New technology from startup ventures is transforming the sports industry. The mission of our Startup Profile Series is to introduce startup companies in the sports technology space to a broader audience and allow founders of new ventures to tell their story. This particular article is profiling one of the five startups in the second Stadia Ventures Accelerator, which is culminating in a Demo Day on June 16th in St. Louis.
Company name: Meridix
Founder(s): Tyler Feret
Headquarters: Naperville, Illinois
1. What is your elevator pitch?
Meridix empowers any small sports team to broadcast like the pros. Connect a few smartphones, tablets, or laptops around a game, and teams are live streamed as if they were on ESPN. Since it’s so easy, producers can be students, parents, the media – just about anyone.
We maximize the capabilities of the equipment teams already own, so our platform is affordable and accessible to any size team. And, because the quality is so good, fans get the same experience they are used to from professional leagues – games available on any device, along with interaction and social sharing. Teams can even monetize their games through optional tickets and season passes, video and banner ad units, on-air ads, archive downloads, and more. In the last year, over 1 million people tuned in to over 12,000 live events.
2. Problem & Solution
Professional sports leagues and national broadcast networks have revolutionized how fans follow games. Every touchdown, pitch, or dunk is just a few clicks or swipes away on a PC or smartphone. But while major sports networks have advanced greatly, local high schools, amateur teams, and small colleges lag far behind, most with no live coverage whatsoever. Still, the appetite among parents, students, and communities to bring the same depth of coverage as the pros to their local teams grows by the day.
The Meridix platform allows any individual, school, media company, or sports team to deliver that pro-level experience, but without expensive video equipment and production trucks. We take on the heavy lifting, providing intelligent production tools to guide broadcasters every step of the way. We’re even building tools to adjust cameras and microphones and enhance quality by automatically generating overlays, transitions, graphics, and montages. We also white label our platform, so that teams and media companies can put their brand front and center, backed by our technology. Fans access live content the same way they would with large professional outlets such as MLB.tv. They can share clips and highlights instantly on social networks, and collectively curate notable plays and events.
3. Market – your target market and the overall market
Meridix is perfect for any team that’s not already on a major network like ESPN or CBS. The potential in this space is tremendous – in the US alone, there are over 35,000 high school and secondary schools, over 5,000 small colleges, and thousands of minor league, travelling, and youth teams in every sport. Meridix has also partnered with local radio and TV stations, as well as newspapers and media outlets. Advertisers have already recognized the value of this segment, with local digital ad spending rising to $47B in 2015, which is expected to grow by 40.5% in 2016. And, by the end of 2016, 25% of all local business ad spend will be on digital. In addition to sports in the United States, international markets which lack high quality coverage for their sports teams represent a substantial opportunity.
4. Business Model – how do you make money?
Meridix licenses access to its platform, so customers pay a la carte for the features and live streaming capacity that they use. Other revenue streams include ticket and season pass sales, archive download sales, and custom data feeds. We also offer ad-supported free options, eliminating any hesitation teams might have in getting started.
5. Management Team – with titles
Tyler Feret – Founder & CEO
Ron Feret – Founder & CFO
6. What else do you want the audience to know about your venture?
First and foremost – how easy it can be to create a high quality sports broadcast using our platform. We all have incredible technology literally in our pocket – HD cameras, great screens, powerful processing – Meridix pulls all of that capability together into one powerful system. There remains a significant gap between live coverage that you see at the pro or large college level and everything else. The mission of our company is to close that gap. Deep down, every athlete wants their ESPN moment. Our next generation sports video tools enable those moments to be captured in every game, and be delivered live to fans, alumni, parents, friends, or family anywhere in the world.