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CBS Sports App Finally Supports Video, Tablets

August 14, 2013 by 1 Comment

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CBS Sports has updated its app (v.6.0) and brings much needed new features including tablet support as well as live video which will be added to its existing sports scores, stats and other information that it had previously supplied.

The old version of CBS Sports’ app could be viewed as a sort of dinosaur, apparently designed at a time when its developers believed that all a user needed on a mobile device was access to a web site for the information that they were seeking.

The addition of live sports video really was a necessity since there are other options, usually specific to one sport such as MLB At Bat that already offer sports highlights. Also by adding tablet support it reaches a huge new audience that surveys show often use a tablet when watching sports for additional information.

The live video will cover the PGA tour, NCAA basketball, and SEC football with additional on-demand options. You can also get personalized push notifications and it includes both CBS branded commentary and news content but also has the ability to add a Twitter feed focused on a favorite team that will include outside reporters, news services and fan commentary.

Aside from these additions the app still includes a huge range of other information that sports fans seek such as scores and stats from Pro and college football, MLB, NBA and NCAA hoops, NHL, PGA, NASCAR, F1 and a wide range of soccer including (Premier League, MLS, Champions League, Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A, Europa League, Ligue 1, Scottish Premier, Dutch Eredivisie, Mexican Primera, Brazilian Serie A, and Argentina Primera.

There will also be special features regarding major sporting events such as the NFL draft and a number of CBS Sports programming will be available such as Jim Rome’s show.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Barclays English Premier League, Baseball, Basketball, CBS Sports, FIFA, Golf, Live sports via mobile, Major League Baseball, NASCAR, NBA, NCAA Football, NCAA Hoops, NFL, NHL, Soccer, The Ligue de Football Professionnel Tagged With: , , , , , ,

MSR Report: State of the Stadium Technology Survey

August 8, 2013 by 2 Comments

state_of_stadium_128What is the “state of the stadium” when it comes to technology deployment? That is what we here at Mobile Sports Report set out to discover when we launched our inaugural “State of the Stadium” Technology Survey, in conjunction with our partner the SEAT Consortium, hosts of the recent SEAT 2013 conference in Kansas City.

With more than 50 respondents representing arenas that host the top professional league teams, including the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NHL, as well as top U.S. university facilities for basketball and football, European and U.S. professional soccer teams, professional golf and car-racing venues the State of the Stadium Technology Survey provides, we think, the first real statistical snapshot of how teams are deploying technology to both improve the fan experience while helping increase business opportunities. The survey covers deployment and planning decisions for several stadium technology categories, including Wi-Fi, DAS, Digital Signage, Sports Digital Marketing, Sports CRM, and Sports Social Media. You can download a copy of the survey for free, at this link.

What did we discover? Simply, all survey respondents and interviewees were in violent agreement that advanced technologies, especially those involving wireless communications, would be the key to an enhanced fan experience and a bigger roster of business opportunities for stadium owners and operators. Yet for most of the industry, it is still early in the game when it comes to actual stadium technology deployments, as rollout schedules are still paced by the reality of budgetary and situational constraints, a list that often spans from geographic and facility-construction concerns to complexities of partnerships and rights agreements. So the era of the connected stadium is well on its way, but not quite here just yet.

There is a general feeling of a need to move quickly to solve the most pressing problems, while taking time on longer-term and bigger-ticket deployments to ensure the correct choice of technology at the right price with the right return on investment. These findings were confirmed at this week’s SEAT Conference, which we were invited to attend, and we’ll be sharing more stories from SEAT speakers and thought leaders in the following weeks. The best place to start, though, is by downloading the report to get a level-set on what is happening at the biggest facilities out there today.

Free download of the report is made possible by our report sponsors, SOLiD Technologies and Xirrus. We would also like to thank Christine Stoffel and Chris Dill from SEAT, as well as the SEAT attendee organizations who participated in the survey.

Filed Under: About MSR, DAS, Major League Baseball, NBA, NCAA Football, NFL, NHL, SEAT Conference, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

MLBAM Reaches Out to Level 3 to Help Expand Media Services

July 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment

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Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM), MLB’s interactive and media arm has expanded its partnership with communications service provider Level 3 Communications in a deal that will add data center services to the other services that Level 3 already provides MLBAM.

The expanded relationship will call for Level 3 to add data center services that will include support for MLBAM’s digital media products such as MLB.TV live video streaming as well as archival and backhaul support. Level 3 already provides Internet and content delivery technology.

Level 3 will be handling the workload from its Premier Elite data center located within its Uptime Institute Tier III Certified Scott Data Center in Omaha, Neb. MLBAM will also have access to Level 3’s international network that includes 350 data centers.

Level 3 has had a focus on providing sports media services for some time and delivers broadcast services via its Level 3 Vyvx Services network that has handled everything from the Super Bowl and major college bowl games, MLB, Fox Sports, UEFA matches, and postseason basketball games. It provides a variety of online streaming and backup services.

The relationship has taken an interesting turn, as while Level 3 is providing a variety of streaming and storage services to MLBAM, MLBAM has in turn been providing backend services to other sports, including the NCAA’s March Madness, according to a report here.

Filed Under: Baseball, ESPN, Fox Sports, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Major League Baseball, NCAA Football, NCAA Hoops, NFL, Super Bowl Tagged With: , , , ,

Jets Executive Talks about Importance of Mobile App in Connecting to Fans

June 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment

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A New York Jets executive took the stage at the annual Multiscreen Summit which concluded yesterday in New York City and discussed the importance of mobile apps and a strong social media presence are vital to keep fans engaged both at the stadium and away regardless of how the team does on the field.

Paul Marsh, director of app development for the New York Jets comments came during the two days of discussion at the conference that focuses on a range of marketing and advertising challenges and opportunities as well as how to engage and hold customers in a range of areas, including sports.

According to Mobile Marketer, Marsh focused his comments on the importance of in stadium and out of stadium experience its growing importance during his part of the “Fireside Chat: Location, location, location” panel segment of the show.

He talked up the Jets mobile app, and how important that is to the team both in and out of the stadium. The social hooks in the app are very important he said because it allows fans to communicate with each other and to share content. The Jets are looking at enhancing the app in the future so that fans can better communicate with the team and the team can follow fans activities in the stadium and so customize service to better meet fans’ needs going forward.

MLB has been working for some time to develop apps that do this and now offer a variety of different features including in some stadiums the ability to order food at your seats with an app or to move down to better seats. The NFL as a whole has seemed to miss out on connecting with fans in this way and until I read the article in Mobile Marketer I was unaware that the Jets had a personalized app. I spend a fair amount of time on the NFL main page and it would have been nice if they pointed this out.

The conference as a whole looked very interesting with a list of presenters that ranged from Google, Mozilla, Rovio Entertainment, Microsoft, PayPal, MasterCard and Michael Bayle, the former general manager of Mobile for ESPN.

I was a bit surprised at the lack of additional sports executives at the event since it’s obviously a massive viewing and advertising platform in America, just among the big three of NFL, MLB and NBA, not counting events such as BCS games, March Madness and the College World Series.

Filed Under: Apps, Baseball, Live sports via mobile, NCAA Football, NCAA.com, NFL, NFL Mobile, Sports Social Media Tagged With: , ,

CBS Sports Enhances High School Coverage with New Partnerships

May 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment

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Increasingly fans are following not just college teams and players but looking at the incoming prep classes and watching where the top high school star athletes end up, and also increasingly this is being catered to by the broadcast networks

The latest to head this way is CBS Interactive which has lined up a pair of partners, 247Sports and MaxPreps.com to enhance its coverage and provide fans with year round coverage in the area of recruitment and emerging stars.

CBS has already had a trial run with 247Sports, teaming with the site for coverage for the 2013 National Signing Day, a partnership that CBS reported had strong viewership. The relationship will have CBSSports.com carry news, analysis and rankings of the Top 247 players in football and basketball.

CBSSports.com will use the content that 247Sports generates to complement its existing coverage of college football and basketball and will be running a web page called “Signing Day”.

The deal with MaxPreps.com provides an additional layer of information for fans, following the athletes during their high school years so that dedicated fans are informed about the quality of the players that are part of the favorite, or arch enemy’s next recruiting class. This will also be carried on line at CBSSports.com, along with blogs and on-demand and live video.

For fans of both high school athletics and collegiate level this looks to be a great place to garner information on teams and players and to hear how future draft classes and individual players are shaping up. With the recent recruiting rule changes from the NCAA, if they are not rescinded, coaches can start contacting players earlier so it will be important for fans to know who the coaches are contacting and what they are capable of doing on the court or field

Filed Under: Athlete to Follow, Basketball, CBS Sports, High School Football, NCAA Football, NCAA Hoops, NCAA.com Tagged With: , , ,

Would Proposed A La Carte Cable Bill Hurt Sports Channels?

May 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment

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Senator John McCain is introducing a bill that would enable cable companies to offer subscribers the ability to select which channels they would watch, and pay for and allow them to relegate the remainder to the waste bin.

The push is not his first try at this, he had a similar bill back in 2006 that did go very far, and the new effort, called the Television Consumer Freedom Act of 2013 is designed to encourage the cable companies to offer freedom of choice for their customers.
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ESPN and its related channels and packages are one of the more expensive set of channels available, and currently if you get basic cable a nice chunk of your bill gets sent to them. This in turn has allowed it to have a war chest that has seen it increase its power in the sports world by buying broadcast rights. If this passed and a large number of people opted out of its sports channels it would be weakened.

Also the growing number of league channels would also be potentially harmed as well. The rise of the SEC, PAC-12 and other dedicated networks has been helped by their channels getting bundled with other properties, something that the bill would outlaw. Would you pay extra year round to have a network that may broadcast only one sport that you are interested in?

However one interesting thing about the bill is that the unfettering would be voluntary, but does include some incentives to get the major players on board. There are a few sections that do appear to have some teeth in them. One of which is if networks pull their on the air broadcasts and put them on cable they would be stripped of their spectrum and the spectrum would then be sold by the FCC.

There are some other interesting tidbits in the bill including a provision that would prohibit television blackouts at publicly funded stadiums or even stadiums that have used some public funds. I am pretty sure that includes all of the NFL stadiums.

This type of a la carte push has been strongly resisted by both broadcasters and content providers and they will likely launch a strong effort to kill the bill or to at least remove its few teeth.

Filed Under: Baseball, Basketball, BCS, Big Ten Network, ESPN, ESPN FC, ESPN3, Fox Sports, Golf Channel, Live Sports Video Consumption, Major League Baseball, NBC Sports, NCAA Football, NCAA Hoops, NFL Tagged With: , ,
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