Kayo re-thinks the Mobile experience with social media style highlights in an all-new Kayo App

It’s been six and a half years since Kayo launched and changed sports TV in Australia and while the App and streaming service generally has had iterative changes over that time, this week a whole new Kayo mobile experience begins to roll-out to customers.

Described to me by Jardian Ormsby, Director of Product for Kayo and Tom Blaxland, Executive Director of Product as a complete ground up re-build this isn’t just about a fresh lick of paint. The team at Kayo have been reading every review in the App Stores, looking at all the feedback and trying to address all the pain points for customers in a full stack refresh of the mobile streaming platform.

And don’t discount how passionate the team are about what they’ve created. Every time in our short meeting I threw out some gripe about the platform, or a suggestion for a feature it seemed like they were already several steps ahead.

The new and updated App will launch on Monday to a small group of users, and slowly roll out to all over the weeks ahead, in part to test the durability of the systems, also to get feedback and check expectations but at the same time the “I’ve got the new one” will create a bit of FOMO that won’t do too badly for them at all.

What launches this week is really step one on a long road map of tweaks and changes, but most notably the Mobile app is now made for the vertical experience.

Straight away when you launch you’ll get a now familiar social media style “Stories” at the top of the page. Each “Story” is a game, event or match and you can tap through to see key highlights.

Remarkably, this is all automatically generated. Using the overwhelming amount of data that is available in live sport, the systems can tag a try, conversion or penalty in a Rugby League game automatically, while in a Formula One race a yellow flag might trigger a highlight also, as will key battles and passes.

Even more amazing, in Rugby League the system is built to follow the ball as best it can, ensuring you’re not just seeing a centre crop of widescreen TV broadcast, instead the system will smoothly follow the play like it was filmed for your vertically held mobile phone.

Honestly, I’ve not seen more Rugby League action in a weekend since I worked in the industry. Just in an ad-break for the F1 I was flicking through the key moments of an NRL game, same for the AFL. I don’t want to watch the “highlights”, not a replay, not a mini, not even a “bite” – i’m here for the legitimate top bits of the game and they are displayed in a very familiar format – just as I would catching up with what friends are doing on Instagram Stories.

You will be hooked pretty quick on this.

Then there’s Moments, this is more a play into the vertical doom scrolling age that we live in, from instagram Reels to TikTok. Key moments from games, fun moments from shows, whatever it is, these are flick through and enjoy. Where the full match replay is available it’s also just a tap away.

In fact, from Stories and Moments the Kayo Team have focussed on that very experience. Tap “Watch Now” takes you instantly to that event – no event page, no other button to press, straight into the game.

Having played around all weekend, I’ve seen and thought of interesting things – for example there’s no score showing in the “Stories” so while I saw a bunch of plays happen during a game, I don’t know what the score was each time. The team tell me this was intentional, to avoid spoilers, but again, I’ve chosen to watch the highlights so perhaps showing me the score is what I want – I suspect this will quickly change, so if you don’t want spoilers, don’t watch Kayo Stories!

The fixtures are all new, with better ways to sort what you see, and there’ll be reminders soon too, and Browsing for sport is also easier, again filtering by sport and league.

I can’t tell you when you’ll get the app update, but let me tell you, your time using Kayo will increase dramatically as you tap through sports you perhaps normally wouldn’t.

Tom Blaxland said “Our mission has always been to deliver the ultimate sports viewing experience and we know sport on mobile is very different to TV so these new features are a direct reflection of that. 

“With features like the Moments Player and Stories, users can immerse themselves in highlights, updates, and bite-sized content that keeps them connected to the action anytime, anywhere. Everything is conveniently housed in one place, eliminating the need to jump between apps or websites to catch up on games, explore highlights, or stay updated. 

“We know live sport is just one part of the viewing experience, with fans also eager to consume stats, analysis, highlights, recaps and key moments. This is not just an app update, but a complete reimagining of how fans connect with the sports and shows they love.” 

The first 5% of users will see an App update from Monday, the rest, well, your time will come over the next month.