You are here: Home / Archives for iPad

CBS: 214,560 Online Viewers for LSU-Bama Sets New Record

November 6, 2011 by

Turns out we weren’t the only ones sampling CBS Sports’ free online broadcast of the LSU-Alabama game Saturday night: According to the network, the No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown attracted what it believes to be the biggest-ever online audience for a college football game, with a total of 214,560 unique viewers through both website and mobile-device application interaction.

“CBSSports.com continues to set the pace in terms of streaming major sports event on multiple platforms,” said Jason Kint, Senior Vice President and General Manager, CBSSports.com, in a press release Sunday. “Extending the audience by nearly a quarter of a million viewers during primetime on a Saturday night is quite an accomplishment and the perfect compliment to the CBS Sports broadcast.”

According to CBS, there were 171,648 viewers who watched the game via the CBSSports.com website, and another 42,912 viewers who viewed the game via CBS Sports mobile using an app for Apple iOS devices (either an iPad, an iPhone or an iPod Touch). According to CBS, “this number of unique viewers for the LSU/Alabama game is believed to be the largest audience ever to watch a football game through digital platforms.” Though Mobile Sports Report can’t immediately confirm that claim it’s more than likely true given the limited number of big-time events ever being available for free online.

Though Saturday’s event isn’t close to being the biggest online experience for CBS — according to the press release CBS hosted 1,153,981 online viewers of an NCAA men’s basketball tournament game in 2010 (a first-round game between BYU and Florida) — it also helped prove that online viewers don’t necessarily take away from a regular-broadcast audience, since the TV part of the broadcast earned the network’s second-highest rating since September of 1987. According to CBS the game had an 11.9/21 Nielsen rating.

And while the game might not have lived up to its No. 1 vs. No. 2 hype the expected online audience certainly did, and should mean that we may see more such events toward the end of the year and into college bowl season. Bookmark Mobile Sports Report to stay informed about any future online NCAA football broadcasts.

Filed Under: Apps, CBS Sports, NCAA Football, Nielsen Ratings, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , , ,

PlayUp Brings Broad Strategy, $73 Million Warchest to Sports Social Media

October 25, 2011 by

An interloper from Australia, backed with a warchest of $73 million, entered the sports social networking arena this week.

PlayUp, released to U.S. markets on Oct. 20, is an iPhone and iPad application that allows people to get scores and stats for NFL, college football, NHL, NBA, MLB, and MLS games, and create private and public discussions by contacting Facebook friends or other directories.

“There is no better platform for social interactivity than sports, but until now the industry has been unable to marry live sports and social,” said Jonathan Press, CEO of PlayUp USA.

Greater than 56,000 free PlayUp applications have already been downloaded through Apple Inc.’s App Store since release, making it one of the five most downloaded sports social media applications downloaded to date. PlayUp plans to release a second version of the application in December, which will include the ability to buy premium content.  

Company backers include George Tomeski, a former managing partner at the advertising agency George Sydney, and Luke Bunbury, former head of strategy for the whole finance group of Austalia-based Challenger Financial Services Group, Ltd.

The company used three different investments rounds to raise more than $73 million, according to a report published by the Melbourne, Australia-based small business news website StartUpSmall.

The PlayUp slogan is “where sports gets social.”

Release of PlayUp changes the competition among developers of sports social media applications. First, PlayUp is looking to provide comprehensives sports scores and statistics to its users, as opposed to an interface that tightens the consumer’s social media focus on a single game. Second, it is most interested in an electronic-commerce strategy, as opposed to an advertising- or sponsor-driven model, which will force other developers to consider whether that’s the best way to make money through sports social media. And third, its tight intergration of Facebook as a means to invite interaction forces other application to developers to consider similar connectivity with the social media behemoth or face being left in the dust.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Sports Social Media Tagged With: , , ,

Monday’s Tech Tidbits-AT&T loves Wi-Fi!

October 24, 2011 by

Looking for a Wi-Fi hotspot? Well according to AT&T the number has been growing by leaps and bounds as users made 301.9 million AT&T Wi-Fi connections in the third quarter. The biggest growth areas? Stadiums and hospitality facilities.

Motorola Mobility seeks to reestablish Razr with the new Droid Razr, an LTE Android smartphone expected to be released next month. Can the company regain its pre-iPhone glory?

I feel old this morning. Apple’s iPod turned 10 years old last Sunday.

Google delivered Ice Cream Sandwich last week replete with a host of features-the first product with the new OS is Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus. I wonder how developers like it compared to the rival iOS or earlier Android versions?

Looks like Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 7 Plus tablet is headed to the US. Expect it to cost around $400 for the 16GB version and be available Nov 13th from Best Buy and Amazon, according to Gizmodo.

Apple’s iPad market share has peaked. Apple’s iPad market share is growing. Who do you believe? Speaking of bad iPad news stories are emerging that you can partially hack an iPad2 with a simple magnet.

Microsoft says that it will target the mid-market smartphone segment with future releases of its Windows-based phones. Rumor is that a platform code-named “Tango” is in the works, following up on its current “Mango” release.

Continued bad news for BlackBerry– a study by Enterprise Management Associates shows that 30% of RIM users in enterprises with 10,000 employees or more plans to switch to a different platform.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apps, AT&T, BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone, Samsung, Tablets, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Sling Media provides enhanced remote viewing for fans

October 19, 2011 by

Sling Media delivers SlingPlayer for Tablets
Paying a bundle to get a sports bundle on your home entertainment unit and not willing to double dip to get it on a mobile device as well? Then maybe Sling Media may have the solution for you in its SlingPlayer platform.

SlingMedia has taken the next step in delivering streaming media to mobile users with the latest release of its $29.99 SlingPlayer platform. The SlingPlayer for tablets is designed to support tablets that run the Android operating system 3.0 or later and enable a user to basically watch home TV while on the go and is an enhancement on its previous offering for Android-based phones.

This is great news for sports fans that are seeking a method to gain access to the packages that they may already be paying for at home while on the road, and is a major step up for Sling Media’s offerings in this space.

There is more to the deal than simply paying $29.99 for the app and suddenly getting all of your home sports and other programming on your Android-based tablet. You must first pony up for a Slingbox device, which start at $180 and go up from there.

The program gives users control as if they were at home, with features that include being able to set a DVR at home, channel surf and browse content while still watching TV anywhere a user has an Internet connection.

The existing SlingPlayer application for Android Phones will continue to work on tablets in “Compatibility Mode” on tablets at no extra charge but it provides video at a much lower resolution than the tablet specific platform.

There is also available a SlingPlayer Mobile offering for Apple’s iPhone and iPads that also provide remote control over home TV and DVR and is available for $29.99

Filed Under: Android, Apps, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Sling Media, Tablets Tagged With: , , , ,

yap.tv to bring immersive television experience to USA Network

October 17, 2011 by

In a deal that could bump up the social media for US Open Tennis and WWE Raw, start-up yap.tv will deliver a branded social TV guide application for NBCUniversal’s USA Network.  

Initially, the deal will focus on such USA Network television shows as “Burn Notice,” “White Collar,” “Suits” and other original programming, but US Open Tennis and WWE Raw are among USA Network’s sports offerings, and could be part of the mix.

yap.tv will deliver to USA Network a branded app for Apple iOS devices that allows people with iPhones, iTouch devices or iPads to interact with a visual TV guide, including seamless integration with Twitter and Facebook. The application could create for USA Network a significant captured audience, who would create buzz for programming and enhance audience, according to a report in The Hollywood Reporter.  The deal follows a report by Nielsen that confirmed a 10 percent lift in social media activity lead to an increase in ratings of roughly 1 percent increase.

By landing USA Network, yap.tv establishes itself as a major player in the market for social TV guide apps for mobile devices. The deal with USA is one of the first times a major television network has tapped an independent company to develop a custom-branded social media application, as most networks prefer to rely on in-house development — a tactic that usually leads to less-than-leading-edge functionality. 

Social media television guides hold huge potential for sports marketers. Simply, if a user base considers any one application the go-to resource for the viewing experience, it unlocks the potential for advertisers and sponsors to present that captured audience with advertising and direct marketing tailored to their current activities and location.

yap.TV is less than two years old, has venture capital backing from Javelin Venture Partners and Bloomberg Capital, and is advised by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.  It competes with such companies as AdaptiveBlue, Inc., which developed GetGlue.

Filed Under: iPad, iPhone, Sports Social Media Tagged With: , , , , ,

On Wi-Fi Day, a Warning: Find Wi-Fi if You Want Sports on Your Phone

August 2, 2011 by

Attention, mobile sports fans: If you are thinking of watching a game anytime soon on your portable device, be prepared to find yourself some Wi-Fi — or get ready to pay Peyton Manning-like dough to stay connected.

Since today is officially “Wi-Fi Day” since the numerical date, 8-02-11 neatly corresponds with the IEEE designation for the Wi-Fi protocol (802.11) it’s a good time as any to start thinking about where you might be able to find a Wi-Fi connection for when you want to watch sports, especially live video, on your phone, pad or laptop. Why? Because the nation’s two biggest cellular carriers, AT&T and Verizon, have recently made it loud and clear that heavy users of wireless data will be forced to pay more for the service the more they use, and may even face data-download slowdowns if they use their phones too much.

AT&T this week let it be known that even those users who still have so-called “unlimited” data plans may see their cellular connections slowed down if Ma Bell decides you are using too much data. And Verizon’s new CEO spent part of the company’s most recent earnings call talking about how “tiered” data plans are inevitable and that cell phone users need to get used to a future where every bit is counted and charged for.

The good news is that both AT&T and Verizon are busy trying to set up free public Wi-Fi networks, especially at major sporting arenas, to help ease the cellular crush being caused by stadiums full of fans snapping pictures and sharing videos from their phones. The alternative is to find a Starbuck’s or other friendly eating establishment where you might be able to use a local Wi-Fi connection to get the bandwidth you’ll need to watch sports live on your phone for longer than a few minutes.

And if you are dead set on using your phone or tablet to watch sporting events via a cellular connection, now might be a good time to take a look at what Sprint has to offer, since as of this writing the No. 3 cellular carrier in the country is the only one still offering truly unlimited data plans for its new, faster 4G network.

We’ll have more on this topic soon but in the meantime it might not be a bad idea to take a look at Wi-Fi aggregators like iPass or Boingo to see if your corporate communications needs can sync up with your desire to stay connected with your favorite team.

Filed Under: AT&T, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Video Streaming Tagged With: , , , , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »