Day 146

Fresh Start_146: We Demand Demand
While watching bits and pieces of both of the NFL Playoff games last night, I got to thinking about the way we watch sports in 2017. Every aspect of it has changed and the way we go about getting it will continue to change as technology allows it. I watched all the action that I saw last night from my phone using the NFL Mobile app. This is an exclusive deal that Verizon has with the NFL that allows you to watch your in market team(s), Prime Time, and Playoff games all on your phone. T-Mobile has a similar deal with the MLB and the At-bat app. The NBA hasn’t stroke a deal with any mobile company yet, but it would most likely be with Sprint—due to the fact that Sprint is one of the major sponsors for the league.

There are different 3rd party apps that you can get on your phone that may or may not be riddled with viruses, so I would advise you to stay away from those. ESPN has started streaming everything from their main channels on their app, and Fox Sports does that with the teams and leagues that they have the rights too. The move to go mobile from broadcasting sports is extremely smart, and tough to innovate at the moment. Which, leaves room for the highlights. We all know of those 1 or 2 plays that go viral on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. There is a grey area that the companies don’t totally get right. The ability to have highlights on demand would be something that would shake up the way we watch highlights. Social media can only cover so much ground, so ESPN and FS1 have to step up their game and do their part. These companies are the reason why sports are watched so closely and getting back to the basics of delivering highlights the way we grew up with, just with the convenience of a demand feature.

Giving the NFL and NBA to have their own highlight videos for each game has gotten old, and they already have the feature where the tap will play if you go back to watch it. If the bigger TV companies did this, it would force the online content to get better. Competition brings the best of people, and the best people at innovating and willing to change will succeed. Good features will make it easier for users, while also attracting new users that will be wanting to use your product.

I strongly urge ESPN to do this because while the ability to watch a live Sportcenter is a great privilege to have, it would be a luxury to have the ability to go back and watch the 1AM EST Sportscenter at 9AM on the East Coast. It wouldn’t be a hard feature to implement and wouldn’t be that hard to transfer. Services like Twitch (for gaming) allow users to rematch live content at a later date. If the gaming community is ahead of the sports community in video, there is a clear issue, and need to be fixed.
Sources:(verizon.com, tmobile.com, espn.com, foxsports.com, mlb.com)

Don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, and share on your way out!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 2023 Offseason is Brian Cashman's Biggest Test Yet

Image
   Now that the World Series is over five days from now the offseason begins. With that in mind, this is the biggest offseason that Brian Cashman will have in his 25-year tenure as Yankee General Manager. For the first time since 2016 the Bronx Bombers watched the postseason from their couches, and they earned that right. Amazingly, this team finished over .500, although not that far above that mark. This iteration of the Bronx Bombers finish with the same record as that 2016 team—but the feeling with this squad feels different. Following the 2016 season, there was hope of the two power bats that would usher in the “Baby Bombers,” and in that offseason, the farm system was rated in the Top 10 in all of baseball. There was almost certainty that Brian Cashman would put a championship team around Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Greg Bird, and Luis Severino that would be a title contender for years to come. There was hope. And that hope almost turned into reality. Almost. But, that was then
Read more

The Question going into the Trade Deadline for the New York Yankees

  There is a crossroads in the Bronx in between River and 161 st Street right now. As New York Yankee Manager Aaron Boone likes to put it “[the season] is right in front of them.” The second half of the season is for the taking. As we move into the dog days of summer the Bronx Bombers are nine games out of the division and now a game and a half out of the AL Wild Card race following a disappointing first series in Colorado. With that, the historic starting Tampa Bay Rays have cooled off, going 3-7 before the break while showing signs of being mortal. Baltimore, who has been keeping pace with Tampa, didn’t look like a Superpower when they split against the Yankees two series before the break. The AL East is still a Spartan Training Facility with every team above .500, the Orioles holding the first Wild Card spot, and the “struggling” Boston Red Sox tied the Yankees in the Wild Card race. And unlike Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire, help is not on the way. Aaron Judge’s toe is still a m
Read more

The Answer for the Mets

  As Yogi Berra would say “it’s déjà vu all over again.” Buck Showalter is an all too familiar place. The 67-year-old manager has taken a time machine back to 2012. No, he is not managing in Baltimore anymore, however that’s what it feels like the end of Showalter’s Oriole tenure in Queens right now. The Mets simply can’t get out of their own way. With Pete Alonso likely headed to the Injured List, the Mets scored 10 runs last night in Atlanta. 10 runs on the heels of back-to-back gut-wrenching losses at the hands of the team that has foiled the Mets for the better part of almost three decades, the Atlanta Braves. 10 runs with their hired ace, Justin Verlander, who was looking to put together good starts consecutively for the first time all season. The Mets looked like they were about to exercise some demons in Atlanta last night, and then, the other shoe dropped. It wasn’t good enough. Again. Last night, I wrote that the Mets season was on the line with Verlander toeing the slab. Well
Read more