WHATS'ON

Your sports BMS to tackle the competitive live sports market

Meet both the eternal and new challenges of live sports streaming and broadcasting, and come out winning thanks to engaged audiences, operational efficiency, and a sound return on your investment in live sports. WHATS'ON is both your live-sports BMS and Business Management Platform to cover all the bases.

Manage complexity and unpredictability
Connect with the fans on their terms
Put data at the centre of your operations

Tackle the challenges of live sports programming with flexibility, openness, and functional depth

The world of live sports is going through a succession of big changes in rights management and monetization, technology, distribution, and business models.

The systems used for engaging increasingly fragmented sports audiences will need to have the flexibility, openness and functional depth to cope with all that.

The ability to connect with the fans on their terms and manage the complexity and unpredictability of live sports events will determine the return on investments in live sports. 

Here is how WHATS'ON is your live-sports broadcasting system and business management platform to meet the challenges of live sports programming, and come out winning.

  • Capture the dynamics and complexity of rights, obligations and restrictions
  • Maximize the value of hard-fought sports rights
  • Reduce manual work to a minimum
  • Have clear insights into costs and revenues
  • Have a single source of truth for editorial, scheduling and selling decisions


WHATS'ON

Cover all the bases with WHATS'ON

Manage complexity and unpredictability

  • The only sports-specific rights verification tool on the market
  • Highly automated workflows for live sports
  • Structured management of sports events
  • Automatic adaptations to dynamic timelines
  • Alternative schedules for various scenarios
  • Tight integration with Playout, for last-minute changes and EPG updates

Connect with the fans on their terms

  • Automated reversioning and localization
  • Flexible and rights compliant repurposing
  • Pop-up channels with dedicated content
  • Easy discovery of related content
  • A single toolset to manage a mix of linear, on-demand and combined services

Put data at the centre of your operations

  • A single source of truth for your entire media operation
  • A central, real-time view on rights assets
  • Tools for augmented intelligence scheduling
  • Centralized metadata, incl. integration with online sports databases
  • Web apps to remotely enrich the metadata (incl. press and publication details) from live venues

Why live sports streamers and broadcasters worldwide rely on WHATS'ON for Content ROI

  • Tighter grip on business models and strategic windowing.
  • Operational efficiency improved by up to 80% thanks to:
    • lean, software-driven workflows
    • unified linear and on-demand workflows
    • touchless operations
    • actionable content intelligence
    • seamless integration across existing systems
    • scalability that manages and supports growth without operational constraints
  • Optimized commercial revenues through seamless integration with the ATS or dynamic ad insertion system. Promos and sponsorships are automatically scheduled.


MEDIAGENIX as your solution provider:
100 % project success rate

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WHAT CLIENTS SAY

Discover the richest functionality on the market

Linear Scheduling

Manage smart linear schedules end to end

One system can manage the workflow for all your linear channels end to end, from the creation of the strategic master plan with possible scenarios, over the chosen transmission plan with time slots for programmes, series, trailers, promotions, branding and commercials, right down to the fully fledged playlist complete with secondary events and graphics. Information is exchanged with the other systems and the final schedule is communicated to the viewer or to the websites and magazines. After transmission, your calculations and reports are based on the actually transmitted schedule.

In WHATS’ON you can also have your linear schedules automatically drive your catch-up and preview services. Linear and VOD: unified workflows managed with the same tools on the same screens.

Define the strategic long-term plan

With the Transmission Grid Plan managers can define, view, inspect and manipulate the strategic long-term schedule directly in WHATS’ON so that their work can immediately be refined by the long-term planners.

Schedule with augmented intelligence

Scheduling Artistthe suite of augmented intelligence solutions facilitating rating-optimized automated scheduling.

Enable cross-functional collaboration in planning and scheduling

  • WHATS'ON Strategic Planning: the app to seamlessly link content & channel strategy to content sourcing and planning.
  • WHATS'ON Schedule Gallery: at-a-glance views on real-time linear and nonlinear scheduling data for collaborative schedule analysis.
  • WHATS’ON Content Gallery: at-a-glance views on the content catalogue for the whole organization.
  • WHATS’ON Metadata Portal: facilitates collaborative metadata enrichment and leverages automated metadata ingestion from internet platforms.

Optimize the content life cycle with data-driven decisions

14 key strengths of WHATS'ON Linear Scheduling

  1. Define the strategic long-term plan with a graphical (grid) view on filtered transmissions.
  2. Create long and short-term schedules, with automatic rights verification and business rules monitoring.
  3. Make multiple simulations of the schedule with stock, budget and quota forecasts.
  4. Prepare alternative schedules for contingencies or just to keep your options open.
  5. Maintain several versions of a programme.
  6. Craft the continuity schedule including time codes, secondary events and transitions. Make last-minute playlist changes.
  7. Maintain metadata of produced, purchased or live programmes, with multilanguage press descriptions.
  8. Publish an up-to-date programme listing with multimedia content for any publication system.
  9. Have your linear schedules automatically drive your catch-up and preview services.
  10. Use the same tools and screens to schedule your VOD services.
  11. Apply augmented intelligence for rating predictions, scheduling recommendations, and automated scheduling.
  12. Use easy, web-based apps for cross-functional collaboration and metadata enrichment.
  13. View linear and nonlinear scheduling data in real time without any need of WHATS'ON knowledge.
  14. Get real-time visibility on present and future content performance.

VOD Scheduling

BeBanjo: the reference non-linear scheduling system

Distributing a large catalogue to your own OTT service and to third-party affiliates? Across multiple territories and business models? No probleml! BeBanjo  lets you manage your non-linear scheduling workflow end-to-end, from one visual interface. With the most advanced functionality in the world, there is no on-demand scheduling scenario BeBanjo can't handle with ease.  

Track your on-demand operations at a glance. See what is scheduled where, what went live, and track metadata and rights statuses.

Exploit your content to the fullest. Find content that has never been scheduled before by just a glance at the visual interface.

Enjoy the powerful search for VOD schedules. Filter your content by dates, content, platforms, licensors, requirements, or any metadata field.

Also, you can also have your linear schedules automatically drive your catch-up and preview services. Linear and VOD:  unified workflows managed with the same tools on the same screens.


Optimize the prominence and discoverability of your content on  consumer-facing platforms

  • WHATS'ON Content Curator: the app for managing the prominence and discoverability of on-demand content to drive audience engagement and monetization actively. 

Enable cross-functional collaboration

  • WHATS’ON Metadata Portal: the app that facilitates collaborative metadata enrichment and leverages automated metadata ingestion from internet platforms. 

Optimize the content life cycle with data-driven decisions

  • WHATS’ON Content Cockpit: displays actionable and real-time content performance data to maximize Content ROI.
  • WHATS'ON Schedule Gallery: at-a-glance views on real-time linear and nonlinear scheduling data for collaborative schedule analysis.
  • WHATS’ON Content Gallery: at-a-glance views on the content catalogue for the whole organization. 
  • WHATS’ON Content Curator: the app for managing the prominence and discoverability of on-demand content to drive audience engagement and monetization actively. 

5 key strengths of BeBanjo VOD Scheduling

  1. Multiplatform VOD scheduling
    • Easily copy schedules from one platform to another.
    • Schedule archived content by setting a fixed window. 
    • Change scheduling dates of archived content individually or in bulk.
    • Define the asset/version to use for each entry in the schedule, individually or in bulk.
    • Scheduling patterns with relative ending dates.
    • Work in bulk with metadata for scheduled entries.
    • Use the same asset/version from the linear transmission or use the most recent asset/version of a given type.
    • Manage VOD schedules using Excel import/export.
  2. Powerful search
    • Powerful search for VOD schedules: filter by dates, content, platforms, licensors, requirements, metadata, etc.
    • Filtering can be done positively or negatively.
    • Keep the filters you use the most at hand so that finding content to work with is just one click away.
    • Access to a full historical record of deleted entries.
  3. Intuitive visual editor
    • Drag-and-drop editor for VOD schedules: drag and drop entries to change dates, quickly access rights windows and statuses, etc.
    • Print platform-specific schedules from the visual editor.
    • Visually change dates for multiple VOD schedule entries and make them stagger.
  4. Fully exploited content
    • Find content with rights to add to the VOD schedule.
    • Find content that has never been scheduled in a platform.
    • Use archived rights to schedule archive content in a click.
  5. Playlists as VOD schedule entries
    • Easily schedule pre and post roll videos with the playlist feature: A playlist is a succession of assets or segments that are meant to be played as a unit.
    • Add any asset or segment to a playlist.
    • Manage playlists in bulk: create playlists for multiple schedule entries and add content to all of them at once.
    • Filter VOD schedules by the content of the playlists.
    • Set up playlist templates defining a number of common entries shared by multiple playlists. Templates can then be assigned to VOD schedules.
    • Find and replace the same content in multiple playlists.

Media Rights Management

Drives your scheduling, optimizes your release plans, informs your acquisitions and sales

Efficiency is boosted and decisions are greatly enhanced when Acquisition, Planning, Scheduling, Sales and Finance teams work in perfect sync on real-time rights data from a single source of truth. This data is captured from the earliest stages and gets enriched along the content supply chain thanks to easy-to-use web apps.

As your content moves across platforms and exploitation windows, rights, restrictions, holdbacks and obligations are automatically verified on a granular level.

The respective teams keep real-time insight into what is available for planning or selling, while they effortlessly deal with underlying rights, royalties and revenue shares.

At the end of the day you will know when it’s time to negotiate new contracts, and start another life cycle that gets the most out of your content.

Leverage the power of integrated rights management solutions

Media rights acquisition, screening & buying order management: Supports the acquisition process for license rights, from buying order to invoice approval.

Rights-driven scheduling/release planning: One rich set of functionality for optimum schedules and release plans based on both linear an nonlinear rights.

Available Rights Catalogue: Keep a real-time view on what is available for planning and selling.

Underlying Rights: Speedily reuse product extracts on multiple platforms without infringing on anybody's rights and restrictions.

Revenue Share: Automates complex calculations of revenue shares owed to distributors, platforms and other beneficiaries.

WHATS'ON Marketplace: Offer tour content to buyers worldwide with both content metadata and avails automatically synced between WHATS'ON and Vuulr.

7 key strengths of WHATS'ON Contracts & Rights Management

  1. Maximum ROI through optimum use of rights and a tighter grip on business models and strategic windowing.
  2. Strategic multiplatform distribution (across Digital and Linear) to reach target audiences.
  3. Boosts efficiency throughout the company. Departments work in sync with a single source of truth from content acquisition (rights in), over release planning and scheduling through to multiplatform distribution, content sales (rights out) and smart analytics.
  4. Automated, multi-level verification of complex rights, restrictions and obligations, with a granularity that enables content repurposing and repackaging (incl. royalty management and music rights clearances).
  5. Supports a flexible and extensible notion of Content.
  6. Easy capture of rights data along the content supply chain, with pluggable web apps that facilitate task-based contributions.
  7. Stand-alone or pluggable into our platform for closed-loop orchestration of the end-to-end content supply chain.

Live Sports Programming

Tackle the challenges of live sports programming with flexibility, openness, and functional depth

The ability to connect with the fans on their terms and manage the complexity and unpredictability of live sports events will determine the return on investments in live sports. 

You need a system with the flexibility, openness and functional depth to:

  • maximize the value of hard-fought sports rights;
  • reduce manual work to a minimum;
  • have clear insights into costs and revenues;
  • have a single source of truth for editorial, scheduling and selling decisions;
  • manage complexity and unpredictability.

Your three-step game plan for success:

1. Capture the dynamics and complexity of rights, obligations and restrictions

With the only sports-specific rights verification tool on the market, WHATS'ON  offers:

  • highly automated workflows for live sports;
  • structured management of sports events;
  • automatic adaptations to dynamic timelines;
  • alternative schedules for various scenarios;
  • tight integration with Playout, for last-minute changes and EPG updates.

2. Put data at the centre of your operations

With:

  • a single source of truth for your entire media operation;
  • a central, real-time view on rights assets;
  • tools for augmented intelligence scheduling;
  • centralized metadata, incl. integration with online sports databases;
  • web apps to remotely enrich the metadata (incl. press and publication details) from live venues.

3. Connect with the fans on their terms

With:

  • automated reversioning and localization;
  • flexible and rights compliant repurposing;
  • pop-up channels with dedicated content;
  • easy discovery of related content;
  • a single toolset to manage a mix of linear, on-demand and combined services.

Key strengths of WHATS'ON for Live Sports Programming

  • Tighter grip on business models and strategic windowing.
  • Operational efficiency improved by up to 80% thanks to:
    • lean, software-driven workflows
    • unified linear and on-demand workflows
    • touchless operations
    • actionable content intelligence
    • seamless integration across existing systems
    • scalability that manages and supports growth without operational constraints
  • Optimized commercial revenues through seamless integration with the ATS or dynamic ad insertion system. Promos and sponsorships are automatically scheduled.

Finance Management

Always know the value of stock and schedules, and your Content ROI


When taking decisions affecting long-term planning, acquisitions or productions, management will want to do that on the basis of a proper trend analysis of stock use in the past. Also, at the end of a financial period (month, six months…) a company is obliged to review its financial status.

With WHATS’ON you know the value of schedule and stock at any moment in the past, present and future, and you can provide accurate reports for reviews, monthly closings, stock trend analysis and informed management decisions

You can set up amortization rules,  create multicurrency payment schedules and manage your commercial inventory.

Finally, you can calculate the achieved ROI on different levels (transmission, day, channel, contract …).


Take control with WHATS'ON Content Cockpit

This AI-assisted management web tool for Content ROI optimization:

  1. provides AI-assisted content-marketplace guidance to find more strategically aligned content faster on the market and negotiate a better price;
  2. enables smart content-catalogue simulations to optimize schedules, gain greater insight into stock value, and make better use of available stock;
  3. utilizes insights on past and future schedules to produce increasingly accurate predictions of viewer demand and potential revenues via content-performance monitoring;
  4. provides data insights on ROI per title, revenues generated, and remaining monetizable value via Content ROI analysis;
  5. predicts potential audience engagement returns for content available on the market, in stock and planned across multiple channels, and provides actionable data to improve monetization potential.

10 key strengths of WHATS'ON Rights Management


  1. Generate financial events for acquisitions, amortizations and rights usage in the schedule. 
  2. Measure and analyse the schedule based on volume, cost and duration. 
  3. Calculate, analyse and report on ROI and remaining monetizable value based on the rights and schedules. 
  4. Report on different levels: days, contracts, programmes or corporate level.
  5. Estimate and benchmark license fees for negotiating purposes.
  6. Check whether the quality of stock and schedule is in line with the programming department’s quality requirements.
  7. Monitor whether the schedule cost stays in line with the programming budget.
  8. Assess the cost/revenue ratio for content.
  9. Gather market data to negotiate a better price.
  10. Predict potential revenues.

Material Management

Streamline the material workflow

When you are juggling with multiple formats and different video, audio or subtitling versions to schedule your content on diverse publication systems in diverse countries, more automation is your salvation.

For VOD, get the drag and struggle out of the complex process of having every piece of content prepared and rendered into one file—complete with promotions, branding and commercials—that has the correct format for the diverse platforms. Be in control of the whole process end to end, and have the files sent to the respective publication systems with descriptive data about when and where the content should be made available.

For linear channels, WHATS’ON supports any number of video, audio and subtitling components for the same product. Fully aligned with the current MAM systems, WHATS’ON interfaces with these systems to integrate the file-based workflow (ingest requests, automatic status updates).

7 key strengths of WHATS'ON Material Management

  1. Order, chase and receive physical materials from distributors.
  2. Organize, manage and monitor the whole workflow of video, audio and subtitling components and their metadata.
  3. Manage and monitor visioning status and technical data. Register frame-accurate durations.
  4. Multiformat workflow driven by the VOD schedule, integrated with asset management.
  5. Drive the encoding/transcoding workflow.
  6. Segment the product to serve the needs of any individual publication.
  7. Prepare delivery to multiple publication systems.

Promotions & Interstitials

Build your audience

To reach and engage your audience, it will no longer do to plan promos on an ad hoc basis.

That is why WHATS’ON provides the tools for campaign style planning of promos in a cross-channel and multimedia environment. With WHATS’ON you can schedule promos—automatically, manually or combined—based on predicted ratings and campaign targets, and in line with regulations and context-sensitive restrictions. You can monitor and optimize campaign performance up to the last minute. WHATS’ON integrates the entire workflow from defining the targets up to production, campaign scheduling, publication and analysis.

Keep the overview

WHATS'ON Trailer Grid is the screen on which you can easily schedule promos and where the people who schedule the primary events have an overview that includes the secondary events.


Streamline all your promotional activities with WHATS'ON Promoplan

WHATS'ON Promoplan is the standalone application for strategic promotion planning that enables your marketing organization to draw up an optimal promotion plan for all the promotion efforts of the organization and manage the complete promotion lifecycle, from the definition of the goals to building and executing media plans.

This single tool enables coherent management of:

  • what is offered when;
  • the strategical and tactical goals for the promotion campaign;
  • the media vehicles used to obtain these goals;
  • the budgets and resources allocated to make and deliver the promo material.

8 key strengths

  1. Strategically plan promotion campaigns across channels and media.
  2. Monitor and manually optimize campaign performance (ratings) up to the last minute and have automatic adjustments to schedule updates.
  3. Automatically schedule trailers based on predicted ratings and campaign targets, in line with regulations and context-sensitive restrictions.
  4. Combine automation with manual ad hoc scheduling.
  5. Automatic bumper scheduling with copy rotation based on branding rules and sponsor contracts.
  6. Have an overview of all past and future promotional activity of the organization.
  7. Manage per promotion plan a media plan over multiple media vehicles
  8. Manage per media vehicle the available inventory over all active media plans.

Compliance & Regulations

Stay within legal boundaries

You can have WHATS’ON warn you whenever your VOD or Linear content is scheduled in conflict with any applicable parental guidance rules (Compliance). The lenience with which content is viewed in terms of mature content can vary greatly from region to region and between different channels and platforms. Also, WHATS’ON will ensure your scheduling observes licence conditions and government regulations.

Key strengths

  • Ensure your scheduling is in line with licence conditions and regulations.
  • Configure the criteria on which to define the parental rating for every regulator (Compliance). Support the decision process to get at an overall rating and document the scenes and extracts that underlie the ruling.

Workflow Automation

WHATS’ON Orchestrator: Relieving you of repetitive tasks and suboptimal workflows

The WHATS’ON Orchestrator is the workflow engine layer in WHATS’ON that orchestrates and automates repetitive manual tasks across the different domains of the content supply chain. It frees media companies from suboptimal workflows and is key in the broadcasters’ transformation to an all-IT approach. Best-practice processes can be tuned to the clients’ specific requirements.

At the back end: the Workflow Business API

The stable and well-documented Workflow Business API connects WHATS’ON to the Workflow Engine, an open source-version of Camunda that runs in the Web and Cloud. It can also connect other applications if so desired.

At the front end: user task lists and administrator dashboards

Users get a task list where they see their current and upcoming tasks and the information they need to complete them. The administrators have a dashboard on which they can monitor the progress of the processes and take action as soon as a task fails, and the workflow stops.

On the user task lists appear all user tasks.

Service tasks are executed by WHATS’ON to

  • update data
  • send mails
  • resize images
  • execute a report
  • trigger a transcoding request
  • capture an image from a video based on a time code. 

Service tasks can also be executed by other systems, such as Apache NiFi to move files (FTP).

Tasks connected by BPMN

BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) flow charts connect all possible tasks. For complex conditions, we can use the business rules within the DMN Decision Engine or (exclusive, parallel, event-based) gateways. Timers can be included.

Monitoring on three levels

The workflows can be monitored on a

  1. high level: overview of task statuses;
  2. business level: e.g. data about contracts;
  3. technical level: overview of incidents and external tasks.

Efficiency leaps in VOD publication, contract approval, subtitling, and registering and reporting IP usage

The three most popular use cases for the WHATS’ON Orchestrator are VOD publication, contract approval and subtitling.

VOD publication

Touchless workflow to prepare the data —executing transcoding, image resizing or encryption— and move files.

Contract approval

The automated contract approval process starts with notifying the person that needs to approve or reject the contract, and providing metadata. This person has it on their task list and gets a reminder after a preset time. The whole process up to financial approval and board approval (if required) is monitored.

Subtitling

When a user indicates that a product needs to be subtitled, this triggers an automated process that consists of 3 steps:

  1. Defining how this request will be fulfilled: buying, subcontracting or producing the subtitles.

  2. The actual process of producing, buying or subcontracting the subtitles.
  3. Reviewing the subtitles and delivering them to where the playout system can pick them up.

The status of the subtitling component changes accordingly.  

Registering and reporting IP usage

In close collaboration with Soundmouse, the WHATS’ON Orchestrator turns the process of registering and reporting IP usage in own productions and edits (incl. trailers and other promotion material) into a touchless workflow. 

WHATS’ON brings the information up to date in its one source of truth for all operations along the content supply chain.

Reporting

Hit the targets and report on everything

To allow you to calculate and report on statistics or on any kind of information, WHATS’ON offers a comprehensive set of reporting tools, as well as integration with BI tools.

Reporting can be automated, grouped and scheduled, with e-mail integration.

You can measure, monitor and report on content volumes and durations in linear and on-demand schedules to comply with legal, regulatory (quota) or management criteria. You can act on targets rather than react on error reporting, and as you can predict the final values, you needn’t ‘overshoot’ just to be sure. Automatic music and copyright reporting can be tuned to country-specific conventions.

Report on the future

WHATS’ON Content Cockpit is your web tool for greater insight into stock value, accurate predictions of viewer demand, data insights on Content ROI, predictions of potential audience engagement returns, and actionable data to improve monetization potential.

Discover a new way of reporting and presenting

WHATS'ON Schedule Gallery is the easy-to-use, stand-alone web-native tool for powerful multichannel views and multiple managerial presentation views on scheduling data. The app provides extensive and intuitive filtering and visualization modes without the need for any WHATS'ON knowledge. It gives real-time views on content and its metadata and enables a simplified use of operational data for strategic decision making.

10 key strengths of WHATS'ON Reporting

  1. Support your users with the generic XML-based reporting tool for standard or customized reports and print-outs.
  2. Facilitate daily work with compact gadgets giving a handy, configurable overview of data that is of interest to the user.
  3. Build, view and export your own power reports, with self-defined summary lines based on any criteria, if desired on multiple levels.
  4. Integration with BI tools.
  5. Schedule automatic reports.
  6. Email integration for manual and automated reports.
  7. Define, predict, analyse and track legal requirements in the schedule, and define quota rules on multiple country-specific dimensions.
  8. Manage and report copyright information about music, video, images, art, literature and other works in published content.
  9. Report on simulations and predictions to optimize Content ROI.
  10. Present filtered scheduling data for strategic decision making.

Case Studies

Pop-up channels

How to focus dedicated content on a targeted targeted event.

Workflows

How DAZN manages the workflow for more than 25,000 live events a year.

Going DTC

How sports organizations go Direct-to-Fan.      

Live and archive

How RTBF combines live sports with archive material.

The big players

How the big players tackle challenges with operational excellence.

You want to learn more?
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