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Advantage, animation Avatars help tennis reach new audiences online
The Guardian
|January 15, 2025
The proposition is compelling: near-live, commentated coverage of the Australian Open, free to anyone across the world on YouTube, enhanced by a stream of comments from a like-minded online community.
Put like that, it is no surprise a project called AO Animated has taken off at this year's grand slam tournament at Melbourne Park. The catch? The players, ball and court are all computer-generated.
That has not dissuaded hundreds of thousands of viewers from tuning in to this vision of the Australian Open, featuring video game-like avatars but using real-world data in an emerging category of sports broadcasting aimed at bringing tennis to new fans.
The technology made its debut at the grand slam last year and audiences peaked for the rendering of the men's final, which attracted almost 800,000 views on YouTube. Interest appears to be increasing this year and matches are attracting roughly four times as many viewers as in 2024.
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