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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: , , , ,

Watching Golf This Week: The Masters

April 4, 2012 by 3 Comments

OK golf fans, time to get interactive and help us out. We know there is no way in hell that we are going to find every outlet covering the Masters this week, but we’ll try. And with your help we can do that sharing thing that everyone loves about the Internet. So here is our “first draft” attempt, going out on Wednesday since there is going to be coverage of the par 3 event Wednesday and who doesn’t want to watch that? But instead of typing it in this post we are going to simply say:

HERE IS THE MAIN MASTERS COVERAGE LINK.

HERE IS THE MAIN CBS MASTERS PAGE.

HERE IS THE CBSSPORTS LIVE ONLINE COVERAGE PAGE.

OK, that takes care of 99 percent of your questions. Now. Unless you’ve been under a rock you know all the story angles — Tiger vs. Rory, Tiger vs. Phil, Rory vs. Keegan, who the heck is Charl Schwartzel — so we don’t need to repeat those here. The only big question left is how to watch — on broadcast or cable, where there are so few commercials you might want to keep an empty jug handy next to the couch if you know what I mean; online, where Masters.com and CBSSports.com will have seven different live streams of video; or at any one of the many live-blogging outlets. If you know of one that we don’t have listed, add it to the comments; we’ll update this post throughout the week.

Here’s where to follow the action:

THE MASTERS

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE
Wednesday, April 4 (par 3 Contest, live) — ESPN, 3 p.m. — 5 p.m.
Thursday, April 5 — ESPN, 3 p.m. — 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 6 — ESPN, 3 p.m. — 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 7 — CBS, 3:30 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Sunday, April 8 — CBS, 2 p.m. — 7 p.m.

RADIO
SIRIUS XM (Satellite)
2 p.m. — 6 p.m., Thursday-Sunday
Sirius will also have several feature shows. Check this schedule for more.

Masters.com
There will be a live streaming radio report on the Masters.com site.

ONLINE
Full live video coverage at Masters.com and CBSSports.com. Different cameras start at different times each day, so… check the schedule to see when they go live. Right now tentative start times for Thursday are: Amen Corner camera, 10:45 a.m.; Holes 15 & 16, 11:45 a.m.; Featured Groups 1 & 2, 12:00 p.m.

ESPN’s live ESPN3 coverage of the Par 3 contest

ESPN: The Worldwide Leader will be at the Masters in force, with its live coverage Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and more online coverage goodies. Here is ESPN’s Tournament Central link. This is also a good place to check for live ESPN online coverage, via ESPN3 or the WatchESPN app for mobile devices. Remember, the WatchESPN app only available for cable subscribers of Bright House Networks, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon FiOS TV. Comcast customers are still out of luck.

ESPN also has the Putting at Amen Corner game online, as well as the popular Best Ball Majors fantasy game, which plays just like the NCAA hoops brackets. We’ll have an MSR group to join, stay tuned or follow me on Twitter @PaulKaps for more info.

Golf.com is going Masters overboard, with more content than you could possibly read. But the Sports Illustrated group of writers hanging out there may be the best covering the game right now.

PGA SHOT TRACKER
There will be NO Shot Tracker at the Masters. Too bad.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW
Dan Jenkins — golf’s Shakespeare. From Texas. Hope he is on form for the Masters. If you don’t know who he is, hit Google. And buy a few books.
Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer is slinging Masters lore and great links.
Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend

LOCAL FLAVOR
The Augusta Chronicle knows how to play the biggest event of the year. A good bookmark.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
Here’s an incredible service: The Masters course page has video flyovers of each hole. I think I will only spend about 80 hours on this page alone.

Want to check out the historic clubhouse? Sports Illustrated’s Golf.com has a video that takes you inside.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
Do you need a refresher? It was Mr. Four Birdies in a row to close, Charl Schwartzel.

FEDEX CUP LEADERS
1. Hunter Mahan, 1,314 points
2. Johnson Wagner, 1,056
3. Rory McIlroy, 1,015
4. Phil Mickelson, 988
5. Kyle Stanley, 954

See the full standings for the FedEx Cup points list.

WORLD GOLF RANKINGS
1. Luke Donald; 2. Rory McIlroy; 3. Lee Westwood; 4. Hunter Mahan; 5. Steve Stricker.
See the official World Golf Ranking list.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, CBS Sports, ESPN, ESPN3, Golf, Golf Channel, iPad, PGA, The Masters, Tiger Woods, Twitter, WatchESPN Tagged With: , ,

Timeout Tuesday: The All-Tiger Edition

March 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Time for some time-wasting videos since it is Tuesday. And who better to have as a subject than the most interesting man in golf right now, Tiger Woods? Here’s a few snippets including a good recap interview following Sunday’s win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, and an oldie but goodie showing Woods’ probably most historic shot at the Masters. Which, in case you didn’t know, starts in a little more than a week.

Here’s ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi, for once not having to wince while he interviews Tiger:

Want to play like Tiger? You can of course, via his new video game. And this video teaches you how to play better in the wind. In the virtual wind, that is:

And here are a couple Tiger Augusta classics… one destructive (though he still made par on the hole) and one majestic. Verne Lundquist with the classic call… “In your life have you seen anything like that?” What will happen next weekend? You’ll be watching, of course.

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

ESPN Adds Twitter, Facebook ‘Share’ Buttons to In-House Commenting

March 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment

For a long time, we’ve wondered how ESPN was going to resolve the two different social worlds it was playing in — the comments on its own posts and games from “registered” ESPN users, and the Tweets and Facebook comments it used to add fan commentary to its shows, columns and more.

The answer? We just noticed in our ESPN bracket that if you comment in a group, you now have the option to “share” that comment to Twitter or Facebook. See the screen grab to the left:

When you Tweet it appends code showing the comment came from ESPNFantasy, which is a great way for ESPN to get people to play games on their site. Now all we need to complete the circle is the ability to “sign in” on ESPN with our Twitter handles so we don’t have to have all these logins.

Make it so, Worldwide Leader. Make it so.

UPDATE: According to the great folks on the ESPN PR team, Facebook and Twitter share have been a part of the site for almost two years now. But I would swear that I haven’t seen them integrated into the comments system, like they are for the fantasy games and now even in the regular story comments, like the one I just grabbed below. Anyone else notice these things before? Since I am not a “regular” ESPN commenter maybe I’ve just missed them.

UPDATE II: I think I am right and these things were added recently. If you look at the screen shot we took of the ESPN site when the whole “Greater than Tebow” thing erupted on their comments pages, you can see that the tools that are available now for sharing weren’t there last fall. So this has to be a recent, and much welcome, addition. Looking for the day that the whole ESPN and other-site registration thing goes away… we don’t need a personality for every site.

UPDATE III: According to ESPN, the new sharing buttons were just added this week. We stand by our story! 🙂

Filed Under: ESPN, Facebook, Twitter Tagged With: , , ,

Follow Luck, RG III Pro Days This Week Online at ESPN3

March 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Now that the Peyton’s Place drama has all but concluded, the next big issue in the upcoming NFL draft revolves around which of the two top QBs is going to be picked No. 1 — and you can decide for yourself this week by watching the “pro day” workouts for Stanford’s Andrew Luck and Baylor’s Robert Griffin III live online, at ESPN3.

Baylor’s Heisman Trophy winner Griffin is up first, with his workout starting live Wednesday at noon Eastern time. The worldwide leader will have talent Sal Paolantonio and analysts Ron Jaworski and Todd McShay on hand to provide the breathless commentary (“look, a 20-yard out pattern! Superb!”)

Stanford’s Luck will have his workout covered in similar fashion Thursday, beginning at 2 p.m. Eastern. On hand to watch this scholar athlete will be ESPN’s Rachel Nichols and analysts Trent Dilfer, McShay and Steve Young. Of course if you have something else to do during the workouts the results will be overanalyzed on SportsCenter, NFL Live and NFL32 shows afterwards. The pro days will also be aired on ESPNU.

Remember, if you need help figuring out if you can get ESPN3 online, start here.

Filed Under: ESPN, ESPN3, NCAA Football, NFL Draft Tagged With: , ,
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