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How to get customized ESPN radio feeds on your smart phone, iPad

September 22, 2011 by

ESPN RADIO

Until now, mobile sports fans who wanted to listen to such popular ESPN programming as “Mike and Mike in the Morning,” The Herd with Colin Cowherd” and “The Scott Van Pelt Show” couldn’t cache the programs on smartphone memory cards. Listening to ESPN radio required a network connection and drew down battery life. A solution to that problem has arrived, for a fee.

This week, ESPN went into partnership with San Diego-based Slacker Inc. to provide ESPN on Slacker Radio, including premium services priced at $3.99 and $9.99 per month which allow people to store radio programming locally.

If you don’t want to pay to listen to what you want, when you want, Slacker is also delivering a near-instantenous free feed of content from The Death Star (ESPN) 

Slacker is the first digital radio distribution service to feature ESPN Radio, and the agreement turns up the heat on such competitors as Last.fm and Pandora to angle for similar deals with ESPN. The deal signals that ESPN is unafraid to be aggressive in flowing digital rights to its content for mobile distribution, which is considered key to the growth of the mobile sports viewing experience. According to Juniper Research, mobile sports content and services like the Slacker/ESPN offering could reach $3.8 billion in 2011.

Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA and AT&T subscribers can bill premium services directly to their accounts via Android and Blackberry smartphone applications, which are already available. A similar iOS application for iPhone and iPad is pending Apple’s approval.

Filed Under: Android, Apps, AT&T, Baseball, BlackBerry, ESPN, iPad, iPhone, Major League Baseball, NBA, NFL, NHL, Slacker, T-Mobile, Uncategorized, Verizon Wireless, WatchESPN, Wimbledon

Verizon’s NFL Mobile Twitter Chats: Lame and Tame (and so am I)

September 21, 2011 by

Twitter might be a cool and fun way for NFL fans to get in touch with their favorite teams and players, but the ad hoc “Twitter chats” sponsored by Verizon Wireless leave a lot to be desired, mainly due to the poor manners of the Twittersphere.

On Tuesday night Verizon Wireless and its NFL Mobile application sponsored a chat with Washington Redskins linebacker Brian Orakpo, otherwise known as @rak98 on Twitter. The half-hour long chat, which fans could find by either following Orakpo directly or by using the hashtag #NFLMobile, was almost instantly filled with spam Tweets, typically ones of a sexual nature with links to some godforsaken unknown location… which we didn’t click on.

Of the Tweets that did get through to Orakpo, the ones he chose to answer were pretty harmless — ones about “how frustrating is it when people hold you” or “what kind of victory dance will you do when you score a touchdown.” There were a couple that hinted at Orakpo’s personality — turns out his sports heroes include Michael Strahan and Hakeem Olajuwon — but since Orakpo forgot to include the #NFLMobile hashtag on several posts it was hard to follow the “chat” thread, especially with all the spam in between.

And though I tried hard, I couldn’t get Orakpo to answer a couple tweet questions I sent in — apparently they were either too controversial (I asked him if the ‘Skins were solidly behind QB Rex Grossman, someone who us Chicago Bears fans have few fond memories of) or too wordy — I also asked what Orakpo thought of the new tackling rules, a question I later realized couldn’t really be answered in 140 characters or less. So maybe I am as lame as the chat. So we’ll both learn going forward.

But it sure is a challenge to wade through the spam tweets. Not sure if the spam is standard fare for these chats, but with all its dough can’t Verizon get together with Twitter and find a way to keep the crap out of the chat? Otherwise these things are going to die a quick death and that would be unfortunate. Especially if it happens before I get one of my Tweets answered.

Filed Under: NFL, Twitter, Verizon Wireless Tagged With: ,

EVRI’s SportStream Football App not out to “out-ESPN ESPN,” CEO Says

September 20, 2011 by

As rehearsed as the routes he ran for the Bengals: NBC Sports' Cris Collinsworth

Well-funded, technically savvy and charging as hard as Oakland Raiders running back Darren McFadden, realtime content engine Evri still isn’t out to “out-ESPN ESPN,” company CEO Will Hunsinger reportedly told the technology information website TechCrunch.

Nonetheless, Evri ought to be top of mind for every NFL fan, and application developers like Evri are an emerging thorn in the side to such networks as ESPN. The company’s SportStream Football application, available for iOS and Android, gives fans real-time push notifications and robust in-game commentary through social media. It is free, and it is pretty darned good.

No doubt, Hunsinger’s meant his not “out-ESPN ESPN” comment when he said it. First published by the technology website TechCrunch, Hunsinger knows that his company’s immediate future relies on providing information that network game coverage lacks.

Long term, however, such companies as Evri have a legitimate shot at challenging the big boys. SportStream Football users can receive commentary customized to their specific interests in a game, including updates on NFL players from their alma mater. It is a customized experience, and the day is soon coming when personalized commentary is going to be far more compelling than listening to lines NBC Sports Cris  Collinsworth and other network sportscasters rehearse in advance and then shoehorn into game-day commentary when it is convenient.

Consider a download of SportStream Football. It is an early winner in the mobile sports content delivery space. At the very least, it will improve your sports reading experience on smartphones and tablets. And, who knows? You may find a Twitter feed you find a whole lot more insightful than what you are being spoon fed through your network feed.

Filed Under: NFL, Uncategorized

NFL fans can improve team’s trading chances, report indicates

September 19, 2011 by
NFL and Twitter

NFL players trade value goes up when they kill on Twitter, expert says

Mike Germano, a social-media adviser to the NFL Player Development Department, told the Boston Herald on September 19, “I believe that the NFL trades are based as much on a player’s social currency as on his performance record.” 

Germano’s statement is one of the first bonafide, on-the-record comments by someone affiliated with a professional sports league that an athlete’s on-line appeal might be equal to his abilities to perform inside the lines. The fact is this: If your NFL team has a second-string quarterback ready to be dealt, he might fetch better picks if he’s outspoken and savvy with smart phones and such tablet devices as iPads than if he’s a social-media dud.

Germano, president and co-founder of digital agency Carrot Creative as well as adviser to the NFL, made his comments after reports that Bill Belichick, head coach and grumpy mastermind of the New England Patriots, recently asked wide receiver Chad Ochocinco to tone things down on Twitter.

If you are an NFL fan who wants to help their team in every way, you are not alone. And here’s one thing you can add to your repertoire: If you know your team is getting ready to trade out of a quarterback controversy, or likely to move any other player on your team, you might want to pump up the trade bait’s Twitter presence. You can do that simply by adding a Twitter follow to that soon-to-be-dealt player, and then tossing him some @ sign openers. Facebook, foursquare and a host of other smartphone- and tablet-accessible applications are also available to an NFL fan who wants to help the general manager get the highest value in a deal.

The trend of player values based on social-media abilities isn’t going to end. The NFL has become a game with a 360-degree view, and is perhaps the most advanced sport in using social media to enhance the fan experience. But, since social media is a two-way street,  it only makes your 12th-man skills more valuable. There will forever be immeasurable value in your ability to help quiet the stadium when your team is at home, has the ball on the opponent’s one-yard line, with 30 seconds left of a tie game.  But your ability to engage the players on your team with social media skills is becoming just as strategic.

Filed Under: NFL, NFL Draft, Twitter, Uncategorized

New Mobile App Gives Fantasy Football Owners the Ability to Track Multiple Teams

September 15, 2011 by

Now all scoring and action available at one place on your phone

A new app from PRMtime Fantasy Apps could be a lifesaver for serious fantasy football owners who are often on the road by providing a single program that encompasses a range of information on their teams, regardless of which sites they are located.

The app is not designed to be an all-in-one stop for owners that need to change lineups or make roster moves but rather it enables them to follow how their teams are doing, who is earning them points and other data that relates to wins and losses across a range of leagues. It covers not only your teams but your rivals as well so that you can always have an instant snapshot of where you stand.

The advantages of such a program are pretty obvious. Sitting at an airport trying to watch a game with 67 other stranded passengers is a pain. Looking up how each of your players and teams is doing is that pain magnified by 10. A one stop shop for information not only on your own team but your rivals eases the problems of following multiple teams and also helps prevent your battery from going dead. Managing the team is something that should always be done prior to kickoff so the lack of those features is not a real issue.

Created in a partnership with STATS LLC the app is called PRMtime Fantasy Football Mobile Live Scoring App, a snappy name if I have ever heard one. While the initial release is designed to be used by owners in NFL fantasy leagues the company said that it will be expanded to cover college football in the near future and from there a variety of additional sports. Also look for mobile and desktop versions of the program sometime in the future.

Designed for Internet-enabled phones the Fantasy Football Mobile Live Scoring App is available for Android at GoogleMarketPlace, for iPhone at iStore and for all other web-enabled phones head to PRMtime’s web site, www.prmtime.com for instructions.

A user heads to the site, creates a league ID, logs in all of their teams’ rosters and other members of the leagues. Caution should be used to ensure that you have the correct scoring features so that you can get accurate updates. The initial app is free and for an additional $4.99 live scoring is included with the information provided season long by STATS.

Filed Under: NFL, Stats LLC Tagged With:

DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket Mobile Service Sacked by Tech Glitch

September 12, 2011 by

The little man didn't fly as promised for mobile users this Sunday, according to reports.

DirecTV’s big push to promote a mobile-viewing option for its Sunday Ticket NFL package apparently got sacked by some technical glitches that rendered the service inoperative for mobile-device users, according to several reports including this post from FierceCable.

So despite heavy promo of the cute commercials where the fairy-sized Deion Sanders uses magic to bring DirecTV’s live NFL game action to a fan stuck at the airport, the satellite provider couldn’t keep up the promise on the back end, throwing its game-day credibility for a huge loss.

With competitor Verizon Wireless amping up the publicity for its own mobile-NFL product, you have to wonder how many fans are going to pay the big up-front bucks for DirecTV if the company can’t make good on one of its biggest and most hyped products.

Filed Under: Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NFL, Verizon Wireless
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