Pausing flexibly, rewinding, or reliving highlights at the touch of a button: Many sports fans are already following their favorite team via the Internet. The major streaming platforms have recognized the potential and are investing in exclusive offers. But it's not just about the content. Ivo Ivanov, CEO of Internet Exchange operator DE-CIX, knows the additional opportunities that the Internet offers as a transmission channel – and knows how the Internet infrastructure needs to be prepared for the streaming services of the future.
For many fans, sports have become online events. Recent representative surveys commissioned by DE-CIX show that fans in the strong European soccer nations Germany and Spain are turning to the Internet for their favorite sport: Almost every second German supplemented their linear TV experience with video streams in the summer of 2024, 16% of those surveyed relied exclusively on streaming services and apps. In Spain, 41.6% of fans watched the European Championships online via the public television broadcaster’s web presence, and 28.8% enriched this with online streaming.
The fact that more and more sports viewers are going online is not a purely European phenomenon. In the United States, too, almost half of fans stream live sports – and the trend is rising. The major streaming services are responding to this interest with exclusive offers for subscribers. Netflix, for example, is investing in broadcasting rights for two American football matches during the high-reach Christmas period, and while it will be possible to stream Wimbledon via a range of platforms this year, fans in Germany and Austria will need an Amazon Prime subscription.
No sport without streaming
From the NFL and the UEFA Champions League to tennis and boxing matches – almost every popular sport is now streamed. A large proportion of the world's data traffic comes from this source and – thanks to 4K quality as the new standard – regularly breaks data traffic records. A number of recent peak traffic records at DE-CIX’s IXs around the world – from Frankfurt (Germany) to Madrid (Spain) and on to Dallas, Texas, can be correlated with important sporting highlights. For example, in parallel to the UEFA Champions League quarter-final second legs in April 2024, more than 17 terabits per second (Tbit/s) of data flowed over the DE-CIX Frankfurt infrastructure for the first time.
One thing is certain: Live sport is placing ever greater demands on IT infrastructure. Not only because more people are watching in better quality, but also because we will soon have to reckon with even more data-intensive formats. We need to lay the infrastructure foundations for this today. In the live sports streaming of the future, every second will count for viewers. Those who cheer on their stars virtually want to experience everything first-hand and be right in the middle of all the excitement. Whether victory or defeat – the emotions that sport triggers in its fans require lightning-fast connections to make this possible. Connections that only Internet Exchanges can provide: Here, different networks can exchange their data directly and without delay-causing detours.
Immersive into the future of sport
Internet-based streaming already offers numerous advantages compared to linear television signals via satellite or cable. Not only can fans flexibly pause ongoing matches or replay particularly exciting moments on demand, they can also watch on different devices. Whether on a smartphone in the supermarket, on a tablet in the park, or in the comfort of your own home on your smart TV – Internet streams make the enjoyment of sports mobile and flexible to fit in with busy lifestyles. The DE-CIX EC survey in Germany shows just how relevant the respective devices are: 61% planned to watch online on their smart TV, 34% on their smartphone, and 30% on their laptop.
It is also clear that the range of devices will soon change. Virtual reality headsets are taking the online sports experience to the next, immersive level. Initial attempts to combine the immersive Internet and sport have already been made: Meta, for example, wants to put its customers in the front row at the stadium via its own Meta Quest headset. Apple’s Vision Pro in combination with Apple TV’s sports streaming may also offer interesting virtual experiences in the future. But there is still some catching up to do here, because the headsets cannot operate in isolation. The immersive Internet cannot function without fast and high-performance connections, because human perception is incorruptible when it comes to the smallest delays.
Data processing must synchronize sensory input
What does that mean? Our brain processes different types of perception at different speeds: haptic stimuli requires around 20 milliseconds, visual stimuli 13 milliseconds, and auditory information can be processed in less than a millisecond. This means that if the motion-related, visual, and audio streams of an experience are not effectively synchronized, it is not only unpleasant, but downright unacceptable. Any deviation is not only immediately noticed by the user, but also punished by the body: we experience dizziness, nausea, and extreme discomfort. For immersive sports streaming, this means that data processing must match these speeds and ensure synchronized sensory impressions.
Let's look even further into the future: How fantastic would it be if we ourselves could run out onto the digitalized soccer pitch to watch our idols' one-two game up close? The infrastructure of the current Internet is not up to the challenge of creating this level of immersion. Digital connections and data processing must be optimized in order to create the complete stadium illusion. In addition to the expansion of fibre optic networks for high-performance Internet and more data centers closer to users, the network connections themselves need to be optimized. For example, by interconnecting networks at IXs to ensure maximum efficiency in data exchange. Only in this way can the level of performance be achieved to make the dream of one day sharing the pitch (digitally) with the world's sports stars into reality.
Stable connections and perfect sports enjoyment thanks to Internet Exchanges
Internet Exchanges are playing an increasingly important infrastructural role for streaming. This applies to live sport, but also to all other types of content. At an IX, networks of all kinds come together to form digital ecosystems. By interconnecting individual networks directly, data exchange can be optimized, reducing latency, improving performance, and ensuring more robust connectivity. From streaming high-resolution content to augmented reality and online gaming: As the demand for high-performance data transmission increases, the importance of Internet Exchanges within the modern architecture of the Internet is also growing. Content providers and Internet service providers should take heed of this and plan for it in their own connectivity strategy. Redundant and distributed infrastructures such as IXs are high performance and more resilient, stabilizing connections, preventing outages, and ensuring a perfect sports experience.
