4-page Case Study - Posted 7/13/2009
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Rich Media Platform Delivers Powerful Results for Fans of New Cricket League
Headquartered in Dubai, netlinkblue is the media technology and services firm that won the online broadcasting rights to the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket season. The company wanted to pursue an advertiser-supported model and needed to attract the largest possible audience of cricket fans from around the world. netlinkblue used the ubiquity of the Microsoft® Silverlight™ browser plug-in to stream cricket matches to fans regardless of their browser or connection speed. Fans could follow matches in near-real time, with advanced features such as picture-in-picture displays of game highlights and interactive activities including chat, voting, and updated profiles of teams and players. At the end of the IPL season, netlinkblue had served nearly 200 million page views—three times more than the previous season.
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With Silverlight, we had the development platform we needed to create and deliver millions of page views of engaging content to cricket fans around the globe—without any impact on performance. |
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Jaideep Dhanoa, Director of Special Projects, netlinkblue |
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Situation
In 2008, a group of Indian business and sports administrators formed the Indian Premier League (IPL), a group of professional cricket teams with franchises in eight major cities. The new league was modeled after U.S. professional sports leagues, such as the National Football League, and European soccer leagues and attracted more than U.S.$2 billion in sponsorships and franchise fees. The IPL signed many of the best cricket players in the world and attracted fan attention in the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, the West Indies, and especially in the Indian subcontinent, where cricket is the most popular national sport in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.
“Many of the players in the new league are world famous, and the team owners and sponsors include major business leaders and Bollywood movie stars,” says Jaideep Dhanoa, Director of Special Projects for netlinkblue. “People talked about the IPL, and all over India and throughout the cricket world, the media covered any news about the league for months after the first season.”
netlinkblue, a technology and media services firm headquartered in Dubai, bought the Internet and mobile rights, including the official league Web site at www.IPLt20.com and video streaming rights of league matches over the Internet to fans all over the world.
netlinkblue broadcast the league’s 2008 season on a pay-per-view basis, but with the huge popularity of the new league, the company shifted its strategy to an advertiser-supported, free streaming model. netlinkblue realized it would need a highly scalable and reliable system to smoothly stream live and on-demand feeds to a worldwide audience. The company expected the Web site to reach 200 million page views during the 2009 season.
Solution
To create an online experience that would draw the largest possible audience, netlinkblue teamed with Microsoft® India. The two companies decided to broadcast the IPL’s 2009 season in Microsoft Silverlight™, the cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering rich, interactive, immersive experiences on the Web.
Faster, More Powerful Development
Despite the new league’s huge global popularity, schedule conflicts with Indian national elections made the timing of the 2009 IPL season uncertain. “It was difficult to make plans and allocate resources to the new season because we didn’t know when or where—or even if—the matches would be played,” explains Dhanoa. “When we finally decided to proceed with development despite the unknowns, there wasn’t much time.”
Microsoft and netlinkblue took advantage of Silverlight features that support accelerated development, including the scalability of Windows Server® 2008 and the workflow integration across Microsoft Expression® Studio for designers and Microsoft Visual Studio® for developers. Developers and designers from both companies used Microsoft .NET Framework tools, such as Windows® Presentation Foundation, to speed up the development process.
netlinkblue was ready to deploy a rich media experience for cricket fans when the IPL announced that it was moving its season to South Africa. With only three-week’s notice, the company quickly relocated its streaming servers and video production equipment to the new venues.
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Through the Silverlight-based application, cricket fans were able
to download high-resolution images from the 2009 Indian Premier
League season. |
Smooth Streaming for a Global Audience
netlinkblue took full advantage of the Smooth Streaming capabilities and the ubiquity of the Silverlight browser plug-in.
“We knew that broadband connections in India and other countries that were interested in the IPL vary in their speed and capability. We were able to automatically offer visitors the best possible video, regardless of where they were located, the strength of their Internet connection, or the browser they were using,” says Dhanoa.
netlinkblue broadcast all the league’s matches in high-quality video over the Internet to fans around the world. Even in localities where broadcast contracts required a five-minute delay in the online video streams, netlinkblue was able to synchronize live audio feeds with the delayed video feeds, provide ball-by-ball commentary, and offer access to ongoing game highlights. In addition, www.IPLt20.com offered chat features, discussion forums, online surveys of viewer opinions, and other interactive features.
“With Silverlight, we had the development platform we needed to create and deliver millions of page views of engaging content to cricket fans around the globe—without any impact on performance,” says Dhanoa. “Silverlight enabled us to give viewers a choice of multiple, simultaneous, uninterrupted live and on-demand video streams through picture-in-picture facilities.”
In addition to live game coverage, www.IPLt20.com offered fans high-resolution still photos of players and game action that they could download for screen savers or wallpaper. Fans were able to navigate through extensive photo galleries with the Deep Zoom feature of Silverlight, which makes it much easier and more interactive for fans to find what they’re looking for.
The Silverlight-based application delivered top-quality video and deployed advertising content in unobtrusive ways, such as interstitial ads during breaks in the action or transparent overlays on the bottom of the screen.
“This was the biggest media event of the year on the Indian subcontinent. It would compare in impact to the Super Bowl in the United States or the World Cup in Europe,” says Dhanoa. “The official Web site at IPLt20.com gave advertisers and sponsors high-value, unobtrusive, measurable advertising experiences. Our audience was nearly three times larger than the previous year.”
Benefits
The teamwork between netlinkblue and Microsoft delivered more hours of cricket action in higher-quality video with more advanced features than ever before. With Silverlight, cricket fans were able to view live or near-live video streams, archived video, photography, and up-to-date background information on all the teams and players as the season progressed. The result was a great sports experience for fans and a business success for netlinkblue and the IPL.
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The official Web site at IPLt20.com gave advertisers and sponsors high-value, unobtrusive, measurable advertising experiences. Our audience was nearly three times larger than the previous year. |
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Jaideep Dhanoa, Director of Special Projects, netlinkblue |
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Customized Experiences for Cricket Fans
With Silverlight, netlinkblue was able to offer cricket fans a view of the game that they had never seen before. “We used the picture-in-picture option to show highlights of the current match, so if a viewer was interrupted, they could play the highlights of what they had missed in a small corner of the screen while the match continued in near-real time on the main screen,” says Dhanoa. Fans could go online at any time and view matches recorded earlier or get instant updates while watching a live match.
By using the chat feature, viewers could query expert commentators during matches or vote in opinion surveys about questions related to the players or the matches. The results of these polls were then instantly displayed on the live television broadcast. netlinkblue surrounded the rich media presentation with advertising, without interrupting the action or slowing down the streaming.
More Powerful Results
netlinkblue used Silverlight to create a sophisticated interactive offering for the 2009 IPL season and delivered that experience to cricket fans despite the uncertainty of the season and last-minute schedule changes. The result was significantly larger audiences and greater interest by cricket fans.
netlinkblue, a privately held company, does not disclose its finances, but Dhanoa says the results of the company’s online broadcasting of the 2009 IPL season exceeded even the company’s most optimistic projections. During the season, more than 15 million unique visitors went to www.IPLt20.com and the Web site had close to 200 million page views.
“From our point of view, the season was a huge success, even though we knew there were things we wanted to do but couldn’t because of the short time for planning and preparation,” says Dhanoa. “With the new features coming in Silverlight 3.0—such as 3-D graphics and full-screen, HD-quality video—and with more time to design and develop features and functionality in our application, we know that next year’s season will be even more exciting. We’re really excited about the potential.”
Additional Resources
For more information about netlinkblue products and services, call 971 4 423 0808 or visit the Web site at:
www.netlinkblue.com
About Silverlight
Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET-based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web and mobile devices. Fully supported by Visual Studio and Expression Blend, Silverlight includes major media enhancements, out-of-browser support for Web applications on the desktop, smooth streaming capabilities, browser ubiquity, GPU acceleration, and support for 3D graphics and H.264 video.
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
