Sport

Watch ‘overseas sports broadcasting’ with Naver Plus membership

In addition to the digital content benefits of Naver Plus membership, the 'SPOTV NOW' 'unlimited sports broadcasting' pass is newly added.

In addition to overseas soccer broadcasts such as the Premier League and La Liga in which players such as Son Heung-min and Lee Kang-in compete, it is expected that membership users will have a wider choice of content as they can watch various games such as MLB and NBA.

Spotify Now is a premium sports live OTT service. Naver Plus membership members who choose the “Unlimited Sports” pass can watch various sports broadcasts for free along with the benefit of accumulating up to 5% of Naver Pay points when shopping for a subscription fee of 4,900 won per month.

Representatively, you can watch all Premier League matches of Son Heung-min's team, Tottenham, and Lee Kang-in's team, Mallorca's La Liga matches. You can enjoy live broadcasting of various sports events and highlight VOD services.

If you upgrade to basic and premium subscriptions, you can watch the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, and the U.S. Mixed Martial Arts (UFC), and the service is provided at a reasonable price compared to the original price, enhancing the benefits and competitiveness.

For example, the 'Basic Pass', which allows you to watch all broadcasts of Spotify Now, is an additional 3,800 won per month (56% discount from the normal price), and the 'Premium Pass', which provides super-high definition and smart TV linkage benefits, is an additional 11,500 Won per month. You can do it.

In addition, a promotion that allows customers to upgrade to the 'Spoti Now Basic Pass' by adding 100 won to their Naver Plus membership will be held until the 21st of next month.

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As new media evolves, great changes have taken place in the broadcasting ecosystem. With the development of the Internet and communication technology, viewing behavior has also changed significantly. In the past, players' games were watched for free through terrestrial broadcasting or through cable TV, after paying only the channel subscription fee. Now, with the development of smartphones and the Internet, an environment has been created in which it is not necessary to “attack” real-time live broadcasting through terrestrial or cable TV at dawn. The number of viewers who only watch summary videos such as game highlights through portals such as Naver and Daum has increased. As a broadcasting company, revenue decreased due to declining viewer ratings, profitability, and skyrocketing broadcasting rights fees, and finally turned into a situation where it was in the red. SBS SPORTS gave up the exclusive broadcasting rights contract from the opening match of the 2018/2019 season after contemplating an extension contract for broadcasting rights.

While terrestrial broadcasters were agonizing over broadcasting rights, agencies that purchased broadcasting rights were targeting niche markets. A representative company is Spotify. Spotibi was one of the companies that bought broadcasting rights instead of cable channels. However, when terrestrial broadcasters worried about broadcasting due to viewership ratings and profitability, they established a subsidiary to create a sports broadcasting channel. Spotify, which started broadcasting the English Premier League in 2016, has been broadcasting the English Premier League, Champions League, and UEFA Nations League since the 2018/2019 season.

Although he participated in the MLB broadcast, he faced a decline in viewership and revenue due to changes in viewing behavior. This is because broadcasters have to provide relay service that is comparable to that of terrestrial broadcasters with a smaller budget than terrestrial broadcasters. In the end, Spotify introduced a billing system in which viewers receive a “subscription fee” of 8,000 to 12,000 won per month, plus a “viewing fee” per program. A double billing system was used for popular team games, and only a subscription fee was allowed for relatively unpopular games. Viewers protested, saying, “If you get paid twice, make the broadcast fun.”

? Through Naver, you can watch sports broadcast by Spotify. ? Spotify broadcast screen capture

In foreign countries, the billing system in the form of ‘Pay per View’ is common. In Korea, viewers are not accustomed to this system, so viewer complaints are bound to come out. Sports broadcasts, which were provided free of charge through terrestrial broadcasting, now require viewers to pay a double fee to watch them. There is nothing wrong with paid services. However, the conversion to pay was made too hastily, and the quality of the content is also lacking compared to watching through terrestrial broadcasting in the past. A simple alternative is to supplement the qualitative part as in the past relay.

The representative inconvenience picked up by viewers is the lack of ability of commentators. It is certain that the current commentators are experts rather than ordinary people. However, viewers feel that they lack the experience and expertise of SBS Sports or MBC Sports commentators in the past. In response, Spotify recruited commentator Jang Ji-hyun, who has been broadcasting the Premier League for the past 13 years. After seeing the reaction of the viewers, it was decided to recruit additional commentators, but it is still insufficient at the moment.

To reconcile profit generation with universal viewing rights, Spotify needs to communicate with its audience. Spotify does not compete with other broadcasters as it broadcasts exclusively. While expanding free VOD (Video on Demand) services in the form of clips through portals widely used in Korea, such as Naver and Daum, and various channels of the company, such as SPOTV NOW and SPOTV ON, real-time paid channels are investing for high-quality relay services. should not be spared

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Website: https://hanntv.com/