Evertz Ease Live, an interactive overlay solution, has won six prestigious SportsPro OTT Awards in Madrid, Spain.
The SportsPro OTT Awards are given out annually to recognise the remarkable advancement and innovative strategies in the world of sports broadcasting and OTT.
The awards and nominees were chosen by an independent panel of international industry professionals.
Evertz Ease Live was once again recognized for its innovations with YES Network on the YES App.
This year, YES Network launched its direct-to-consumer services, YES Rewards, and extended its interactive experience to Connected TVs.
This work netted the team four awards including Gold for Platform Of The Year – D2C and Best in Fan Engagement; and Silver for Best User Experience and Innovation Of The Year.
The other nominees for these awards were amongst the industry’s best including Mediapro, MLB, NHL.tv, Racing TV, KAYO Sports, WNBA, and others. The YES App had previously won Best in Fan Engagement in 2022.
Ease Live, an Evertz company, was also recognised for the team’s efforts in interactive experiences as it won Gold for Best Emerging Tech Company and Silver for Tech Solution of the Year.
“We‘re truly humbled considering the great brands and projects we were in competition with for the awards. We have a strong focus on delivering innovation and unlocking new revenue streams for our customers – and these awards are a testament to that,” says Kjetil Horneland, CEO of Ease Live.
The interactive graphic overlays built using Evertz Ease Live SaaS (software–as–a–service), takes the fan experience to another level by engaging fans with dynamic and personalized storytelling content on top of the live stream as a single-screen experience.
Fans can access live game stats, polls, quizzes and facts without leaving the live video stream and app.
The YES App additional features include watch parties, where fans can invite their friends to a live video chat as they watch the game and Pick-N-Play Live, which allows fans to make in-game predictions without leaving the live video stream.
With Ease Live, YES Network has experienced double-digit growth year-over-year in fan engagement since its launch in 2021.
Alongside its support for mobile and web-based touch devices, Ease Live also offers interactive experiences developed for Connected TV devices including Apple TV, Roku and Android TV.
These allow the viewer to engage with content using their television’s remote control device.
Ease Live highlights additional integration with reward and loyalty services that complete the fan engagement experience.
Content owners can use the first-party data collected from the fan’s interaction with the graphical overlays to reward them with unique features or experiences based on their frequency of interactions.
This enables the content owner to build a strong and loyal community and further opportunities for content monetization.