June 20, 2013

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Streaming Stanley Cup Playoff App a Big Hit for NBC Sports

June 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment

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For the first time the ability to watch all of the Stanley Cup playoff games live from a variety of mobile devices as well as computers has been warmly greeted by fans according to the early numbers released by NBC. Over 40 million minutes have been streamed through the first three rounds.

While in the past there has been some streaming, with 12 games shown last year, viewership is up 289% compared to last year and 1,198% from 2011, when the league showed only 8 games while this year so far there has been 76 streamed games, not counting the finals.

The games are available on NBC Sports Live Extra, a live streaming product from the NBC Sports Group that supports not only desktop and notebook computers but also mobile devices and tablets for the first time.

The first two years that the network streamed games it was only available on computers and still the numbers showed strong growth, going from 3,126,562 in 2011 to 10,427,216 in 2012 and leaping to 26,296,641 so far this year.

However this year is the first where users can also load the games on mobile devices, and they have accounted for more minutes than the first two PC years combined at 14,293,950. The games air on NBC, NBC Sports Network, and CNBC

So far the two most popular games have been the Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final double overtime win by the Boston Bruins over the Pittsburgh Penguins with 2.59 million minutes and the Game 5 of the Western Conference Final where the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Los Angeles Kings, 4-3, in double overtime to clinch their spot in the finals. 2.58 million minutes were streamed for that event.

For desktops, NBC Sports Live Extra can be accessed at NBCSports.com/liveextra. The NBC Sports Live Extra app for mobile devices and tablets is available at the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and on select Android handset and tablet devices within Google Play.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, iPad, iTunes, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NBC Sports, NHL, Smartphone, Stanley Cup, Tablets Tagged With: , , ,

ESPN Scores Record Viewership for College Baseball Post Season

June 17, 2013 by 1 Comment

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ESPN reports that the Regional and super Regional games that are the lead in to the College World Series had record viewership on its family of channels and that it expects to see strong viewership up to the conclusion that will take place in Omaha with prime-time telecasts of the best-of-three Finals on Monday, June 24, through Wednesday, June 26.

The network broadcast all of the games in both rounds in a series of 22 telecasts across three of its channels and averaged 404,000 viewers for a total of over 30,000,000 viewers by the end of the Super Regionals. Not surprising is that as the later rounds gained viewership, with the Super Regional games averaging 680,000 viewers. The games were broadcast on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU.

Over the past few years ESPN has been increasing the number of regular season games that it has broadcast college baseball season includes more than 270 regular-season and conference tournament games and every NCAA Division I Baseball Championship contest for the first time. It expanded its coverage of the playoffs from six sites where games were played to all 16 regional sites.

There is no doubt that the increased coverage has led to increased viewership in my opinion. I suspect that it is also helped by the NCAA’s mobile app that allows you to track the games, but which does not broadcast the games, so encouraging fans to tune in.

In the past I have not watched that much of the games that lead up to the College World Series and probably even fewer of the games of the actual series. I suspect that I have actually seen more Little League World Series games if push came to shove.

I imagine that in part this was because it just did not come across my sports radar that often and also simply the lack of access to games on TV. Hopefully ESPN will start making games available via mobile apps and online for fans that cannot get to a television to watch their favorite team.

Filed Under: Apps, Baseball, ESPN, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption Tagged With: , , ,

Jets Executive Talks about Importance of Mobile App in Connecting to Fans

June 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment

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A New York Jets executive took the stage at the annual Multiscreen Summit which concluded yesterday in New York City and discussed the importance of mobile apps and a strong social media presence are vital to keep fans engaged both at the stadium and away regardless of how the team does on the field.

Paul Marsh, director of app development for the New York Jets comments came during the two days of discussion at the conference that focuses on a range of marketing and advertising challenges and opportunities as well as how to engage and hold customers in a range of areas, including sports.

According to Mobile Marketer, Marsh focused his comments on the importance of in stadium and out of stadium experience its growing importance during his part of the “Fireside Chat: Location, location, location” panel segment of the show.

He talked up the Jets mobile app, and how important that is to the team both in and out of the stadium. The social hooks in the app are very important he said because it allows fans to communicate with each other and to share content. The Jets are looking at enhancing the app in the future so that fans can better communicate with the team and the team can follow fans activities in the stadium and so customize service to better meet fans’ needs going forward.

MLB has been working for some time to develop apps that do this and now offer a variety of different features including in some stadiums the ability to order food at your seats with an app or to move down to better seats. The NFL as a whole has seemed to miss out on connecting with fans in this way and until I read the article in Mobile Marketer I was unaware that the Jets had a personalized app. I spend a fair amount of time on the NFL main page and it would have been nice if they pointed this out.

The conference as a whole looked very interesting with a list of presenters that ranged from Google, Mozilla, Rovio Entertainment, Microsoft, PayPal, MasterCard and Michael Bayle, the former general manager of Mobile for ESPN.

I was a bit surprised at the lack of additional sports executives at the event since it’s obviously a massive viewing and advertising platform in America, just among the big three of NFL, MLB and NBA, not counting events such as BCS games, March Madness and the College World Series.

Filed Under: Apps, Baseball, Live sports via mobile, NCAA Football, NCAA.com, NFL, NFL Mobile, Sports Social Media Tagged With: , ,

NCAA.Com Provides 2013 College World Series App

June 11, 2013 by 1 Comment

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If you are fan of college baseball, baseball in general or a school that made the College World Series then the NCAA has an app for you that will help you stay abreast of what is going on, what has happened and when things will be happening.

The 2013 NCAA Men’s College World Series will run from June 15 through either the 25th or 26th depending on results and will take place in Omaha. SO chances are that you might not have factored that into your summer vacation plans, but if you did not, or if you are attending the app has plenty for all.

The NCAA Men’s College World Series app is free and there are versions for iPhone, iPod touch as well as select Android devices. While the app provides a host of information on the tournament as well as an interactive map of the tournament site and a visitors guide to the city of Omaha.

Among the features the app includes are a daily event schedule with times, locations, directions/maps and lists of all the tournament’s festivities, live scores of all games and general information about the tournament and site.

Other features include real-time game highlights, post game post-game photo galleries, press conferences and editorial content about the tournament.

It seems that the NCAA is moving more into the mobile world every year. Earlier this year it featured an app for March Madness and had huge numbers in terms of viewership. It is unlikely that the baseball one will reach that level for a variety of reasons but increasingly the league is developing alternatives for fans that are on the go. As with the March Madness app the NCAA.com worked with Turner Sports on the program.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Baseball, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NCAA.com, Smartphone, Tablets, Turner Sports Tagged With: , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Watch NBA Finals on Select Mobile Devices: New Rival to Google Glass

June 7, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Just a reminder that with the NBA Finals now being fought out on the court you can still watch the games if you are not in front of your television on ABC. Well on most but not all mobile devices. For users of Apple’s iPhone and iPad there is an app at the iTunes store.

There is also an app for users of the Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD. Viewers using laptops as well as desktop computers can log into ABC.com. Looks like Android users are out in the cold on this for some reason. This is all part of a free access preview running through the end of June.

Asus fights for tablet share with low cost Memo Pad HD7
Asustek’s latest offering is a 7-inch tablet that could create demand for lower cost offerings in the tablet space. The $129 Asus Memo Pad HD7 has a 7-inch display with 1280 x 800 resolution and it includes a 1.2 megapixel front facing camera and a 5 MP rear facing camera. Depending on market it will be available with either 8GB or 16GB (at $149) of storage.

The company also delivered a 10-inch tablet this week, the 10-inch Transformer Pad Infinity that has the Android 4.2 operating system and is powered by a quad-core Tegra processor. It also features a 2048 x 1600 resolution display. Pricing is not yet available according to Arnnet.com.

Intel invests in gesture control technology developer Thalmic Lab
There has been a great deal of talk about the advent of wearable computing devices, from smartwatches to Google Glass and Intel does not want to miss out on the fun. It has joined an investment round to provide $14.5 million in Series A funding to Thalmic Labs.

Thalmic Labs has developed a wearable gesture control device called MYO and said that it will use the funding, which came from a round that was led by Intel Capital and Spark Capital and included Formation 8, First Round Capital and FundersClub, along with the following individual investors: Paul Graham, Marc Benioff, Geoff Ralston, Sam Altman, Garry Tan, Fritz Lanman, Hank Vigil, Tom Wagner, Alex Bard, Michael Litt and Daniel Debow.

Intel will provide access to manufacturing and technology to Thalmic to help it both scale production of its existing devices as well as develop future generations.

Rivals to Google Glass starting to emerge
At the annual Computex trade show a developer called Oculon Optoelectronics surface, that has a rival product to Google Glass that Oculon calls Oculon Smart Glasses. It claims that they will have better battery life, a better display and will cost less, around $500. Well that is settled.

Google Glass is not the first time a developer has created a wearable computer in the form of glasses, although Google’s effort is by far the largest and best financed effort. I wonder if developers that once sneered at the idea of a tablet now want to try and be in front of the acceptance curve rather than behind it and so are working to have products out simultaneously with Google so as to not initially surrender the market?

Filed Under: ABC, Android, Apple, Apps, Asus, Google, Intel, Intel Capital, iOS 6, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NBA, Tablets Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Verizon Extends NFL Mobile Deal for $1 Billion

June 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Verizon Wireless and the NFL have extended their current deal around mobile viewing of live NFL games, with a $1 billion, 4-year extension announced this week.

The billion-dollar deal does not, however, cover mobile viewing on tablet devices, a distinction noted by this story in Sports Business Daily and one we will bet is going to be kept by the league for its own video streaming plans. There will be more to this story later, but the good news for football fans who have Verizon phones is that for the 2014 season, you will be able to watch all live games — including CBS and Fox broadcasts — and not just the Thursday-Sunday lineup now available.

No word yet on ESPN’s plans to pay for mobile access for sports fans. On the Verizon side, the NFL Mobile viewing access is still apparently priced at $5 per month, but I bet that increases with the increased game schedule in 2014. Got to pay for that $1 billion bill somehow!

Filed Under: CBS Sports, Fox Sports, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NFL, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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