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Can 120 Sports find a niche in sports streaming video market?

February 20, 2014 by

Without any examples of what they will do, it’s hard to guess where the new sports streaming video concern 120 Sports will fit in. But with content partners that include Sports Illustrated, Major League Baseball, the NHL, NBA, NASCAR and major colleges, it’s a good bet sports fans will find something to watch among the two-minute clips that give the site its “120” moniker.

Our pal Todd Spangler has a great writeup of the details of the 120 Sports launch over at Variety, but I wonder how (especially without any football content) the new site will make a name for itself, with its obvious competition being the worldwide leader, ESPN. With the technical chops of MLBAM behind it, 120 Sports is probably going to look great and perform well online. And as long as it’s free it will get some eyeballs. But if you read the press release you see there is talk about the “premium” version for pay somewhere down the road. That’s where 120 Sports will face its real test and right now I don’t see a compelling reason to pay for yet another sports outlet.

What I do foresee in the near future is some real shakeout between teams, leagues and broadcasters, because right now it seems like some leagues — the NFL mainly — are in danger of alienating their big-bucks TV contracts with their league-owned digital plays, like NFL Now. In the early days many sports fans will no doubt pay to see what’s on, but I don’t think there is a limitless budget for anyone when it comes to viewing sports. At some point (like what’s happening now with cell phones) sports fans are going to pick winners and losers, and my bet is that whoever has rights to live action and/or replays is going to be the big winner.

I like the idea behind 120 Sports, as short clips are definitely the way to go when it comes to online video. But do people really want a mix of features and other etcetera from a wide range of different sports? Or are they going to go to sports-specific or team-centric sites first? I just don’t see how 120 Sports is going to be significantly different from what’s available now but maybe they will show us when content is actually live.

Filed Under: Baseball, Basketball, ESPN, Major League Baseball, NASCAR, NBA, NFL, NHL, Sports Illustrated Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Everest site of new wing suit record attempt

February 7, 2014 by

If imitation is the highest form of flattery then Felix Baumgartner, the man who jumped from space, must be very flattered that his action is being imitated by climber Joby Ogwyn who will do a similar stunt, this time from the top of the world’s highest peak.

If all goes as planned the Discovery Channel will be broadcasting the feat on live TV this May as it covers the last stage of Ogwyn’s climb and subsequent jump. It is expected to cover five miles and feature three stages. It will be covered by 15 cameras including some that are mounted in the wing suit.

Tim Tebow to be face of A-11 League?
There is a new spring pro football league forming called the A-11 FL that is planning on starting to play this year with first games slated for May. Initially the league will have eight teams at its formation that will span cities across the United

Now there are reports that one of the teams, not surprisingly based in Tampa, is looking to give Tim Tebow a shot at redemption by selecting him as its quarterback. A league official said that Tebow would become the face of the league.

New Thursday & Saturday NFL games this year
If you had CBS as the station that would win the bidding war for new Thursday Night Football games step up and accept your prize! The channel will be airing eight games this upcoming season, which will be simulcast with the NFL Network broadcast. The NFL Network will also exclusively show eight late season games.

Then there is the expansion to Saturday, where the league will show two games on Dec. 20, Week 16 of the season and after all of the bye weeks have passed for the teams. The kickoff times and teams are still being determined.

1904 Olympics must have been something
While the current Olympics in Sochi are getting a good deal of grief prior to the opening ceremony you have to wonder what people would be saying if the games imitated on that took place over 100 years ago?

The Smithsonian has an interesting piece on the games that took place in 1904 in St Louis, Mo. and specifically on the top event, the Marathon. One feature was that they intentionally allowed the athletes to become dehydrated during the run to see what effect that would have.

Baseball Corporate Sponsors: A History
It appears that all but eight stadiums in MLB have a corporate sponsor, and with the Texas Rangers selling the naming rights to Globe Life and Accident Insurance Co. there are now only nine without an extended title that just rolls off of your tongue.

Yet just 20 years ago, according to the Consumerist, there was only one that had a sponsor name while most were simply named for their location and one, San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium, was even named after a sports writer of all things. Take a look at how some of the names have undergone change in the last two decades.

Filed Under: Athlete to Follow, Baseball, CBS Sports, Contests, Live sports via mobile, Major League Baseball, Monday Night Football, NFL, NFL Network, Olympics, Outdoor Activities, Red Bull, Tim Tebow, USFL, World Wingsuit League Tagged With: , , , , , ,

NFL Mobile users watched 10.3 million video streams during Super Bowl week

February 7, 2014 by

Remember the Football on your phone video from last August? Pretty funny, right? Imagine, people wanting to watch football on their phones, no matter where they go. Well last week a whole bunch of them did just that. According to the NFL, more than 10 million video streams were watched on the Verizon NFL Mobile platform during Super Bowl week, a jump of more than 400 percent from the year before.

Football on your phone? You bet!

For some reason we can’t get the league’s media arm or Verizon Wireless to provide the one stat we really want — how many people watched live Super Bowl action on a smartphone? Verizon at least is consistent — they have never provided any kind of statistic on NFL Mobile usage. Today the NFL Media folks issued a press release with all kinds of “record” numbers (we will post the whole thing below if you want to dig through it), but no discrete number for the game itself. We’ll get to the reason for that in a bit. But for the overall stats, we can sum up the numbers quickly: If there was football programming available last week, a lot of people watched it. And if it was available online or to mobile devices, so much the better.

What really drove traffic across all NFL Media properties this year was the NFL Mobile package. Remember, this year the “NFL Mobile from Verizon” app was actually available for smartphones from any carrier; the catch was, you could only get live game action if you were a Verizon subscriber and paid $5 more a month. Everyone else, including Verizon customers, could see highlights and NFL Network video content, like features and reports from Super Bowl week. The opening up of the app is probably the biggest reason why unique users of NFL Mobile properties during Super Bowl week increased 88 percent this year versus last, 11.2 million users compared to 6.0 million, according to NFL statistics.

Here’s where the stats get interesting: While it’s impressive that video streams across all NFL Media properties during Super Bowl week increased 56 percent this year compared to last, 34.0 million to 21.8 million, what’s really mind-boggling is that 10.3 million of those streams this year were consumed via the NFL Mobile app, a 416 percent increase over last year.

To repeat: Almost ONE-THIRD OF ALL NFL MEDIA VIDEO STREAMS were watched last week… on a phone.

One possible reason why neither the league nor Verizon wants to release actual game-day live action viewing numbers for NFL Mobile is that they may not be that impressive. Remember, only Verizon customers who ponied up the $5 extra “premium” fee could have watched the Fox simulcast on their phones, so it’s a smaller subset to begin with. And really, for the big game itself, most likely you were on a couch watching a big screen. (We here at MSR HQ did find the NFL Mobile live feed effective for when we had to roam into the kitchen for more snacks, or for other “breaks” necessary during the game. But we didn’t watch more than a few minutes of the game on the phone.) Plus, the Fox stream was available to tablets using its app or for PCs or laptops watching online, so that probably took away some potential phone-watchers of live game action.

During non-game times, however, smartphones appear to be leading the mobile video explosion. Even though tablets seem to make more sense for watching sports while mobile, it’s pretty clear that people are watching a lot of NFL video on the thing that never leaves their pocket or purse — their phone. Are other sports taking note? And now do you know why the NFL is pushing toward NFL Now? Stay tuned. And keep your phone and checkbook handy.

(full press release content below)

COVERAGE OF SUPER BOWL XLVIII SETS VIEWERSHIP & TRAFFIC RECORDS ACROSS NFL MEDIA

Wall-to-wall coverage of Super Bowl XLVIII produces double-digit spikes for NFL Network, NFL.com, and NFL Mobile

NFL Media’s 11th year covering the Super Bowl produced record-breaking results across all platforms.

NFL NETWORK

Providing expert analysis, the latest news and reports, special guest appearances, and matchup-related programming leading up to Super Bowl XLVIII, NFL Network served up 140 total hours – including a record 86 live hours – of programming from 12 sets in eight locations across New York City and New Jersey, utilizing a roster of 40 on-air personalities with a combined 17 Super Bowl rings.

For Super Bowl week*, NFL Network averaged 175,000 viewers in Total Day and 226,000 viewers in Primetime – up +20% and +31%, respectively, compared to last year making this the most-watched Super Bowl week ever on NFL Network.

With more than 41 hours of Super Bowl coverage, SUPER BOWL LIVE averaged 141,000 viewers and up +60% over last year’s average audience (88,000 viewers).

On Super Bowl Sunday, NFL GAMEDAY MORNING averaged 657,000 viewers – up +10% over last year’s telecast (596,000 viewers), making this the most-watched NFL GAMEDAY MORNING ever.

NFL Network’s postgame audience peaked from 10:30PM-11:00PM with an average of 1.14 million viewers, up + 25% over last year’s highest postgame peak (906,000 viewers)

NFL Network averaged 313,000 viewers in Primetime on Super Bowl Sunday – up +52% compared to last year’s performance.

For the entire 2013 postseason, NFL Network averaged 148,000 viewers in Total Day – up +13% compared to last year’s performance (131,000 viewers) making this the most-watched postseason ever on NFL Network.

NFL DIGITAL MEDIA

Across all internet-connected devices, including PC’s, tablets, and smartphones, the official digital properties of the National Football League delivered original video programming, the latest news and information, as well as unprecedented access to players, celebrities and musicians. NFL Digital Media’s offerings included NFL Mobile from Verizon which provided fans access to live, streaming video of Super Bowl XLVIII and NFL Network, including exclusive Super Bowl content and commercials.

For Super Bowl week, visits to NFL Digital Media properties increased 24% versus last year, bolstered by a 149% increase in visits to NFL Mobile.

Unique users of NFL Digital Media properties rose 22% during the week versus last year (27.8M vs. 22.8M), driven by 88% growth in NFL Mobile Properties (11.2M vs. 6.0M).

Unique users and visits to NFL Digital Media properties were driven by an array of content around Super Bowl XLVII. The two highest performing long-form NFL Digital Media features were:

Ø Judy Battista’s piece on Super Bowl XLVIII’s impact on Peyton Manning’s legacy

Ø Mike Silver’s story on the Seahawks dominant defense being fueled by the tight bond amongst the ‘Legion of Boom’

Video Streams during Super Bowl week across all NFL Digital Media properties increased 56% versus last year (34.0M vs. 21.8M).

Video consumption to NFL Mobile from Verizon reached 10.3M streams for a 416% increase over last year’s Super Bowl Week.

The highest performing video of the week featured NFL Network analysts making predictions for Super Bowl XLVIII. The video was viewed more than 800k times.

Seen in 195 countries, NFL Game Pass consumption grew 49% year-over-year across all devices and 57% on desktop.

*Super Bowl Week is defined as January 27-February 2, 2014

— end press release —

And yes, we know the Football On Your Phone video was a promo for DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket, which is neither here nor there when it comes to Verizon NFL Mobile numbers. But the video is funny enough to watch again:

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Apps, Denver Broncos, Fox Sports, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NFL, NFL Mobile, NFL Network, Seattle Seahwaks, Super Bowl, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Analytics and big data of prime interest to stadium networks

February 6, 2014 by

Editor’s note: Please welcome guest poster R. Scott Raynovich, editor of the Rayno Report, which has just launched a free in-depth report on networking, analytics and big data. Read on for Rayno’s take on the value of intelligent analytics, and take advantage of his new free report. — PK

By R. Scott Raynovich, Rayno Report

You can’t throw a stone on the Internet without hitting some big data. But what’s interesting about big data, and its cousin, analytics, is that the technology has hundreds of applications in hundreds of markets, from digital marketing to security. And there’s a huge, untapped market that is unfolding in networking, including in-stadium and on-campus networks.

People are talking about Software-Defined Networking (SDN), and of course, everybody’s favorite, Network Function Virtualization. The discussion around many of these technologies is about commoditization and reduced cost of hardware. But that’s actually not where the value is created: The value is going to be created in opening up of the system and allowing for a lot more exchange of data and information and intelligent analytics.

Extreme Networks has made a smart move, I believe, by focusing on this with its recent partnership with the NFL. Extreme talks about the business use cases for analytics, such as analyzing what your customers are doing, monitoring performance, and overall, providing a better product. If you look at the logic of it, it’s this that networking vendors have as much data and information as anybody, because it passes through their pipes.

Analytics and the data center: a natural marriage

I recently completed an early study in this, which is included in a new report: Analytics and the Software-Defined Data Center. My research indicates that a new crop of technology is emerging that could tie together storage, computing, and networking, by providing cutting-edge measurement and analysis that allows managers to gain more insight into what’s going on in data centers and networks, and eventually automate their management.

See Extreme’s fancy graphic below on the Super Bowl. This just scratches the surface. What it shows, if anything, is how much information and analysis can be extracted from just about any network application. Imagine the data flowing through a ecommerce data center, or a digital media service. Businesses now have instant access to everything everybody is doing. Or how do some of the largest Websites in the world monitoring their networks for security breaches?

The answer is mostly in measurement and analytics technologies.

What’s interesting is that we’ve just started using this concept to make our networks and data-centers systems and more self-reliant. There is a long way to go, and you will start hearing more about this in the coming months.

Top 10 Benefits of Purview Application Awareness at Super Bowl XLVIII

(Source: Extreme Networks)

Filed Under: NFL, Social Media Data, Sports Social Media, Super Bowl, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Fox: Super Bowl had 528K online viewers per minute

February 3, 2014 by

If you needed any more proof that online viewing doesn’t hurt TV audience numbers, the stats from Super Bowl should convince you: According to broadcaster Fox, there was an average of 528,000 online viewers per minute, even as the TV audience generated a record 111.5 million viewers.

We are still waiting on a total breakout of online views of the game — we apologize for misreading a Fox release that stated it had 5.5 million unique viewers all day Sunday, NOT specifically for the game. But even the 528K number is impressive, especially when you throw in the fact that it only represents desktops, laptops and Apple iPad tablets, since smartphones were blocked from Fox’s live streams due to Verizon’s deal with the league for its NFL Mobile app. Just imagine how much bigger those numbers could be if and when the NFL makes its digital access methods less confusing.

Overall it looks like Fox did a pretty solid job with its online efforts for both the playoffs and the Super Bowl. We are still waiting to hear from Fox about viewer numbers for the playoff streams, which unlike the Super Bowl were free only to viewers with pay-TV contracts that included Fox channel service.

We are also still waiting for numbers from Verizon and/or the NFL but don’t hold your breath, since both parties are typically close-mouthed about real numbers for online viewing. But judging from the number of pitches play by play man Joe Buck made during the game for the league’s new NFL Now service, it’s a good guess that online viewing is something you’re going to hear a lot more of from the NFL in the not too distant future.

Filed Under: Denver Broncos, Fox Sports, iPad, NFL, NFL Mobile, NFL Network, Seattle Seahwaks, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

AT&T Super Bowl Sunday stadium wireless traffic jumps 60 percent to 624 GB; Verizon claims 1.9 TB

February 3, 2014 by

Inside the AT&T head-end building at MetLife. Cables! Credit: AT&T

Inside the AT&T head-end building at MetLife. Cables! Credit: AT&T

Well, our prediction that this year’s Super Bowl might not set new wireless data records was about as solid as the Denver Broncos’ performance in the big game. According to AT&T, its wireless network in and around MetLife Stadium on Super Sunday saw 624 GB of traffic, a 60.8 percent increase from last year’s 388 GB total at the Superdome in New Orleans.

Part of the gain no doubt came from the fact that MetLife Stadium holds approximately 10,000 more fans during a football game than the Superdome, 82,566 to 72,003. But AT&T’s numerical evidence — including a new peak-time high of 119 GB during the hour before kickoff — shows that the desire to access mobile devices inside stadiums is still growing, especially at big games like the Super Bowl.

Verizon Wireless, which like AT&T spent more than a year getting MetLife’s network ready for Sunday’s game, also said it had experienced record traffic on its networks, claiming a total of 1.9 TB of cellular traffic inside MetLife Stadium. During the game Verizon Twitter accounts said new traffic records were set before halftime; however we still have no figures from Verizon for previous years’ data for comparison.

Verizon also claimed its peak hour usage was “800 percent” greater than last year’s, but again, we don’t have exact numbers so can’t confirm the accuracy of such claims. Still unkown is how much traffic was carried by the stadium Wi-Fi network which Verizon manages (and was free to all MetLife fans), since Verizon did not provide Wi-Fi traffic numbers. Our guess is it saw similar traffic leaps as AT&T’s and Verizon’s cellular nets.

Another interesting note from the AT&T data is a trend toward more mobile data use, and fewer voice calls. Fans at the game Sunday made 55,000 voice calls on AT&T networks, down from 73,000 calls in 2012. Some of that might have to do with the fact that last year’s game had a lengthy power outage, which no doubt prompted many “I’m OK” calls to loved ones. But still — a 20,000 call dropoff in the face of more than doubling data traffic seems to show that people are using their phones more, even if they are talking less.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, DAS, Denver Broncos, NFL, NFL Mobile, Seattle Seahwaks, Verizon Wireless, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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