Your NBA highlight experience is about to get even better
When it comes to embracing the mobile-friendly world in which we live, the NBA is at the front of the four major professional sports. Highlights abound on Vine, YouTube, and other social media and video platforms, and for the most part, the league has said it's OK with that arrangement. There's value in the free advertisement and in growing the fan base.
But the NBA isn't content with its current highlight process -- which, while impressive, certainly doesn't cover everything. Instead, the league is partnering with a company called WSC Sports to "automatically create highlights" in near-real time, according to The Verge:
And we're not just talking about a few dozen more highlights here and there. According to the report, after an initial test with the NBA D-League, the league has created "more than 20,000 clips, at a rate of between 350-450 clips per game."
For now, it seems that the AVGEN technology will be used by teams, media outlets and the league to generate more video, more quickly, with the day-to-day fan experience not changing much. You'll still go to your favorite places to watch highlights from your favorite teams.
But the amount of video you'll be able to see should grow at a remarkable rate, and the video should generally be of a high quality. The technology will ideally allow the NBA and its partners to better promote the product domestically and around the world. By identifying specific players, highlights can be generated for players who traditionally generate less attention and, as a result, often go missing in conventional highlight packages.
But might fans some day be able to generate their own highlight clips and bypass the middle-man?
Soon, then, it's easy to imagine a world where a highlight of Metta World Peace attempting to dribble is as readily available as one of a Stephen Curry 3 from almost halfcourt. The only problem will be deciding how to spend your free time with so much video at your fingertips.