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MLB’s At Bat app rakes in the viewers and sales

November 1, 2013 by 1 Comment

atbat

Major League Baseball has been very aggressive in developing and delivering a variety of apps that can enhance a fan’s appreciation of the game and the flagship product in that effort is clearly At Bat, a program that enables fans to watch and/or listen to games.

The program has seen strong demand, with 10 million downloads in a single season, and very high usage with 1 billion launches. MLB said that 60% of fans open it every day. Last year it had 6.7 million downloads.

Apple recently announced that the program is one of the 10 top grossing iOS apps of all time, and that is no surprise in view of how long the two have partnered. When Apple opened its App store in 2008, At Bat was one of the original apps available.

Of course the app is not just for Apple’s platform, although they are often the first to get the latest releases and have the most features, but it also has an Android version as well as BlackBerry and Kindle Fire.

It would be interesting to see if the growing popularity of the app, which helps fans view games that might not be broadcast in their area, or hear favorite broadcasters has had any impact on other areas of the game such as television viewership. The recently concluded series between Boston and St. Louis saw TV ratings jump 17% this year.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, Baseball, Boston Red Sox, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Major League Baseball, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Pro surfing league brings ESPN, YouTube and Facebook on board for event broadcasts

October 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment

surf

We have been touting YouTube as an alternative sports channel basically since the inception of this site and it looks like it has taken another major step forward in that direction as part of a deal that includes the Association of Professional Surfers (ASP), ESPN and Facebook.

The 3-year deal will start next year and calls for ESPN to recap 26 ASP events in a series of 11 broadcasts, while the ASP YouTube Channel will show all 26 events live for surfing fans. Facebook will serve as the primary social-platform partner, with the important goal of seeking to drive fan engagement via both broadcasts and connecting fans to the athletes themselves.

A look at the role that YouTube plays shows how its importance is growing. Over the course of the season next year it will broadcast, along with a new ASP website, over 3,000-plus hours of exclusive programming, including 26 live-streamed events across the men’s ASP World Championship Tour (WCT), the women’s ASP WCT and the ASP Big Wave World Tour (BWWT).

The three way partnership also shows the growing impact that social media players are having on the broadcast industry. A recent deal between the NFL and Twitter is another example of how the two areas are starting to find common ground for growth. Major League Baseball has also been very active with social media partners including with Instagram where fans can tag photos of themselves at games.

These types of deals are good for both broadcasters and fans. There is obviously too much surfing coverage for just ESPN, with its already full plate, to handle. By partnering with someone such as YouTube, fans win by not getting shut out of viewing most of the events live and the two broadcast partners both help grow the interest in the sport. The ASP claims that it has 120 million fans worldwide.

The ASP deal for ESPN only holds for its U.S. broadcasts and the surfing association said that it is looking for related deals to bring the sports to the airwaves around the globe.

Filed Under: Contests, ESPN, Facebook, Live Sports Video Consumption, Major League Baseball, NFL, Twitter, X Games, YouTube Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Top Sports Twitters, No one wants NASCAR

October 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Sports humor site Deadspin breaks down the top sports Twitter accounts with a short synopsis of each, most of them dead on and pretty funny, using actual tweets from each account to highlight, sort of, what the person stands for.

The piece does not spare many, with pretty much an impressive list of people and put downs. It should be noted that Deadspin only included 73 sites in its Top 100 list.

Instagram a threat to hockey reporters?
Sports reporters who cover the Philadelphia Flyers are all up in arms over the team’s decision to use Instagram as the avenue by which it announced who would be its starting goalie. The best part is how the reporters, some of the most old school in the nation, responded.

That would be via their smartphones and through their Twitter accounts of course. Nothing can show your disgust over someone using the latest technology than by also using it to complain about that use.

Aereo coming to Android
The TV over Internet developer Aereo said that it will soon be delivering to the Android operating system. It already has a version of the iPhone but said that the Android took much longer because of the huge number of customized versions of the OS.

Aereo is currently locked into a lawsuit with TV broadcasters over its rights to rebroadcast their products and they are trying to fast track the suit to the US Supreme Court to prevent the rapid expansion of the company,

iPhone 6 to reported to have 4.8-inch screen
Cnet is reporting that a Jefferies analyst is predicting that the next generation iPhone, expected in sometime in 2014, will have a 4.8-inch screen. The current screens on the just released iPhone 5s is 4 inches.

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek made his prediction after meeting with Apple suppliers in Asia. Currently Apple is behind the curve in screen size, with an estimated 50% of other smartphones that shipped last quarter having screens larger than 4 inches.

ESPN & Turner fleeing NASCAR
It has been reported elsewhere that NASCAR’s viewing numbers have been declining for the last several years but has it really come to this? The Sports Business Daily is reporting that both Turner Sports and ESPN are looking to exit their respective broadcast deals with the sport early.

The idea was to turn responsibility for the telecasts over to Fox Sports a year early, since Fox will be the new broadcaster for NASCAR in the future. NASCAR turned down the idea according to The SBD.

Motorola to one-up Samsung in large format smartphones
According to Cnet there is the possibility that the next generation smartphone from Motorola will feature a 6.3-inch display, placing its own stake in the ground in the rapidly growing phablet market segment.

The space, pioneered by Samsung and its Galaxy Note lineup, has seen a number of additional players enter the market such as Sony while others such as Microsoft have hinted at the possibility. Apple appears to be the lone holdout on the large screen segment among the major players.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, ESPN, Fox Sports, Instagram, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Motorola, NASCAR, Turner Sports Tagged With: , , , , , ,

GoPro’s latest actioncam smaller and lighter

October 3, 2013 by 1 Comment

gopro

For fans of actioncams, those small cameras designed to be worn by the user in sporting events and other activities but are concerned about the potential interference the devices could have, GoPro has good news for you.

Its Hero+3 lineup is now out and the company has addressed issues such as weight and size by the simple move of reducing both, while maintaining the functionality that customers are used to from its other offerings.

The latest lineup is 20% smaller and lighter than its last generation while at the same time the company has managed to increase battery time by as much as 30%. The entry level offering is the Hero3+ Silver Edition and the company said that it performs at 2x the speed of its Hero3 Silver offering.

The camera can support both 1080p60 and 720p120 frames per second video and even when loaded in its new waterproof housing is still 15% smaller than earlier editions. It also now sports a much faster Wi-Fi capability for transferring files, reaching speeds that are 4x faster than in older models. It also has a faster image processor, operating at double the speed of the last generation.

The top of the line Hero3+ Black Edition has the same video and Wi-Fi capabilities available in the Silver Edition. The camera boasts a new lens for sharper images and an auto low light mode that can adjust for changing lighting conditions. Its underwater housing now has a 20% smaller and lighter footprint than older models and is good down to 40 meters. The $400 camera is currently available.

In addition to improving its cameras GoPro has also enhanced the clamps by which users attach them to their bikes, bodies or other objects. There is now a smaller version of its chest harness, called Junior Chesty, for smaller children and there is a Headstrap + Quickclip for low profile mounting of the cameras on baseball caps, belts and other objects.

Filed Under: Apps, GoPro, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Motocross, Outdoor Activities, Running, Skiing, Sports Action Cameras Tagged With: , ,

NFL signs promoted tweet deal with Twitter

September 30, 2013 by 1 Comment

tweet

In a deal that will likely make its rivals sit up and notice Twitter has signed a deal with the NFL that will feature hosted Tweets that include embedded video, highlights and analysis from NFL games and programs.

The NFL will create a dedicated team to produce content for Twitter not just on game days but seven days a week including in-game video from the Thursday Night games and will feature reports and video from all of a week’s games after they have aired, regardless of which network is showing the game.

The deal’s timing is interesting as it comes just before the expected IPO for Twitter, which was already top of mind for investors prior to this news.

nfllol

The deal is interesting for a number of reasons. Twitter already has a partner that has an Amplify deal in Verizon, but apparently that only pertains to the Super Bowl. ESPN is also a partner, but it cannot broadcast NFL video in its tweets, even from its NFL broadcasts, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The agreement is part of Twitter’s Amplify service that enables broadcasters to show video clips and other programming, and ads, which is synchronized with programs that are currently airing, giving users a second screen experience that shows content that might not be available on the broadcast. The two share ad revenue that is generated from the tweets.

You may not be familiar with the Amplify service by name but if you watch sports, or other outlets for that matter, you have most likely witnessed it in action. Twitter already has deals with a number of major players including Turner Sports, the NCAA, ESPN, BBC America, Fox and the Weather Channel.

Hopefully this is a trend that other sports leagues will follow so that when fans are not in front of their screens that can still get more than just a taunting text message from their friends about the state of their favorite team.

(Editor’s note: Interestingly, the video doesn’t work in embedded tweets but redirects you to a Twitter page. Sample video tweet below. Follow @NFL for sponsored video tweets.)

Filed Under: Apps, BBC, ESPN, Fox Sports, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Monday Night Football, NFL, Sunday Night Football, Twitter, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , ,

Samsung Starts the Clock on the Smartwatch Battle

September 5, 2013 by 1 Comment

galgear

Samsung the first among the major consumer electronics players to take the wraps off of its smartwatch with its unveiling yesterday of the Galaxy Gear smart watch as that space takes a major step forward becoming a reality.

The Galaxy Gear features a 1.63-inch display and is designed to connect to a Galaxy phone providing e-mail alerts and news routed from that device. However it is more than a glorified pager as it also features a 1.9 megapixel camera that will enable point and shoot photography. It has a built-in microphone that can be used for composition of memos, emails, calendar appointments and more.

One of the areas that early smartwatch pioneers have worked to cultivate has been in the exercise and training field and the Galaxy Gear is designed to compete in that space as well and will support a number of popular apps in that space such as RunKeeper and Life360 and can function as a pedometer.

Last but not least the Galaxy Gear also serves as a wristwatch and includes several face options and will come preloaded with 10 different clock options and more choices will be downloadable via Samsung Apps. It will be available in six colors that will be available at launch: Jet Black, Mocha Gray, Wild Orange, Oatmeal Beige, Rose Gold, and Lime Green. The company said it would ship on September 25th and it will listed at under $300.

There has been a great deal of talk over the last year about smartwatches-which companies will or will not release one, when that will occur and if this means the death toll to the smaller players such as Pebble that have been working to pioneer this space.

Apple has been another of the players that have been rumored to be in development in this space, and recently Google announced made a major move into the space (which actually closed last year) with its purchase of WIMM Labs, a company that first showed its smartwatch design in 2011. Expect others to follow suit in the near future.

It will be hard to predict how this space will pan out. Will the devices be viewed as a fad with a fast adoption rate and an equally fast abandonment rate? Remember a few years back when the race in smartphones was to see who had the smallest form factor? Then as apps started to make them multifunctional they went to larger and larger formats, and now the phablet space is a huge one with oversized screens.

Watches will have small displays. They are good for quick updates and alerts and a surprising range of other features, but they also duplicate everything that is on a smartphone, and so will the majority of users want to carry two pieces of hardware when they have one that already does all of the tasks and more?

It will also be interesting to see if their is a backlash like there appears to be for Google Glass. Will casinos ban smartwatches and how will they do that?

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Google, Live Sports Video Consumption, Samsung Tagged With: , , , ,
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