Case Study: Running an online success in NYC - April 2007  

Following last month’s case study on the Flora London Marathon, Chris Ott, sports division director at MediaZone, outlines the success of streaming a major marathon event through his company’s involvement at the 2006 New York City Marathon.

The 2006 IMG New York City Marathon (pictured right and below right courtesy of Getty Images Sport and photographers Ezra Shaw and Chris McGrath respectively) was broadcast live on 5 November, representing the first time in the 37-year history of the event that the Marathon was accessible on the internet. This online video streaming offering with interactive features provided a new, immersive experience for sports fans online and on-air, letting audiences worldwide witness friends and family take on this 26.2 mile run through the five boroughs of New York.

Premier Sporting Spectacle

As the largest marathon in the world, the New York City Marathon represents an annual event with 37,000 entrants and large international audience contingent. One of the most appealing aspects of the Marathon is the sheer number of runners, attracting professional competitors and amateurs from all over the world. With over 2.5m spectators lining the streets in New York to experience the excitement first-hand, it also undoubtedly represents one of the highest profile sporting events of its kind to date.
Building upon the excitement of event, the 2006 Marathon had the added celebrity appeal of seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong running for the first time. As a retired American professional road racing cyclist and seven time consecutive winner of the Tour de France, as well as cancer survivor, Armstrong represented the heart of athletic success and dramatic recovery, an ideal participant for this physically and emotionally rigorous marathon.

Production and coverage

In addition to the coverage of the 2006 Marathon by the primary world feed, which is produced for traditional broadcast, the online interactive offering provided fans with comprehensive coverage of the event and unique viewing options.
One such option included an exclusive ‘LanceCam’. The first of its kind, ‘LanceCam’ was a dedicated camera that tracked seven-time Tour de France champion Armstrong as he ran the New York Marathon for the first time.
Another unique viewing option associated with the 2006 event was the ‘RunnerCam’, which allowed friends, family members and race enthusiasts to enter the bib number of any of the race participants. They then received a notification when the runner was approaching and passed three camera equipped points along the course. This Runner Cam custom feature allowed online viewers to enter up to five bib numbers, and when viewed on-demand, allowed fans to watch those runners in the downloaded or streamed footage.
By combining the multiple cameras stationed along the course with data provided by RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology, Runner Tracker coverage was cutting-edge and offered comprehensive footage for avid fans and family members.

Production challenges and improvements

From a technical perspective the user experience was an overall success, although there were some glitches with this cutting-edge functionality due to a problem with the data feed during the first portion of the race. In the future there will be a need for the technology linking the timing and participant database to the website as the majority of audiences are most interested in tracking their relatives through the streets of New York.
Other technical challenges associated with the tracking of these 37,000 runners included the set-up and costs linked with the iso cameras covering the event, which also closely monitored Armstrong’s run via a motorcycle that was by his side throughout the race. There were significant bandwidth costs based on the number of people watching and costs involved in developing API for data integration, but these costs in developing API will be significantly lower in the future given that the integration is already built and can easily be reused.
Even given these issues with the data feed and additional costs, most viewers were still able to access the feature during the live race. In total the package provided avid fans behind-the-scenes glimpses of the race and coverage of Armstrong’s adventure, as well as an overall sense of interactivity with the runners and event.
As incentive to watch the New York Marathon, the first 100,000 fans could watch Armstrong free of charge for the first 30 minutes and then continue watching him finish the race along with the 2.5m live spectators for $4.99. This $4.99 cost also included all five camera feeds, ‘RunnerCam’ Interactivity, real-time leader boards and the ability to watch Live or on-demand.

All in a day’s run

Coverage of the 2006 ING New York City Marathon pushed the envelope in providing state-of-the art online broadcast experience to viewers worldwide. As the largest marathon and premier road race, this 26.2 mile run through all five boroughs of New York instills a fierce pride in those who participate and serves as an extraordinary site to witness; Live or on-demand coverage set a new bar for interactive sports television online and provided an unparalleled viewer experience at little cost to consumers, allowing fans far and wide to be there each step of the race.

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