Reuters, through its sports media agency Action Images, is partnering with the PGA Tour, the Professional Squash Association, and Lagardère Sports to help distribute highlights for event coverage.
The news comes six months after Reuters announced that Action Images would begin partnering with sports organizations to create and distribute multimedia content, such as pictures, video, text, and graphics, on their behalf. Action Images helps the organizations monetize their content by distributing coverage of live events across Reuters News Agency platforms, which reach more than 3,000 newsrooms and media channels around the world.
Action Images will distribute sports highlights via the Reuters Connect Platform, a one-stop platform for media companies to manage content and coverage. Through that platform, news organizations will be able to find PGA Tour tournament previews, round-by-round recaps, player interviews, and press conferences. Coverage will span all PGA Tour events.
The Professional Squash Association will provide daily coverage including video, images, and text for the largest squash tournaments worldwide. That will include the sport’s longest running event, the Allam British Open in May, and the PSA World Tour Finals in June.
Lagardère Sports, a fully integrated, global sports marketing and entertainment agency, will also make a variety of soccer video highlights from the ASEAN Football Federation available, as well as other content focused on sports in Asia.
“Action Images is in a unique position to apply its know-how to help sports leagues and rights holders to create and distribute coverage from their events,” said Rob Schack, Reuters Sports’ vice president, in a statement. “Reuters news clients are thirsty for easier access to a more diverse selection of sports highlights and content that only the leagues can produce.”
SportTechie Takeaway
Partnering with third-party companies to help produce and clip video highlights of events is becoming increasingly attractive for sports leagues and teams. Professional editing services or automated highlights services, often driven by artificial intelligence, clip highlight videos in real time and reduce the production burden on sports organizations. Distributing that content at scale is the next challenge, and where streaming, social sharing, and Reuters’ new platform fits in.