Eurovision Sport adopts Blackbird cloud production

Eurovision Sport, a subsidiary of the EBU, will rely on Blackbird to drive cloud-native video production workflow efficiency for its members in a multi-year agreement.

Eurovision Sport will use Blackbird technology for the professional, collaborative and scalable video editing in the cloud and the publication of sports content. In this way, Eurovision Sport will complement its digital services, providing cloud-native editing tools for its members to leverage within their media supply chains.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) division manages media rights for 17 sports on behalf of its public service media members, delivering up to 30,000 hours of sport per year through agreements with international sports federations.

Blackbird will allow the Eurovision Sport editorial team and EBU members Instantly access multiple live streams, seconds later, from anywhere in the world through its browser-based editor.

Users can not only make quick, collaborative edits in Blackbird, but they can also take advantage of a multi-track non-linear editor with a set of professional tools, creating high-quality content that would be impossible with any other video editing technology. Content will be able to be quickly published to media partners and multiple digital endpoints, including social media, web and OTT platforms, for viewers to enjoy.

Blackbird allows remote production, eliminating the need to travel to a facility or event and also the need to transport material to and from multiple local storage environments. Blackbird, which has been proven to reduce carbon emissions by up to 91% compared to traditional video editing workflows, is playing an active role in supporting Eurovision Sport's sustainability goals. Blackbird also reduces infrastructure costs by up to 75% thanks to its cloud-native architecture.

The head of content and services of Eurovision Sport, Franck Choquard, highlights that "in this time of digital transformation in which not only the members of the EBU, but also all the partners of our Federations, aim to publish more content on their various platforms, having the possibility to quickly rotate the content and enrich it through the Blackbird solution is really effective for us. We are now able to reach more fans in a more effective way and we aim to develop our ecosystem even further in the coming months. Last but not least, for the EBU community, our goal is to be more sustainable within our workflow and Blackbird is certainly a great partner on this journey.”

The CEO of Blackbird, Ian McDonough, adds that "as part of the European Broadcasting Union, with members in more than 50 countries, Eurovision Sport is a sports broadcasting giant. In its role of helping stakeholders navigate technological innovation in sports production, Blackbird is delighted to play a role as a central hub for cloud-native video editing. We are really excited to add Eurovision to our growing list of large global OEM partners and to be directly enabling their members in the efficient migration to the cloud."