NBA Eyes Streaming, NFL Gets Mobile
While nerd-friendly content has ruled the online video world up till now, the jocks and all their sporting events are storming the web. Yesterday, the Sports Business Journal reported that the NBA is in negotiations with regional sports networks and cable providers to stream live basketball games online. And today, MediaPost writes that the NFL has entered into an exclusive deal with Sprint to offer live telecasts of games.
The NBA deal is a complicated one with different parties rights entangled, and cable and satellite TV providers not wanting to lose a cash cow. The initial idea is to stream local games through regional sports networks and provide geotargeting (a web video consumer’s favorite word) so those outside the region couldn’t watch. No decision was made as to whether the games would be ad-supported or require a subscription.
The NFL, which only recently decided to stream some of its matchups this upcoming season, will provide mobile broadcasts of eight Thursday night games starting Nov. 6. The league will also provide additional content such as training camp reports and shows like NFL Total Access.
As we noted last week, sports video online has had a strong year already. And the Olympics, while flawed, have at least opened the concept of watching sports online to a broader audience, which will now be able to watch games from every major sport online.
Image Courtesy of NBA.com.
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Most sports (NFL, NHL, etc) will face significant challenges building a presence online. Unless games are blacked out or are otherwise unavailable (e.g., scheduling, etc) their total digital uptake will be small.
As we have seen with the Olympics, broadcast and a lean back experience trumps these digital initiatives in light of few restrictions within the traditional channel.
http://hmmconvenient.blogspot.com
HmmConvenient on August 19th, 2008 at 10:10 am - Permalink
I still won’t be able to watch it here in Sweden right… And here you can watch ONE game per week on Sunday nights (most often in the middle of the night). Bittorrent is the only way here :(
Eddie G on August 20th, 2008 at 7:45 am - Permalink
[...] online, and it’s only going to get bigger. The NFL is streaming games this season as well as going mobile, the NBA is considering local streaming of live games, oh, and those Olympics are doing quite well [...]
ESPN Swings for the Online Fences « NewTeeVee on August 21st, 2008 at 5:30 pm - Permalink
If u guys still looking for nba video streams, just check out Zaptiger
U’ll find video live streams for nba, nhl, nhl etc.
Brian on November 24th, 2008 at 4:51 am - Permalink
here’s a good site– http://www.freesportscasts.com works great and you don’t have to download anything.
they have other sports and also college
dan on November 28th, 2008 at 6:01 am - Permalink