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PGA: All Tour TV Coverage Will be Simulcast Online and Via Mobile Apps in 2013

June 14, 2012 by

All the live coverage of PGA Tour events next season will be shown simultaneously on the tour’s digital platforms, including via its mobile apps and at the PGATour.com website, a tour executive said Wednesday.

In a phone interview with Luis Goicouria, the vice president of operations and business development for PGA Tour Digital, Goicouria said that for the 2013 season, all live tour TV coverage will be simulcast online, giving mobile and web-connected fans the same experience as those sitting in front of a TV. The expansion of live video content, Goicoura said, is a direct response to fans’ desire for more mobile content, especially live video of tournament play.

“Our [online + mobile] video content consumption is going through the roof,” said Goicouria, who said that tour-hosted video starts are up 81 percent so far this year over last, and YouTube views of archived videos has increased 94 percent in the same time frame. Currently, the Tour offers its “Live@” program for 10 selected tournaments during the season, typically the bigger ones like the recent Memorial tourney. The Live@ production is separate from and typically less comprehensive than any network coverage, though of similar production quality. According to Goicouria, the Live@ broadcasts typically attract between a half-million and a million video streams per event.

The Live@ coverage typically focuses on one or two “scoring” holes or signature holes, like the island green at the Players Championship. Though it doesn’t offer the breadth of coverage a typical network broadcast from partners Golf Channel, CBS, NBC or ESPN does, the Live@ shows aren’t chopped liver either.

“It’s not like we just slap a couple webcams on a green,” Goicouria said. “It’s a full-blown studio production.”

But Goicouria said the costs associated with such production keep the tour from rolling out Live@ at every stop. Unfortunately that leaves online-only or mobile-centric fans behind their counterparts on the couch when it comes to live video. Next season that ends, with the digital platforms (the website, as well as the iOS and Android apps) offering simulcasts of the live TV coverage, as well as Live@’s additional focus at the selected events.

Goicouria also said that the tour is working to make its addictive Shot Tracker feature (screen grab below) available for mobile devices, but didn’t yet promise a delivery date. Shot Tracker, which gives real-time updates on a tournament field by showing how far a player has hit a shot and how far he has left to the hole, can be mesmerizing, with players’ statuses constantly updating. The main reason it hasn’t been available for mobile platforms, Goicouria said, was due to the fact that the application was built with Adobe Flash, which isn’t supported on Apple devices like the iPhone or iPad.

“If there was one thing I wish we had for mobile that we don’t, it’s Shot Tracker,” said Goicouria, who pledged a “complete revamp” of the feature for next season.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Golf, Golf Channel, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, PGA, Smartphone, Tablets, The Masters, Tiger Woods, YouTube Tagged With: , , , ,

ESPN’s Soccer Push Pays off with Euro 2012 Viewership

June 13, 2012 by

ESPN has reported preliminary numbers for its UEFA Euro 2012 broadcasts and it is showing the sports giant that there is great potential in the sport. The opening match for the Group C teams Italy and Spain, both powerful squads, garnered an average of 2.1 million viewers.

While in terms of other major American sports this might not be that impressive but it, along with results from the Premier League show that increasingly ESPN can draw in viewers for a variety of soccer matches. It should be noted that the matches do not include a US team so there is no nationalistic urge to watch the sport.

According to ESPN the Italy vs Spain match was the biggest Euro match viewership aside from the championship match four years ago that had a 3.76 million viewership. Overall through the first six matches the network is averaging a hair over 1 million households and 1.3 million viewers on its English language broadcasts.

This represents a increases of 198% and 214%, respectively, versus the first six games of the UEFA EURO 2008

Last Sunday’s UEFA EURO 2012 match between Italy and Spain at on ESPN, a 1-1 tie and tournament opening match for both Group C teams, was seen by an average of 2.113 million viewers, bigger than any UEFA European Football Championship 2008 match except the final on ABC. That game, Germany vs. Spain, was watched by an average of 3.760 million viewers.

Through six matches, ESPN’s English-language presentation of the event is averaging 1,007,000 households and 1.328,000 viewers — up 198 percent and 214 percent, respectively, versus the first six games of the UEFA EURO 2008 (338,000 households and 423,000 viewers in ’08). The second most-watched game to-date in 2012 is Saturday’s Portugal-Germany match up – a 1.1 household coverage rating, 1,244,000 households, and 1,798,000 viewers, second to only one ESPN game in all of 2008.

Then there is the viewership from the rest of the networks broadcasting arms. ESPN Deportes is showing a 147% increase in households watching over 2008, and has reached 166,000 households. It is also getting strong viewership on its digital platforms, not a surprise since many of the matches are during work day hours for most of us.

Its ESPNFC.com has globally logged 876,000 daily visitors, 8.5 million page views and 33 million minutes, up 45%, 11% and 191%, respectively from four years ago. ESPN3 and WatchESPN, which reach a broad array of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets as well as PCs has generated 65.8 million minutes to both the English and Spanish language feeds.

It will be interesting to see how the numbers grow as we head to the elimination rounds and more weekend matches. It is tough to head out to the TV, or even watch at work, with matches that occur when your boss is expecting you to be productive.

Filed Under: ESPN, ESPN FC, ESPN3, Euro 2012, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Soccer, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

Pac-12 Digital Network Ready for Primetime with help from Ooyala

June 8, 2012 by

The Pac-12 has finally taken the wraps of its pending network effort in time for the advent of the 2012-2013 BCS football season with the revelation of the Pac-12 Digital Network that it created in partnership with Ooyala.

We reported on the early plans of the Pac-12 at the start of the start of the year as the conference started filling out its management team for the Pac-12 Enterprises, the body that will be handling the network and now more details have come forth.

This is part of an ongoing trend in schools as networks that support your sports teams, and academics are increasingly important as a source of coverage and revenue for the institutions and more and more conferences are forming them.

From its inception the goal has been to make the network more than simply a television broadcast arm of the Pac-12 and instead make it a tool to reach fans in a manner that meets their needs. SO it includes capabilities for tablets, smartphones and the Internet as well as the more traditional television broadcasts that we have all come to know and love.

To bring video and broadcast to all of these devices the Pac-12 teamed with Ooyala, a company that develops cross platform broadcast video solutions and also has a great deal of expertise in monetizing the resulting video.

The two will be developing customizable content that users can use to create a platform that meets their viewing needs. The initial plans are to develop for both Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platforms.
The various capabilities that will be offered to subscribers of any of the Pac-12 broadcast partners and will enable them to view sports, highlights and other content anywhere in the world. There will be both ad-free and ad-supported content.

The network will broadcast an estimated 850 live games in both men’s and women’s sports and all of the men’s football and basketball games that are not carried nationally. Its broadcasting team will feature celebrities Ronnie Lott, Rick Neuheisel and Summer Sanders.

The Big Ten Network recently expanded to provide a very similar service to its fans with the development of BTN2GO and I suspect that when I take a look at other conferences around the legue we will see similar efforts. What sets this one appart is that it was part of its basic concept and built-in from the ground up rather than added later.

I wonder if this means that there will be a big build-out in wireless networks at stadiums around the league. Once you provide the capability on video I am sure fans will want to see replays and highlights of plays at events they are attending.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, BCS, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NCAA Football, NCAA Hoops, Pac-12, Smartphone, Tablets

Ericsson Study Shows Mobile Will Rule Internet

June 5, 2012 by

People always say that it’s a small world, and with the Internet it seems smaller as everyone appears to be connected in one manner or another. Now Ericsson has taken the time to quantify how well connected everybody is in a recent report.

The company has just released its second annual “ Traffic and Market Report-On the Pulse of the Networked Society” that shows how connected the world is now and makes some predictions as to where it is headed.

There is way too much information to provide any sort of thumbnail here but I will mention a few interesting factoids, at least ones that are interesting to me. Not too surprising is the growth of mobile subscriptions which will grow to 9 billion in 2017. How many people will there be at that time I wonder?

Anyway a few other interesting facts is that 50% of the world’s population will have access to 4G and 85% access to 3G by 2017, with 3 billion smartphone users in that year as well. Mobile data traffic is just booming and double from Q1 2011 to Q1 2012, with primarily video driving the growth. The report estimates that mobile data traffic will grow by 15 times between 2011 and 2017.

The overall conclusion of the report is that mobile is the wave of the future and that it s being driven by users that want anywhere, anytime connectivity to video, music and the Internet. This is great news for developer of mobile apps that are targeting sports fans. I suspect that in many ways sports fans are at the foprefront of this move and expect to see a growth in the number and quality of apps as opportunities in this space appear to be growing at a very good rate.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apps, Ericsson, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Smartphone Tagged With: ,

Race Day in Dover as NASCAR Readies for FedEx 400

June 1, 2012 by

Some very interesting 3-peats last week. I guess technically they were not actual 3-peats but so what? In the Coca-Cola 600 Kasey Kahne won for the third time and it is clear that he really likes this race since on the tour he has only won 13 times. The list of other 3 time winners shows that he is in an impressive group with luminaries such as Dale Earnhardt, David Pearson and Buddy Baker among the six others that have accomplished the feat.

The race was a great day overall for Hendrick Motorsports, which aside from Kahne had an additional 3 cars in the top 11. Filing out the top five was Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle and Brad Keselowski.
http://www.doverspeedway.com/

This Week
The FedEx 400 benefiting Autism Speaks will be run at the Dover International Speedway’s monster mile, touted as the world’s fastest one mile oval. Good news for fans that have visited the track’s web site, they now have a mobile app that seems to be speedier than the regular one.

Broadcast
June 3 12:30 pm ET on Fox

Sprint Cup Standings
1) Greg Biffle
2) Matt Kenseth -10
3) Denny Hamlin -16
4) Dale Earnhardt Jr. -18
5) Jimmie Johnson -48

Twitter Feeds
@NASCAR-Official NASCAR feed
@NationwideNNS-Nationwide Official Twitter
@NASCAR_NNS-NASCAR Nationwide feed
@NASCARONFOX-Fox Sports feed
@AllWaltrip-3 Time NASCAR Champ and Fox announcer
@PRNLive-Performance Racing Network
@EdHintonESPN-ESPN Columnist Ed Hinton
@nascarnowespn-ESPN2 NASCAR
@siriusxmnascar- Sirius XM:
@SPEED-Speed

Nationwide Series
Brad Keselowski skated to a nice win last week in Charlotte, leading the last 67 laps and praying that the gas he got when he fueled up with 73 laps to go would last-it did, making his caution lap decision not to pit pay off.
The top five was filled out by Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Elliott Sadler. Point’s leader Ricky Stenhouse had mechanical issues and finished 26th while one other widely watched driver, Dancia Patrick disappointed by starting 3rd but finishing 13th.

The 5-Hour Energy 200 is this weekend and they will be racing in just a little over 24 hours of posting this. It should be a fun race as speeds will be high and drivers should be raring to go on this interesting track.

Broadcast
June 2, 2 pm ET ESPN & WatchESPN

Nationwide Standings
1) Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2) Elliott Sadler -13
3) Austin Dillon -28
4) Sam Hornish Jr. -57
5) Cole Whitt -94
5) Justin Allgaier -94

Indy 500
Congratulations to Dario Franchitti who won his third Indianapolis 500 in a very intense last lap battle with Takuma Sato, who ended up hitting the wall in a tremendous crash after their tires made contact with each other.

Filed Under: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick, Dover International Speedway, ESPN, Fox Sports, Greg Biffle, Indy 500, Kurt Busch, Live sports via mobile, NASCAR, Sam Hornish Jr. Tagged With: , ,

Watching Golf this Week: The Memorial, or ‘We’re All Back at Jack’s House’

May 31, 2012 by

Just when Zach Johnson threatened to kill off his own victory with a last-hole brain fart — and drag the golf season into perhaps fatal tedium with people talking nonstop about rules — golf fans are saved by the arrival of the Memorial this week, a sort of mini-major that will have all the big names back in play, including Tiger, Rory, and even Bubba the baby dad! Plus Dustin Johnson back from fighting off back injuries and drug rumors, and the rest… Rickie… Dufner… it’s the 6th major, the Memorial!

The course, of course, is Jack’s own spread, otherwise known as Muirfield Village in Dublin, O-HI-O. We’ve never been there but if the best golfer ever built a tournament-tailored spread from the dirt up you know it’s gonna be good. And it is. And so will be the golf, some of which you will be able to watch online, since the Tour’s Live@ online video is back this week. Plus there is bonus weekend early coverage on the Golf Channel, so if you’ve been longing to watch something other than Jason Dufner and his dip, this is the weekend to get back on the couch or in front of your mobile device of choice. In addition to enjoying top-notch golf, this might be the perfect time to explore real estate opportunities, particularly unique ones like barndominiums. If you’ve ever been curious about alternative housing options, there’s everything to know about buying a barndominium. These versatile structures combine the rustic charm of a barn with the modern comforts of a condominium, offering a distinctive living experience that’s gaining popularity. Whether you’re looking for a primary residence or a spacious getaway, understanding the ins and outs of purchasing a barndominium can help you make an informed decision that suits your lifestyle and investment goals.

Here’s where to follow the action:

THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY NATIONWIDE INSURANCE

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE
Thursday, May 31 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Friday, June 1 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Saturday, June 2 — Golf Channel, 12:30 p.m. – 2 p.m.; CBS, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, June 3 — Golf Channel, 12 p.m. – 2 p.m.; CBS, 2:30 p.m. — 6 p.m.

RADIO
SIRIUS XM (Satellite)
12 p.m. — 6 p.m., Thursday-Sunday

ONLINE
Live@ Returns! You can watch the Memorial live on your computer, or handheld device (download the PGA app) from 11 a.m. Eastern to 6 p.m. each day. If your Android app is fuzzy on video, won’t you comment below?

PGA SHOT TRACKER
If all you want is shots and distances (which can be addicting) get your fix via Shot Tracker for the Memorial.

FACEBOOK PAGE
The Memorial’s is right here.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW
Memorial Golf — the tourney’s own Twitter feed. So far these things have been… underwhelming. Let’s see if Memorial can tweet like a champ.
Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer.
Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend (and she is back from a brief couple weeks off the tour. Already sharing Instagrams from Muirfield!)

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
Muirfield Village Golf Club — designed by Jack for tournament play. Here’s the tourney site course page, which looks plain but has a lot of interactivity if you click around, video flybys and multiple hole vantage points. The Nicklaus design company page has some stunning photos as well.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
Steve Stricker. Remember him? And yes… Tiger has won this thing four times.

LOCAL FLAVOR
The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch has things pretty well nailed down with a big Memorial Xtra website. Interactive course map, video, features, it’s all here. Hurray for newspapers.

FEDEX CUP LEADERS
1. Jason Dufner, 1,735 points
2. Hunter Mahan, 1,427 points
3. Zach Johnson, 1,386
4. Bubba Watson, 1,372
5. Phil Mickelson, 1,307

See the full standings for the FedEx Cup points list.

WORLD GOLF RANKINGS
1. Luke Donald; 2. Rory McIlroy; 3. Lee Westwood; 4. Bubba Watson; 5. Matt Kuchar.
See the official World Golf Ranking list.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, CBS Sports, Facebook, Golf, Golf Channel, iPad, Live sports via mobile, PGA, Tablets, Tiger Woods, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , ,
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