In July, Sportitalia will launch four new interactive sports channels on free-to-air digital terrestrial television using the HbbTV standard.
Sportitalia will broadcast 4 new channels: Sportitalia HD, SI Solo Calcio, SI Motori and SI Live24. The new interactive offer SI Smart by Sportitalia will be accessible through a Smart TV (in Italy there are currently almost 8 million and 27.5% of families have it available) using HbbTV.
The new technology will also allow access to an extensive archive of on-demand material made up of matches, magazines and broadcasts always available to the 1.5 million viewers (Auditel data) who daily tune in to the frequencies of Sportitalia.
The digital revolution of Sportitalia does not stop there, because in the coming weeks the restyling of the website sportitalia.com will be completed: more functions, more content and a renewed graphic interface that will facilitate the user experience.
The SI Smart project has been developed together with Sportradar, a company in the international market with a value of 2.4 billion dollars with CEO Carsten Koerl and among investors Mark Cuban, Tedd Leonsis and the former NBA star, Michael Jordan.
Michele Criscitiello (CEO of Sportitalia): “We have been working on this project for 10 months with Sportradar and Kineton and we are finally seeing the light of day. It’s the future, a product aimed at young people and the target group that has been constantly following Sportitalia since 2004. Thanks to Smart TV and the Internet, today there is, finally, the possibility for a publisher with content to make more channels. This is unthinkable on digital terrestrial for the cost of bandwidth. Obviously we are starting a year earlier than the digital revolution that will take place between 2020 and 2021, as Sportitalia did in the past in the transition from analog to digital terrestrial. One channel in HD, one dedicated to information and two vertical channels on Football and Motors: the passions of our viewers. All in clear and as always free. Today 27.5% of families have a Smart TV but the forecasts are clear and within 12-18 months all Italians will have a Smart TV at home. It has always been said that the future is TV with internet. From this summer Sportitalia will be ready to take a dip in the future.
Giuseppe Sampino, (Commercial Director of the Sports Media area in Sportradar and head of the SI Smart project): “We are thrilled to further strengthen our partnership with Sportitalia with this innovative project. It is a journey that began two years ago with the launch of the channel’s OTT platform: we have given users the opportunity to follow all live and on-demand broadcasts via computers and mobile devices. With the launch of SI Smart will give space to many new sports offering federations, leagues and clubs a unique opportunity to develop their own dedicated OTT offer, while ensuring clear exposure at the national level.
Kineton, an Italian company that provides engineering services, has collaborated in the creation of the new SI Smart platform.
The broadcaster will invest in the acquisition of national and international rights, football and not only, continuing the strategy of growth and expansion of the product that has allowed in recent years to consolidate itself on the market and to carve out an important space in the world of Italian sports broadcasting.
The new structure will also open up to a much richer and more integrated commercial offer, with greater possibilities for promoting one’s own brand. Direct interaction with social networks and interactivity: a new way of making TV that will be made available to the federations and all the partners of the broadcaster.
