Emerging Media in Sports
 
I'm doing a project for my Quantitative Research Methods class this semester on Twitter use by sports teams, and its effect on fan identification. In other words, teams are using Twitter to communicate with fans at an unprecedented level, and fans are feeling a more personal connection to their teams as a result (at least that's my hypothesis).

On a personal level, I've been keeping an eye on how my own favorite teams are utilizing Twitter. Marquette's athletic department has been a pioneer in social media innovation, and the Marquette Twitter account is a great resource for up-to-date Marquette athletics news and information, as well as links to media stories about the MU teams. Marquette also uses their Twitter as a vehicle to communicate with fans personally.

Craig Pintens, Marquette's former Director of Marketing, is now at LSU, and has essentially built a social media empire down in Louisiana. Craig comments on LSU Athletics through his own Twitter account, and manages individual Twitter accounts for all the University's teams, including football and basketball. Individual Facebook pages exist for the teams as well.


On the professional level, my Milwaukee Bucks have what seems to be one of the more active Twitter accounts, engaging in personal communication with many fans, as well as providing in-game updates and news in between games. The Bucks also do a great job of using Twitter to announce ticket promotions and other special events.


Clearly, teams are doing a great job of taking advantage of the wonderful marketing resource that Twitter provides. As time goes by, sports marketing professionals are devising new ways to use Twitter as a vehicle to market their teams. It will be interesting to see what direction this concept goes over time, as the practice is honed even further.
 
Internet television is rapidly growing, and the number of players in the field are as well.


Apple's new $99 latest-generation Apple TV, a box that fits in the palm of your hand, offers easy, full high definition access to Netflix movies, as well as streaming content on your computer's hard drive and rented or purchased content from the iTunes store. Roku, which pioneered the streaming Netflix concept, now offers television boxes as low as $59 that can stream a variety of content. Media Center developer Boxee, partnering with D-Link, is releasing the Boxee Box next month, which will deliver a wealth of Full-HD content through Boxee's widely successful front end. All three major video game consoles now stream various content, including Netflix, in high definition, and recent contracts between Sony and Major League Baseball and Microsoft and ESPN will deliver sports content through these forums. Even Google has thrown their hat into the ring, with Google TV, to be released in the coming months.


In all of this, Boxee intrigues me the most. The slick, easy-to-navigate front end actually spawned from an open source media center application that was first created for the original XBox. Free to download, the Boxee front-end can be run on Windows, Mac, Linux, and original-generation Apple TVs. The Boxee Box will give users a piece of hardware specifically designed and optimized for Boxee, offering a full 1080p high definition picture.


More importantly, Boxee appears to be tailor made for the sports fan. Account holders for the MLB.tv baseball package and NHL GameCenter hockey package can use these online streaming services to access live games through their television, in full high definition glory. In addition, users can view archived games on demand through both of these services. Having all the games in HD and access to archived games are features that one can't get from subscribing to the MLB and NHL's respective TV packages. Furthermore, the TV versions of the packages are far more expensive (I paid over $150 last season for MLB Extra Innings, which only offered 2-3 games a night in HD). As of right now, NBA's GameTime application is not yet available on Boxee, however this app only delivers score updates and highlights, rather than live games. As for the NFL, access to live games through Boxee, or any other Internet TV platform for that matter, is a pipe dream, given the exclusivity the league has with DirecTV.


As far as other sports content, Boxee sets itself apart from the pack with a built in browser designed to find, pull out, and play video from any site it visits. This feature, along with other free apps the connect to popular video streaming services, ensures that if it can be played online, it can be played through Boxee (a big plus for someone who finds themselves streaming EPL soccer games on Saturday mornings).


So does all of this actually work? Does the browser reliably stream web video, and does the MLB.tv app consistently deliver live HD content? I'll get back to you on that. This week, I found a deal on a previous-generation Apple TV on eBay, that is due to arrive any day now. I'll be installing Boxee on it, and attempting to stream various sports content.


Between the wealth of available content on Boxee, and ESPN3 access coming to my XBox next month, I'll have access to virtually any sporting event imaginable, in glorious HD, on my 40" flat screen. Now that's paradise.
 
After months of negotiations, and the threat of a blackout, Disney/ABC and Time Warner Cable signed a long-term deal yesterday, that not only ensures access to the television giant’s programming on Time Warner, but also adds a wealth of long-awaited services to Time Warner’s huge subscriber base. Most notable in Disney/ABC’s stable is the ever-growing ESPN family of sports networks. Here’s a breakdown of what this deal means to subscribers:

1. The Status Quo:

The threat of a blackout of channels may seem like a bunch of positioning and bluffing to the outside observer, but if negotiations get to a stalemate, blackouts certainly can happen. In fact, last March, similar negotiations with Cablevision, a New York area cable provider, resulted in Disney-owned WABC-7 being blacked out for the start of the Academy Awards. Hard luck New Yorkers also lost the Food Network and HGTV on Cablevision for three weeks in January, and local sports network MSG was recently blacked out by Time Warner Cable there as well.

We will never know just how close we came to not having access to ESPN in Time Warner markets, including Milwaukee, but the fact of the matter is, the Disney/ABC stable, which includes ABC Family, Disney Channel, Disney XD, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, ESPN Classic, ESPN Deportes, and SOAPnet, will be available for the foreseeable future.

2. ESPN3.com

ESPN3.com, formerly known as ESPN360, is ESPN’s online broadband sports network, which offers a wealth of live and on-demand sports programming, most of which is unavailable on television, outside of an all-sports package such as ESPN Game Plan or Full Court. The caveat with ESPN3 is that access is only granted to those logging into the site from an ESPN-approved broadband provider. It has been a longtime lament of sports fans on Time Warner broadband that they were shut out of this fantastic service. Thanks to this deal, Time Warner’s 14 million nationwide subscribers now have access to ESPN3, and its more than 3,500 annual live sporting events.

This deal also allows Time Warner to feature what the press release calls “cleared content from ESPN3.com” on its sports tier. It’s unclear what exactly this means, but it will likely result in new live sports programming available on Time Warner’s air, which is certainly a good thing. The deal will also allow Xbox 360 users in Time Warner’s markets to access ESPN3 from their console, giving users an easy way to enjoy online-broadcasted sports from their living room flat screen.

3. 3D

ESPN launched a 3D channel in conjunction with the World Cup. This is a new venture, but ESPN is adding new 3D live sports programming consistently. The new technology still doesn’t have much penetration as of yet, but those early adopters who have bought a 3D capable TV no longer have to be content with just watching Avatar and Monsters vs. Aliens anymore.

4. New Stuff

The deal supposedly will also allow for the placement of more ABC, Disney, and ESPN on-demand content through Time Warner’s VOD platform. This certainly means access to that episode of Grey’s Anatomy or Hannah Montana you might have missed last week, but what it also could mean is on demand access to last night’s college basketball games, or the most recent edition of SportsCenter, which would be a huge addition to any sports fan.

ESPN is also implementing two new channels similar to the NFL Network’s Red Zone Channel: ESPN Goal Line and ESPN Buzzer Beater, which will respectively cover college football and basketball. Like the Red Zone channel, these two channels will spend the day jumping between ongoing games all around the country, allowing viewers to not miss a crucial moment of any game. Very cool, indeed.

Finally, the deal promises subscribers the ability to watch ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU through their broadband and mobile Internet devices. Details on this are sketchy so far, but the ability to watch ESPN on your iPad or Droid would be a nice addition.

Putting it All Together

Ultimately, this deal means a lot of new sports content to Time Warner subscribers. It’s unclear when all of these features will be implemented, but as of this morning, ESPN3.com was already available through my Time Warner broadband. More details about the deal can be found in the joint press release here.

Now that that’s done, we Time Warner sports junkies can go back to our regularly scheduled programming of lamenting the lack of the NFL Network on our cable.