Our latest Amagi AIRTIME webinar features a sports streaming conversation between Amagi’s Kwesi Sakyi-Gyinae and C15 Studio Head of Network Eddie Hunter-Higgins.
Don’t have time to read everything? TLDR:
- C15 Studio treats FAST sports channels like traditional premium TV, focusing on high-quality rights, editorial ad breaks, and strong viewing experiences
- Single-IP channels (e.g., F1, MotoGP, ONE Championship) drive deep engagement, with archive races and replays performing as well as live in many cases
- Cloud-native operations let a 16-person team run multiple premium live channels
- Live content remains the biggest driver of viewership, while FAST also acts as a funnel to paid offerings
OK, let’s dive into the highlights of this Q&A. And if you want to watch the full webinar, you can right here.
Topic 1: Let’s talk about the evolution we’re seeing in the space
Kwesi: Streaming is consistently becoming a huge share of household viewing. Viewers now expect the same quality experience they get on cable: production quality, content quality, and especially around live premium rights moving into streaming.
There’s also a whole demographic that only knows streaming. They’ve never watched cable; their entire experience of live sports is streaming. How are you seeing this evolution from your side?
Eddie: The term “FAST” is very much an industry term. Our audiences don’t really know what a FAST channel is.
Everyone at C15 comes from a pay TV background, so we treat our channels as such. That starts from the rights we go after – we deliberately pursue premium rights, not leftovers.
Early iterations of FAST were often just “leftover” content: older rights people were trying to squeeze a bit more value from. We’re doing the opposite. We want our channels to be premium. We want our viewers to feel like they’re watching a high-quality TV channel.
That extends right down to the customer experience and monetization. Most of our content doesn’t come with pre-baked ad markers, so we have a very talented team that scrubs through and places ad markers at sensible, editorially appropriate points. You don’t want to be at the end of an F1 race or the final putt of a golf tournament and suddenly cut to an ad break.
We focus on both live and non-live, and when ads aren’t being served, we still make sure it’s a good experience. We strongly dislike countdown clocks. We see that as an invitation for people to switch away. Instead, we use two-minute interstitials and other programming to retain viewers and keep them engaged so we get longer watch times.
Topic 2: Keeping viewers engaged
Kwesi: Is there anything you’re doing specifically on streaming to keep viewers engaged? I know you essentially get the same feed that’s going to broadcast. Are you doing anything different with slates or presentation on the streaming side, or is it mostly apples-to-apples with broadcast?
Eddie: We try to make it as apples-to-apples as possible. The ad-funded nature means we likely cut away a bit more for ads, but where we do, we’re in control of that. We cut at opportune times and during natural breaks in play.
For example, on the Trident Poker channel, we take ad breaks between hands. For golf, we might lean into natural lulls – those nice beauty shots. But overall, we want the experience to feel as close as possible to what you’d get on a traditional TV channel.
Kwesi: What have you found to be most successful in creating stickiness for a channel and improving overall viewer experience?
Eddie: We really benefit from the fact that aside from Yahoo Sports Network, our channels are single-IP channels. We’re catering to fanatic fans. Media is cyclical: we went from being told what to watch, to on-demand with infinite choice, to choice paralysis. Now people really value curated, always-on channels for the things they love.
We also make our channels look and feel like standard TV channels. We heavily use Amagi’s dynamic graphics – promos, “Now/Next” layers, etc. – particularly where the EPG can’t fully surface everything. All of that leads to longer watch times and helps viewers know what’s coming up.
Topic 3: How does a small team run all of these premium live channels?
Kwesi: Pull back the curtain a bit: how do your technical operations work? How have you built your workflows to maintain high standards for viewership and engagement while staying lean and agile?
Eddie: Coming from traditional linear and satellite TV, I’m used to massive playout campuses with huge infrastructure.
With Amagi, we don’t need that. Instead of a massive campus, we can operate from anywhere. For us, it’s central London, but fundamentally, it’s just two windows on a screen.
Within that environment, we can do everything a major playout facility can: scheduling, graphics in live, full planning, and so on. The cloud-native setup lets a small team punch above its weight.
Topic 4: Monetization during live events
Kwesi: During a live event, so many things can go wrong, and often do. A lot of our partners love having the flexibility to join in progress, do live joins, and so on.
But how do you handle monetization when, say, a poker event is supposed to be 12 hours and runs 14? Are you using squeezebacks? How do you make sure you’re still showing the game but not overly disrupting the viewing experience, while keeping monetization in place?
Eddie: This is where manual triggering of ad markers is key. If there’s nothing sold, the viewer sees no interruption. Ideally, there are ads, but the timing has to be right.
It’s about training operators to read the flow of the event and take breaks at the right times. Communication with the MCR helps. If they think something is about to end, we might hold off.
You’re never going to get the same ad load in live that you can in non-live, unfortunately. But we’re willing to sacrifice some ad load in favor of a better customer experience, trusting that the improved experience leads to more viewing overall, which we’ve absolutely seen.
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