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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: , , , ,

Masters Week Matchup: Tiger vs. Rory, the Website Battle

April 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment

One of the huge themes to this year’s Masters golf tournament is how the new phenom, Rory McIlroy, will match up against the “old” phenom, Tiger Woods. With both their golf games at a high level, it should be fun to watch. Until play starts Thursday, we can see how the two golfing stars match up online, by looking at their respective websites.

We’ve always been big fans of Tiger’s site, and it is probably safe to say that Tiger was the first major sports star who forced the media to quote him off his website, instead of via direct interviews. That may also be why now you see many media types ready to kick Tiger when he is down. But the Tiger Woods website is still a great place to go to get info on all things Tiger, albeit in a very sanitized, sponsor-friendly way.

We didn’t even know that Rory McIlroy had a website but a tweet from the defending U.S. Open champ today let us know that he has a spiffy new site up, and that we probably won’t be hearing anything from McIlroy on social media the rest of the week as he starts his Masters grind:

Tiger is also active on Twitter today, talking about a great practice round with old pal Mark O’Meara and promoting a new charity effort over on Facebook. We’ll see if there are any post-round Tiger tweets as the week unfolds.

Any folks out there who like the new-look Rory site? I am more a fan of the button-down style of Tiger’s site; anytime there is too much Flash or automated stuff on a site I am turned off. Are you a fan of the new or the old? Is there some reason that using the new stuff increases traffic? Use the comments below to register your own web-design expertise.

Filed Under: Facebook, Golf, PGA, The Masters, Tiger Woods 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: ,

Watching Golf This Week: Arnie’s in the House

March 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Welcome to a new feature here at MSR, something we are calling “Watching Golf this week,” at least until we come up with a better title. Anyway, what we’re doing is compiling all the ways you can watch the PGA Tour this weekend — online, on TV, on Twitter, and anywhere else we can find. Please give us a shout in the comments if you know of other outlets or have favorite columnists or reporters who follow pro golf. It’s all about sharing here so don’t be shy.

With just two weeks to go before the season’s first major, all eyes this weekend will be on prodigal son Tiger Woods, and whether or not he is healthy or capable of contending at the Masters. This weekend’s tour stop is the Arnold Palmer Invitational at the Bay Hill Club in Orlando, Fla., and Tiger has started off well on Thursday, getting to 2-under early in his round. Here’s where to follow the action:

ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARD

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE
Thursday, March 22 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Friday, March 23 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Saturday, March 24 — NBC, 2:30 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, March 25 — NBC, 2:30 p.m. — 6 p.m.

RADIO
SIRIUS XM (Satellite)
12 p.m. — 6 p.m., Thursday-Sunday

ONLINE
LIVE @ PGATOUR (click this link) “Watch exclusive live online coverage of all four rounds from the par—3 14th and 17th holes at the Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Fla.”
Thursday, March 22 — 1 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Friday, March 23 — 1 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Saturday, March 24 — 12 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, March 25 — 12 p.m. — 6 p.m.

PGA SHOT TRACKER
This thing is addictive. Live updates of every shot, with length, where it landed, how far the player has to go to the hole. Like eating potato chips.

GOLF CHANNEL TIGER TRACKER (live blogging of Eldrick’s rounds)
Click here for the Tiger Tracker coverage.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend

LOCAL FLAVOR
If Orlando is golf central, then the Orlando Sentinel is its oracle. Lots of tour coverage and more.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
Check out the PGA’s Inside the Course feature for a look at Bay Hill.

WHERE ARE THE LEADERS?
Last week’s tour winner and now new No. 1 overall Luke Donald is NOT at Bay Hill this weekend, and neither is overall No. 2 Rory McIlroy. And those absences don’t sit well with the king.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
If you remember Martin Laird, you are a golf trivia expert. Here’s a list of past champions and tournament trivia.

FEDEX CUP LEADERS
1. Rory McIlroy, 1,015 points
2. Kyle Stanley, 954
3. Johnson Wagner, 920
4. Mark Wilson, 877
5. Phil Mickelson, 835
See the full standings for the FedEx Cup points list.

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

UPDATE: Here’s Ryan Moore showing how to not have to use your putter. It’s in da hole! Watch:

Filed Under: Golf, Golf Channel, NBC Sports, PGA Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Timeout Tuesday: Here’s Your Time-wasting Sports Videos

March 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Who doesn’t want a dunk fiesta to start your Tuesday off right? What better way to start than with a Derrick Rose tomahawk, courtesy of the turnstile defense of the Knicks Monday night:

How about golf? Poor Tiger Woods got the O.J. Simpson treatment Sunday with the TV cameras following his car as he left the course after withdrawing because of an Achilles injury. But did you catch him on Saturday, making par “the hard way” after rinsing his tee shot on a par 3? Shades of #16 at Augusta… here is El Tigre, and four other “shots of the week.”

This next one might be unofficial but it was a great play — Colorado’s Carlon Brown caught Arizona sleeping during Saturday’s Pac-12 tournament championship game and slammed one down hard:

And… since I went to CU and can’t remember Buffs hoops ever being worth a damn to watch, a Carlon Brown encore, this one to help polish off Cal in the semis. Who knew Buffs could jam?

And this isn’t a video of her win last weekend (couldn’t find one yet) but we’d like to spend a minute or so honoring American skier Lindsey Vonn, who may just go down in history as the greatest ever for her sport. What I like about this GS at Kranjska Gora is how she almost buys the farm near the end but recovers with such grace that you have to look closely to even see the slip. It’s probably what cost her a podium here but the form is just damn fine skiing. And somehow the foreign-language commentary just makes it seem more exotic.

Filed Under: ESPN, NBA, NCAA Hoops, PGA, Skiing Tagged With: , , ,
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