Background
About Fox Sports Australia
Fox Sports Australia is the nation's leading sports broadcaster, delivering premium sports coverage across seven dedicated high-definition channels and its over-the-top streaming platform, Kayo Sports. Fox Sports is home to Australia’s favorite subscription television sports channels, providing comprehensive live coverage, analysis, and commentary for a diverse range of sports, including cricket, rugby, AFL, soccer, motorsport, and more.
With an audience reach extending across commercial premises, licensed venues, and online streaming services, Fox Sports is synonymous with delivering the best sports content from Australia and around the world. Their goal is to offer comprehensive, engaging, and informative sports content that appeals to a diverse range of sports fans.
Challenges Faced by Fox Sports
Fox Sports Australia recognized the importance of elevating audience engagement and staying ahead of evolving viewer preferences. The primary challenges included:
Increasing Session Time and Return Rates: Fox Sports aimed to expand its presence against competitors and enhance viewer retention through longer session times and higher return rates.
Creating Real-Time Interactive Content: The network needed a solution that would enable fans to engage and interact with live sports content directly, increasing the overall fan experience.
Streamlining Internal Processes: Fox Sports required efficient processes that could support digital transformation while managing limited resources.
Arena Live Chat and Live Blog Solution
Arena's Live Chat was the ideal solution to meet Fox Sports Australia’s goals. The platform was tailored to enhance live sports coverage through an embedded, real-time chat experience. Key features included:
Live Chat Integration: Embedded live chat allowed viewers to discuss live matches, championships, and other sports content in real time.
Polls and Reactions: Integrated polls and reactions fostered interactive discussions and offered immediate feedback on live events.
Custom Branding: The ability to customize the chat’s visual elements ensured seamless integration with Fox Sports' brand identity.
Scalability and Reliability: Arena's infrastructure provided the robustness needed to handle Fox Sports' large audience, with over 3 million page views per month.
Implementation and Results
Fox Sports Australia partnered with Arena to integrate Live Blog and Live Chat into their platform, enabling a vibrant, real-time social support hub for live matches and championships. The results were transformative:
Significant Increase in Engagement: Fox Sports saw an increase in fan engagement, with interactive polls and real-time chat driving longer session times.
Higher Return Rates: The addition of Real Time updates through Live Blog and user engagement through Live Chat, contributed to an increase in return rates, as fans returned to participate in discussions around their favorite sports.
Seamless Brand Integration: Customized branding ensured a cohesive user experience, maintaining Fox Sports' distinctive visual identity.
Scalability and Uptime Achieved: Arena Live Chat managed high traffic volumes seamlessly, ensuring optimal uptime and reliability during peak events.
“Arena powers our core digital products via a reliable and elegant live chat and live blog tool.
Our engagement went up by 64%, we won’t go back to Adobe.”
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Head of Product at Fox
“Arena powers our core digital products via a reliable and elegant live chat and live blog tool.
Our engagement went up by 64%, we won’t go back to Adobe.”
Head of Product at Fox
“We’re giving the newsroom stable tools that are easy to use and allow them to focus on doing journalism and telling the story as efficiently as possible.”
Head of Digital Strategy at The National News
“Arena enabled us to cover 74 Africa Cup of Nations live matches in three different languages simultaneously, ensuring automatic game data and exceptional stability throughout.”
Digital Deputy Director at France Medias Monde
