ESPN – Page 4

Friday Grab Bag: MLB to live stream World Series

February 28, 2014 by Greg Quick Leave a Comment

Taking its digital game up a notch MLB’s Advanced Media has announced that it will start permitting subscribers to its MLB.TV using its At Bat app to watch both the All-Star game as well as well as the entire World Series on their registered mobile devices and computers.

The games will be broadcast over the air by Fox Sports and some details still need to be worked out as Fox’s broadcast partners will be involved in some manner in the vetting process. Still this is a great move by MLB opening up the games to more viewers. Think it will go back to day games for the Series? Me neither.

Samsung teams with Mandalay Sports Media on second screen content
Samsung Electronics America will be working with Mandalay to develop new and original second screen content that will then be made available on select Samsung products. The content will be built around Samsung’s Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) technology platform to enable complementary and supplementary content experiences for TV programming.

The programs will initially be distributed on Samsung’s 2012, 2013 and 2014 Smart TVs as well as select tablets and smartphones. No word yet on what types of shows will be developed under the program.

NFL to add two more playoff teams in 2015?
The NFL has hinted that it is looking at adding additional playoff teams in the future because, well the owners will make more money. The rumors appear to be picking up steam and the Washington Post has reported that it will happen in 2 years.

This is interesting in that in the last postseason the league had issues selling playoff tickets and the addition of more teams will dilute the value of the regular season and possible create even more issues in selling playoff tickets.

ESPN talks about ESPN
There used to be an adage in reporting that “You reported the news, you are not part of the news.” Well that message has never sunk in at ESPN as the latest round robin of repeating itself has taken on comic qualities.

After one of its analysts reported that he would not take Johnny Manziel as a QB for his team, ESPN’s talking heads then discussed this comment endlessly for the next day or so. Awful Announcing does a great job in dissecting how much coverage the network gave to a comment made by one of its own people.

Filed Under: All Star Game, Android, Apple, Apps, Awful Announcing, Baseball, ESPN, Fox Sports, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Major League Baseball, MLS, NASCAR, NBA, NFL, Olympics, Samsung Tagged With: At Bat, ESPN, Fox Sports, MLB, MLB.TV, MLS, NFL, NHL, Samsung

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

February 20, 2014 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

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: 120 Sports, ESPN, MLBAM, Mobile Sports Report, NBA, NHL, Paul Kapustka, Sports Illustrated, Time

Friday Grab Bag: O Canada’s Olympic beer fridge

February 14, 2014 by Greg Quick Leave a Comment

Everybody has that one friend that always manages to drink most of the beer in your fridge and never seems to bring any to replace it. It looks like the Olympics have that problem but at least one nation has come up with an innovative way to keep the beer available only for those who have a right to it.

In the Team Canada athletes compound the only way you can get the beer fridges to open is to have your Canadian passport scanned in order to get a cold Molson. I wonder if they are marketing this technology to home owners?

Rick Reilly really likes Rick Reilly
It seems like a very dim memory now, but at one time Rick Reilly was one of the must reads in sports. And if you did read him religiously in the past there is probably no reason to read him now as it seems that he is increasingly plagiarizing himself in his latest work.

It has gotten so bad for the ESPN columnist that now when people report on his latest transgressions they have a large selection of past examples to bring up. Aside from this he has been embarrassed by Fox Sports 1 announcers, misquoted his father-in-law and complained that he did not get credit for a Twitter news item. What may be even worse is that satire on the subject looks real.

There is an (ESPN) app for that
ESPN touts itself as the worldwide leader in sports and one of the methods that the sports network is now reaching out to fans is via apps for mobile devices.

Most sports fans that I know have the general ESPN app on their phone but that is just the start. There are a range of apps that are locally targeted with the first five covering Los Angeles, Dallas, Boston, Chicago and New York.

No Cactus League games from ESPN
ESPN has released the lineup of games that it will be broadcasting for this years Spring Training slate and if you are not a fan of the Yankees and Red Sox you are very likely to be uninterested in this heavily slanted broadcast schedule.

There will only be seven games and two of them are featuring the Yankees-Red Sox, and the Cactus League, that serves teams from San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago, apparently does not exist to the network as it has been shut out, again.

A look at climbing one of the tallest buildings in the world
BASE jumping is the sport of leaping off tall structures, so is there a name for climbing them? Well even if there is not it is quite an achievement and the video for the guys that climbed the Shanghai Towers shows how hard it is.

The tower is 650 meters, or 2,132 feet, and these two men did it with their bare hands. I wonder what the winds are like at that height on a building?

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Awful Announcing, Baseball, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, ESPN, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, New York Yankees, Olympics, Outdoor Activities, San Francisco Giants Tagged With: Beer, Cactus League, ESPN, MLB, Olympics, Rick Reilly

WatchESPN app now supports Windows 8 devices

February 12, 2014 by Greg Quick Leave a Comment

Mobile users that utilize devices that run on Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system no longer have to be second class citizens when it comes to viewing content generated by ESPN’s family of networks as there is now a WatchESPN app for their devices.

What this means in real terms is that if you have a subscription to a network that shows the network’s lineup they can have access to that includes ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3, ESPN Deportes and ESPNEWS through WatchESPN.

The free app also includes the ability for users pin the app with a Live Tile that provides an instant view from the start screen that displays the top live events as well as features such as Snap functionality, a channel guide, the ability to browse by sport, access to featured live and on-demand content. ESPN Goal Line and ESPN Buzzer Beater will also be accessible when those channels are in season.

In case you are unaware of which cable and satellite video providers that do or will soon feature ESPN and so enable you to access this feature here is a short list. AT&T U-verse TV, Bright House Networks, Cablevision’s Optimum TV, Charter, Comcast Xfinity TV, Cox, Google Fiber, Midcontinent Communications, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon FiOS TV.

This is very good news for supporters of that operating system, which consistently comes in third when versions of sport apps are delivered. MLB almost always delivers a version of its numerous apps first for Apple’s iOS platform and then for Android. Others apps also tout the rival OS first and often there is no mention of Windows support.

Windows 8 had a strong fall growth spurt but has slowed while the older Windows 7 has seen strong growth in recent weeks. Hopefully this and increased support from other mobile apps will provide some much needed impetus for additional growth.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, ESPN, ESPN3, iOS, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Major League Baseball, Microsoft, WatchESPN, Windows 8 Tagged With: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, WatchESPN, Windows 8

Looking for college baseball? ESPN has you covered

February 10, 2014 by Greg Quick Leave a Comment

Does it seem that every year college baseball is basically invisible unless you live near a school that gets coverage in the local media until the College World Series is aired at the end of the summer? Well ESPN is seeking to change that, or rather build on what it has already established in the last few years.

The network will be using its breadth and depth as a broadcaster to show a record number of games during the 2014 college baseball season, with more than 200 regular season and conference games across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPNU and ESPNNEWS.

This is in addition to the exclusive coverage that it will provide for the NCAA Division I College Baseball Championship that starts at the conclusion of the conference championship games. It will also cover the selection of the 64 team field for the championship. The previous high in terms of number of broadcasts by ESPN is 151 games.

Both over air and digital broadcast to be available
ESPN3 will be streaming the bulk of the games with 150 exclusive broadcasts over the course of the season with all available on WatchESPN so that users that want to view the games on tablets, smartphones, Xbox, Roku and other device will have the opportunity to see the games. There are some restrictions on mobile users.

The network plans to have at least one game available every Friday, Saturday and Sunday over 14 consecutive weeks and the regular-season broadcasts starts this Friday, Feb. 14, at 4 p.m. ET with No. 5 Florida State hosting Niagara.

Not all games have been scheduled but for a quick look at what is already planned head over here.

Among the regular features for the season will be ESPNU once again carrying Thursday Night SEC Baseball Game of the Week starting March 27 as well as carrying ACC Monday broadcasts starting March 24. The ACC will apparently dominate broadcasts over the season with 111 games on the agenda. The network said that it will broadcasts games that feature every Top 10 team and 21 of the Top 25 over the course of the season. ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3 and ESPNEWS will combine to carry 10 conference championships.

Filed Under: Apps, Baseball, ESPN, ESPN3, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NCAA.com, Smartphone, Tablets, WatchESPN Tagged With: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPNU, NCAA Baseball, WatchESPN

Friday Grab Bag: $1 Billion for perfect March Madness bracket?

January 24, 2014 by Greg Quick Leave a Comment

Every year you hear, usually third hand, about somebody who correctly picked all of the winners in the NCAA’s March Madness basketball tournament. A side note is that they won an office pool with maybe a few hundred dollars in it.

Well Warren Buffett is changing the stakes to the game, along with Berkshire Hathaway and Quicken Loans. They are offering an award of $1 billion for the person that correctly selects all 63 winners. You can ask for that in either $25 million a year over 40 years or a lump sum of $500 million. Such tough choices.

More Thursday night games from NFL
Remember those games that the NFL said it was not going to be playing on Thursday nights. Well the networks have all started bidding on the rights to broadcast the games that will start this upcoming September and the deal is expected to be for one season.

In the mix are CBS, Fox and NBC and the rumored amount is in the $400 million and is expected to be for eight games. However it appears that the deals are not exclusive but rather the NFL will also broadcast the same games on its NFL Network.

More NASCAR changes coming
NASCAR does not seem to want to leave good enough alone and is once again altering the rules that establish who wins the championship each season. The sport has been tinkering off and on with changes since it established the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

More teams seem to be the answer, at least according to NASCAR, which is trying to recapture its former broadcasting ratings glory. SportsOnEarth does a very nice job tearing down the proposal and pointing out how the sports executives seem bent on destroying the unique nature of the sport.

MLB Advanced Media honcho looks into the future
MLBAM has gotten a lot of news so far in this young year, deals streaming the new WWE online channel and a relationship with Sony that will leverage the MLBAM’s technical know-how for its back end technology.

Now its CEO Bob Bowman is talking about where he sees streaming video going and what impact the recent high profile deals will have on MLBAM

X Games have started
The prelude to the Winter Olympics has begun with ESPN’s annual X Games, hosted in Aspen, Colo. Just prior to the start of the Winter Olympics. However it looks like a few big names will not be seen at the events.

One is 13-time gold medal winner Shaun White, who said that he needed the time to prepare for the Sochi Games. The other is Red Bull, one of the top sponsors for the event. Monster Energy has replaced it and Forbes speculates that this could be the start of Monster establishing itself as a rival to Red Bull in the sports action market.

Sharp goes big in tablet spaceIf the current generation of tablets, now edging out to 13-inches, is too small to meet your needs then you might want to take a gander at the latest from Sharp, the RW-16G1, that boasts a 15.6 inch display.

The tablet runs Windows 8.1 operating system and is seen as a tool for those looking for a powerful tablet to replace a desktop or laptop computer. Among its features are 128GB storage, 3200 x 800 screen resolution and is powered by an Intel Core i5 processor with 4GB RAM.

Filed Under: Apps, Athlete to Follow, CBS Sports, Daytona 500, ESPN, Fox Sports, Microsoft, NASCAR, NCAA Hoops, NCAA.com, NFL, NFL Network, Olympics, Outdoor Activities, Skiing, Windows 8, X Games Tagged With: ABC, CBS, ESPN, March Madness, NASCAR, NCAA, NFL, Red Bull, Sprint Cup, X Games

Friday Grab Bag: MLB to live stream World Series

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

Friday Grab Bag: O Canada’s Olympic beer fridge

WatchESPN app now supports Windows 8 devices

Looking for college baseball? ESPN has you covered

Friday Grab Bag: $1 Billion for perfect March Madness bracket?

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