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Sports On The Web: MLB Gets It!

Posted by Seth in INTERNET, MOBILE, TELEVISION on 02-13-11    No Comments


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If you want a first-rate example of how much the web can benefit sports content, take a look at what Major League Baseball is doing with its MLB.TV package. Yes, we know it’s February and we have the brilliant March Madness On Demand coming soon. But the boys of summer are headed to spring training and we’re sick of winter, so let’s talk baseball.

The first thing you have to love about MLB.TV is that they’re making it available on a whole bunch of platforms, including the iPad, iPhone, Android phones, Roku, Boxee, PlayStation3 and certain Internet-enabled televisions from Samsung and LG.

And, yes, all of us fuddy-duddies still using computers can get our baseball that way too.

Now, if you’re an uber fuddy-duddy and you have to have your baseball, you can subscribe to the MLB Extra Innings package on cable and satellite TV. But that’ll run you around $200 for the season. You can get MLB.TV for $100 — or $120 with a few added functions. But quite frankly the $100 base version blows Extra Innings out of the water. Take a look at what you get:

  • Portable to multiple devices
  • HD quality
  • In-game highlights and stats — MLB says these will be updated “within moments” of when the action happens
  • Full game archives
  • Gameday Audio — giving you the option to listen to the radio broadcast if you don’t care for the TV announcers
  • Clickable linescore — allows you to instantly view any player’s at bat
  • Fantasy player tracker — allows you to enter your fantasy lineup and be alerted when any of your players are on deck

Spend that extra $20 and you also get home and road team broadcasts, live game DVR controls and the ability to split your screen four ways to watch up to four games at once.

Now, the one potential drawback to this baseball panacea is the image quality. Last summer, we had a chance to check out MLB.TV delivered via the PlayStation 3, and while it provided an HD picture, there were compression issues that noticeably impacted the quality. But we were also watching it on a 42-inch screen. On a computer, or iPad or mobile phone screen, it’s probably not as much of an issue.

The thing to take away from MLB.TV is that this is what the web allows for sports — not just easy distribution of content, but giving fans the chance to consume the content in any way they want. You have flexibility with MLB.TV that you simply can’t ever have with linear TV broadcasts: Go back and watch a specific at-bat, watch highlights on demand, get alerts about your fantasy players — and watch it all on pretty much any platform you want.

Play ball!




Tablet Wars: BlackBerry PlayBook Bets On Being The iPad Of Sports

Posted by Jonathan in MOBILE on 11-19-10    No Comments


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PlaybookHoping that it can resurrect itself like Michael Vick throwing deep for six points against the Redskins, struggling Canadian phone giant Research In Motion has started the hype cycle for its new PlayBook tablet computer.

RIM has decided that it needs to take a fresh approach in marketing the device: It is making the PlayBook all about sports.

The unit is in its early so-called “leak phase,” which means the company brings in journalists who then pretend that they are getting a “scoop.” (No kidding, these are the depths to which Internet tech “news” has plummeted.) The plan is to  roll out the Playbook over the next several months.

Now, the tablet is not bad. It’s light, small and flexible, but let’s just think about this: This is RIM we’re talking about here. Not too long ago these guys were in exactly one business: selling connectivity to businesses. But Google, Apple and the rest of the great unwashed cell phone data players have been taking that market away. So now RIM execs must find something else to protect their jobs. They’re going to give sports a shot.

I don’t know about you, but I have my doubts. Just start here on the home page, and what you will see is a  rather traditional tablet branded for sports fans. There is a direct link to BlackBerry’s latest sports apps, and some of the stuff there isn’t bad. ScoreMobile is a live scoring app with data from all the major sports. There’s a free GPS range finder app for golfers. But from what I can see, there is nothing unique about this content. They do have a deal with the NHL, but the app really isn’t anything special. It’s mostly the same data you can get from other sports apps. And keep in mind,  known sports giants like ESPN have failed miserably at trying to get  between the leagues and the fans when it comes to mobile content. So RIM will most certainly have its work cut out for it as it tries to become the tablet for the sports nut.

For sure, us sports geeks should give the PlayBook the courtesy run. But it remains to be seen if RIM has the smarts, talent and accuracy to connect on a few long bombs like Vick. As of now, this play feels more like Matt Leinart trying unsuccessfully to dink and dunk his way down the field.

RIM might just be in for one of the worst games of its life.




The 5 Second Drill — Bandai’s :05 Second Stadium App

Posted by Jonathan in MOBILE on 10-11-10    No Comments


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Nothing like our friends in Japan to come up with a truly odd sports tech app: a stop watch that counts to five, and challenges you to stop the clock on time.  The closer you come to 5 seconds, the better you score. The app is called :05 Second Stadium from Asian toy maker Bandai. It looks like it started off as a keychain game, but it’s been made into an iPhone app as well. It’s actually kind of fun, and I loved the drinking game potential.




Content is Dead! Long Live Sports Content!

Posted by Jonathan in INTERNET, MOBILE on 10-08-10    No Comments


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Heaven knows how it happened, but we here at The Sports Circuit are actually becoming experts in this sports tech thing. On Oct. 21, I will be in Chicago to speak on a sports marketing panel at the SES Chicago event. SES is a search marketing and new media trade group and they, like us here at TSC, are feeling the  love of sports content.

I had great call with my fellow panel mates, one from the NHL and the other from AOL. Clearly, sports is taking on  some bizarre and powerful overtones for digital content as a whole.

Sports is probably the fastest-growing and most-profitable area in the entire digital landscape. It’s tough to nail down accurate data on sports as a digital medium, since the business doesn’t think of itself as a digital content provider, but rather a traditional entertainment operation. But with even some basic slicing of simple data, you can see that sports has some jaw-dropping potential.

Let’s start by comparing two digital properties with the letter “F” in them: Facebook and fantasy sports.

At first blush, Facebook looks to be the digital world’s New York Yankees, while fantasy sports are a small-market wonder like the Minnesota Twins.  Facebook now boasts 500 million users and whispers of something on the order of $1.3 billion in revenues, as “reported” by TechCrunch. It even has the hottest movie in the country, The Social Network, spinning one hell of a creation myth.

Fantasy sports on the other hand? That’s thought of as  just another nice little web property. According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, fantasy players number a mere 27 million users spread over about 100 member companies. But let’s do some digging and thinking.

BusinessWeek recently reported that fantasy sports usage is up 54 percent over the last 24 months in North America, with household incomes for many of those users at $90,000 a year or more. I’m hearing anecdotal reports of fantasy sports pages on sites like Yahoo, AOL and NFL.com  seeing increases of traffic in the range of 20 percent per year. The spooky part is public data about the cash  all this traffic is actually throwing off is not easy to find. The most recent published reports say fantasy sports spun out about $3 billion in value in 2006. Assuming even a conservative 15 percent growth rate since then, you’re talking about an industry with $6.9 billion in economic impact. Assuming 30 million users, we are talking about a business that takes in just over $233 per user per year. Compare that to Facebook with its 500 million users and $1.3 billion in sales. Per user, the almighty Facebook makes a pathetic $2.60 per user per year.

That’s a 100 times less.

And personally, I’m thinking the fantasy world is waaaay underestimating its audience. This 30 million user base is probably limited to web-based fantasy play and does not count the world-wide mobile audience, which increasingly a new arena for data-based sports games.

Again there is no data here, but here’s some educated guessing: World-wide mobile subscribers number about 6.5 billion, and considering a full third of them are soccer fans, the notion that 600 million footballers are tracking Cristiano Ronaldo in some sort of fantasy game is probably a conservative estimate. If I wanted to take a chance, I could say a billion or more people are probably tracking world soccer data.  That means that dumb old fantasy sports make Facebook look more like the phone book.

The old line was, content will be king. But the web broke all wrong: We were all too doped up on easy IPOs and private equity takeouts to really make the most of the greatest opportunity in the history of the world. Instead, what the web has become is a sprawling  slum of low-value hangers on. The only exception? Sports. It has captured the best digital real estate.

Now sports content wears the digital crown.




The Star Of The Jets/Bills Game: FanVision

Posted by Dan in MOBILE, STADIUM, TELEVISION on 10-06-10    No Comments


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fanvisionI went up to Buffalo, N.Y. last weekend to watch the Jets-Bills game, and as we all saw, it really wasn’t much of a contest.  Two things impressed me, though: LaDainian Tomlinson and FanVision – a sort of sports video PDA that worked at the stadium.

This wireless video player with a 4.6-inch screen gives you your own personal TV feed of the game right at your seat. I especially liked the multiple camera angles to choose from, and even some access to out-of-town games. If you are a fantasy football player the device will also track your players’ progress around the league that day.

For now, the device is only available in a limited number of NFL stadiums, but that’s changing. They also are adding other sports like golf.  If you act now you can get the device for $199, before the price jumps back up to the regular $259.




NHL About To Try The In-Market Streaming Waters, But How Well Will It Work?

Posted by Seth in INTERNET, MOBILE, TELEVISION on 09-30-10    No Comments


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The National Hockey League season is about to get under way, and we all know the boys of winter don’t reach out and grab the mass public’s attention the way the NFL, NBA and MLB do. But it looks like the NHL has decided to lead the way in something, and it’s going to be in-market streaming of live games.

The Sports Business Journal is reporting the NHL is working on agreement that would allow many teams to stream their games live via the Internet and mobile phones.

Blum and I love this idea, because a well-executed live streaming event, complete with on-screen stats and other ancillary content, can be really effective. Look at what CBS and the NCAA have done with March Madness on Demand. It’s become the gold standard for streaming a sports event. But there are a couple of issues here.

First, all the money people need to figure out how everyone can cash in on this. There’s a debate about whether the web/wireless feed would simply be a simulcast, carrying the same advertising as the TV broadcast, or whether the regional sports networks would sell separate advertising. It seems the instinct is to sell a separate ad stream in order to maximize revenue, but even if they don’t do that, it’s going to mean more ad dollars because they’d jack up the ad rates for anyone who buys a spot, since the ad will be pushed to more platforms. ESPN may have some answers about that, as they’re claiming that cross-platform advertising is the way to go. Not much of a surprise they’d say that, considering how many platforms they have to deliver content. But the idea is worth some thought.

The other question here is this: What are the limits of fan interest in online streaming of live games? To my way of thinking, March Madness on Demand works so well because it’s a once-a-year event. It goes on for a few weeks, and with games being played during daytime hours, it benefits from a captive audience of office drones who watch it while they’re supposed to be working. With hockey, you’re talking about 80 games over a span of six months, primarily played at night when all the office drones are at home. How many people will watch? And how many will hang with it for more than a few minutes when they probably have access to the game on TV? Clearly, the office drones would rather watch sports than work. To wit, ESPN’s online numbers for the World Cup were pretty incredible.

But again, the World Cup lasts for a month and then it’s over. Whether season-long streaming will be as effective remains to be seen.




65 Text Messages = Contempt of Court Charges For K-Rod

Posted by Dan in MOBILE on 09-23-10    No Comments


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k-rodNew York Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez, who we all know is already facing a court case for assaulting his father-in-law in a Citi Field fist fight, is now looking at an additional charge: contempt of court. Rodriguez was arraigned this week on this additional charger because he sent and amazing 65 text messages to his estranged wife after being ordered to have no contact with her after his initial court date on Sept. 7.  At one point he sent 17 texts in on one day alone.  The charge carries a maximum of one year in prison.




World Cup In 4G: GOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL!

Posted by Jonathan in MOBILE on 06-07-10    No Comments


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World Cup 1, Tech World 0.

After almost 40 years of development, the nation’s first truly fast wireless phone, the Sprint EVO hit stores last week. And while most of the world, for most of the past decades, could have cared less, suddenly with soccer on the thing, people woke up.

Mobile phones gets sports! Duh!

The World Cup will be streamed live on the EVO and I cannot wait to test it on my test unit. And I am not the sole soccer nut here. There are close to 2,000 articles on the World Cup 4G within the last few hours. And the notion that you can get a soccer match on your phone might just catch the national imagination.

Obviously, what is going on here, is the mobile-savvy, rest of the world is demanding here what they already have overseas: live sports on phones. So in many ways cell operators and promoters have no choice. But still, Sprint gets some credit for being first to bring soccer to phones in any scale.

Again, sports continues to drive awareness in mobile devices. Amazing.




NBA Game Time Playoff Edition: Nothing But Net

Posted by Jonathan in MOBILE on 05-06-10    No Comments


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With only 1,223 or so games left in the NBA season … Wait! Oh sorry, that’s only 23 or so games left, it just seems like 1,223 games are left — I’ve finally taken an interest in the series: Lakers/Thunder was actually decent basketball. And I have to say, NBA Digital’s nifty Game Time app updated for this year’s playoffs for iPhone, iPod, I guess for the iPad as well as Android phones and others is really showing me something.

The app is decently priced at $2.99. And it seeks to be a in game companion for the second season of the NBA. In general, the app does a nice job of pumping out player stats, providing what amounts to DIY color commentary on the game. And otherwise helping us all keep Maurice Evans straight from Jamal Crawford. So as one struggles to follow the series —  how much do you really know about the Hawks or Los Suns — Game Time helps.

Obviously, the tool is not perfect. video clips are feebe highlights at best, y0u are facing the limits of the cell network on what content gets to the mobile phone and at some point how many screens do you need to follow a game?

But at least for the NBA Playoffs, a portable app that pumps out players stats on demand is a plus. And NBA deserves some credit.  Swissh!




The Sports App Wars Begin: Sprint And Verizon Compete For NFL Draft

Posted by Jonathan in MOBILE on 04-20-10    No Comments


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Welcome to the age of the competing mobile sports apps.

Starting Thursday, the NFL draft will kick off at Radio City Music Hall in New York. And while I’ve always thought it would be slick if the league mixed things up with some cheerleader drafts — the Rockettes would make an excellent cheerleading combine —  this year’s draft will be about one thing tech wise: Not one, but two major cell carriers will be carrying NFL Mobile’s live coverage of the event: Verizon and Sprint both will offer NFL Mobile on many of their phones.

And let the mobile sports app wars begin.

First of all, it’s clear that these sorts of extra-game events are the perfect storm for mobile sports tech. Yeah, ESPN’s prime time coverage of early rounds might be interesting for awhile. Where Bradford, McCoy, Suh and maybe Kyle Wilson from Boise State end up might impact a real game or two across the league. So all fans care. But after those top 25 or so players, what are we really taking about here? How the draft will affect your team. And your players.  Who is going watch the full draft all day and night? I mean, please.

And poof, suddenly the NFL is producing a targeted sports event prefect for mobile devices. And the NFL, to its credit, knows it. The league has positioned itself perfectly to get into the house big time with mobile. Its mobile app is essentially a team-specific broadcast of news, blogs and relevant video. And it will be fascinating to see how the 2nd through 7th rounds will be managed by the league.

Here are my predictions.

1) Sprint pulls a Manning: Sprint has invested in lots of unique NFL content for several years. So I expect its draft coverage should be the Payton Manning of the pack: the clear leader. Any serious fan should get to a Sprint phone, and fast.

2) Verizon will show some game, but more like a Jets game. Verizon’s mobile feed is really the wild card, since I have not seen it, and VZ won’t comment on it. But basically, my read is they aren’t even sure themselves what they will get, since they are just hosting the NFL mobile device. So expect a Jets-like rebuilding year with some decent coverage for Verizon’s mobile sports efforts.

3) ESPN becomes the mobile Mets. Clearly, and I mean CLEARLY, the undisputed worldwide leader in sports television is the undisputed worldwide loser in mobile. The Mets analogy is all too chilling for Bristol. After spending hundreds of millions on mobile, starting a half decade ago, where exactly is ESPN for the handheld? Let’s be honest: nowhere. NFL analyst John Clayton is cute and all, and Sportscenter is still fun, but will that be enough of a reason to follow ESPN on your phone when the NFL produces as deep, if not deeper, a product all by themselves?

It’s incredible but true: unless ESPN finds some raison d’mobile and fast, the moving version of sports will be Superbowl III: the big championship game that got away.