NRL flies high with Blackbird
Details
Louise Duffy
| 31 May 2019

Australia's National Rugby League (NRL) has chosen cloud video platform Blackbird for the live clipping, editing and publishing of match highlights.

The NRL is the most viewed and attended rugby league club competition in the world, with teams 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 clip, edit and publish short highlights during live matches, optimising workflows and operations and speeding up publishing to multiple destinations. Fans worldwide 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 optimise our live editing workflows and expedite publishing timelines."

Ian McDonough, CEO of Blackbird, added: "The NRL is one of the most exciting 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."