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Want to Spout off About the Draft? CBSSports Wants to Hear From You!

April 25, 2012 by 1 Comment

Have you ever watched some talking head spout some nonsense on television, say about the qualities or lack thereof in a football player being drafted? Well CBS Sports is grabbing hold of social media and will allow you to have your say- within reason of course.

CBS Sports has set up an interactive 2012 Draft Day program, rather than fill the airwaves with two days of people explaining why Team A was wrong in selecting Player B because on this expert’s mock draft the player is not even a 3rd rounder, and so on and so forth.

While it does have the usual suspects, NFL insiders, draft experts and college football mavens, it has a number of systems in place to allow you to comment about the events as they unfold. The show will include two sets, one that is dedicated to following social media such as Twitter feeds and Facebook, and highlighting the current hot conversations. The set will also have live interaction with fans and have snap polls to get instant feedback on events.

Manning the social desk will be moderator Lindsay McCormick along with CBSSports.com’s Senior NFL Columnist Pete Prisco along with Senior NFL Blogger Will Brinson.

On the second set will be what viewers have become accustomed to over the years, where we see the draft as it unfolds, hear commentary and analysis from the experts on the picks and listen to prediction on who each team will draft to fill important voids in their lineups.

The more mainstream set will feature Jason Horowitz as master of ceremonies along with CBSSports.com College Football Insider Bruce Feldman and NFL Draft expert Rob Rang, and former St. Louis Rams General Manager Billy Devaney. If you are away from your television during the draft CBS Sports Mobile iPhone users can watch live streaming coverage of CBSSports.com Draft.

This is a great way to use social media to your advantage. The huge growth in the draft just highlights how interested fans are in their teams and the moves that they make. My allowing them to have a say simply makes them even more involved.

Filed Under: CBS Sports, Facebook, Fanatic Fans, NFL, NFL Draft, Social Media, Sports Social Media Tagged With: ,

Masters Viewer Numbers Up on ESPN, CBS

April 6, 2012 by 1 Comment

The early returns are in and yes, more of you are watching the Masters this year. According to both ESPN (which is carrying the CBS broadcast live Thursday and Friday) and CBSSports.com, there were more of both regular broadcast viewers and online watchers this year than last. Is it Tiger fever? Who knows, but el Tigre opened Friday with a birdie which is good news for the weekend.

According to CBSSports.com, unique viewers of Masters Live traffic on CBSSports.com was up 40 percent compared to Thursday traffic for 2011; no discrete numbers yet (those should come Monday) and no totals yet from the Masters.com site. Yours truly spent about an hour Friday on the Android version of the Masters app and Verizon 4GLTE. Kept getting messages saying “this video not optimized for mobile” which makes me think the folks at IBM need to bake that app a little more. Otherwise, though, impressive to watch live video while waiting in the doctor’s office.

For ESPN, here is the press release info:

ESPN’s live telecast of the first round of the 2012 Masters Tournament on Thursday, April 5, averaged 2,661,000 viewers with a 2.3 household coverage rating based on fast nationals, according to the Nielsen Company.

The rating was an increase of 10 percent from last year’s first round, which earned a 2.1 rating. Viewership was up four percent over last year’s 2,550,000 average.

Across ESPN digital platforms – including ESPN.com, the ESPN mobile Web and ScoreCenter – the first round of the Masters generated an average of 50,600 people using one of those properties at any given minute of the day, up 35 percent compared to the previous year (source: Adobe/Omniture). Daily unique visitors to the Golf index page on ESPN.com were up 10 percent, while total minutes to the page were up 53 percent. Additionally, daily unique visitors to Golf content on the mobile Web were up 67 percent.

Whoops! Hope we didn’t jinx the coverage. Here’s what I’m seeing now:

Anyone else having troubles watching?

Filed Under: CBS Sports, ESPN, ESPN3, PGA, The Masters Tagged With: , , , ,

New Jim Rome Show on CBS: Perfect for Embedding

April 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment

David Letterman has Jim Rome on as a guest earlier this week.

After watching the debut of Jim Rome’s new TV show on CBSSports.net I made the comment that the structure of the show seemed perfect for Internet viewing — it was several short-form segments that seemed tailor made for sharing and embedding. And since Rome is already a king of social media it was my further guess that CBS would quickly make Rome’s stuff available to any Internet site that wanted to share it.

Like, say, this one.

The show is only three days old but CBSSports.net already has the show-ending “burns” under the title “Rome Wants” available for embedding and sharing. And why not, since they are forcing you to watch a 30-second pre-roll commercial. Small price to pay, we say. Here’s Thursday’s clip:

Of course us clones who follow Rome know that his radio interviews and shticks are often longer than what he can do in the short space that a half-hour TV show allows, so for radio show fans there is always the Rome Jungle Insider option that gets you podcast downloads and other goodies for $6.95 a month. But with an appearance on Dave’s show to help promo the new show and probably some cameo spots at big CBS events later this year it’s clear Rome’s star is on the rise. And his social media savvy will help him on the climb.

Filed Under: CBS Sports, Sharing Sports Media Tagged With: , ,

Sunday Sermon: CBSSports.com Does Digital Right

April 1, 2012 by 1 Comment

If I told you that CBSSports.com has broadcast 15,000 live events across its digital and broadcast properties since September, you might think it was just another April Fool’s joke. But this very serious factoid, divulged in an interview with CBS last week, is just another hint that the “Big Eye” network is getting things right when it comes to bringing sports fans more of what they want, no matter how it gets there.

“People don’t realize how many live events we do,” said Jason Kint, senior vice president and GM of CBSSports.com, in a phone interview last week. This time of year, as usual, is CBS’s time to shine with its back-to-back big events, the men’s NCAA hoops tournament followed by golf’s crown jewel, the Masters. And while the events are huge regular-broadcast ratings earners, they are also prime examples of how to do digital sports coverage right, from depth of content offered to technology-based innovation.

Getting the Rights Right is Step No. 1

It wasn’t too long ago that trying to watch as much of the NCAA tournament as you could was an exercise in futility. CBS kept the broadcast rights close to its vest and only showed select games to select regions of the country. Remember the old “look-in” snippets of exotic games? Or trying to find sports bars who could get satellite feeds of the distant regionals?

Several years ago, all that changed when online video emerged as a stable platform, and CBSSports.com embraced it for the NCAAs in a bigger way than any other major event had. All of a sudden, seeing every game you wanted to live online was possible. And even though the fees and locations are still a work in progress — one year the cost was $10, last year it was free, and this year there was a $3.99 charge for mobile device app viewing — the bottom line was that every game was out there for fans to see, on multiple platforms.

At the Masters there is also a little bit of overlapping coverage — you can see all the CBS coverage directly at Masters.com or via a Masters-issued mobile device app, or you can go directly to CBSSports.com, either via a wired connection or through a mobile-device browser. The big point is, there’s no digital shutout to cause consternation, like the regional blackouts that frustrate baseball and football fans.

“A lot of [digital coverage] is slowed down by the way the [broadcast] rights are constructed,” Kint said. “With the NCAAs we started out with rights across multiple platforms so we were able to move forward in unique ways, thinking about what the fans wanted.”

Innovation pushes the fan envelope

The Masters was another early digital sports standout, breaking away from any other online event coverage, golf or otherwise, with an enormous amount of additional content. Who knew that fans would keep their computers glued to coverage of “Amen Corner” for hours at a time? But that is what has happened, and the online viewership for the event only keeps growing, Kint said.

“You have to give credit to Augusta National for being forward thinking, yet doing things in a way that keeps it exclusive and special,” Kint said. Part of what makes the Masters a compelling online attraction is the fact that half the competition takes place on Thursday and Friday, when many U.S. fans are still at work. The second part is that the Masters has a unique history, being the only major contested at the same course year in and out, so that places like Amen Corner or other holes like 13, 15 and 16 become fan favorites all their own.

Plus, for many golfers the lyricism that is Augusta is a welcome harbinger of spring and summer, the seasonal reminder that grass is growing and it’s good to be outside.

“Masters online viewing has long hang time — we see a lot of average viewer times of more than an hour,” Kint said. “It’s almost therapeutic, to just leave it on in the background.”

This year, the CBSSports.com/Masters online coverage will add new treats, including coverage of the Wednesday par 3 contest (which will also be covered via regular broadcast outlets, like ESPN and on CBSSports.com’s cable channel) and a new “On the Range” talk-show segment beginning Monday of Masters week.

And though we probably aren’t to the point yet where fans’ tweets will be shown on Masters scoreboards, you can bet that CBSSports.com will continue to find ways to stay at the forefront of the social media conversation. We really liked its after-the-game chats during the college football season, and you can bet the signing of former ESPN personality and Twitter champ Jim Rome to a show on CBSSportsNet (which starts Tuesday night) will help CBSSports.com push the fan-interaction envelope going forward, and keep its digital-sports winning streak intact.

Filed Under: Apps, CBS Sports, ESPN, Golf, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, NCAA Hoops, PGA, SEC, The Masters, Turner Sports Tagged With: , , ,

Sunday Sermon: Thanks to Tiger’s Win, We’ll All Watch the Masters

March 25, 2012 by 2 Comments

I only got to see highlights of his victory Sunday so the thing that stuck me the most was how Tiger Woods was staring down his approach shots. Holding a pose, like a hitter who was looking for a fastball and got one. With two weeks to go to the Masters, Tiger is dialed in — and that’s why we’ll all be watching, on TV, or online, when the Masters happens.

In the long run another win at the Arnold Palmer Bay Hill Invitational presented by MasterCard won’t mean much in Woods’ long string of victories. But No. 72 was more important than most given the long stretch of time between it and No. 71. November of 2009 was the last time Woods was victorious in a regular Tour event, and we all know what else happened in between. Nothing short of one of the more epic personal meltdowns and letdowns of all time. For some of that he will never be forgiven, and rightfully so. But when it comes to golf it appears Tiger is ready for some major redemption.

And whether he makes it all the way back or not — whether he resumes his chase of Jack Nicklaus and the Golden Bear’s 18 major titles — we will all be compelled to watch what is probably the best and most pure event broadcast in sports today, the Masters. If you’re watching on TV it’s nothing short of heaven, since there are so few commercials, maybe just a few an hour. It’s nonstop golf in one of the world’s premier settings.

And online, the Masters has long set the standard of what Internet coverage should be. The tournament was the first to really show different views online, including a steady diet of “Amen Corner,” which is a great way to watch — instead of the television bounce-around with a focus on the leaders the Amen Corner cams watch holes 11, 12 and 13 and you get to see every group go through there. There’s also separate “channels” for holes 15 and 16, which are interesting in their own right. There may be many things you can call the Masters “stodgy” for but online coverage isn’t one of them. Here’s Chairman Billy Payne from last year, talking about how the Masters thinks about online coverage:

We continue to work hard on our Internet presence. Our website offers the many options that its visitors have come to expect: Live, high-definition quality video, realtime scores and comprehensive coverage. But this year we have added groundbreaking enhancements with up to nine live video feeds and some truly amazing beauty sequences showcasing Augusta National at its best.

As I’ve said before over the last several years, to the extent that emerging technology is
allowed, the development of digital media will continue to be a part of our larger communications efforts and will hopefully present the Masters and the great game of golf in a unique and exciting manner.

Every year, the Masters is great viewing, either on TV or online. And now with Tiger in form, it will be even more compelling.

Filed Under: CBS Sports, ESPN, Golf, Golf Channel, The Masters, Tiger Woods Tagged With: , , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Kindle and iPad Drove Q4 Tablet Sales

March 16, 2012 by 5 Comments

Global tablet sales surged in the 4th quarter of last year, driven by the demand for Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPad tablets. An IDC study as reported by Cnet shows that overall tablet shipments grew by 56% on a sequential basis in the fourth quarter of 2011, to 28.2 million units, and a 155% increase from the same period in 2010.

The top players in this sector were led by Apple with a 55% market share with 15.4 million tablets. Second was Amazon’s Kindle Fire at 4.7 million in the quarter, good for a 16.8% market share. Samsung trailed with a 5.8% share and then Barnes & Noble with a 3.5% share.

IDC has upgraded its estimation for worldwide tablet sales in 2012 to 106.1 million, up from its previous estimation of 87.7 million. I wonder what percentage of those sales would have gone to PCs a few years ago?


Did the NFL collude against the players?
The NFL’s very odd decision to fine the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys a combined $46 million in cap space could turn out to be a major mistake, if the league actually goes through with its decision, multiple outlets are reporting.

Dallas and Washington’s crime was apparently spending more money during the uncapped year than the other owners wanted, giving them an ‘unfair advantage’ by actually investing in their teams rather than simply pocketing the money.

It looks like the owners of the two teams are now considering suing the league, a move that looks like it might then result in an additional lawsuit from the players union as it would show collusion and violation of antitrust. While the league has limited antitrust immunity, it does not cover this kind of action. Baseball did the same thing some time back and was expensively slapped by the courts. I suspect the NFL may quietly backtrack on this issue.

Apple and Motorola talked cross licensing–last year?
A series of talks between Motorola Mobility and Apple last year regarding a proposed deal to cross license their patent portfolios, or portions of them, has come to light as part of the EU’s discovery process on the Google/Motorola merger.

It looks like Motorola was demanding that it gain access to Apple’s entire patent portfolio in order for Apple to get access to Motorola’s standards-essential patents (SEPs). It was noted in The Register that usually SEPs are cross licensed for other SEPs, not the entire portfolio.

They did discuss the ‘scope of a possible settlement’ after Google announced its purchase of Motorola for $12.5 billion. According to Foss Patents, Motorola wanted to broaden the scope of the deal to include all Android licensees while Apple wanted it between the two companies.

Yahoo sues Facebook over patents
Yahoo has dropped the other shoe in its face-off with Facebook and has filed a lawsuit contending that the social media giant has violated Yahoo patents that cover a range of features including news feed generation, social commenting and advertising.

The issue initially emerged a few weeks ago and many thought that the effort by Yahoo was just part of a positioning move by the company to show that it has a valuable patent portfolio as it seeks a buyer. The timing of the move is interesting because it coincides with Facebook’s IPO.

Now it looks like it may get the chance to prove that contention via court filings and possibly rulings on its patents. Yahoo is seeking unspecified damages, and has requests that any such amount be tripled due to Facebook’s willful actions.

Sony’s Xperia smartphone features ‘floating touch’ technology
Sony, using something that sounds like it came from a Geisha house has incorporating ‘floating touch’ navigation that allows a user to browse the web without touching the screen, simply by hovering a finger above the screen and moving it to move the cursor.

The phone also features a 1GHz dual core processor, Android 2.3, upgradeable to 4.0 later this year, and a 3.7-inch Reality Display.

Nokia working on Windows 8 tablet
Nokia, one of Microsoft’s strongest supporters in the Windows smartphone market has said that it will be joining Microsoft in the tablet space in the near future. Reuters reported that the company’s design chief is spending a third of his time developing the tablet and that the company is seeking to take a different approach from rivals in creating a product that will challenge market leader Apple and its iPad.

Intel invests in eye-tracking company
Intel Capital has invested $21 million in a third funding round for Swedish company Tobii, that has been working on eye-tracking technology that can be incorporated with laptops, tablets and other hardware. Tobii said that the investment will give Intel a 10% stake in the company.

Tobi has previously raised $14 million in 2007 and an additional $26.8 million in 2009. It said that the investment will help the 12 year old company maintain a steady research and development schedule. Tobii recently unveiled its latest eye-tracking device last week at CeBIT, the Tobii IS-2 Eye Tracker.

It is interesting that Intel is investing in this type of technology. Over a decade ago I saw a demonstration of eye tracking technology at an Intel Labs demonstration and have wondered why it has never seen the light of day. I guess it was red lighted and so the company is now looking to outside sources.

Going to London for the Olympics? Free Wi-Fi!
Well at least it will be free in the Tube, or subway system. The service will run from July 27 to August 12 and will be provided by Virgin Media. After the Olympics end the service will be available to Virgin subscribers.

USC football players live for Twitter
Interesting read at CBS Sports about Twitter and specifically on how a pair of USC athletes use it. Shows how prevalent that technology is becoming.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Athlete to Follow, Barnes & Noble, CBS Sports, Intel Capital, iPad, Microsoft, NFL, Olympics, Samsung, Tablets, Twitter Tagged With: , , , ,
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