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DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket Mobile Service Sacked by Tech Glitch

September 12, 2011 by

The little man didn't fly as promised for mobile users this Sunday, according to reports.

DirecTV’s big push to promote a mobile-viewing option for its Sunday Ticket NFL package apparently got sacked by some technical glitches that rendered the service inoperative for mobile-device users, according to several reports including this post from FierceCable.

So despite heavy promo of the cute commercials where the fairy-sized Deion Sanders uses magic to bring DirecTV’s live NFL game action to a fan stuck at the airport, the satellite provider couldn’t keep up the promise on the back end, throwing its game-day credibility for a huge loss.

With competitor Verizon Wireless amping up the publicity for its own mobile-NFL product, you have to wonder how many fans are going to pay the big up-front bucks for DirecTV if the company can’t make good on one of its biggest and most hyped products.

Filed Under: Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NFL, Verizon Wireless

Twitter turns NFL upside down — arrives as must-have game-day network on kickoff Sunday

September 12, 2011 by

Roddy White apologizes over Twitter to start 2011 NFL season

Twitter took another big step toward becoming the must-have tool for NFL fans on Sept. 11, as it compiled and redirect tweets from like-minded fans, players and announcers in historic numbers. The service also figured in several NFL news stories in the opening weekend of the NFL.

The momentum started Sept. 7 when Twitter posted directions for maximizing the NFL experience on smart phones, iPads and tablet devices. Every NFL team and half of all NFL players tweet, Twitter pointed up. The company is emphasizing that following NFL on twitter gives a “richer, 360-degree view of the game.” It is more obvious than ever that Twitter sees the NFL as a killer application of its technology, as it looks for ways to turn the communication service into a real business. And Twitter is right: if you are a true NFL fan, you should be Twitter savvy because too much of the NFL experience is missed without it, at this point.

Formal feeds for your favorite team

Key to Twitter’s 2011 plans are accounts that automatically find the best tweets from local media, owners, players, coaches and teams with a standard format. Here’s that standard format: @YourTeamNicknameTweets. So, for example, Green Bay Packers fans can lock in to the Twitter channel via @PackerTweets. A complete list of team handles can be found on Mobile Sports Report.

Official info for NFL Twitter Newbies

Twitter provided the following pointers for NFL fans:

  1. Join over 2.3 million people who follow the NFL’s tweets.
  2. Look for fantasy sports advantages by following such mainstream media and fantasy media sites as ESPN Fantasy Sports, Yahoo! Sports and CBS Fantasy News.
  3. Twitter SMS instructions for using the FOLLOW command to get updates of your favorite team.
  4. Links to Twitter search to find teams and players.

Beyond Twitter’s formal plan to capitalize on the NFL with how-to instructions on the blog, several NFL news stories had Twitter central to their story lines. It started Saturday with Steelers’ Troy Polamalu announcing that he’d extended his contract with Pittsburgh via Twitter, and additional stories took shape on Saunday. Here are three key examples:    

Twitter central in NFL news stories:

  • Dallas Cowboy tight end Jason Witten, a seven time all-pro, and the Cowboys second all-time reception leader behind only Michael Irvin, posted on Twitter on Sunday that he reached a five-year contract extension with Dallas. Witten tweeted, “I am blessed to say that I will retire a cowboy!Thx to the jones family, and all the cowboy staff! True honor to put on the star!! #gameday,” he wrote.
  • Atlanta Falcons WR Roddy White, who caught eight passes for 61 yards but had no touchdowns, apologized to fans who drafted him with the following post: “Sorry fantasy owners tht drafted me got to make it up to u this Sunday.” White has continually been involved in Twitter controversy over the years, and 2011’s tweet signals that nothing is different as Matt Ryan and Co. look to convert a highly suspect offense into a Super Bowl championship over the next 15 games. White is a Mobile Sports Report must-follow athlete, regardless of how you feel about the Falcons.
  • San Diego linebacker Takeo Spikes used Twitter to emphasize that Minnesota Vikings RB Adrian Peterson’s trash talking was a motivating factor in shutting down the star halfback in the Chargers 24-17 win over the Vikings, according to NBC San Diego.
Filed Under: NFL, Twitter, Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

How to Find Twitter’s New NFL Services for Your Favorite Team

September 12, 2011 by

Courtesy of Twitter, find your favorite team and start following them during the 2011 season. These links will take you to the best tweets from your team’s players, local media that covers your team, owners, coaches and official team accounts.

Simply find your favorite team, click on the hyperlink, add it to your Twitter follow list. Do that, and you will never be alone when following your favorite team:

NFC
East: The Washington Redskins [@RedskinsTweets], the Philadelphia Eagles [@EaglesTweets], the New York Giants [@GiantsTweets], the Dallas Cowboys [@CowboysTweets]

North: The Green Bay Packers [@PackerTweets], the Minnesota Vikings [@VikingsTweets], the Chicago Bears [@CHIBearsTweets], the Detroit Lions [@LionsTweets]

South: The Atlanta Falcons [@FalconsTweets], the Carolina Panthers [@PanthersTweets], the New Orleans Saints [@SaintsTweets], the Tampa Bay Buccaneers [@BuccaneerTweets]

West: The San Francisco 49ers [@sf49erstweets], the Arizona Cardinals [@CardinalsTweets], the Seattle Seahawks [@SeahawksTweets], the St. Louis Rams [@STLRamsTweets]

AFC
East: The Buffalo Bills [@BUFBillsTweets], the Miami Dolphins [@Dolphins_Tweets], the New England Patriots [@NEPatriotTweets], the New York Jets [@NYJetsTweets]

North: The Baltimore Ravens [@RavensTweets], the Cincinnati Bengals [@BengalsTweets], the Cleveland Browns [@BrownsTweets], the Pittsburgh Steelers [@Steeler_Tweets]

South: The Houston Texans [@TexansTweets], the Indianapolis Colts [@ColtsTweets], the Jacksonville Jaguars [@JaguarsTweets], the Tennessee Titans [@TitansTweets]

West: The Denver Broncos [@BroncosTweets], the Kansas City Chiefs [@ChiefsTweets], the Oakland Raiders [@RaiderTweets], the San Diego Chargers [@ChargersTweets]

Filed Under: NFL, NFL Draft, Twitter, Uncategorized

Watching NFL on Verizon Phones: How Much Data is Needed?

September 8, 2011 by

Here’s the $64,000 question when it comes to watching NFL games live on your Verizon cell phone — how big a data plan will you need to watch live video of full games? Unfortunately, Verizon doesn’t have a clear answer for you at this time — other than, it probably won’t cost $64,000.

Tonight’s season kickoff between Green Bay and New Orleans is one of the games available to view live on your Verizon smartphone using the NFL Mobile app, which Verizon is heavily promoting via Twitter and other advertising avenues. If you already have one of Verizon’s smartphones the app will probably work, though you also need a Verizon Video subscription for an extra $10 a month added to whatever data plan you might have.

Guessing which data plan you will need, of course, is the all-important budgetary question — which could depend entirely on how many games you might want to watch on your phone. Since streaming video is about the biggest bandwidth-eating application around, anyone who wants to watch more than just a few minutes of live action per month should probably start with a baseline estimate of having to have Verizon’s highest per-month data plan, which gives you 10 GB of data to work with for $80 per month.

But what if you can’t afford the high-end plan and want to monitor how much data each live-game minute eats up? Unfortunately the answers you get from Verizon Wireless will vary depending on whether you are calling them live, using live chat or trying to decipher the answer via Verizon’s web site usage calculator.

On the Verizon Wireless web site we found an interactive data calculator that seemed pretty easy to use — except it’s unclear whether or not the NFL Mobile app uses high-definition or low-res video. Either way, you are going to chew up big chunks of data watching your team play live: According to the Verizon tool high-res streaming on a smartphone eats up approximately 400 MB per hour, while lo-res only uses 200 MB per hour.

Verizon Wireless's video usage calculator, showing that 15 hrs of high res video will eat up 5+ GB of data.



But if you watch about five games in a month — with each game at roughly 3 hours that means 15 hours of video — you will eat up 5.86 GB of data, according to the Verizon calculator. But if you call Verizon and ask the same question, you get a much different answer: According to the phone rep we talked to, the internal literature on the NFL Mobile app tells them to tell you that it only uses 17 MB per 12 minutes of viewing — a total of 85 MB per hour, much lower than the calculator.

And if you ask the question in an online chat session — how much data will I need to watch one game — the rep tells you “I do apologize, but I really cannot say,” and then offers to point you to the online calculator.

Our guess is that most cell-phone fans will use the Verizon NFL Mobile app to watch the popular NFL Network RedZone feature, which switches between in-progress games to show teams about to score or other significant plays. Especially until there is a clearer barometer of how much data you are using while watching, tuning in only to the RedZone might help keep your data bill from redlining as well.

Filed Under: Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NFL, Verizon Wireless

ESPN’s New MNF Deal Shows That for Mobile Fans, the NFL Rules

September 8, 2011 by


Though the details of the new 8-year deal that ESPN and the NFL announced today are centered around broadcast rights for the popular Monday Night Football franchise, the incredible growth in viewership of digital ESPN NFL content is a sign that for mobile sports fans, football is king.

How big is mobile consumption getting? From the ESPN press release today, chew on these numbers for NFL content on the cable channel’s digital platforms:

— ESPN averaged 42.2 million unique visitors on the site in fall 2010; Sundays during the NFL season are the highest trafficked days of the year for ESPN.com

— During the 2010 season, NFL content represented 39% of the page views generated on ESPN.com, highest of any sport.

— The NFL fan spends over 50% more time with ESPN media than the average person;

— ESPN.com NFL coverage on Sunday and Monday (including the home page, NFL section and Fantasy Football section) averaged 47.4 million visits and 271.4 million minutes of usage during the 2010 season, a year-to-year increase of 20% on visits and 20% on minutes.

— NFL coverage (incl. NFL and Fantasy Football section) on the ESPN Mobile web site and ScoreCenter app in 2010 delivered 14.5 million visits and 101.4 million minutes each week, increases of 66% and 61%, respectively, versus the prior year.

With the season starting with tonight’s Green Bay/New Orleans matchup it will be interesting to see how many fans try to watch games on mobile platforms, either via direct connections (like Verizon’s NFL app or via the Sunday Ticket mobile platform) or through some other means like using a Slingbox. Clearly this is an area we’ll be watching closely so stay tuned for price and quality comparisons as the season rolls on.

Filed Under: Apps, ESPN, Monday Night Football, NFL, Tablets Tagged With: , , ,

‘Tour Tracker’ App Brings Race Action to Cycling Fans’ Phones and iPads

September 7, 2011 by

The Tour Tracker app shows not only live racing action, but also a wealth of race-related information, like elevation profiles and current standings. Credit: Tour Tracker.


The traditional time sacrifice made by cycling fans — hours spent waiting on a remote hillside for only a brief glimpse of the riders as they pass by — is now history, thanks to a revolutionary app that brings full live race action to phones and handheld devices.

At the recent USA Pro Cycling Challenge in Colorado, many fans were seen alongside race courses with mobile devices in hand, watching both the live race in front of them as well as the television-quality coverage provided by the Tour Tracker application, a free app for iPhones, iPads and Android devices.

Like the live TV coverage from the Versus cable channel, the Tour Tracker app brought live in-race coverage to fans’ mobile platforms, allowing people to both see the race in person — if for only a few seconds — while still following every second of action via their portable devices.

“It’s the perfect example of technology really solving a problem, instead of just being a cool device to play with,” said Rob O’Dea, one of the two brains behind Tour Tracker. As a professionally published cycling photographer (as well as a longtime successful marketing executive), O’Dea knows well the problem cycling fans have traditionally endured when it comes to watching races live: You might spend hours by the side of some remote mountain pass with no idea what was going on until you saw the racers quickly pass you by.

With the Tour Tracker app, all that is changed since fans can basically watch an entire stage unfold from start to finish, combining the best of the couch-potato TV-watcher and on-the-scene worlds. Sponsored by electronics retailer and pro cycling team sponsor Radio Shack for the USA Pro Challenge, the “Shack Tracker” was the buzz of the crowd lining the streets in Aspen and Vail during the two USA Pro stops there in late August, with people watching the race on their phones and iPads while waiting for the cyclists to arrive at their viewing spot.

Cycling fans in Aspen watch the USA Pro Challenge on an iPad while waiting for the racers to reach town. Credit: MSR.


Though Tour Tracker isn’t a brand new phenomenon — “it’s an overnight success that has been years in the making,” joked O’Dea — it’s safe to say that the combination of application maturity and great mobile-viewing platforms like the iPad are the perfect storm for an app that’s perfect for its intended audience — zealous cycling fans who want to watch both the entire race and the few seconds of live action, who can now do both things at once.

Close-up of the Tour Tracker app in action on an iPad. Credit: MSR.


Though O’Dea won’t give out audience download-number specifics (he says those stats are the ownership of the individual races like the USA Pro Challenge or the Tour de France, which Tour Tracker licenses its app to on a race-by-race basis) it’s a safe guess that it has probably already attracted hundreeds of thousands if not millions of viewers who learned of the app’s existence while watching the Tour de France or the USA Pro Challenge on TV this year.

Though this year’s app was already chock-full of important race information beyond the live action — such as elevation profiles, maps and even an fan-interaction forum via Twitter — O’Dea said that he and Tour Tracker co-founder Allan Padgett (one of the original architects of Acrobat, now part of software giant Adobe) have even bigger plans for 2012. For cycling fans, that’s like Christmas in July — knowing that they may never again miss a moment of the Tour de France, no matter where they may be.

A race fan follows the live coverage while watching course-side in downtown Vail during the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. Credit: MSR.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Tour de France, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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