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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: , , , , , , ,

Women’s World Cup Final Available on Sprint Phones

July 15, 2011 by

Want to watch the women’s World Cup soccer final game this Sunday but won’t be near a TV? Sprint smartphone users are covered thanks to the carrier’s ability to provide a live stream of the game (which starts at 2:15 p.m. Eastern time) via its ESPN Mobile TV channel on its Sprint TV app.

To watch the U.S. vs. Japan game Sprint users will need to have the “Sprint Everything” data plan which includes unlimited Web, texting and calling while on the Sprint Network. The everything data plans start at $69.99 per month plus a required $10 add-on charge for smartphones.

As I write this I’m watching the British Open live via the Sprint TV app on my Samsung Epic 4G, and the video is pretty good even through a 3G connection. (They are doing an endless loop replay of Tom Watson’s hole in one right now.) Seems like a great alternative for soccer fans who may be out and about when the U.S. and Japan get together to decide the title.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, ESPN, Live sports via mobile, Soccer, Sprint Tagged With: , , , ,

The Friday Loose Ends

July 1, 2011 by

The Smithsonian looks at ways to cheat in baseball
Cheating in baseball is a time honored tradition except when it annoys the sports writers, who are after all the arbitrators of the sports unwritten rule book. The Smithsonian took a scientific look at a couple of the more popular topics in this space such as the impact that using a corked bats or confining baseballs to a humidor can have on the distance a baseball can travel. Fun read.

Samsung and Apple at odds, again
Samsung Electronics is suing Apple for violating its patents and using the technology in Apple’s iPhones and iPad. If this rings a bell it might be because Samsung already has other litigation brewing versus Apple. On the other hand Apple is suing Samsung for copying Apple’s iPhone look and feel in Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones.

Pac-12 official; Did ESPN ‘lose” the Big Ten over hardball tactics?
Today is the day that changes are occurring in College football. One of many is that The Pac-10 Conference is officially dead, Long live the Pac-12 Conference. With the Colorado Buffaloes and the Utah Utes joining the Pac it will now have two divisions and a playoff, as well as considerably more revenue from a new TV deal. In other news it was reported in the Chicago Tribune that ESPN played hardball with the Big Ten and that led to the creation of the Big Ten Network as feeling were bruised.

Smartphones continue market gains, Android and iPhones lead the pack
Smartphone sales continue to grow as the communications devices are increasingly popular with consumers, according to a May survey conducted by Nielsen. Currently 38% of all US mobile users have a smartphone and in the last three months the handsets accounted for a robust 55% of all mobile phones purchased in the last three months. Android-based systems lead the way with a 38% market share while Apple’s iOS-based devices account for 27%. Apple has seen a surge in recent months according to Nielsen, something that coincides with its move to a second major US carrier. RIM’s Blackberry is third with a 21% share with a number of others having less than 10% market share.

Microsoft adds Office 365 for mobile users
Love the Cloud and want to use it for your business applications? Then Microsoft wants you and has released its Office 365 this week which enables collaboration and access between e-mail, web conferencing, documents and calendars. There is a $6/month version for professionals and small businesses and a $10/month plan for mid and large size offices. Designed for sharing across a range of devices including smartphones it supports versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari browser; mobile devices requires Wi-Fi. Some mobile functionality requires Microsoft Office Mobile 2010, which is included with specific releases of Windows Phones and Nokia phones. So for full functionality sorry iPhone and Android users, Windows phones will rule in this space for the near term.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, Baseball, BlackBerry, ESPN, iPad, iPhone, Nielsen Ratings Tagged With: , , , ,

Hewlett-Packard Seeks Results from Palm Purchase with TouchPad Tablet

June 29, 2011 by

Hewlett-Packard is on the verge of releasing the TouchPad tablet as it seeks to stake out a section of the increasingly competitive tablet market and show that its costly purchase of Palm will pay solid dividends.

HP will be following the Apple roadmap in supplying both the hardware and operating system for its tablet, something that the Android and Windows-based systems are not able to do, but the question will be if it can copy Apple’s success or is it too little too late?

Right now there are five operating systems that come to mind in this market, Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows, HP’s webOS and Blackberry’s Tablet OS. That is probably too many for all to profit and just like the PC operating system system wars of a few decades ago several will most likely not make it long term. Most app developers have limited resources and will select the platforms that they believe will deliver the fastest an best return on investment, and this will hurt HP, at least in the near term.

The HP pad device has very similar specifications to Apple’s iPad, but they seem just a little off – a little heavier with a battery that is a little larger, and right now very little in the way of applications although the technology it is using is familiar to many since it came to the company as part of its $1.2 billion purchase of Palm last year.

The TouchPad will be available in a $499 16GB and a $599 32GB version. The device features a 9.7-inch XGA, multitouch screen with 1024×768 resolution display, a front-facing 1.3 megapixel webcam, and has Wi-Fi support. It is 7.48 inches wide and 9.45 inches tall is .54-inches thick and weights 1.6 lbs. It is powered by Qualcomm’s 1.2GHz dual core Snapdragon processor. The TouchPad is designed to be used in conjunction with other Touchstone devices such as the Pre and so a user can transfer websites between devices, among other features.

While the interoperability between the tablet and phone is nice, there does not seem to be that much that really differentiates the TouchPad from the host of Android devices or the iPad family. Both of its better established rivals have tens of thousands of apps ready while the TouchPad has a few hundred. Having control of both hardware and OS development can lead to greater overall system integration, it also means that there is no shared development cost, all is carried by HP, a model that has hurt many companies in the past. HP is going to face a huge uphill battle to establish itself as a major player in this market and its first offerings does not appear to break any new ground, something that should be worrisome for the company.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, BlackBerry, iPad Tagged With: , , , ,

Consumers slamming NBA mobile sports app downloads during playoffs

June 12, 2011 by

NBA Game Time app downloads up 250%

 There have been more than 680,000 downloads of the 2010-2011 National Basketball Association’s NBA Game Time free mobile application since the beginning of the playoffs, according to a report by Mashable.

The NBA Game Time surge marks another example of exponential growth in watching sports on iPads and smartphones when games really start to count. As reported, the NCAA’s March Madness on Demand (MMOD) application generated not only record downloads, but heavier than expected video downloads and longer user sessions then anticipated.

 

Turner Sports continues to lead in mobile sports production

In total, the NBA Game Time has exceeded 2.5 million downloads during its 82 regular-game season and playoffs, a 250 percent increase from the 2009-2010 campaign. NBA’s numbers were confirmed to Mashable by Turner Sports, which is in its third year managing digital properties for The Association.

The NBA's digital leader, Bryan Perez

Bryan Perez confirms NBA apps surging

NBA Digital senior vice president and general manager Bryan Perez told Mashable that NBA Basketball’s lightning-fast pace creates difficult production problems for a broadcaster, but the point has come where the games can be rendered quickly enough to provide consumers with a fulfilling experience.

 NBA Game Time is available for iPhone, BlackBerry and Android, as well as such connected device platforms as Apple TV, Google TV and Vizio Internet apps.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, BlackBerry, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Mashable, Mobile sports pioneers, NBA, NBA Game Time, Turner Sports, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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