Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and the U.S. Ski Team announced that live coverage of the 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships will be available on mobile devices in the United States for the first time.
This year’s championships take place in Falun, Sweden, from 18 February to 1 March. Ericsson will use its existing solution on top of its Service Enablement Platform plus Mediaroom Reach TV Anywhere solutions to make live broadcast feeds from the event in Falun accessible via the Live Arena Falun2015 app, developed by Tension Graphics.
As the digital experience partner to the 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun, Ericsson has delivered a platform called Ericsson Networked Event that collects a vast amount of data and information from and around the championships. The information is made available to developers through APIs that make it possible for third-party developers to create apps and interactive webpages that offer a unique second screen experience for ski fans and followers of the championships.
Together with the U.S. Ski Team, the broadcasting rights owner in the U.S., Ericsson can now offer this experience to the North American market. Through two different apps, fans and followers of the championships will get detailed information and a better experience of all competitions.
Michael Jaquet, Chief Marketing Officer at the U.S. Ski Team, said, “The U.S. Ski Team invested in the U.S. rights to the World Championships in order to ensure that our fans in America would have the opportunity to watch the action live. With its innovative Live Arena app, Ericsson is an outstanding partner to help deliver the event to the USA.”
Cecilia Atterwall, Head of Strategy, Marketing and Communications at Global Services, Ericsson, said, “We envisage a Networked Society in which connectivity is the starting point for new ways of innovating, collaborating and socialising. As the digital experience partner for the 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, we’re excited about the opportunity to demonstrate – together with the U.S. Ski Team – a very practical example of the Networked Society in action.”
While viewers in Sweden will also have the option of watching the 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships on broadcast TV, the Live Arena Falun2015 app will be the only means of watching live TV coverage of the event in the U.S. Viewers in the U.S. will also be able to catch up with events they miss by watching video on demand on the U.S. Ski Team website. A link available in the Live Arena Falun2015 app will make it easy to switch between the app and the U.S. Ski Team website.
Atterwall added, “Perhaps the most interesting aspect of how the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships will be viewed in the United States is the fact that what we normally call the ‘second screen’ – mobile phones, tablets and computer screens – will in fact be the primary screen. This supports one of the 10 hot consumer trends that Ericsson announced at the end of last year, and we predict that 2015 will be the first year in which more people watch streamed content than watch broadcast TV.”
Beyond the broadcast experience, the Live Arena Falun2015 app also offers a highly immersive, interactive experience that will allow users to follow their favorite skiers as they compete and take a virtual tour of the ski stadium. In the United States, the app also incorporates all TV streams – meaning the user can choose from a variety of different camera angles to create a personalized viewing experience.
At the event, around 700 athletes from more than 50 countries will compete in cross-country skiing, ski jumping and Nordic combined events.
