Pac-12 – Page 3

YouTube Deal Will Enhance ACC’s Digital Network

July 24, 2012 by Greg Quick 1 Comment

The Atlantic Coast Conference’s digital network has introduced a channel on YouTube that will deliver live content from the ACC as YouTube continues to grow as a force in live sports broadcasting with deals such as this.

We have long talked about the emergence of YouTube as a de facto channel for sports, and YouTube has been working hard to cement that position with the ACC deal as one of its more notable deals. However in case you missed it will also be serving up some nice Olympic moments via a deal with NBC that will enable it to show highlights and live events from the London Olympics.

The ACC and YouTube have been partners to a degree for several years and provided exclusive, but not live content at its site since at least 2009, however this takes it a significant step further.

Between that time and now the ACC started a deal with Silver Chalice that enabled it to launch the ACC Digital Network that provided broad coverage of the ACC schools including news conferences, highlights and analysis that could be delivered to both Apple and Android mobile devices.

Now it will also present live events as well as on demand videos that are created by the ACC as well as a live weekly studio program during football and basketball season. There will also be condensed replays of ACC Network productions of football and basketball games.

The current deal will call for the ACC to provide fan access and interaction to its analysts via Google’s Google Hangout. Fans can view, comment upon and share the programming by visiting youtube.com/accdigitalnetwork, or by searching for ACC Digital Network on YouTube.

Of course others are also working on attracting digital partners. The Big Ten Networks recently expanded to support Android in its broadcast and the Pac-12 is increasingly involved in digital media. Still it is nice that the ACC will be presenting live sports to its fan base and other interested parties.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Atlantic Coast Conference, BCS, Big Ten Network, Google, iOS, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, NCAA Football, NCAA Hoops, Pac-12, YouTube Tagged With: ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12

Timeout Tuesday: Here’s Your Time-wasting Sports Videos

March 13, 2012 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

Who doesn’t want a dunk fiesta to start your Tuesday off right? What better way to start than with a Derrick Rose tomahawk, courtesy of the turnstile defense of the Knicks Monday night:

How about golf? Poor Tiger Woods got the O.J. Simpson treatment Sunday with the TV cameras following his car as he left the course after withdrawing because of an Achilles injury. But did you catch him on Saturday, making par “the hard way” after rinsing his tee shot on a par 3? Shades of #16 at Augusta… here is El Tigre, and four other “shots of the week.”

This next one might be unofficial but it was a great play — Colorado’s Carlon Brown caught Arizona sleeping during Saturday’s Pac-12 tournament championship game and slammed one down hard:

And… since I went to CU and can’t remember Buffs hoops ever being worth a damn to watch, a Carlon Brown encore, this one to help polish off Cal in the semis. Who knew Buffs could jam?

And this isn’t a video of her win last weekend (couldn’t find one yet) but we’d like to spend a minute or so honoring American skier Lindsey Vonn, who may just go down in history as the greatest ever for her sport. What I like about this GS at Kranjska Gora is how she almost buys the farm near the end but recovers with such grace that you have to look closely to even see the slip. It’s probably what cost her a podium here but the form is just damn fine skiing. And somehow the foreign-language commentary just makes it seem more exotic.

Filed Under: ESPN, NBA, NCAA Hoops, PGA, Skiing Tagged With: Colorado Buffaloes, Lindsey Vonn, Pac-12, Tiger Woods

Pac-12 Looks to Build ‘Digital Network’ for Social-Media Centric Sports Future

January 31, 2012 by Greg Quick 2 Comments

The Pac-12 conference, one year into its new broadcasting deal is now looking to expand its presence in other areas aside from broadcast television, a move that will encompass streaming media and other technologies broadcast to smartphones, tablets and other devices, mobile and immobile.

To spearhead the program the conference‘s wholly owned subsidiary Pac-12 Enterprises has hired David Aufhauser as vice president and general manager of digital media. He has been in various positions in the sports and social media market for almost two decades with his most recent position being Vice President, Media at Say Media where he managed the global ad network. Prior to that he led business development at Yahoo Sports and has a variety of positions at Citizen Sports, Evite and Netscape.

The job will entail all aspects of the digital media properties of the Pac-12 as well as the creation and management of the Pac-12 Digital Network. The Digital Network will be a unified web site that will provide world wide access to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets as well as computers and even television for a wide range of sports activities that the Pac-12 is involved in.

The group will handle hundreds of sporting events and provide original programming at all 12 major campuses. This will include live streaming, mobile technology and social TV capabilities, the world. The network is expected to be launched in late summer 2012.

Last year the conference entered into a major upgrade on its broadcasting presence by working with major cable companies to create six regional cable networks as well as signing new national deals with FOX Sports and ESPN. The Digital Network is expected to work with the television networks to provide a more unified presence for the league. The new effort will also handle all sponsorship, licensing and event management for the Pac-12.

His hiring is just the latest in a string of newly enlisted personnel, all seemingly with wide experience in both sports and an array of various media. Last August the conference hired Gary Stevenson as the head of the Enterprise group. Stevenson has more than 30 years in a variety of sports and broadcasting experience including working with the NBA, the PGA Tour and owning his own sports consulting firm OnSports.

The Pac-12 Enterprise has also hired Bill Cella as its chief revenue officer. Cella has experience in sales and marketing and will design and implement long term strategies and oversee the management of all revenue generation for Pac-12 Enterprises.

Expect this to be the tip of the iceberg and a move that is carefully watched by both rival conferences and the NCAA governing body. No school is going to let additional revenue slip through its fingers and we will probably see a number quickly emulate the Pac-12.

The NCAA on the other hand may want a bigger piece of the pie. When Major League Baseball teams started to move onto the Internet MLB itself was a bit slow to follow. When it did it moved everything under its own umbrella, and no doubt gets a larger cut for its effort.

Filed Under: ESPN, Fox Sports, Live sports via mobile, Major League Baseball, NCAA Football, NCAA Hoops, Pac-12, Smartphone, Social Media, Tablets Tagged With: Pac-12, Sports social media

Pac-12 calls for Oregon Ducks and UCLA Bruins fans to do hashtag battle

December 2, 2011 by John Evan Frook Leave a Comment

The Pac-12 Conference, one of college football’s most aggressive promoters of social media, today called on Oregon Ducks and UCLA Bruins fans to include #GoDucks and #GoBruins in their comments during tonight’s Pac-12 Football Championship Game.

The athletic conference is administrating to the hashtag battle as a means to increase fan engagement in tonight’s game between the No. 9 ranked Ducks and the un-ranked Bruins.

The Hashtag Battle Defined

Already underway, the Pac-12’s hashtag battle keeps score of the percentage of overall #GoDucks and #GoBruins tweets, and features the best Ducks and Bruins tweets in side-by-side scroll bars for the two teams.

The Ducks and Bruins are scheduled to kick off tonight at 8:30 E.S.T.

The hashtag battle could be more interesting than the game. Oregon is thirty-one and a half point favorites versus the Bruins, whose six win and six loss 2011 season is best described as mystifyingly erratic. A Rose Bowl stake goes to the winner.

Pac-12 uses simple, effective sports social media promo

The Pac-12 did a good job explaining its value-proposition to potential users in 120-characters or less.

Here’s how the Pac-12 promoted the battle on Twitter:

The battle has begun! Use #GoDucks or #GoBruins to cheer on your team. See the results of the hashtag battle: http://t.co/Rx2OZp7L

December 2, 2011 12:31 pm via HootSuite ReplyRetweetFavorite

@pac12

Pac-12 Conference

Gamespaces from Twitter Streams

In creating a simple read-out of the percentage of overall #GoDucks and #GoBruins tweets, the Pac-12 has produced a rudimentary gamespace from the Twitter stream.

Within the mobile sports industry, there are more sophisticated examples of this approach. One is GiveMojo, which incorporates Twitter within its gamespace, but also allows participants to buy extra points, and features referees who assign added value to particularly good tweets. At MobileSportsReport press time, GiveMojo was not offering the Oregon versus UCLA game within its gamespace.

Testing 1,2,3

The Pac-12 is on the ball in administrating to its hashtag battle. A post by MobileSportReport’s @BroApp, depicted below, referred to an historic UCLA game in which the 15-point underdog Bruins defeated No. 1 Ohio State in the 1976 Rose Bowl.

The MSR test tweet said,

#GoBruins A little John Sciarra magic tonight? It’d be as big an upset.

This tweet appeared almost instantly in the Pac-12 interface.

However, a second post, under hashtag #GoDucks, commented on the point spread. This tweet was not picked up by the Pac-12. So, the Pac-12 isn’t asleep at the switch in curating its Twitter rivalry.

Here’s what the Pac-12’s presentation looks like:

A post by MobileSportReport's BroApp immediately appeared in the Pac-12 interface. It said, "#GoBruins A little John Sciarra magic tonight? It'd be as big an upset." Another post, under hashtag #GoDucks commented on the point spread. It was not picked up by the Pac-12. Kudos Pac-12. You were not asleep at the switch.

UPDATE: Check out what Fox did after the game (thanks @tariq_ahmad for the pic):

Hashtag battle between #goducks and #gobruins shown on FOX at end of game #smsports #sportsbiz http://t.co/gOTYiA8G

December 2, 2011 10:49 pm via webReply RetweetFavorite

@tariq_ahmad

Tariq Ahmad

Filed Under: Pac-12, Twitter Tagged With: Oregon Ducks, Pac-12, Twitter, UCLA Bruins