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MLB.Com At Bat 12 Popularity Soaring

April 12, 2012 by

Bad weather is always an unfortunate fact of life, even more so when it coincides with the start of the baseball season. The joys of watching your favorite team play can be severely dampened by an early season rainstorm.

Yet fans are watching games in record numbers, by using MLB.Com At Bat 12, an app that baseball’s interactive media arm MLB Advanced Media, has been publishing for the last five years.

As the time has passed the popularity of the app has grown tremendously and this year the app passed the 3 million download mark, fur months faster than it managed to achieve last year. And yes. Last year was also a record pace for the program.

Fans are not just downloading the app, but they are using it with great regularity, unlike all of the education apps on my phone. MLBAM has reported that the service is seeing an average of 800,000 live audio and video streams daily since the season began.

We covered most of the details here earlier this season, but in a nutshell it is an app for Apple’s iPhone and iPad as well as Android devices and costs $19.99 a month or $109.99 a season to watch games.

This shows how multifunctional users are finding their smartphones and tablets and how a sports league can meet the fans needs at a price point that does not break the bank for fans.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Baseball, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Major League Baseball Tagged With:

ESPN3 Provides College Football Fix this Weekend

April 12, 2012 by

Missing college football, and to make matters worse, that huge pile of receipts and miscellaneous paperwork that represents your taxes adamantly refused to do itself? Well look to ESPN, specifically ESPN3 for a touch of stress relief as its starts broadcasting spring college football games.

The channel will be hopping around the various conferences and will have games from the ACC, SEC, Big 12 and Pac-12 on its slate. To top it off it will not be teams that you have to scratch your head about and wonder which state they are in, almost all look to be ranked when the season starts later this year.

Even better news is that this weekend is just the start of a three week span in which games will be broadcast, with 10 on Saturday, then an additional 7 the following week and a lone Oregon spring football program on the 28th.

Teams that will be included in the broadcasts include — Alabama, Georgia, Oregon, West Virginia, Florida State, South Carolina, Arkansas, Virginia Tech and Clemson. Six games are exclusive to ESPN3 while the rest will have some local blackout issues. The Florida State game will also be simulcast on ESPNU.

So now freshly armed with new ammunition in your procrastination arsenal, stock up on beer and chips and get ready for some football. The real advantage is that you can be watching the streaming service anywhere, so you can appear to be at your desk wondering why you thought that you could write off a $135 Taco Bell dinner, or even how you managed to spend that much there while watching your favorite team.

All times ET
Sat, Apr 14
1 p.m. South Carolina Spring Football ESPN3*

2 p.m. Miami (Fla.) Spring Football ESPN3

2:15 p.m. Virginia Spring Football ESPN3

3 p.m. Alabama Spring Football ESPN3

Auburn Spring Football ESPN3

Georgia Spring Football ESPN3

North Carolina Spring Football ESPN3*

4 p.m. Florida State Spring Football ESPN3*

Clemson Spring Football ESPN3

7 p.m. Vanderbilt Spring Football ESPN3

Sat, Apr 21
2 p.m. Tennessee Spring Football ESPN3

Ole Miss Spring Football ESPN3

3 p.m. Arkansas Spring Football ESPN3

3:30 p.m NC State Spring Football ESPN3*

4 p.m. Virginia Tech Spring Football ESPN3*

6 p.m. West Virginia Spring Football ESPN3

6 p.m. Mississippi State Spring Football ESPN3

Sat, Apr 28
2 p.m. Oregon Spring Football ESPN3*

*Exclusive to ESPN3

Filed Under: BCS, ESPN3, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NCAA Football Tagged With: ,

The Golden State Warriors Continue Focus on Reaching Fans

April 12, 2012 by

While some believe that the Warriors are tanking in order to move into a potentially better lottery position and so keep the pick, the team and its new owners are definitely still working to connect with fans with the latest effort a mobile app.

The team has launched an app, Golden State Warriors Mobile, now free at the iTunes store. The app pretty much does what you would expect by providing scores, schedules access to buying tickets, videos and the ability to connect to a variety of social media related to the team.

The team is not unique in this as a quick look through the iTunes store shows that several other teams have apps such as the New Your Knicks and the Utah Jazz and this is a good move because so many fans now use their smartphones and tablets, to increasingly access information on their teams online.

Not surprisingly for a franchise that has had a recent history of failure and uncaring owners, the Warriors can and do get beaten up online quite a bit. However that has not stopped it from using a variety of social media avenues to connect with its fans.

In other news it looks like the Warriors may join the exodus out of Oakland as the team has been reportedly seeking a site in San Francisco for a new arena. If the proposed site they are looking at works out it will have them joining the Giants on San Francisco’s waterfront.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, Golden State Warriors, iPad, iPhone, NBA Tagged With: , ,

Watching Golf This Week: Plaid Ain’t Bad at the RBC Heritage

April 12, 2012 by

Had your fill of all things Bubba? From pink drivers to soiled diapers to being on Letterman? Ready to watch golf again? Get ready to get bad in plaid because one week after the best jacket gets awarded the tour goes to the beaches and the Rodney Dangerfield memorial winner’s jacket — aka the big bad plaid that goes to the winner of the RBC Heritage on Hilton Head Island, S.C.

If you think lighthouse finish, you know this tour stop. For years it seemed like Davis Love III’s personal victory ATM (he’s won it five times) but now it’s known simply as the tournament after the Masters, and it usually has an above-average field. That’s largely because the players are treated like kings and what’s not to like about the Sea Pines Resort and its famed Harbour Town Golf Links course? Yeah. We’d go, too.

Here’s where to follow the action:

RBC HERITAGE

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE
Thursday, April 12 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Friday, April 13 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Saturday, April 14 — Golf Channel, 1 p.m — 2:30 p.m.; CBS, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, April 15 — Golf Channel, 1 p.m — 2:30 p.m.; CBS, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.

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

ONLINE
What a letdown after gorging on Masters online coverage; there is NO live video online of the RBC. In fact the PGA’s Live@ broadcasts don’t return until the Players in early May. So you will have to get by online with…

PGA SHOT TRACKER
Get your online fix via Shot Tracker at the RBC Heritage.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW

Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer.
Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend

LOCAL FLAVOR
Who are we to dim the plaid? Check out Willie’s World because while the tartan jacket may seem so old school it creaks, the tournament is all over Facebook and Twitter. The local paper, the Island Packet, has a special Heritage section but beware the popup ads.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
Gotta love the lighthouse finish.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
Brandt Snedeker, over Luke Donald in a playoff.

FEDEX CUP LEADERS
1. Hunter Mahan, 1,378 points
2. Bubba Watson, 1322
3. Phil Mickelson, 1,136
4. Johnson Wagner, 1,056
5. Rory McIlroy, 1,045

See the full standings for the FedEx Cup points list.

WORLD GOLF RANKINGS
1. Luke Donald; 2. Rory McIlroy; 3. Lee Westwood; 4. Bubba Watson; 5. Hunter Mahan.
See the official World Golf Ranking list.

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

LiveU’s New Cellular TV Camera Modem Passes Super Bowl Test; LiveEdge Still MIA

April 11, 2012 by

LiveU's belt-sized modem in action at the Super Bowl. Credit: LiveU

Mobile TV camera modem supplier LiveU said Wednesday that its new belt-sized cellular modem was used for live camera shots at the Super Bowl in February, according to a press release issued by the company. We here at Mobile Sports Report expect cellular cameras to be a big thing going forward, to enable more sports content live from where it happens without the expense of a satellite truck.

While LiveU has done the mobile/cellular thing before for sports its previous solutions were backpack-based to house the equipment that included modems and batteries. The newer LU40i unit, the company said, weighs in at around a pound and a half and can combine up to six 3G or 4G cellular connections to support a “professional HD-quality video uplink.” Our big unanswered question (we have a call in to the company and plan a longer look at mobile cameras soon) is how much does it cost to run one of these babies, since we are guessing that a live video stream would chew through a regular cellular data plan after a few plays. Our guess is that LiveU has some kind of deal with the cellular folks but we’ll know more soon.

The debut of the LU40i unit, which LiveU said was also used at the NBA All-Star Weekend, the Grammies and at CES and SXSW, begs the question of where are its competitors, especially the high profile LiveEdge, a company funded in part by Verizon and one of the companies selected to participate in Verizon’s “incubator” program for startups.

LiveEdge proposed modem unit, which snaps on the back of a pro TV camera. Credit: LiveEdge

LiveEdge, which originally launched with the idea of putting a WiMAX modem on the back of TV cameras, morphed toward LTE when it became apparent that the major cellular providers were moving to that technology. Last year, the company was highlighted by Verizon’s CEO at CES as one of the new apps for LTE services and scored the unspecified investment from Verizon as well as the incubator spot.

But since then there’s been nothing but crickets from LiveEdge, whose former CEO, Robert Klingle, has apparently left the building since he’s no longer listed on the company website. In fact the About page looks like it’s recently been truncated; it used to show other execs even after Klingle’s name was taken off earlier this year but now it’s blank. Repeated calls and emails to both Verizon and LiveEdge have gone unanswered, though one LiveEdge spokesperson who asked to remain unidentified did say several weeks ago that an announcement would be forthcoming soon.

Maybe at next week’s NAB show in Vegas? That’s where LiveU will be showing off the LU40i, which looks like the leader in the space for mobile, broadcast-quality TV.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NBA, NFL, Super Bowl, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: ,

Where’s My Hockey Game? NBC Has a Local Channel Finder for You

April 11, 2012 by

With the NHL playoffs starting today, NBC Sports has taken a great step to help hockey fans find the live broadcast of their team’s games — with an online channel finder and broadcast schedule. Given the poor interface of search on cable systems (I use Comcast and regularly use Tiger Woods language when trying to find obscure events via the remote and screen) this is a helpful trend we’d like to see more of.

And just to get you in the hockey mood… how about a humungous Stanley Cup?

Filed Under: NBC Sports, NHL Tagged With: ,
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