Did you miss the X Games last week on ESPN? If so the good folks at GoPro have put together a quick mind-blowing recap video, shot completely with their portable HD HERO2 cameras. Take a quick look here to see what the X Games looks like from the athlete perspective:
Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest is Tomorrow: What is Your Record?
July 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest is probably the best known of all of the major competitive eating contests held in the United States and draws contestants from around the world to Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York.
Held annually on the 4th of July it apparently started out as a fabrication between some friends but has developed into a major event, drawing an estimated 40,000 fans and viewers on ESPN, which broadcasts the event live. This year’s event starts will be broadcast at 3 pm ET on ESPN directly after its Wimbledon coverage ends.
The current reigning male champion is Joey Chestnut, who has held the title for the last five years after beating Takeru Kobayashi, the person who brought the sports to broadcast stardom when he surprised everybody in 2001 when he doubled the event record for hot dogs consumed in ten minutes by devouring 50 as a rookie. It should be noted that Kobayashi weighs around 128 pounds.
On the female side the current champion isSonya Thomas of Alexandria, VA who will return to defend her title as Female Champion. She consumed 40 Hot Dogs and Buns in 10 minutes last year. There is $40,000 in cash as well as a belt for both the male and female winner as prizes.
There are a good deal more rules and formality to the event than I had believed. The event is overseen by the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE) and since renamed Major League Eats, and among the rules are that you have to be at least 18 years old to participate, be a winner of a qualifying event, get a wild card invitation or be the champion. You also have to keep down all of the hot dogs you eat for them to count, if not you can be disqualified.
If you have wondered why Kobayashi has not participated in the past few years it is because he has been in a dispute with the IFOCE about participating in non-MLE events and other promotional issues. Major League Eats hosts approximately 80 events annually including ones that are centered around boneless chicken wings, pulled pork sandwiches and one for something called a Slugburger.
I have watched it on occasion, but I think like most people even if I do not watch I somehow know who the winner is either later in the day or the next day as someone always brings the subject up in relation to whatever is being BBQ at that time.
BCS Playoff Gains Approval while ESPN Extends its Rose Bowl Relationship
June 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Earlier this week the second round of approvals needed for the creation of a playoff to decide the BCS Championship made it with flying colors as conference commissioners and university presidents and chancellors came to an agreement on the topic.
There are still a number of issues that need to be decided, but most of these are simply housekeeping issues. Among the topics are: Ink a new TV deal and work out how the revenue sharing will work, and of course what is the new name for the playoffs. The composition and election of the selection committee that will determine the playoff teams is also a topic that needs to be worked out. I wonder if they will also create a new trophy?
The move will end the reign of the BCS Championship Series after next year, when the four team playoff is scheduled to begin. There are a number of people that have called for a larger number of teams to be allowed in the playoffs, but that seems unlikely at least in the near term and the current playoff plan is slated to run for 12 years starting in 2014.
The semifinals will rotate between six bowl games and the final game will be put out to bid for host cities just like the NFL’s Super Bowl. It had appeared earlier that the bowl games had already been decided but it now looks like that is not true. The marketing activity to be included should be tremendous in the upcoming year.
At the WWL ESPN the news is that it has reached an agreement for a 12 year extension of its broadcasting the Pasadena Tournament of Roses with the Pas-12 and the Big Ten Conferences. Starting in 2015, after the current deal expires, the deal will continue ESPN’s broadcasting of the Rose Bowl.
ESPN could, and most likely will, get a nice bonus from the deal if the BCS Playoff system selects the Rose Bowl as a playoff site, as the agreement is expected to cover that opportunity as well. The Rose Bowl is the site of the 2014 BCS Championship already.
All of the games will be played on Jan 1 at 5 pm ET except for the years that the 1st is on a Sunday. The broadcasts will span much more that television and will include, ESPN Radio, ESPN Mobile TV and can be seen on smartphones, tablets, online and on Xbox LIVE via WatchESPN and will be available on ESPN 3D .
The NBA Draft is Tomorrow but ESPN Starts Tonight
June 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The NBA draft is upon us once again and in some ways it has not achieved the overall hype level that the NFL has achieved, but it also often makes for a much better viewing spectacle as there is often a host of wildcards.
The official draft begins Thursday night at 7 pm ET and will be hosted, as it has for the last decade, by ESPN. A predraft show will be aired tonight at 7 pm ET for those of you that want to get an advanced look and see if you should despair or be elated over your following day prospects.
ESPN’ has said that it will have a specific focus for part of its broadcast that will be on the themes of determination and achievement and “climbing the ladder” to success. I think that this could be very interesting. It often seems to me that players that were stars in school and then disappear in the NBA, and NFL for that matter, are often the victims of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Getting stuck with a coach that does not use a players skill in his offense or defense, and yet when traded seem to bloom as their supporting cast improves, or their skills are used in a much better manner by the team.
The NBA’s 66th annual draft, held at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., will feature a horde of ESPN personnel and is hosted by Rece Davis along with and college basketball analyst Jay Bilas, NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy, NBA Insider Chris Broussard, college basketball reporter Andy Katz and NBA reporter Ric Bucher.
It does not appear that the network is taking its arguers in chief Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith on the road for the event, something they did do for the NBA Finals. I was hoping to once again hear the chants of ‘cheese doodles’ ringing from the rafters.
However ESPN is pulling out all of the stops with live news feeds from 15 cities to get head coaches and general managers’ feedback on selections, with live reporting from New Orleans, where the league owned team has the #1 choice and a reporter in Charlotte where the #2 pick resides.
ESPN will also be providing coverage over a wide range of its other media properties including ESPN Radio, ESPN Mobile TV and streaming live via WatchESPN on ESPN3.com. You can also look for NBA on ESPN Facebook page for updates of you are so inclined.
Friday Grab Bag: X Games Coming, Soccer Corruption in China, Bike Lojack
June 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment
ESPN’s annual summer X Games will begin next week on June 28 and run until July 1. Fans and athletes will descend on Los Angles for the events that will start with the X Fest that runs from noon until 7 pm on the opening day.
ESPN will be spreading the 21 hours of live broadcasting, both on-air and online, between a number of its properties: ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC will have the on-air duties with HD handled by ESPN 3D. For online, the games will also be digitally streamed on XGames.com and WatchESPN.com.
Intel buys InterDigital patent portfolio
Intel has reached an agreement to purchase approximately 1,700 patents and applications from wireless technology developer InterDigital for $375 million. The patents primarily are in the areas of 3G, LTE and 802.11 technologies.
Intel said that the move will be a benefit to its development efforts in the mobile segment, and the unspoken part of the deal is that it will no doubt provide ammunition in the ongoing legal spats over patents that are common in the mobile space as well.
Vungle creates App Fund for developers
Vungle, a startup that seeks to provide a variety of advertising and promotional avenues aside from the traditional pop-up ads has moved to draw more players to its platform. In a very interesting turn the company, which just closed a $2 million venture round last month will use half of that money and create a fund for other developers.
The purpose of the move, according to TechCrunch, is to lure developers to its platform and so gain a boost for its approach to alternative advertising for mobile apps. It will be interesting to see how this works out.
Corruption in Chinese soccer — who knew?
The New Yorker, where I often go for my sporting news, had an interesting piece on corruption in the world of Chinese soccer. League executives, players and refs have all been hauled away and imprisoned due to an apparent widespread match fixing epidemic.
It seems that it has been ongoing for several years and that one top referee received $128,000 to fix seven matches. The country, which is seeking to win the rights to host the World Cup in the future, is cracking down to show that it will not tolerate this type of blatant corruption. What impact that will have on FIFA I am not sure.
Apple and Motorola get chance to push claims
The Apple vs Motorola litigants had the opportunity to speak their piece to US Circuit Court Judge Richard Posner. Apple apparently does not want Motorola to pay royalties but wants it to change its design and also claims that since Motorola’s patent is never used it has no value. Motorola obviously does not agree with either position.
Oracle taking Google lawsuit to next level
Oracle has agreed to accept zero damages for the copyright infringement claims that it ‘won’ in its case versus Google over Java technology. Oracle had been seeking big money in the case, claiming that it suffered up to $6 billion in loses.
However this is not the end of the affair. Oracle has said it will appeal its claims in the case once again, including both the patent infringement and whether its APIs can be copyrighted, to the Ninth Circuit appeals court.
Amazon App Store goes International
I have to say that I was surprised when I read that Amazon had not really extended its App Store to other countries and that it was primarily focused on the US market, a short sighted deal since one of its top developers of Android running devices Samsung is so strong internationally.
But anyway that looks to be a thing of the past as the company has now started opening it up and now developers in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain can release games and apps designed specifically for those markets and the company has promised that more nations will be opened up to the joys of apps in the near futire, according to Cnet.
Ever had your bike stolen? SpyBike GPS could track the next one
SpyBike is a product developed by Integrated Trackers that is designed to look like a normal headset cap. It is designed to be activated when the bike is locked and you use a simply arming key and if the bike is moved it starts sending out data via a GPRS message and uses GPS to locate the bike. If GPS fails it has a fall back technology to help locate it.
The device does not come cheap, at $153 as well as a per message charge. The company said that it costs a fraction of a penny per message, but that varies by country. It features a rechargeable battery that can hold a charge of months.
Microsoft is on a roll, but is it a good one?
PC Mag is reporting that the company only gave some of its top OEMs a few days notice prior to announcing its Surface tablet platform earlier this week. As a number of them have made a major investment in developing for the underlying operating system, Windows 8, this seems a bit shortsighted.
Then later in the week it talks about its Windows 8 for smartphones and reveals that customers that buy the current family of smartphones will not be supported by Windows 8. I am sure that cheers up Nokia which has made a major investment in promoting Windows Phone technology.
ESPN Supports Title IX with espnW Women’s Sports Channel
June 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment
On the 40th Anniversary of Title IX ESPN3 has launched espnW, a sports channel that will be dedicated to women’s sporting events. The anniversary of the passing of the Education Amendment of 1972, of which Title IX was apart, will be this Saturday.
What the act did, for those who do not know, is that it required equal opportunities for all at any educational institution that received federal funding. While most associate it with women’s sports, where it no doubt had its most public impact, it covered everything from school bands to access to math classes as well. It required equal spending for sports and has withstood a number of assaults to weaken it over the years.
The channel plans a major blitz in coverage, with it expected to carry 170 hours of live women’s sports through July 31 via an ESPN3 player that will give access to espnW. The network said that half of its programming will be exclusive to that channel.
ESPN said that the channel is in its long range plans as a permanent offering and that it has plans to expand what it will offer in the future. It currently has a lineup that will include basketball including WNBA, AAU Volleyball, softball, and tennis among others.
The web site for the channel includes the upcoming summer Olympics, athletes blogs including Olympic hopefuls, commentary, tweets from select athletes’ and a list of events that fans can go view live. This is a nice start for pushing women’s sports and hopefully as more fans view the events they will start making it to the mainstream broadcasts from ESPN.
