I-500 Snowmobile Race Streamed on Syncbak’s SBTV Sets Straight-to-OTT Records
Streamed live on SBTV, the event is being coined the longest straight-to-OTT event in history.
Syncbak, the world leader in live local broadcast streaming and home of the industry’s leading direct-to-consumer OTT app, SBTV, today announced Heritage Broadcasting’s MI Sports Now straight-to-OTT live stream of the 52nd Annual I-500 Snowmobile Race broke multiple OTT records. The stream was the longest straight-to-OTT event in SBTV’s history, in addition to setting new records for unique viewers and total minutes viewed.
Pre-race programming began at 9:00am ET February 1st, live from the International 500 Snowmobile Track in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. With post-race interviews concluding under-the-lights, the event spanned a total of 10 and a half hours, making it the longest live event ever streamed straight-to-OTT. The event attracted more unique viewers and minutes than any other live local OTT event. In addition to attracting a record number of in-market viewers, over half of the program’s audience was out-of-market, reaching viewers in over 100 DMAs nationwide.
“Our goal is to deliver unique live, local programming viewers can’t find anywhere else,” said Kevin Dunaway, VP and GM at Heritage. “We promoted the event in local newscasts and social media. Then the race competitors got excited about the exposure and promoted it to their fans, attracting a national audience. Giving hyper-local live events a national platform is what SBTV is all about.” added Dunaway.
“Heritage Broadcasting is blowing us away with their innovative approach to local OTT,” said Jack Perry, founder & CEO at Syncbak. “We can’t wait to see what they’re planning next,” added Perry.
The 52nd Annual I-500 Snowmobile Race is now available on-demand at SBTV.com or via the SBTV app. SBTV is available on all desktop, mobile, iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV and Fire TV devices.