Watching golf this week: Ryder Cup online at Golf Channel, NBC

Screen Shot 2014-09-24 at 10.34.55 AMAre you ready for late-night or early morning golf online? That’s what fans in the U.S. will be watching in potentially large numbers this weekend as the Ryder Cup takes place in Gleneagles, Scotland. With live coverage starting Friday at 2:30 a.m. Eastern time (that’s 11:30 p.m. Thursday for us west coaster types) it’s a good bet many golf fans will be tuning in online, using headsets so they don’t wake up the rest of the house with the TV.

All the action will be streamed live by Golf Channel and NBC, through their Golf Live Extra and NBC Sports Live Extra services. Depending on the day and time you may need to bounce between the two outlets, a small hassle but an OK price to pay to get to see the intriguing competition live. You will need to have an authorized cable account to view the live feed, though it looks like they are giving fans a 30-minute grace period of free viewing before you have to log in with your cable account. You will also be able to see the live action via the Golf Channel/NBC apps for iOS and Android devices.

Especially interesting to us is the addition of something Golf Channel is calling its Alternate Shot coverage, which is basically a different set of analysts and announcers led by the entertaining David Feherty. Feherty, a former player who is often the most engaging voice on any broadcast these days, has a unique style and fun sense of humor, which fans of his excellent interview show Feherty know well. Like past experiments with college football that offer announcer choices, we are glad to see the trend spreading to other sports, and expect Feherty — who played in the 1991 Ryder Cup and is extremely passionate about the event — to do a bang-up job.

Of course, the competition will also be shown on TV, and if you want a good place to find a lot of information easily the Golf Channel’s Ryder Cup hub is a fine place to start.

NBC sets streaming records for Stanley Cup final

Call us biased, but we bet that the numbers would have been even better had the Chicago Blackhawks been in the Stanley Cup final instead of the Los Angeles Kings. Still, according to NBC, this year’s Stanley Cup Final recorded record online streaming numbers “for virtually every metric,” according to a press release out today.

Here are the figures from NBC: “Live streaming for the five-game 2014 Stanley Cup Final on NBC Sports Live Extra delivered 603,000 uniques and 37.14 million minutes, up 38% and 22%, respectively, vs. last year and made 2014 the most-consumed Stanley Cup Final ever.”

For the entire NHL playoffs, NBC said it had 1.52 million uniques and 201.50 million minutes watched, “the best-ever for an NHL post-season” and an increase of 180% in uniques and 183% in minutes as compared to last year.

One question we have for cable and broadcast execs: Do the authentication measures really help with cable subscriptions? Or are they just a kind of feel-good thing to make cable providers feel like people aren’t getting “free” content? I’d love to see some proof or stats that say the authentication measures are valuable — as opposed to the good will and free marketing you could reap by just making stuff free online. Because really, nothing is “free” online — if you want to watch sports online you still need broadband, which isn’t really free anywhere.

Off the soapbox now. And hoping that next year when the Blackhawks return to their rightful perch atop the league, the online numbers will double this year’s.

Preakness gets online streaming extras via NBC Sports Live Extra

Screen Shot 2014-05-14 at 2.33.28 PMWith a solid showing in the Kentucky Derby, winner California Chrome looks like the best bet for a Triple Crown in years. And thanks to NBC’s Sports Live Extra feature, horse racing fans can get live streaming coverage of Saturday’s second race of this year’s Triple Crown series as well as online extras that include four isolation camera views and archive footage and replays of related topics like the Kentucky Derby race.

Basic race info: The live broadcast of the 139th Preakness Stakes starts at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time this Saturday, May 17, from Pimlico track in Baltimore. Broadcast coverage is on NBC.

As usual, you need to be a validated cable subscriber to watch NBC Sports Live Extra either online or through the mobile device app of your choice. I don’t have any empirical proof to back up the next statement, but from watching a lot of Stanley Cup playoff action via NBC Sports Live Extra online it seems like the NBC crew is really getting its act together in terms of delivery. I haven’t seen any buffering errors or frozen screens in a long time, and let’s hope it stays that way.

If you feel the need to vent your opinions on all things Preakness NBC is also hosting a social media sharing center, cleverly located at NBCSports.com/Preakness.

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