Case Study: Game, set and mobile match - March 2007  

After a slight doldrum in the 1990s, tennis is back with a bang, writes PA Sportev’s chief operating officer Steve Akers, and offers some of the most exciting action of any sport across the world. As a truly global game, new media is an important factor in its exposure over the coming years, and London-based PA Sportev is at the heart of this explosion of new media content.

PA Sportev was founded in 1999 (as Sportev) and has spent over seven years building and implementing IP video delivery solutions for the world's largest broadband networks, mobile networks and sports rights holder customers. The company’s London facility (within a Tier 1 ISP for maximum connectivity), enables it to receive audiovisual feeds direct from BT Tower or via satellite, as well as capture content from tape, DVD and via IP.
PA Sportev currently delivers live and on-demand video solutions to over 50 mobile and broadband network customers in more than 30 territories worldwide including Vodafone, Optus, BT Yahoo!, Orange and Hutchison 3G. PA Sportev is also the Official New Media Partner to some of the world's largest sports rights holders, including the FA Premier League (English soccer) and England rugby.
PA Sportev's prinicpal tennis broadband product is Daviscup.tv. For over five
Years, the company has provided highlights of every tie of every match, from Croatia's knife-edge win in 2005's final to Sweden's shock first round victory over Australia in 2004. The site is fully interactive, with each match offering high quality video and key stats to give the user a unique experience. The site is free to use (only registration is required), and works with all leading internet browsers. An interactive archive is of the previous year's tournament is also available.

Tennis on the go

PA Sportev is also leading the line with its tennis mobile products. Working closely both with rights holders and mobile clients, it has produced pioneering WAP sites that offer a way for tournament sponsors to gain maximum multi-platform exposure. This is particularly important for the global interest that Grand Slam tournaments offer, and PA Sportev has produced WAP products for the French (pictured above right courtesy of Getty Images Sport/AFP and photographed by Jack Guez) , US and Australian Opens.
All Sportev wapsites are built using the XHTML 1.0 (WAP 2.0) specification.
This specification is standard for all modern phones (produced within the last four years). PA Sportev avoids using mark-ups that may prove troublesome for older browsers and design all sites to be compatible with the widest possible range of mobile device browsers, combining attention to detail in presentation with the smallest possible download size.
Commercially the sites are funded by the federations and used as additional methods of distribution. Roland Garros licensed the video and data products out to mobile operators in France, Asia, Australia, the Middle East and South Africa. The money generated from this licensing provided the resource to develop a direct to consumer product which is accessible from any WAP-enabled phone on any network in any territory. The direct to user site generated over 500,000 hits during the two weeks of the tournament and has
been re-commissioned for the 2007 tournament in June.

The Australian Open

Optus, a major sponsor of the Australian Open, wanted a WAP site that didn’t just work for it commercially but also could be used as an effective marketing tool to its 2m or so subscribers. With PA Sportev already running the entire Premier League WAP site for Optus, the company was a natural choice to develop the mobile operator’s site for the Australian Open (OptusZoo).
The Optus site gave tennis fans the chance to check live scores on the go, watch video highlights, read player profiles, check the schedule of play and much more.
“It has been a fantastic drawcard for fans on the Optus service,” said Michael Smith, consumer group marketing director for Optus, speaking during the 2007 Australian Open, “and complements the sponsorship and telecoms partnership that Optus has in place with the Australian Open. As content partners, the Sportev crew have been nimble and responsive in creating this site to the highest standards."
During the 2007 event, the Australian Open mobile site in OptusZoo supported 29,132 unique browsers and received 190,365 total page impressions of which the following was recorded:

Live updates: 76,273 impressions  
Match results: 44,387 impressions
Landing page: 41,449 impressions
Schedule: 12,625 impressions
News: 8,174 impressions
Video: 5,256 impressions
Competition: 763 entries

The Australian Open dominated sports interest in that period and was a key driver of Optus’ content traffic to the OptusZoo Sport Channel and the Australian Open traffic comprised 67% of the operator’s Sport Channel traffic. Optus’ total page impressions for the OptusZoo Sport Channel were 284,655 for the fortnight from 15 to 28 January. The overall page impressions on OptusZoo mobile were 3,393,395 for the same period.
“The Australian Open traffic therefore made up almost 6% of the total site traffic which is substantial when it is a limited time period of only two weeks and the One Day Internationals Cricket Series was on at the same
Time," added Smith.
Finally, Optus was thrilled to receive 853 entries for an Australian Open competition that it ran, which included the question: “What would give you the competitive advantage against Roger Federer? The winner's response, in truly inimitable Australian style, was as follows: “A John Newcombe serve and a Tony Roche volley, Rosewall forehand and backhand by Stolle, legs like Lleyton and a Pat Cash smash all rolled up with Rafter panache.” A tough challenge indeed for genetic engineers!

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