From YouTube To SportsCenter

Posted by Dan in INTERNET, TELEVISION on 09-08-10    No Comments

Starting today, ESPN and YouTube are launching the new “Your Highlight” section on YouTube. What’s that, you ask? Apparently ESPN producers are going to grab a weekly highlight from this new channel of YouTube uploads and put it on SportsCenter. The program runs through Dec. 16, and then ESPN will determine four finalists. Fans will vote for a winner, who will be featured on SportsCenter and win a trip to Bristol, Conn., to watch SportsCenter from up close.

“This is a groundbreaking program that will allow us to engage with our fans on a whole different level,” said Ed Erhardt, president, ESPN Customer Marketing and Sales. “Great amateur sports videos are a significant trend on YouTube, garnering millions of views. By combining the scale and reach of our respective platforms, we’re reaching fans in a whole new way and giving select fans a chance to be a part of ESPN’s signature, marquee show.”

Is this a new way to get awesome local sports to the populace online or just America’s Funniest Video’s circa 2010? We will soon see.

The Sports Tech Nihilist: NFL Sunday Ticket Screams, ‘Show Me The Money!’

Posted by Seth in TELEVISION on 09-02-10    No Comments

Like Jerry Maguire desperately trying to keep his one and only client, DirecTV and the NFL are screaming, “Show me the money!” when it comes to the NFL Sunday Ticket package.

If you’re “ready for some football,” and you subscribe to NFL Sunday Ticket, there’s a little good news as the season gets under way next week. They’ve added a bunch of new features to the king of all out-of-market sports packages. But there’s also the same old bad news that comes in your bill every year: Sunday Ticket costs too much.

Let’s start with the good news. Very quietly, DirecTV has done away with the Super Fan add-on package they started several years ago. They’ve rolled the features that used to be part of Super Fan into the base Sunday Ticket subscription. For an extra $100 on top of the $250 that Sunday Ticket already cost you, Super Fan gave you all the games in high definition. It also provided the addictive Red Zone Channel, which bounces around from game to game all day on Sunday, showing you any time a team gets close to scoring.

So now you don’t have to pay extra to see NFL games in HD or watch the Red Zone Channel. Clearly that idea is a victim of the economy. And that sound you hear reverberating across the land is NFL fandom’s collective scoff at the idea that DirecTV and the NFL ever tried to upsell the Sunday Ticket package in the first place. But the fact is DirecTV still found a way to make more money from Sunday Ticket subscribers, because the package now costs $300 instead of $250.

It is an outrage that the price is being increased by that much, and it’s an even bigger outrage that the price point is so much higher than the out-of-market packages from other pro sports leagues. To wit:

• For $300, Sunday Ticket gives you programming for 17 Sundays a year. That’s it. OK, OK, they have this Short Cuts feature that lets you see 30-minute condensed versions of the games after they’re over. You interested in that? Me neither.
• Baseball’s MLB Extra Innings was $192 this season, and that’s for seven days a week of programming from April through September.
• Basketball’s NBA League Pass is $180 for games every day from October to April.
• And get this: NHL Center Ice, beaming hockey to your living room every day of the week from October through the second round of the playoffs in early May, is the least expensive of the Big Four leagues: $172.

The MLB, NHL and NBA packages provide HD broadcasts from both the home and road teams for nearly every game. And you’ve never had to buy an add-on package to get the games in HD. So that tells me this isn’t a bandwidth issue. In football, the teams don’t do their own broadcasts. There’s only one broadcast — the network feed — of each game. So they devote fewer resources and satellite capacity to Sunday Ticket than they do to any of the other packages. They just charge more for it because they can. And that sucks.

The Sports Tech Nihilist has spoken.

Hey ESPN: Keep It National, Because Local Ain’t Your Thing

Posted by Seth in INTERNET, TELEVISION on 09-01-10    No Comments

ESPN bashing has become a participatory sport in many circles, and it seems the “Worldwide Leader in Sports” isn’t doing much to win friends and influence people. OK, that’s not entirely true. They influence people without a problem, but in their recent forays into televising high school football, their manners haven’t exactly been Emily Post.

Now, before we go any further, let’s take a moment to question the entire idea of nationally televised high school sports. Coming from the network that brings you wall-to-wall Little League World Series coverage every August (we’re talking 12-year-olds here!) it should be no surprise they’ve got a season-long prep football package, and have for several years. Last Friday, ESPN was in northern California for a game at Folsom High, and from the sounds of a report in the Sacramento Bee, they won’t be asked back anytime soon.

The four-letter network strode in and started organizing early-morning pep rallies, pulling players out of classes for interviews and dictating where and when other media outlets would have access to the field on game night. The frustrating part for the area media who cover Folsom on a regular basis is that they really had no avenue of appeal. Under normal circumstances, if they had a problem with access, they would go to the athletic director or the principal of the school. But with those folks bending over backward because they’re gaga over the chance to be on national TV, whatever ESPN wanted, ESPN got. Every second of air time is a chance to do some marketing, so ESPN even had branded water buckets and bottles that they forced the teams to use. It was no longer just a Friday night football game, it was a made-for-TV production.

At a certain point, it must have gotten to be a bit much for everyone. One of the coaches told the Bee:

“The national exposure is great for the kids and the fans, but being told exactly what you could have on your sideline, like water buckets, is new to me. During a game, I’m in a tunnel vision of thought and anger, but this was (different). I agree with the local media and (limited TV access). It’s the local paper and the local TV that put high school football in this town on the map, not ESPN.”

James Rainey, a media critic at the Los Angeles Times, caught wind of what happened at Folsom and used it as a jumping off point to question ESPN’s move into more local content, particularly their locally branded websites. His reporting hinted that ESPN may be souring on its plans to roll out more local sites. It seems the boys in Bristol can do the big stuff well, but getting out there and rubbing elbows with the local-yokels isn’t exactly their thing. And while they have attracted some decent talent to their local web portals for New York, Chicago, Boston, Dallas and Los Angeles, their ability to really drill down deeply into these markets — and cover high schools and smaller colleges — has always been suspect at best.

ESPN: The Worldwide Leader in pro and college sports. Let ‘em be happy with that.

Winter, Spring, Summer And Now Three Dee!: 3D Demo Days coming this fall

Posted by Jonathan in TELEVISION on 08-16-10    No Comments

It’s cute to see that finally the 3D industry is getting into its circus barker phase.

ESPN, DirecTV, AT&T and Comcast are rolling out  3D Demo Days from Sept. 10-12. During that weekend, ESPN will basically be going 3D 24/7 with a full slate of games and shoulder programming. The weekend will feature Ohio State vs. Miami and then basically reruns of all the cool 3D moments from the FIFA World Cup,  the X Games 16 and the only New Y0rk area basketball team that can win a game, The Harlem Globetrotters. Also the Consumer Electronics Association is involved so expect some live in-store tie-ins at retailers as they attempt to move some 3D TVs glasses and active sync devices. Think free HBO for a weekend except it’s 3D.

No doubt, this is cool. I will be watching. And clearly 3D gear will be on everyone’s holiday wish list. But the active word here is “wish.” The fact is, the U.S. economy stinks, and the average person just doesn’t have $1,600 in disposable income to drop on new 3D technology. That really means that the consumer electronics industry can no longer rely on the traditional demand curves that six decades of post-war prosperity have provided. It’s now a no-growth world, and no government can — or should — solve that problem. So it really is up to the technology innovators to spur the demand for  their own goods.

Said another way, until these 3D stakeholders — that means the combined corporate might of Disney, Comcast, AT&T and dozens of consumer electronics makers — have rolled out a clear plan where they hire enough new employees with fat enough salaries to give folks the spare $1,600 for a new  TVs, 3D, or any other new technology, will simply not deploy. And even if that happens, people have to pay down their debts before springing for a new TV.

3D is cool — probably the coolest thing to happen to television since color. But 3D TV  does not put food on the table, a roof over that table or keep the creditors from the door. People have to have good jobs first. And then 3D will sell like mad.

Until then, 3D is  just another cool technology that the average Jane or Joe can’t afford.

Never Mind Sports Television, Now Sports IS Television

Posted by Jonathan in TELEVISION on 08-05-10    No Comments

If you’re desperate for the full-frontal face blast of sports in the otherwise digital Fall of the House of Usher that is the modern content business, just jet over to Heineken-land in a couple of weeks.

Amsterdam will play host to the IBC 2010, the nominally European trade show for the TV business. And if early reports are any indication, sports broadcasting is not only a story there, it is the story there.

Sports Tech Nihilist’s Wish List: Give Me More Stat Tracker

Posted by Seth in INTERNET, TELEVISION on 06-24-10    No Comments

So it’s a hot Thursday afternoon in June, and through the magic of satellite TV I have access to five baseball games in progress. Day baseball in June. It gets no better.

But our recent discussion about sports packages and interactive content has me doing some wishful thinking. MLB Extra Innings needs to add a player tracker function, just like the one DirecTV has for the NFL Sunday Ticket package. That’s really the frustrating part — they’ve got it for Sunday Ticket, so why not for baseball?

Of course, if I weren’t so addicted to following my fantasy teams, I wouldn’t need either the player tracker or the out-of-market packages. But I am addicted. And so are a lot of other people, which makes it such a no-brainer for the cable and satellite providers to add something like this.

The Sunday Ticket player tracker works well. It lets you input up to two fantasy starting lineups worth of players, and you get an on-screen message telling you every time one of your guys did something. The only problem is that by the time the message pops up, whatever your guy did has already happened and you missed it. The great thing about a baseball player tracker is that it could prompt you when your players come to bat, so you could switch the channel and watch them.

Some of the fantasy sports Web sites, like Yahoo and CBSSports.com have similar functionality built into their live scoring mechanisms. So if you keep an eye on your computer, you’ll know when your guys are hitting. Now, I’m all for the two-screen experience, but it would be cool to be able to follow my fantasy team without having to sit on the couch with the laptop or stare into a tiny cell phone screen.

So that is the Sports Tech Nihilist’s request: Give me more stat tracker.

And Now The Booming Market In Vuvuzela Filters!

Posted by Jonathan in EQUIPMENT, TELEVISION on 06-24-10    No Comments

Got an issue with the Vuvuzela? You are not alone.  San Francisco-based video technology company called Elgato has come to market with a quicky audio filter that pulls out the Vuvuzela drone from the World Cup broadcasts.

Now, obviously this product is mostly just PR spin, since really all the code does is create a single frequency filter to remove the sound from the broadcasts. Still, Elgato, which makes video tools for Macs and PCs, should get some credit for coming with a simple way to de-Vuvuzela a broadcast.

I’m withholding judgement until we see if the thing works. Audio filtering can be tricky. But it probably does cut  the noise out a bit. The audio filter that fits into their software links from Elgato’s Web site, although, this link is not downloading quite right at this minute. Probably getting overloaded.

The Sports Tech Nihilist: Unimpressed By 3D TV

Posted by Seth in GENERAL, TELEVISION on 06-21-10    3 Comments

If you’ve been paying attention to the latest trends in televisions, you know 3D is all the rage. Having spent a little time at the local big box electronics store over the weekend, I’m trying to figure out why.

I sat down and watched a 3D TV demonstration — they had some soccer footage playing on a nice big flat panel set — and all I can tell you is I thought it sucked. For right now, 3D TV is a lot of hype over nothing.

First of all, you’re sitting there with those stupid-ass goggles on, and the fact is that while the effect is noticeable and is somewhat cool, you get over it in a hurry. What I saw didn’t look like an HD picture. It seemed like it was in significantly lower resolution than the typical HD picture I get on my TV at home. I’d much rather watch a pristine HD picture in 2D than the crapfest I watched in 3D in the demo.

It’s a cool idea. We all live for the day when everyone has a holodeck in their house and can interact with characters like they do on Star Trek. But from what I saw, this 3D TV thing adds no value. And the fact that the average consumer has no idea what it’s supposed to look like doesn’t help either.

For now, it just seems like a way for the TV makers to drive up prices on their sets by a few hundred dollars. I pass.

Considering ESPN3 On The Xbox

Posted by Jonathan in GAMING, INTERNET, TELEVISION on 06-15-10    No Comments

My heavens, some actual news out of a trade show. Shocker!

Yesterday, sports powerhouse ESPN announced, at the E3 video game confab in LA, that it will enter into a two-year, exclusive deal with Microsoft to stream ESPN3 — formerly ESPN360 — over the Xbox 360 via its premium subscription service. The move answers Sony’s similar hookup with Major League Baseball that streams its live Web  service via the PlayStation 3.

Let us step back and behold the stories here:

• We see, yet again, the raw power for sports to command premium subscription dollars in the otherwise barren content wasteland that is the Web. Sports deals, even bad ones (more on that in a sec) now force the hand of even the world’s bad-ass video game box makers. I can’t wait for, say, the NFL to take its content to Apple with an iTunes deal. The fact is that as the great Web 3.0 shakeout  continues, sports will clearly not only be a survivor, it will be a winner.
• How crappy a deal is this Microsoft? I will have to double check it when I actually see the service, but from here, all Microsoft is getting is the ESPN3 streaming service that’s already available via the Web. The only plus is that it’ll be on Microsoft’s platform and not a on a competitor’s. Think about that: Microsoft is paying for the mere right to reshow ESPN content on a gaming platform. It is getting nothing unique. Whooa!
• Can Microsoft make good on its promise of adding unique interactive experiences to sports? The real shocker in sports tech is how lame Sony’s efforts have been to add content to the MLB material available on the PS3. Sure it’s cool to get games on a gaming box, but I’ve been underwhelmed at what those games are like, given that the PS3 is one of the most advanced pieces of computer hardware on the market.  Can Microsoft bring down the digital Berlin Wall that separates traditional linear sports and its interactive cousins? Or will the two domains remain as separated as ever?

However this breaks, the next 18 months on the Xbox and PS3 will be some of the most interesting in sports technology. In many ways, we are getting a critical early glimpse at what the next era in sports will actually be.

Stay tuned. Or rather stay plugged in.

The Tech Nihilist: I hate instant replay

Posted by Seth in GENERAL, TELEVISION on 06-10-10    No Comments

Allow me to introduce myself: I am Seth. And I am a sports tech nihilist.

And after listening to Jonathan’s take on instant replay in baseball in this week’s The Sports Circuit podcast, I can stay silent no longer.

First of all, just to clear this up, every team has a regional sports network — even my beloved, woe-begotten Pirates. They don’t all have networks that are owned by the teams, like the Yankees with YES, but every game is televised. Jonathan is correct that from team to team — or from regional sports network to regional sports network — the assets may be different. Frankly, I don’t notice that much difference from broadcast to broadcast as I watch games from across the country on MLB Extra Innings. But not everyone has a slow-mo cam for each base, etc. So I agree that if baseball is to implement instant replay, there must be a standard system that is in use by every network that televises games.

However — and this diverges from the idea of solutions — I hate instant replay. I want to like it. I like it in theory: Get the calls right. Great idea. But the irony here is that advances in technology have made me hate it.

If you’ve been watching the NBA Finals (and if you’re not, you should be — it’s Celtics vs. Lakers) you know that in both Game 2 and Game 3 there were out-of-bounds calls that were reviewed to see who the ball last touched. Both times, in my opinion, the refs got it wrong after looking at these super slow-mo, high-definition, frame-by-frame replays. And do you know why? Because when you slow something down that much and look at it one frame at a time, you can see whatever you want to see.

Tuesday night Kevin Garnett clearly had the ball slapped out of his hands and out of bounds by Kobe Bryant. Should have been Boston ball. But then they went and looked at it one frame at a time and managed to find a frame that shows Garnett with the tips of his fingers still touching the ball as it left his grasp. You’re talking about a fraction of a second here. And that’s ridiculous. He lost the ball because Kobe knocked it out of bounds. Boston ball. End of story. But the ref gave it to the Lakers.

These high-tech replays are at odds with the way a play unfolded in real time.

This has become rampant in football on plays involving fumbles, where they slow it down frame by frame and look to see when a guy’s knee hit the ground and whether the ball was coming loose at that point or not. How can you tell if the ball is loose when you’re looking at one frame? You can interpret one frame any way you want to. These things have to be looked at within the context of a game that happens at high speed.

The only place where I think it works in football is determining whether a receiver had both feet in bounds, because that’s not a judgment call. He either did or didn’t, and the replay can show that. In basketball, replays that show whether a shot beat the buzzer are OK. The National Hockey League doesn’t get much credit for it — heck, the NHL doesn’t get much credit for anything — but they’ve done a good job with video replay to determine whether the puck crossed the goal line. We saw an excellent example of that Wednesday night, when the overhead camera clearly showed the Chicago Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup-winning goal crossing the line, despite the fact that it happened so quickly that the on-ice officials never signaled that the puck had gone in.

But other than these specific uses, it’s tough to make a case that replay is a good thing. Ultimately, reviewing the play in the Armando Galarraga game comes down to a judgment call: When did he have the ball in his glove? That particular play was easy to see. But if you have to do frame-by-frame analysis, as if it were some terrorist video being broken down pixel by pixel in the bowels of the CIA headquarters, then the technology has overstepped its bounds.

Episode 73: The TSC Zombies Live!

We celebrate our final show at Hothead Studios by breaking down sports video games from E3;  talkin’ through some dang sports video baseball cards and then go getting into the fallout from Derek Boogarrd’s untimely death.  Finally, what we have all been waiting for: Dan on latest on with Posada’s crazy, tweeting wife. Share this [...]

Episode 72: Dan’s Cool Rugby Shirt

Blum breaks down 42 miles on a bike with no chain. Evans reports on the Oprah/Nike summit. Dan’s got a rugby johns he would like to share. And some high tech tricks to baseball scouting. (26.8 KB, 27.10 Minutes) Share this post:ShareEmailPrintStumbleUponRedditDigg

Episode 71: The NFL For President!

Dan breaks down the body blow online poker just took from regulators. Blum talks up the new book about what the NFL has to teach capitalism. Seth hates yet another video game. And finally ESPN on your iPad. (25.3 mb, 25.4 minutes) Share this post:ShareEmailPrintStumbleUponRedditDigg

Episode 70: “Are You Ready to Rumble?”

MLB TV’s online service is legitimately cool. The Masters will be a non-event online. Tiger Woods plays with crappy equipment and Blum compares betting on Wrestlemania to trading corn futures. Share this post:ShareEmailPrintStumbleUponRedditDigg

Episode 69: “A Podcast Unlike Any Other”

The organizers of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar seek to bend nature to their will with artificial clouds. Blum gloats over the NCAA Selection Committee’s epic seeding failures. Blackberry “Super” Apps underwhelm and Dan takes a crack at the new Masters video game. Share this post:ShareEmailPrintStumbleUponRedditDigg

Episode 68: “Revenge of the Nerds”

Seth and Blum mix it up with MIT over sports data. Dan reviews EA’s Fight Night Champion (virtual boxing is better than the real thing). Amar’e Stoudemire’s goggles get explained and the guys tour some physical fitness web sites. All that, plus, the week in review. Share this post:ShareEmailPrintStumbleUponRedditDigg

Episode 67: “Follow the Bouncing Blum”

Dan’s on the injured reserve this week, so Blum’s flying solo (with an assist from Seth the Tech Nihilist). In this episode: Seth breaks down March Madness On Demand, Blum wonders what gives with the crap-tastic apps that are dominating college athletics, a look into the NFL’s financial picture, plus the week in review at [...]

Episode 66: “It’s Hockey Night Tonight!”

It’s all hockey all the time for this week’s episode. Dan and Blum look at the cross-border battle between the Winter Classic and Heritage Classic as well as the Buffalo Sabres ownership change. Dan and Seth the Tech Nihilist reminisce about the classic NHL video games. Plus, how did a trade between the Stars and [...]

Episode 65: “Take This Job and Shove It”

Blum pitches his wild-eyed plan for NFL players to use social media to circumvent ownership. Seth the Tech-Nihilist gives his report on the new MLB.Com. Dan reviews NHL ’11 (it’s awesome) and digs into some racing tech at Daytona. Share this post:ShareEmailPrintStumbleUponRedditDigg

Episode 64: “Jets Fans are Damaged Individuals”

As Blum gloats, Dan lets the Jets know they can go straight to hell. Also, the best televisions for your Super Bowl party; Dan discovers Broadcast HD; Blum shares his illicit passion for wooden baseball bats; PLUS, the best sports e-books for your e-reader. Share this post:ShareEmailPrintStumbleUponRedditDigg