexibility, could well help to achieve
that aim. Cloud playout allows broadcasters to quickly launch new channels and
experiment with new and alternative formats such as different commentary styles,
graphics and overlays or new camera angles; it makes it easy to test these different
models, all without the need for additional and costly infrastructure.
With Veset’s feature rich, SaaS, cloud playout platform Nimbus, broadcasters can
create and manage main and alternative channels efficiently and easily. Veset
Nimbus offers an intuitive user interface that is simple to use yet powerful enough to
manage complex operations. It also includes advanced controls and features for
effective multichannel broadcasting, such as automation and intelligent management
and analytics.
Additionally, Veset Nimbus provides enhanced graphics capabilities that streamline
the creation, management, and delivery of dynamic visuals for both traditional
broadcast and digital platforms. Whether producing alternative coverage for live
entertainment events or sports coverage, Veset Nimbus enables seamless
integration of live stream graphics, including overlays, lower-thirds, tickers, and realtime
updates, ensuring enhanced audience engagement across every screen.
Furthermore, Veset has recently partnered with swXtch.io to deliver multicasting
capability in the cloud, which brings added benefits to broadcasters leveraging altcasting.
Veset will be at IBC in Amsterdam from 12th -15th September on booth 5.D52 and
would love to talk to you and answer any questions you may have about managing
playout for alternate broadcasts. Arrange a meeting or call by our booth to find out
more.
