WSC Sports has relied on so-called artificial intelligence technology since before AI became the tech buzzword du jour. Nearly a decade ago, the Israel-based startup announced a deal with the NBA to identify key moments of action and automatically create highlight clips using machine learning capabilities.
Working with more than 450 sports-related organizations (including ESPN and YouTube TV) today, WSC is now expanding its models’ capabilities with the ability to perform similar tasks for non-game moments like crowd shots and press conferences, as well as new personalization options for rightsholders to connect directly with fans.
“We believe that we can really help a sports organization to provide a personalized content experience for every fan,” WSC CEO Daniel Shichman said in an interview. “At the end of the day, it’s about creating content, about serving fans, and about providing personalized experiences.”
With the new functionality, WSC is offering a single platform for organizations to centralize and combine video assets ranging from player arrival photos to postgame studio shows. The company is now also offering partners its own video player, which Shichman said will allow WSC to better analyze individual viewing patterns and offer personalized content.
“If you want to convert users to come to your experience, you need to know them better,” Shichman said. “We see it—not in sports—in the entire internet. … Now I think sports is coming to that [conclusion] as well.”
The proprietary video player tech will also allow rightsholders to distribute their content within pre-approved third-party properties. Along with the new feature sets, WSC announced a new corporate visual identity Tuesday. As a business service provider, WSC isn’t a name many fans are aware of, even if its tech powers the highlights that are seen on Google, YouTube, and any number of social platforms.
Two weeks ago, WSC announced a newly formed generative AI division to explore future products. Computer-generated assets promise to solve several problems for rightsholders, including instant commentary translation, automatic graphic creation to enhance video clips and personalized output through new interaction modes such as chatbots. The company is now using sports-specific models to interpret and create athletics-related audio, images and video.
