First Eurovision, now EURO 2020.
In less than 2 weeks, we will be watching the first match take place, with Turkey facing off against Italy, and Wales going against Switzerland. Held in 11 cities and across 11 European countries, the UEFA European Football Championship is set to happen this 11th June after a year of postponement.
We can expect a nail-biting competition this season with Belgium, France and Portugal all looking like strong contenders. And for the first time ever, England has a shot at the fairytale ending of clinching the win on home ground at Wembley Stadium in London.
Belgium takes the spot as the world’s top national team according to current Fifa rankings, and rightly so with superstars like Eden Hazard, Kevin De Cruyne and Romelu Lukaku on the squad. After having won EURO 2016, the Portugal team led by Fernando Santos is gunning for another win. This is also likely to be the last time the world will get to watch Portugal’s star player Cristiano Ronaldo’s dazzle on the pitch at a European Championship finals.
As the fates would have it, LIVENow reached out to us with their on-demand streaming service with the exclusive broadcast right to the championships. LIVENow will be broadcasting 51 matches from EURO 2020 across multiple devices starting from 11th July.
What’s LiveNow?
LIVENow is an on-demand streaming service that has secured exclusive broadcast rights in Singapore for the UEFA European Championships (EURO 2020). This means that you will be able to keep up with all the action real-time as it happens right from your mobile device.
Besides live streaming sports events, LIVENow also has five other categories to choose from: sports, music, fitness, mindfulness, and entertainment. Their music category contains a mix of live and pre-recorded performances from hit singers like Dua Lipa and Gorillaz, to more underground musicians such as Sam Paganini and Chartreuse.
And if you’re looking for a bellyache of laughs, under their entertainment category they have an entire catalogue dedicated to stand-up comedy known as the LAUGHNow Comedy Club programme. Their programme currently features comedians like Edinburg Comedy Award nominee, Russell Kane and comedic News Reporter, Jonathan Pie.
The fitness and mindfulness categories are for those who wish to keep physically fit and mentally healthy with tutorials and classes that run for approximately 45 minutes. At a glance, each session caters to different parts of your body for different levels of experience.
So how does LIVENow fair compared to other streaming platforms? Well, we were lucky enough to be given a free trial to test their platform out.
What Worked
Right off the bat, LIVENow reminded us of a familiar red and black streaming platform – easy to use, with a slick website. The inclusion of live sports events, concerts, and classes definitely add more convenience and variety compared to other streaming platforms.
In addition, their “Sync to Calendar” function was also a pleasant highlight that we found extremely useful. This allows you to record down live performances to your own personal Google calendar or have it sent directly to your phone. We tried this feature on their virtual show with MAMAMOO, and are chuffed to say it works!
What Didn’t
However, while we did get to enjoy a live concert by MAMAMOO, the waiting time to enter the stream took us a while. Audio and definition feedback also tends to vary depending on the device you use and the show you’re watching.
For example, watching Dua Lipa’s Studio 2054 pre-recorded concert on a laptop worked well, but watching MAMAMOO’s live event on an Android phone met with occasional audio breaks and low-quality visuals.
A Diamond in the Rough
While LIVENow has a couple of tweaks in its system, the slick interface and convenient cross-device usage makes it worth a shot, especially since they are the only platform streaming EURO 2020. For the vast variety of content they cater to, LIVENow has quite the potential to be a one-stop hub for all types of viewers.
With EURO 2020 less than a month away, why not give LIVENow a shot? They currently have a promotion running from 1st June, where football fans can secure a tournament pass at $98 for exclusive access to UEFA-produced content, including the official daily highlight programmes.
So if you’re running out of shows to watch on Netflix, maybe it’s time to reward yourself with a fresh wave of shows from LIVENow while gearing up for EURO 2020.
