How The Pits TV powers its motorsport OTT platform with Castr
The whole streaming lifecycle, from live delivery and paid viewing to replay and content protection, consolidated from separate systems into one workflow.
For The Pits TV, the broadcast is the business
The Pits TV is an Invercargill-based motorsport media company and one of New Zealand’s largest private live streaming operators for motorsport, giving racing fans access to live events and on-demand coverage.
Rather than posting coverage on someone else’s platform, The Pits TV runs its own OTT service, where fans follow a race as it happens, return to an event they missed, and watch premium programming under its own brand.
That makes video delivery more than a technical concern. The way a stream reaches the audience, becomes a replay, and remains protected is part of the product customers are paying for.
A live race cannot wait for separate systems to catch up
Motorsport coverage is produced in real time, often from remote tracks and temporary broadcast setups where connectivity can vary. Once a race begins, the production team cannot pause the action while vendors troubleshoot a handoff.
The Pits TV also had work to complete after the checkered flag. Replays had to be prepared, premium access had to be maintained, and paid content had to be protected. Managing those stages across different systems added pressure during the moments when the team had the least room for delay.
Before consolidating on Castr, The Pits TV ran each stage of that lifecycle on a separate system. As the business grew, stitching those tools together created real operational drag.
The team did not need another isolated streaming feature. It needed the live event and everything around it to work as one service.
The priorities
- Reduce the number of tools behind the platform
- Deliver reliable live motorsport streams
- Support contribution from remote race venues
- Carry the live event into a paid viewer experience
- Move completed broadcasts into replay
- Protect premium content from unauthorized sharing
- Reach technical support during live event windows
The Pits TV needed a partner for the whole service, not another point solution
The requirements stretched well beyond live delivery. The Pits TV had to account for remote venues, paid access, replay expectations, content protection, and support during an immovable event window.
Castr could bring those parts into one platform and back the technology with hands-on assistance. That combination gave The Pits TV a partner that understood the complete audience journey, not just one stage of it, and the reassurance that someone is on the line when a race is at stake.
One connected path from the track to the viewer, and into replay
The Pits TV selected Castr to bring contribution, live delivery, viewer access, replay, hosting, and content protection behind a single OTT platform.
The change was not simply about replacing individual tools. It gave the team a clearer way to manage the full lifecycle of an event, from the incoming trackside feed to the premium viewing experience that continues after the race.
Instead of relying on separate tools for each part of the video workflow, Castr now provides the shared operating layer behind the live event, the post-race replay, and the protected viewer experience.
SRT contribution and regional ingest
Live delivery through The Pits TV’s OTT service
Live-to-VOD replay publishing
Premium viewer access
HLS protection and viewer watermarking
Technical support aligned with live events
Starting with the realities of the racetrack
Remote venues and temporary setups rarely offer predictable connectivity. The feed might come over venue internet, mobile networks, bonded connections, or satellite. The Pits TV needed a contribution path that could absorb those conditions without passing the uncertainty on to viewers.
Castr supports the team with SRT contribution and regional ingest options for New Zealand-based productions, giving the live feed a clear path into the OTT service.
That has helped the team improve reliability during live events while reducing the operational pressure of managing multiple systems at once.
Keeping the audience journey moving after the race
For motorsport fans, an event does not end with the live broadcast. Some want to watch again; others arrive afterward expecting a replay.
Castr’s Live-to-VOD workflow keeps that transition in the same platform, moving a finished broadcast into the on-demand library with less manual handling.
This helps the team:
- Make replays available faster after the race
- Manage live and replay content together
- Serve viewers who could not watch live
- Continue building an on-demand motorsport library
- Reduce manual post-event processing
Protecting the value of paid coverage
Because The Pits TV sells access to premium events, unauthorized sharing, screen recording, stream copying, and restreaming erode the value of the service. Protection could not complicate playback for legitimate viewers.
Castr added protection around the HLS and playback workflow, including viewer-identifiable watermarking that deters sharing and traces a leak to its source account.
That protection includes:
- HLS-level stream protection
- Access-based playback controls
- Viewer-identifiable watermarking
Support that follows the event schedule
Live sports needs help while the event is happening, not just during office hours. The Pits TV wanted a partner who understood the production context and stayed available through setup, testing, broadcast, and post-event work.
Castr works directly with the team on live event configuration, OTT platform setup, SRT ingest, replay workflows, protection updates, and viewer access troubleshooting. That continuity means the people providing support understand how the pieces fit together when an event is live.
That hands-on partnership has helped the team move faster, improve reliability, and refine the viewer experience across events.
A simpler way to manage the full lifecycle of an event
The Pits TV can manage the stages that matter to its audience and business through one connected Castr environment, from the incoming live feed to replay, premium access, and protection.
In practice, that has allowed the team to:
Consolidate the streaming workflow into one OTT platform
Connect trackside contribution with premium live delivery
Manage live events and replays in the same platform
Publish replays quickly after each race
Apply protection and watermarking around paid content
Deliver a more consistent experience for motorsport fans
Rely on dedicated support during live events
Reduce handoffs across the streaming operation
The result is not simply another distribution endpoint. It is a more coherent operating model for a media business whose product begins with live coverage and continues through replay.
Castr handles the harder parts of live motorsport for us: reliable streams from remote tracks, replays online right after the race, and watermarking to protect our premium events. Having all of that in one platform, with a team on the line during live events, makes a real difference.
What sets Castr apart for us is the dedicated support. When you're broadcasting live from a track, you can't wait until Monday, and the Castr team has been there with us through setup, live events, and everything in between.
The race ends. The service continues.
The Pits TV still runs its events on Castr, and the calendar does not stop. Each race adds to the replay library and brings another set of venues, feeds, and paying viewers to serve.
Because those stages already run in one place, taking on more coverage is a scheduling decision rather than another integration project.
Let’s map your event workflow
Bring us your venue setup, your event calendar, and how your audience pays. We’ll show you what running all of it in one place would look like.
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