Kiswe and Joe Hand Productions Talk New D2C App, Future of OOH Sports Streaming
Earlier this month, interactive D2C app developer Kiswe announced that it had partnered with Joe Hand Promotions, a provider of out-of-home live sports and entertainment distribution to bars and restaurants to develop the Joe Hands Promotion App, a new OOH D2C streaming designed to set “a new standard for how venues market and operationalize live sports, and how fans gather to experience them together,” according to a September 8 join press release.
To gain more insight into the specifics of what this app delivers, how it leverages both Joe Hand Promotions’ distribution networks and Kiswe’s expertise in interactive streaming, and current and emerging challenges and opportunities for OOH live sports streaming, I spoke with Kiswe CMO & Co-Founder Wim Sweldens and Joe Hand Promotions President Joe Hand, Jr.
Kiswe CMO & Co-Founder Wim Sweldens (left) and Joe Hand Promotions President Joe Hand Jr. (right)
Steve Nathans-Kelly: Do you see OOH streaming in restaurants and bars playing an increasingly meaningful role in the evolution of communal sports viewing as younger audiences shift away from linear TV?
Wim Sweldens: Absolutely. More content is shifting from TV to streaming and some is simply not available on TV any more.
Joe Hand, Jr.: We think most fans going out to watch an event don’t really care how their favorite sports bar or restaurant is getting their TV signal, but they care a lot that they’re going to a place that has all of the great live sports and entertainment content available that they want to see. That’s where this app fills a gap. It’s an opportunity for bars that may not have traditional satellite or cable service to match for the first time with content that fans – young and old – are craving to watch in a communal atmosphere.
SNK: Licensing and rights management are critical and costly issues with premium sports streaming. Does the app handle licensing and rights management differently from satellite/cable distribution, particularly for commercial spaces?
JH: No. At Joe Hand Promotions, our commitment is to give our hospitality customers access to the content they want on their preferred platform and via a seamless experience. Regardless of whether the content is available on satellite or cable or streaming, the cost to the customer is the same. Our goal with adding this app is to provide optionality to our customers to access compelling content to drive their business, to increase the length of their stay, and to have them come back as frequent guests.
SNK: Does OOH hospitality venue streaming allow for tiered or custom sports packages for venue operators, as opposed to standardized bundles?
JH: All of our premium live sports content is offered à la carte, and this is beneficial to the owner/operator of each establishment because it allows them to select the content that matches the interests and demands of their customer. We serve as content advisors to bars and restaurants, and have built a diverse portfolio of live sports that we can match to the venue’s objectives. This gives both us and the customer the maximum amount of flexibility.
SNK: How will the app’s design address the operational challenges of bars and restaurants, like integration with existing AV systems?
WS: We work with simple and inexpensive devices like Firestick, Google TV, and Apple TV.
JH: We make the experience for the hospitality operator as seamless as possible and mimic what is becoming an increasingly familiar experience at home. Our app will look and feel like the kind of direct-to-consumer video apps that people are accustomed to using at home. And rather than tie the app to a specific piece of hardware, our goal was to make the app available on the most popular streaming devices that customers already have and know how to use, such as Amazon Fire, Google TV, and Apple TV. These devices can be easily plugged into a head-end or matrix unit to create venue-wide exhibition, or can be inserted directly into individual televisions.
SNK: What sort of options for enhanced fan engagement—interactivity, reactions, multiview—are possible in the app, allowing for venue limitations? Are these sorts of features possible in restaurants and bars?
WS: Probably not a lot at first, but maybe in the future we can look at a combined mobile user in a bar experience for interactivity combined with communal viewing on a big screen.
SNK: Do OOH apps like this one create new monetization opportunities for venue operators and/or rights holders that weren’t possible before?
WS: I would say so, as more eyeballs means more monetization.
JH: Premium live content, no matter the distribution method, is extremely valuable to our hospitality customers. We work closely with bars and restaurants from coast to coast to support marketing, drive traffic and operationalize the exhibition of some of the most compelling sports content in America. This app is an extension of that already-significant monetization opportunity.
Further, this app gives us the ability to report more complete viewership data and habits back to the content owners so that they can better speak to OOH viewership metrics and complete the narrative about the benefits associated with commercial exhibition.
Those learnings can help the content partner better leverage or monetize its assets. It will help them speak to the value of commercial distribution and prove out the value of the sponsorships they secure.
SNK: Looking forward, could the app expand beyond sports to include concerts or other types of live events for OOH audiences?
WS: Absolutely!
JHP: Seconded!
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