TVNZ

CASE STUDY

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How TVNZ uses AI to create and distribute cricket content across its digital properties at scale

Summary

TVNZ, New Zealand’s public broadcaster, took control of media rights for New Zealand Cricket domestic matches in 2023. This includes the men’s BLACKCAPS and women’s WHITE FERNS teams. To fully capitalize on its media rights, TVNZ turned to WSC Sports to automate the creation and distribution of video highlights across TVNZ+, 1News.co.nz, and its social media channels. The results: faster workflows, more video content for fans, new fan acquisition via Google Search, and an IAB award-winning ‘Best use of video’ campaign.

KEY RESULTS

  • 4,500 videos created
  • 25% click-through rate on Web Stories
  • 370,000+ streams on TVNZ+ for WSC-powered cricket content
  • 18m impressions for cricket related content on TVNZ social media

The Challenge

TVNZ, New Zealand’s national broadcaster, holds rights to a wide range of cricket events, including T20, ODI, and Test matches featuring the BLACKCAPS and WHITE FERNS and the Super Smash T20 Competition.

To provide fans with innovative new viewing experiences, the team needed a way to:

  • Create in-match highlights across multiple formats and platforms
  • Populate the TVNZ+ OTT service with engaging high-volume content
  • Connect with younger audiences through short, relevant, vertical content
  • Turn content into a lever for fan acquisition

Their challenge wasn’t just technical. It was strategic: make every cricket moment count across every platform fans use.

The Solution

TVNZ adopted WSC Sports’ AI-powered automation platform to fuel a new era of content operations. The platform enabled:

  • Full highlight automation, including graphics, resizing, and cropping
  • Creation of diverse content types — from match recaps to clips of every wicket to milestone player moments
  • Multi-platform publishing across the entire TVNZ digital ecosystem, including TVNZ+, 1News.co.nz website and social media
  • Integration in Google Search via Web Stories
  • Use of AI-generated clips in digital advertising and paid campaigns

Takeaways

  • Fandom Never Rests

    To serve New Zealand’s passionate cricket fans and attract and create new ones, TVNZ scaled its content creation without scaling headcount.

    What was once a laborious 15-30 minute manual process is now fully automated, serving up more highlights in more formats, faster than ever before, all season long.

  • Vertical for the Win

    Creating content in a 9×16 ratio not only helped TVNZ appeal to younger audiences across social media platforms, but vertical video was also key to making cricket content more discoverable and accessible for fans via Web Stories on Google Search.

    TVNZ’s cricket Web Stories received an average click-through rate of 25%.

  • Building a Compelling VOD Library

    By filling TVNZ+ with a variety of timely, relevant content that focuses on storytelling, TVNZ drew fans to its streaming platform, cementing TVNZ+ as the home of cricket for fans in New Zealand – for audiences young and old.

  • Award-Winning Marketing

    WSC Sports also opened up opportunities for the wider marketing of TVNZ’s cricket coverage. TVNZ agency partner Dentsu has used it to automate the delivery of in-match highlights into paid media channels. This enabled TVNZ to showcase real-time cricket clips on digital banners and digital OOH (out-of-home), including on airport billboards and office lift foyers.

    This activity became a critical part of TVNZ’s marketing success, helping to turn fleeting action into meaningful growth. Recognizing this success, the campaign was awarded the 2024 Gold ProMax Award for Best Use of Tech.

The integration of WSC Sports for our cricket coverage has delivered substantial efficiencies to the TVNZ Social Media Team. What used to take at least 15 minutes per clip can now be done in seconds, freeing us up to produce a high volume of content throughout a match. These efficiencies have directly contributed to increased reach and engagement across our social platforms. The content we created via WSC Sports has generated millions of impressions.”

Max Middleton Social Media Editor, TVNZ

WSC Sports allows us to easily fill our OTT platform TVNZ+ with a variety of cricket content, giving fans more choice over the content they consume. We’ve been able to automatically crop this content vertically, which has helped us drive new signups to TVNZ+ via Web Stories on Google.”

Andrew Martin Head of Media Services, TVNZ