Australia’s National Rugby League chooses Blackbird for live video clipping and publishing

Posted: 30/05/2019

30 May 2019, London and Sydney – Blackbird plc (AIM: BIRD), the developer and seller of the market-leading cloud video platform Blackbird, is pleased to announce that Australia’s National Rugby League (“NRL”) has chosen Blackbird for the live clipping, editing and publishing of match highlights. The contract is for an initial two years.

The NRL is the most viewed and attended rugby league club competition in the world, with hugely popular teams competing including the New Zealand Warriors, the Melbourne Storm and the Brisbane Broncos. In 2018, NRL was Australia’s most watched sport.

Based in Sydney, the NRL’s digital team will use Blackbird to rapidly clip, edit and publish short highlights during live matches, optimising workflows and operations and speeding up publishing to multiple publishing destinations. The NRL’s global fanbase will then be able to view match highlights on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and NRL.com.

Quanah McBride, Head of Digital Operations at NRL, said: “NRL Digital are looking forward to working with the Blackbird team and technology to optimize our live editing workflows and expedite publishing timelines.” 

Ian McDonough, CEO of Blackbird, said: “The NRL is one of the most exciting and competitive sports competitions in the world and we are delighted they have chosen to use Blackbird. Enabled by our unique, patented codec, the Blackbird platform will offer the NRL the speed and agility needed to clip, edit and publish highlights for fans in real-time, as the games are being aired live. The confidence of the NRL in our platform confirms Blackbird’s growing strength in the global sports industry, building on our relationships with major sports companies like MSG Networks, IMG, Peloton and Deltatre.”