Archives for 2011

Mobile Sports Viewers Winners in AT&T ‘Sideloading’ Move

The Samsung Infuse supports applications from sources outside AT&T Marketplace

The Samsung Infuse 4G is the first AT&T device to support app 'sideloading.' Photo source: Samsung.com

AT&T finally backed down, and not a moment too soon (for its own sake).

The wireless giant said today it will allow AT&T smartphone customers with Android mobile devices access to sports and other applications through the Internet and well-stocked but unsanctioned app stores.

Before today’s move, AT&T had a long-standing policy to prohibit applications unless they were downloaded through AT&T AppCenter, which is a proprietary marketplace run by the communications giant. The Samsung Infuse 4G is the first AT&T device capable of running applications from other sources, which is a process called “sideloading.”

According to a Wired.com report, pressure from Amazon.com forced AT&T’s hand.  Greater than 3,800 Android applications, including a new version of the blockbuster Angry Birds game, were unavailable to AT&T users because they could not access Amazon.com’s newly launched Amazon Appstore for Android.

While Angry Birds was clearly the driver, NFL team-themed clock widgets, free TackMaster horse racing selections, and Mixed Martial Arts applications were also beyond the reach of AT&T customers before today’s move.  

Although The Samsung Infuse 4G is the first AT&T device to allow sideloading, the HTC Inspire 4G, Samsung Captivate, HTC Aria and LG Thrive are other AT&T devices slated to receive new-found downloading freedom through a network software upgrade, according to Wired.com.

AT&T’s move is good for mobile sports consumers. As sports apps continue to emerge as key for many smartphone users, restricted access to marketplaces could enable cellular phone service providers to tack a surcharge onto popular or niche-oriented applications that enable viewing. Wouldn’t it suck to pay $9.99 to view a season’s worth of broadcasts of your favorite team only to discover that your neighbor purchased the same application for $7.99 because his wireless communications provider supported sideloading and yours didn’t?

The Posada Affair: Wife’s Tweets To Make Baseball History?

If the Yankees fall one game short of the playoffs, Laura Posada's distracting in-game Tweets could become baseball history

Veteran New York Yankees catcher Jorge Posada's wife Laura Posada in bikini (right) and Yankees short shorts and halter top (left). Photo courtesy of Flickr.com member twentythreeandtwo

Veteran New York Yankees catcher Jorge Posada’s decision to sit out the Saturday May 14 game against the Boston Red Sox sparked an after-game press conference, and the faithful at New Yankee Stadium toting mobile devices already had the means to know a much larger story was unfolding.

Calling the game to a nationwide television audience, Fox Network broadcasters dubbed The Posada Affair an unprecedented example of tweets sparking a press conference during a game’s early innings, and an example of the growing importance of mobile applications and wireless access to the Internet at live sports events.

Jorge didn’t quit on team; He has a doctor’s note

Here’s what happened May 14.

Jorge Posada, the 39-year-old switch-hitting New York Yankees catcher, was set to bat No. 9 in the lineup and had a low season batting average coming into the game. Instead of playing, Posada scratched himself from the lineup minutes before Yankee starter C.C. Sabathia threw the first pitch. Amid rumors of Posada’s impeding retirement and clubhouse dissension, Laura Posada, the catcher’s wife, tweeted from the stands several times. Her messages, posted between the first and third innings, included this gem: “Jorge Didn’t Quit on Team; He Has a Doctor’s Note.”

Fast-moving tweets spark makeshift press conference

Among the 48,790 in attendance were followers of Laura Posada’s twitter account. Since her statements did not match retirement speculation or rumors that Posada threw what major media dubbed a “hissy fit” prior to the game, the Yankees scheduled a press conference to clear the air.

In a national telecast of the game, Fox broadcasters said The Posada Affair was believed to be the first time a Major League Baseball team scheduled a press conference to address statements made public during a game by an insider via a mobile device. 

Online “Posada” = onfield “Merkle”? 

The decision by Posada’s wife to Tweet during the game arguably cost the Yankees focus from the task at hand, which was beating Red Sox.

In the game, Posada’s replacement Andruw Jones went one for four with three strikeouts. The listless Yankees, no doubt in part distracted by The Posada Affair, lost to the BoSox 6-0. If the Yankees miss the playoffs by one game, The Posada Affair could become baseball history.

Baseball card depicting Fred Merkle

Fred Merkle on a baseball card; he was tormented by his costly mistake. Image courtesy of bioproj.sabr.org

There is precedent, albeit in a time when the only things that mattered happened on the field. In 1908, New York Giants third baseman Fred “Bonehead” Merkle failed to touch second base after the winning run scored with two out in the ninth inning of a tied ballgame against the Chicago Cubs. The game was declared a tie.

After the Giants missed the playoffs by one game, a “Merkle” was widely used to describe a stupid mistake. Could a “Posada” eventually become synonymous with an off-field communication that distracts a team from victory?

Posada and the future of mobile sports viewing

The Posada Affair underscores the growing power of mobile devices as an enhancement to those attending live sporting events. Wired attendees were able to see that Posada’s family considered the situation serious enough to comment, and get perspective that un-wired attendees did not have.

Mobile Sports Report recommends that NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL fans preconfigure their Twitter feeds to access all on-field, on-court and on-ice partipants and insiders, and use guides to know where Wi-Fi is available in stadiums. When live proposition betting on mobile devices is legalized in the United States, mobile sports viewers will have the ability to access information to their advantage, even if that information is a few tweets from a defensive family member.

Score Media Beefs Up to Battle ESPN, Yahoo

Canadian Benjie Levy is committed to giving mobile sports consumers in North America choice.  Chief operating officer and executive vice president of Score Media, Levy was the driver behind his company’s May 12 deal to acquire SportsTap.

The SportsTap acquisition means Score Media has the third largest U.S. audience of sports consumers on smartphone sports applications, trailing only Goliaths ESPN and Yahoo.  

A corporate challenger speaks

In a statement, Levy said, “ScoreMobile’s acquisition of SportsTap brings together two innovative and popular services and positions us well to deliver even more exciting experiences for sports fans and creative solutions for our advertising partners.”

Two mobile sports application worth a look

Launched in 2007, SportsTap is available free through iPhone App Store and Android Market for free. Providing real-time NFL, Major League Baseball, NBA, NHL, NCAA, NASCAR, Futbol, Golf and Tennis scores, SportsTap includes drill downs to stats, player news and top stories. The app has automatic refreshes, and is an excellent choice for the mobile sports viewer on a budget.

Terms of the SportsTap acquisition were not disclosed, but ScoreMobile said it would operate SportsTap as a stand-alone company. Based in Toronto, Score Media operates The Score.  A more robust application that includes a strong take on sports news and video, The Score is a portal for sports fans with a strong take. For example, The Score featured May 22 an excellent blog post and video about James Hardin’s flop against the Dallas Mavericks that most mobile sports viewers would consider a value-add to their sports knowledge.

Competition guards again mobile sports monopolies

Score Media’s acquisition of SportsTap is significant because it means not all companies are willing to cede the mobile sports application market to ESPN and Yahoo. If Score Media or others are able to retain enough consumers to woo big-budget advertisers and sponsors, it will likely be able to forge into live video broadcast. In turn, that would break ESPN’s potential stranglehold on live sports via mobile devices, and a charge-what-it-wants mentality. Consumers would benefit. 

Is Levy an emerging industry’s Ted Turner?

With its bold move to acquire SpartsTap, ScoreMedia bears close watching, and prime placement on the menu of your mobile device. That is, unless you don’t believe consumers gained when Ted Turner acquired the Atlanta Braves and created a super station in the early days of cable.

Review: ESPN Enhances ESPN Radio App

I do not know why, but it had never occurred to me to load a sports radio program into my iPhone. Now I actually have several radio apps, all part of my iTunes package, but I do not listen to them as I have so much music also loaded on the phone. I guess sports radio to me is something I listen to my car or at my desk, since both environments that are better suited for different broadcast modes.

However I noticed that ESPN has released a new version of its iPhone radio app, namely ESPN Radio 3.0, technically it is v3.2.106, and so I decided to kick the tires, so to speak. Oddly enough getting to the app was not quite as easy as most, probably because of the roundabout method I followed. My iTunes app was set for search when I opened it so all I did was type in ESPN Radio. Unfortunately it gave me dozens of ESPN podcasts. So I typed in ESPN Radio 3.0 and I got an ESPN FIFA app. When I used my computer I found it instantly.

The $2.99 app has some specific target markets, and I noticed in the comments sections people complained about not getting a variety of live game broadcasts, however it should be noted that while it does provide some live sports action, it is very focused.

The program, good for both iPhones and iPod Touch devices provides a variety of streaming radio from over two dozen ESPN affiliated stations around the nation as well as ESPN Deportes and ESPN Radio Network feeds. Also included is 35 different ESPN podcasts. (There are also versions of the app for Android phones and BlackBerry devices; didn’t try them but guessing they have similar capabilities.)

Several areas stand out to me from the app including the live radio programming carrying ESPN standards such as Mike & Mike in the Morning, The Heard with Colin Cowherd, The Scott Van Pelt Show and others. Another is that it will carry live all of the college football games that ESPN broadcasts, something that I could not test at this time.

Other features include up to the minute scores and the ability to text message and call-in directly to ESPN Radio and ESPN affiliate station. The app includes a nice degree of customization including adding favorite stations and programs and a feature called myESPN that provides what ESPN calls customized audio of your selected teams which will be pulled into the app and it has searchable audio for specific clips broken down by a variety of categories including team and player.

It has the ability to run in the background so that you can use your iPhone for other tasks, but a volume control would be appreciated. I found that the radio shows and podcasts were easy to find and run. I did not encounter any breakups or dropping of programs when I tested the app but I am sure that it happens since it also happens with calls and other apps I have used in the past that require live streaming.

The app seems best suited for a variety of fans including those who want to listen to a different city’s sports radio and ones that want to hear a specific football game that is on the air, but possibly not in their area or they cannot get to the television to watch.

On a side note for fans of ESPN’s various radio programs it looks like both Mike Greenberg of the Mike and Mike show could be getting his own sitcom based on his book “My Wife Thinks I’m an Idiot,” which will give two ESPN personalities shows, as Colin Cowherd also has one in the works.

NFL Seeks More Dollars for Mobile Access

There’s a big battle brewing in the professional football world but it has nothing to do with players and owners. Instead, it’s all about figuring out who pays how much to let mobile consumers watch football games on their new powerful portable devices, like the iPad or Android-based tablets.

A report today in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) says the NFL and its NFL Network is “in talks” with pay-TV operators in an attempt to find a way to allow mobile customers more ways to watch America’s favorite sport. The money line (literally) from the story is an easy one to understand: Basically, the NFL wants more dough for mobile access.

The NFL is seeking extra fees from those carriers to expand their offerings to tablets and computers, a person familiar with the matter said.

It should be an interesting dance to watch this summer, as the various cable, satellite and cellular “partners” of the NFL try to give their users what they want without giving too much back to the league. For many customers, the idea of paying anything more for mobile access seems a bit absurd, given the high fees for cable or satellite access already being paid. It will be interesting also to see if there is a resurgence in use of the Slingbox, the device that truly lets you see what you already paid for, wherever you want it.

Hidden in the back of all these discussions will be the fees that mobile operators are sure to charge their customers for the cellular airtime needed to watch live NFL action. Stay tuned here at Mobile Sports Report as we will endeavor to cover as much of this topic as we possibly can, to help guide you to the most economical way to get access to all the mobile action your devices can handle.

NBA Pushes to Become Pro Sports Online/Smart Phone Kingpin

2009-2010 online and smart phone programming a drop in the bucket compared to 2010-2011 results

Online and mobile programming is packing the wallop of a Blake Griffin monster jam for the National Basketball Association (NBA), as traffic surged 69 percent during the first week of the 2011 NBA Playoffs, according to a report in the trade publication broadcastingcable.com.

The spike in professional hoops traffic includes more than 7 million users visiting the standard NBA.com online portal, as well as downloads of NBA Game Time applications for mobile devices increasing 86 percent during week No. 1 of the playoffs.

A jaw-dropping number in the early traffic is the 114 million videos viewed on NBA.com, which is a 93 percent increase from the like period a year ago. The huge spike is consistent with spikes experienced during the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, and indicates that fewer consumers than ever tie themselves down to coaxial cable or satellite dish to watch premier sports events.  

The 2011 NBA Playoffs builds on The Association’s best year in online and mobile sports programming to date. More than 1.9 billion videos were viewed on NBA.com during the season, according to NBA spokesman John Acunto in a Los Angeles Times report.

In response to rising online and smart phone demand, the NBA is stepping up social networking efforts. The NBA’s Facebook love has swelled to 8.2 million from 2 million last year. Combined with Twitter, it is estimated 100 million people regularly follow the happenings of the NBA on computers or smart phones today.