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WSJ: ESPN Thinking About Paying for Your Mobile Sports Jones

May 9, 2013 by

You have to fight your way around the paywalls to read it, but the Wall Street Journal had a story today about ESPN talking to wireless providers about paying part of the fees for people who watch sports via cellular connections. There’s nobody on record, but when the WSJ uses the familiar “according to people familiar with the matter” dodge you know that somebody wanted this story to get out.

For the carriers, this is a kind of a holy grail thing — if ESPN starts subsidizing watching sports via cellular, you can bet that AT&T and Verizon will step up their marketing machines to sell tablets and smartphones. I’m imagining a future where you pay something like $50 a month, which gets you live NFL games and a free iPad to boot. Think you’d sign up tomorrow?

Why would such an arrangement be valuable to ESPN? With more mobile users, the worldwide leader could jack up the fees it charges advertisers since it would have incredible amounts of granular user info, right down to where the user is watching. And I’d bet you wouldn’t be able to watch any other channel on that subsidized device. But then again — would you care?

Net neutrality worries aside, it will be interesting to see if this deal comes to fruition. With Verizon’s exclusive cell phone rights deal with the NFL coming up for renewal next year, it’s the right time for something new to happen. We’ll stay tuned.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, ESPN, NFL, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Watching Golf this Week: The Players Championship, with Bonus Online Video

May 9, 2013 by

Players logoAre you ready for the so-called “fifth major?” Do you buy any of that? I don’t, but there is no denying that the money and exposure of the Tour’s signature non-major event makes this a special weekend, maybe the biggest non-major weekend of the regular season. I tend to look at the Players as a sort of All-Star weekend — comparing it to basketball days of yore, it meant something when Magic, Michael or even Scottie Pippen rose up and dominated the All-Star event to win the MVP. It’s kind of a nice thing to have as part of an overall resume. But the Players has its share of dud winners, and dud competitions, mainly because… at the end of the day, it ain’t a major.

HERE IS THE LINK TO ONLINE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP COVERAGE

That said… sure we’ll be watching, a lot of it online thanks to the expanded major-like extra coverage of the Players event. Not only will there be the online simulcast of the Golf Channel and NBC coverage, but the Tour’s Live@ production returns, with coverage of everyone’s favorite island green hole, No. 17, as well as No. 13. There’s also going to be “featured groups” coverage online, just like majors like the Masters do it. And, we recently got confirmation from PGA Tour reps that in addition to Comcast subscribers, live simulcast coverage online on Thursdays and Fridays will be available also to subscribers of Verizon FiOS, Cablevision (optimum) and suddenlink. If you aren’t one of those systems’ subscribers, go to pgatour.com anytime this weekend and follow the links to live coverage. You can also try the main window at Golfchannel.com, I’ve been using that one and have loved that it remembers my Comcast signin so the live TV just opens up.

I’m even not going to criticize the online commercials, except for just once. Please, PGA, can’t you not hit us with 7 ads every time we log on? Several of which are repeated because that’s all the inventory you have? #endrant.

Want more cool online stuff? Try the online map feature, which I will let the PGA press release explain:

Live Maps, available for download through livemaps.pgatour.com, features a Google map of the course that allows fans to track their favorite player from their mobile device, find the best viewing spots on the course, locate the nearest concessions, restrooms and more based on their GPS location.

We checked out Live Maps a bit last year when it was still kind of in “beta,” and found it compelling. You get a pretty cool picture (literally) of where everyone is and what they are doing. If they ever link it to live video windows… that’s nirvana.

There is also the PGA’s mobile app, but I am not recommending that unless you have Apple devices. The Android platform is hit or miss, and still has lots of forced crashes. I have no confidence that it will be fixed anytime soon, but am ready to be corrected, PGA. Try typing pgatour.com into your mobile device browser and see how you do. Let me know in the comments of any wins or fails.

As far as the golf goes — I am still waiting for the guy who cost me the Masters fantasy pool, Jason Dufner, to step forward this year. C’mon Duf. The laying-down thing was funny. But wouldn’t you rather be known for your golf? Tiger the bad dropper will be there, along with everyone else who is healthy and qualified. Fore, everyone.

THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE
Thursday, May 9 — Golf Channel, 1 p.m. — 7 p.m.; 9 p.m. — 12 a.m.
Friday, May 10 — Golf Channel, 1 p.m. — 7 p.m.; 9 p.m. — 12 a.m.
Saturday, May 11 — Golf Channel, 12 p.m. — 2 p.m.; NBC, 2 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Sunday, May 12 — Golf Channel, 12 p.m. — 2 p.m.; NBC, 2 p.m. — 7 p.m.

RADIO
SIRIUS XM (Satellite)
12 p.m. — 7 p.m., Thursday-Sunday. The live broadcasts are also available to subscribers on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App and online at SiriusXM.com.

ONLINE
The PGA’s Live@ is back! Here’s the monster schedule:

LIVE@ SCHEDULE: FOLLOW A GROUP

Thursday, 5/9: 8:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m.
Starting at 8:39 a.m, watch the group consisting of Adam Scott, Rory McIlroy and Steve Stricker. Starting at 1:39 p.m., watch the group consisting of Sergio Garcia, Luke Donald and K.J. Choi.

Friday, 5/10: 8:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m.
Starting at 8:39 a.m., watch the group consisting of Tiger Woods, Matt Kuchar and Brandt Snedeker. Starting at 1:39 p.m, watch the group consisting of Ernie Els, Dustin Johnson and Billy Horschel.

Saturday, 5/11: 9:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m.
Groups to be determined

Sunday, 5/12: 9:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m.
Groups to be determined

LIVE@ SCHEDULE: FEATURED HOLES

Thursday, 5/9: 9 a.m.-7 p.m.

Friday, 5/10: 9 a.m.-7 p.m.

Saturday, 5/11: 12-7 p.m.

Sunday, 5/12: 12-7 p.m.

PGA SHOT TRACKER
Get another online fix via Shot Tracker for the TPC.

FACEBOOK PAGE
You can follow the Players on the PGA Tour Facebook page this weekend.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW

Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer. If you’re not following Geoff you are missing the online boat.
Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend. Now leading the Wei (hah!) with Google+ Hangouts during most tourneys.
Doug Ferguson is the lead golf writer for AP. Good Twitter insights that often aren’t part of your wire-service lead.
Matt Ginella is a former Golf Digest writer now at Golf Channel. Your guide to the best golf course reviews, evar. Plus great columnist-type commentary on a regular basis.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
Here is everything you ever wanted to know or see about TPC Sawgrass.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
Kooch! Aka Matt Kuchar.

Filed Under: Golf, Golf Channel, NBC Sports, PGA, Tiger Woods

MLBAM Teams with NDN to Deliver MLB Video to News Web Sites

May 8, 2013 by

mlb

A trip to your favorite baseball news site may soon be enlivened by video that matches up with the stories due to a new deal that has been struck between Major League Baseball’s Advanced Media (MLBAM) arm and Internet video provider NDN.

While it may seem odd that MLB needs a partner on video, it has been producing highlights and videos that are available on the Internet for over a decade, the deal will enable the sports league to hook up with a huge number of online news services.

NDN will enhance MLB’s existing video business by passing it along to its syndicated news partners, with approximately 4,500 online news publishers that have relationships with the company. In addition it often works with its partners to embed content in its partners stories.

The net result will be a boon for baseball fans who now can read a local story about their favorite team and then watch the clinching strike out or the walk off home run rather than forcing them to eave that site to go to MLB’s site to view the action.

This policy shines very nicely when compared to the very restrictive rules of the NFL, which has very strong restrictions of what can be shown, and for how long. It even demanded that top reporters shut down their twitter accounts during the NFL draft.

It seems to us that sports networks need to understand that increasingly fans are looking for information, and videos, on their teams from a growing diversity of media including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Internet news sites and rather than fight them they are better off joining with them to make the experience better for the fans.

Filed Under: Apps, Baseball, Facebook, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Major League Baseball, NFL, YouTube Tagged With: , , ,

ESPN has Big Month of Tennis Broadcasts

May 6, 2013 by

tennis

With several important tennis events in the next few weeks ESPN will be featuring a total of 14 consecutive days of broadcasts as the tennis world ramps up for the big clay court event at the end of the month, the French Open.

The preliminaries are the ATP World Tour event, the Mutua Madrid Open that is being held in Madrid, and which started this morning and run until Sunday, May 12. Of course with the time zone difference the events will be mostly very early morning viewing for American fans who can tune into ESPN3 for the matches. The championship broadcast will start at 10:00 am ET on the 12th.

Among the top players participating in the Mutua Madrid Open are some of the top ranked men and women players in the world including Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, David Ferrer, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka, Agnieszka Radwanska and Li Na.

This will be followed by the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, with some of the schedule still undecided at this time. This tournament, held in Rome, will start on May 13 and continue until the championship broadcast on Sunday, May 19 at 10 am ET.

Overall the network will feature 200 hours of tennis broadcasting from those two tournaments, and this will all naturally lead into the French Open later in the month. The outcome of these earlier tournaments helps dictate rankings of that and other Grand Slam events that will also be broadcast on ESPNs network of channels and online properties. ESPN will be broadcasting the French Open on ESPN2 starting Sunday, May 26.

Filed Under: ESPN, ESPN3, Maria Sharapova, Tennis, The French Open Tagged With: , , ,

Friday Grab Bag- Major Apple iOS 7 Revamp on the Way?

May 3, 2013 by

Google has started providing its developers with the Glass Explorer edition of the product and they have started to create some of the first generation apps for the eyewear. It already comes with voice recognition software to help users navigate and display data but one developer has taken it a step further.

According to a piece by CBS News an app has emerged that cuts out the need to inform the glasses verbally to take a photo or need to touch any sort of button, all you need to do is wink and the action has occurred. I wonder what happens on a windy day, possibly a flash card collection of your day?


Next Gen Samsung Galaxy Note specs leaked
Samsung, which appears to be in an escalating war of smartphone features with Apple, has had the details of its next generation offering released according to SamMobile. The Galaxy Note III is expected feature a 5.99” full Super HD display and a 13 megapixel camera.

The real wow might be the fact that it could be powered by an eight-core CPU and feature an eight-core GPU as well, which should make it one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful handheld device available. It is expected to ship in the August/September time frame.

Google I/O Schedule Released
If you are waiting breathlessly for mid-May when the Google I/O conference is being held, or even if you are just mildly interested, the kind people at Google have released the schedule so that you can plan your day around the events.

There is a three hour keynote so bring your pillow and over 120 sessions. It will be interesting to see how they top the Google Glass skydiving event from last year. Sail a blimp around San Francisco Bay?

Intel and Samsung the latest to invest in Expect Labs
I hope you like Suri and the related speech programs appearing on devices because it looks like more are coming soon. Intel Capital, Samsung Venture Investment and Telefonica Digital have all invested in Expect Labs, a company that develops technology that analyzes and understands conversations in real-time.

The latest investors join Google and IDG Ventures. The company already has an app available called MindMeld for Apple’s iPad tablets.

Will Apple’s expected iOS 7 cause upheaval
Jonathon Ive, the knighted Apple design guru recently took over Apple’s latest efforts to deliver a new version of the operating system and early reports are that it will appeal to new users but may appall experienced ones.

If this sounds familiar it is what has happened to Microsoft with its Windows 8 release. It is reported that Ive will be taking a minimalist approach to the redesign and is expected to remove a good many of the icons and symbols that adorn the OS today in search of a simpler look.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Galaxy Note, Google, Intel, Intel Capital, iOS, Samsung, Smartphone Tagged With: , , ,

Watching Golf this Week: Wells Fargo Championship

May 2, 2013 by

Bad greens! Bad greens! Want more proof that professional golfers have no idea what the real world is like? Witness all the big stars pulling out of this week’s Wells Fargo Championship because… the greens aren’t in top shape.

On some level we can understand: The best players in the world, like Tiger Woods, play at a high level of perfection and hate it when they can’t count on the conditions being as perfect as they are. I mean — lost in the whole Tiger drop controversy at the Masters was the fact that the guy knew that if he moved the ball back two yards and hit the same shot it’d be perfect. And it was. Anyone else have that kind of control over distance and accuracy? No. So if Tiger doesn’t want to putt on shabby greens, I guess that is his perogative.

The real reason, I think, is — bad greens or not, somebody will walk off with the win this week, so top players may not want to be “shown up” by other guys who are willing to gut it out, and play through the oh-so-challenging troubles of some brown patches on the short grass. I think we have used up all our sarcasm for the week, so enjoy the golf. Phil will be there this weekend, along with Mr. Orange Rickie Fowler, who won here last year.

WELLS FARGO CHAMPIONSHIP

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE

Thursday, May 2 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Friday, May 3 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Saturday, May 4 — Golf Channel, 1 p.m. — 2:30 p.m.; CBS, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, May 5 — Golf Channel, 1 p.m. — 2:30 p.m.; CBS, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.

LIVE ONLINE COVERAGE

Thursday and Friday, Golf Channel TV simulcast coverage via PGATour.com and GolfChannel.com; Saturday and Sunday, CBS coverage via the PGA site and from CBSSports.com. NOTE: If you are using the PGA Mobile app to watch the Golf Channel online video, be advised that it only works with iOS phones and with some (not all) Android phones. There is no fix planned for the immediate future.

SHOT TRACKER
Don’t forget the PGA’s Shot Tracker, a great way to track the action online.

RADIO
SIRIUS XM (Satellite) 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The live broadcasts are also available to subscribers on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App and online at SiriusXM.com.

FACEBOOK PAGE
Here is the Wells Fargo Facebook page.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW
The Wells Fargo Twitter feed.
Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer. If you’re not following Geoff you are missing the online boat.
Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend.
Doug Ferguson is the lead golf writer for AP. Good Twitter insights that often aren’t part of your wire-service lead.

LOCAL FLAVOR
The Charlotte Observer has you covered with a special golf section that has columnists, features and news.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST TIME?
Rickie Fowler.

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