Glamorgan Cricket’s live streaming of games attracted nearly 600,000 viewers in the 2020 season with the club looking to drive commercial opportunities from its new found audience.
With no spectators allowed during the season due to the Covid-19, the club invested heavily to provide a live stream experience for some of its home games for its members and supporters.
It teamed up with streaming provider Camsat, to add three manned cameras, three static cameras and score overlays to its production, which already linked in with BBC Wales commentary.
Over the course of four Vitality Blast matches and two Bob Willis Trophy games, more than 587,000 viewers (330,000 unique) tuned into view Glamorgan games at the Swalec Stadium in Cardiff.
The online audience peaked at over 21,000 concurrent viewers during Glamorgan’s Vitality Blast match against Somerset.
The streaming service also received just under one million playbacks and nearly four million impressions throughout the campaign.
While in recent years first class counties have struggled with attendances for the longer-form of the game, although for the short format, particularly T20, attendances were far better pre-Covid, the online viewing figures show there remains huge interest in all formats of the game.
Glamorgan is now exploring investing in an enhancement streaming service for all its games next season, providing the cost can be at least offset by commercial actitivies.
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The club's head of commercial, Huw Warren, said: “We’ve been absolutely thrilled by the success of the live stream, which we believe was one of the best on the county circuit.
“It was always part of our wider digital strategy to upgrade our live stream this season, however, due to the generosity of our members, who chose to donate their membership fees in vast numbers, we were able to invest in a high quality live stream as a thank you to them when it became clear cricket would be played behind closed doors.
“Our viewing figures show there is a real passion for Glamorgan and domestic cricket and we are keen to continue bringing our members and supporters the best live streaming experience we can.
“We are working closely with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to build our live stream strategy across four-day and T20 cricket next year but there is always a fine balance between driving attendances and digital consumption."
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Mr Warren said the upgraded live stream also provided new commercial opportunities for the club, as three of the four Vitality Blast matches were sponsored by partners with the fourth match dedicated to Glamorgan’s members and supporters.
He added: “Through the enhancements we’ve made this year we’ve also been able to engage further with our sponsors, as well as members, and created added value through brand recognition and exposure using our manned cameras and digital assets.
“We are always looking at ways we can bring extra revenue to the club and are keen to explore all commercial opportunities relating to the live stream with new or existing partners.”