How the New Media are Used In Sports

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New Media and Online TV

As technology advances, it's giving a variety of sports an options to get online and connect with it's fans. New media technology has enabled fans and clubs to create their websites and has provided fans with a better experience. New cutting edge technology has given power to these sports to reach out to new audiences across the world for the first time. Video-streaming, which is constantly upgrading and becoming faster, allows these websites to cover major Tour events from an angle never provided. Fans will be able to interact with the athletes in their favorite sports on a new level.

The Scottish Premier League club Rangers launched the first dedicated internet TV station RangersTV.tv on the 30th October, 2009. It the first dedicated station created by a UK football club. The new online station developed by the club is cost-effective and efficient. It is available throughout the world and has given easy access to it's fans worldwide.The station features full games on-demand, exclusive pre-match build-up, half-time and post-match analysis, and an extensive archive library of classic matches.

Professional Squash Association (PSA), the organization that promotes men’s professional squash, has set up Squash TV with the digital sports company Perform. Squash TV will provide video content including highlights, player rankings and statistics, full match downloads, behind the scenes features and interviews. PSA hope to reach the worldwide audience of 20 million. It plans to show around 250 live pay-per-view matches per year on it's website.


New Media and ESPN

New media has taken many forms when it comes to sports. ESPN.com is a website that showcases different types of new media. One of it's most interesting features is that of fantasy teams. This feature lets users create their own teams in a league and play against other teams. The user has the option of benching players, trading player, and dropping players. You can also link your phone to ESPN in order to receive updates on players that may have gotten injured or cannot play for a specific reason. The sports included are football, basketball, baseball, hockey, racing, and soccer.

A different form of new media ESPN.com offers is the choice for users to receive text messages with minute-to-minute updates on the sport of their choice and also on the game that may be in progress at the moment. ESPN.com also has live updates on games that are in progress on their homepage.

ESPN.com allows it's users to play games like Texas Hold'em (Page Currently Down) and 3D Pool against one another in real time.

Blogs play a big role in sports as well. There are websites like espn.com and http://sportsblogs.org/ that have commentary by announcers on games that have been played, games that are going to be played and their opinions on who might win. ESPN.com has both written [1] and video [2] blogs with comments from different commentators about the sport of your choice.

In addition to being able to go on your cellular phones and browse the internet for information about your favorite teams, there has also been the recent emergence of applications like ESPN mobile. ESPN mobile, also known as ESPN MVP, is a cellular phone application that allows sports fans to view highlights and stats about their favorite players as well as teams. It covers sports from all over the world and is one of the most up-to-date networks for sports in the entire world. Not only has ESPN moved from being exclusively on television to being available on the internet, but it has now made it easier for consumers to view their editorials through their cellular phones. With this new technology, users can even send blogs and respond to other peoples blogs through their cellular phones which is bringing a new age of possibilities to people all over the world.

"Like ESPN, there are many websites that do the same but ESPN is one of the most up-to-date that i know of and more interactive"


ESPN launches Big Sport Cities Site

ESPN has had specially made websites for big sport cities such as Dallas, Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago. They recently launched ESPN New York.

These networks are geared toward their respective cities giving fans the latest news about their teams. These websites are amazing because they contain features like: “Online radio and podcasts from local ESPN Radio flagship stations (ESPN 710 AM in LA, ESPN 1050 AM in NY, and ESPN 103.3 FM in Dallas); Original reporting, blogs and commentary from a stable of local voices, including those at the local ESPN Radio station, and award-winning journalists and writers from other ESPN media;”

You can visit these websites:

ESPN New York

ESPN Boston

ESPN Dallas

ESPN Los Angeles

ESPN Chicago

ESPN & Sprint TV

Sprint TV allows Sprint customers access to videos and live television as long as they have the proper wireless data plan. Popular channels include Fox Mobile, ABC News Now, Bravo, USA, and the Disney Channel.

On March 12, 2010, Sprint and ESPN launched ESPN Mobile TV. With ESPN Mobile, you can watch a live stream right from your phone. As part of the deal between Sprint and ESPN, they will stream 9 NBA Playoff games, 10 regular season MLB games, and much more. Later on this year, even the 2010 FIFA World Cup will broadcast live.

ESPN3.com broadcasts over the Internet

ESPN debuted a program this year when the Boston Red Sox hosted the New York Yankees on April 4, 2010. This program is called ESPN3.com, it used to be called ESPN360.com which is basically a program offered by ESPN that lets you stream games from your laptop/computer. The new ESPN3.com has features that let you socialize with other fans and has twitter/facebook updates. This program will feature split-screens and have DVR in the near future.

"Improved video: Users won’t have to download a separate player any more; games will stream live without it courtesy of a change to Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) Flash Player 10 from Move and delivery by Major League Baseball Advanced Media."

ESPN app for iPhone

Recently, ESPN released an application for the iPhone for live television streaming. You are able to stream their live programming, NBA games for example on your iPhone on either Wifi or 3G. However you need to have the service they are partnered with in order to view the programming. Verizon FIOS is one of the partners they have as well as Time Warner.

ESPN.com Twitter updates

Espn has created a link on its website Espn.com which shows constant updates from its reporters and journalist. Whether it be Rumors or injury updates espn has enabled this for ever sport that they cover throughtout the year. The twitter post are on a scroll bar and it also enables user to follow the sports writers on twitter.


ESPN And The Xbox 360

With the new integration of ESPN on the Xbox 360 sport fans have the ability to watch ESPN3 games, stream through hours of highlights as well as take advantage of the power of the xbox. User can choose their favorite team so that they can get personalized highlights as well as live scoreboards. User can also view sports on a split screen so this can benefit one who is looking forward to watching a Knicks and Ranger game at the same time. And with the new Kinect by Xbox users can now use voice recognition software in order to operate and browse ESPN.


ESPN's Interactive Show- SportsNation

ESPN has a new TV show called “SportsNation”. When they designed this show, they wanted to be the most interactive TV show. It's hosted by Colin Cowherd and Michelle Beadle every weekday at 4pm on ESPN2. Reruns can be seen at 6 and 12:30a est on ESPN2.

It’s a TV show where there’s a sports related poll-question every couple minutes and they allow the nation to vote on their website or via Twitter SportsNation's Twitter "Throughout the day we'll be posing questions to SN on our Twitter feed. Send in your answers or pose a question to us. You could end up on our air!Send us your feedback via Twitter!"

You can also submit funny/humorous videos to this show. "The interweb is filled with whacked-out reports and videos of people doing weird and stupid things. Have great Internet clip or story you want us to air? Send it to us through our Weird Web Stories page!"

You can pretend to be a famous athlete on this show. "Ever wanted to be a pro athlete? Here's your chance ... sort of. Call us up, pretend to be an athlete and tell us what "you" are up to. Call 1-888-FAN-ESPN. Keep it topical, clean and funny!" S

New Media and ATDHE.NET

ATDHE.NET can be used to stream live out of market games from all of the major professional sports leagues directly to your computer, free of charge. This third party program is a cheaper alternative to purchasing a sports package from your cable or satellite provider, which can run you a couple hundred dollars a season. ATDHE.net offers viewing of live games from NFL,MLB, NHL, NBA, MLS, along with professional wrestling and poker broadcasts. Additionally, ATDHE.net can stream live broadcasts of big ticket PPV professional boxing matches such as this month's Pacquiao vs. Margarito fight, saving the viewer upwards of $60.00. Although the viewing quality of ATDHE's broadcasts are inferior to it's paid counterparts, it is a great alternative for the avid sport's fan on a budget.

New Media and Major Leagues & Associations

New Media and the World Cup

The World Cup 2010 South Africa is now a thing of the past, up next on the list is the World Cup 2014 Brazil. The World Cup, possibly one of the most biggest and prestigious events in the world takes place only every 4 years. It is now time for the qualification process to see which of the world's 207 national soccer teams will participate in 2014. The spots are limited to only 32 divided proportionately to every continent.

The qualifiers have begun to take place and different types of New Media have begun to further inform people of the qualification process, as well as other interactive features.

Twitter users and most importantly the International Federation of Association Football or FIFA for short have begun to tweet real time scores, results, and news on the their twitter accounts for anyone that follows to be updated in real time.

Other social networking websites like Facebookhave also begun to add on to the hype by creating fan pages, one in particular with about 45,312 users liking and following it. The Fan page comes complete with comments from users about their favorite players and what-if situations.

Possibly the most interesting thing to note is FIFA's Interactive World Cup 2012, where players can use the FIFA 11 game made by EA Sports to participate in an online competition. While to competition was only made available to Playstation 3 users, the idea in itself is tremendous, allowing millions of players to compete with each other. The grand Final winner will win 20,000 dollars along with other valuable EA Sports and PlayStation accesories and equipment.


New Media and Major League Baseball (MLB)

Major League Baseball's Advanced Media staff is very busy during the off-season. "We don't want to become old media in a new media world. It's far busier for us from November to March. The off-season is where we have to innovate and get fans excited about us," says Bob Bowman, president and CEO of Major League Baseball's interactive media arm. All of this attention is paying off to MLB's website. MLB now streams more live videos of more events in the world, including the much-publicized March Madness on Demand video service. "We'll do more than 12,000 events in 2008," said Matt Gould, an MLBAM spokesman. MLB.TV, which offers live access to out of market games, is growing at a 30%-40% clip each year, Bowman said. "As more people get broadband, as Wi-Fi gets more prevalent, people can access these games," Bowman said. MLBAM has been a great success, they made $400 million in revenue last year. Because MLBAM is having a big financial success, it has paid off for the clubs. In 2006, each team was paid a $1 million dividend for its investment in MLBAM. In 2007, it was $1.7 million. This year, it will be closer to $2 million. It is important that baseball is covered because it is the only sport going on in the summer.

ESPN and Major League Baseball are in contract until 2013, which includes permission to stream baseball programming from it's networks to mobile and wireless devices. That means ESPN can offer ESPN Mobile subs full access to, say, Sunday night baseball. The deal covers Sunday, Monday and Wednesday night games and the signature “Baseball Tonight” (including in-game highlights and live cut-in's).

In the year 2009, another sports network that is only dedicated to casting Major League Baseball related events has emerged into the scene. This network is known as MLB Network and is primarily owned by Major League Baseball, and companies such as Comcast, DirectTV, Time Warner, and Cox Communications have minority ownership of the station. Profitability is expected at the end of 2009, and by the year 2015, revenue from cable subscriber fees and advertisements are projected to reach $210 million with a net value of above $1 billion. The network carries a staff of knowledgeable hosts, and analysts who were all once professional baseball players such as Barry Larkin, Al Leiter, Harold Reynolds, Mitch Williams, and most recently John Smoltz. MLB Network offers a large variety of media coverage such as high definition sports coverage, sports news, interviews, and etc. What differs this network from ESPN is that it also offers live baseball techniques and practices from its demo room designed like an indoor baseball field. In addition to its phenomenal television media coverage, the network also offers a variety of online new media features such as Twitter, Facebook, and Blogs. Many of the network's viewers keep up with the baseball updates through these online sources. MLB Network

Websites

The MLB utilizes it's website [3] effectively to connect fan's to the league. MLB.com can be used to watch video highlights, look up player information, look up historic game information, and many more things. The website is a complete dashboard where visitors can do most of the things that they would want to do. The MLB also has a website dedicated to players MLB Players [4]. This website provides link's to MLB player websites, where one can find out about their bio data along with stats and many other interesting facts.

Blogging

During the 2006 season MLB Blogs [5] began to include player blogs alongside fan blogs. Player's not only include MLB professionals, but also prospects who blog about their minor league experiences. Even though blogging is becoming popular most MLB players tend to have their own websites rather then blogs. Some blogs are:

MLB and Twitter

The MLB utilizes Twitter to reach out to it's fan base and provide real time streaming information concerning game's and league activities. Many player's are also very active on Twitter. Even though both entities, the player's and the league, use Twitter the MLB has rules governing it's use. The MLB does not allow players to use portable or mobile phones, laptops, texting devices, or any other such devices within an hour of game time. It also forbids them to be used on the bench or playing field at anytime. Some MLB players on Twitter are:

Twitter Controversies and the MLB

Although many Major League Baseball players are quite active on Twitter, their have not been many Twitter related controversies related to player use. However, one MLB manager who is an active twitter user Ozzie Guillen has had his run ins with the MLB front office. On April 27, 2011 during a game against the New York Yankees, Ozzie Guillen was upset with some of the umpiring decisions and eventually ejected from the game. After being ejected he proceeded to Tweet about his displeasure with umpire Todd Tichenor. Major League Baseball did not take kindly to Ozzie Guillen's words and proceeded to suspend him for two games and issue him a fine of $20,000.00.

New Media and National Basketball Association (NBA)

In 2007, the NBA extended its national TV package with ESPN/ABC and TNT. This package included plenty of new media rights. This is a sign that digital media is growing in the sports world. The deal was worth about $930 million a year for the eight-year life of the pact, good for a total of $7.44 billion. That's up significantly from the $765 million-a-year, $4.6 billion deal the NBA signed with ESPN/ABC and TNT six years ago that included TV rights only. This is one of the first cases of TV and digital platforms being put together in such a deal by a big sports league. This could be a model for sports deals in the future. For ESPN this deal means that NBA games and other content will be a part of more than 17 outlets for the company, including ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 and also grants them the rights to simulcast full games live on ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile TV.

The 2007 NBA All-Star game was held in New Orleans. This event was really new media interactive for the fans. The fans had opportunities to vote for the winner of the final round of the slam dunk contest via SMS text message. Rudy Gay, who was one of the four participants in the contest, asked fans to upload ideas of dunks that he could possibly do. NBA stars have also used new media to act as politicians. Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors, uploaded a video on YouTube encouraging people to vote for him to be an NBA All-Star. In NBA season 2009-2010, Amare Stoudemire has done the same by posting comedy videos in order to receive votes to be elected into the All-Star game.

Blogging

Since 2006-2007 the nba has started to promote blogging by having some of its star players post occasional blogs on the popular website to show what life is like in the NBA. A few of them include Nate Robinson (NYK) and Gilbert Arenas (WAS). Some blogs are:

Some stars even have their own blogs and have fans set up to post news about them. These include:

Team Affiliated Blogs

Espn has launched a Blog, called Truehoop Blog where they have a list of distinguished writers who post articles. Within this blog there is a TrueHoop Team Coverage, which has a fan selected by Espn who, leads discussion on there favorite team. There are 30 blogging teams one for each Nba team. Some examples are:

These sites encourage fans to post there opinions on topics selected by the blogging teams.

NBA and Twitter

With many basketball stars now on Twitter (Amar'e Stoudemire, Ron Artest, and Baron Davis just to name a few), the NBA is enforcing new rules concerning the use of Twitter and other social networking websites. In September of 2009, the league sent out a memo to teams informing "that cell phones and other communication devices can't be used from 45 minutes before game time until after players have finished their responsibilities after games. That includes halftime." This rule applies to all players, coaches and NBA personnel.

NBA and Twitter Controversy:

Outside of the commissioner, there has been controversy between nba players vs nba players and nba players v.s nba fans.

In 2010 an incident on the court between Charlie Villanueva of the Detroit Pistons and Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics the two exchanged words and resulted into a public display of trash talking on twitter. Villanueva posted on twitter, "KG called me a cancer patient, I'm pissed because, u know how many people died from cancer, and he's tossing it like it's a joke."[6] Many of the players were upset more so at Villanueva, because his inability to keep their discussion on the court. This idea is derived from the idea "what happens on the court stays on the court. Garnett, who is a well known trash talker, refuted these comments, saying "My comment to Charlie Villanueva was in fact 'You are cancerous to your team and our league, ‘I would never be insensitive to the brave struggle that cancer patients endure. I have lost loved ones to this deadly disease and have a family member currently undergoing treatment. I would never say anything that distasteful. The game of life is far bigger than the game of basketball."[7]

Another incident which happened in 2010 is with Miami Heat Forward LeBron James. James frustrated with the amount of negative comments by disgruntle fans stemming from his decision to sign with the Miami Heat and not Resigning with the Cleveland Cavaliers, he posted on his twitter account "Today is Hater Day,”. “Everyone please let them get their 2 mins of fame and light! I Love You Haters. Continue to make me proud of u guys! LOL” Later on in the day he retwitted some of the more disturbing comments.

  • In one message a person wrote that James is “a big nosed big lipped bug eyed (racial slur). Ur greedy, u try to hide ur ghettoness.”
  • "No one wants to hear u speak. Why don't you speak by laying ur head under a moving car? To which James added the words, "Haaa, OK I'll try that."

At the end of the day James posted a tweet saying "U see world how people feel! Just use it as extra motivation in whatever u do best! No one can stop your dreams from becoming reality!" Using this as inspiration for anyone whose decisions are heavily criticized.[8][9]

Players and Fines

Recently with the introduction of New Media, there has been additional rules for players and coaches forbidding to use any form of it shortly before, during, and even after the game. The penalties are fines for the respective player who posts something using new media.

Amar'e Stoudemire: Fined $7500 for Tweeting during a game.

Brandon Jennings: Fined $7500

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban: Fined $25,000 for Twitter post criticizing refs.

YouTube

The NBA has become involved with new media as it has posted it's own official channel on YouTube to promote the sport of basketball. The NBA copyrights all their videos so that no one is able to profit from their clips. Although, many people have gotten hold of NBA clips someway somehow and uploaded thousands of NBA clips on their channel to increase their video views and possibly gain revenue. Because it is very difficult to regulate this matter, NBA has decided "if you cant beat them, join them".

Nba on Youtube

NBA 4 time All-star and gold medalist Chris Bosh has created a YouTube channel in order to connect closely with his fans. Chris Bosh has over 19,000 subscribers and more than 7 million video views. Through this new media, fans are able to see a different side of Chris Bosh. Constantly fans are used to seeing Chris Bosh dominate in basketball but the videos on his channel showcase his talents off the court, such as comedy.

Chris Bosh's Youtube


NBA Fantasy Insider

In 2003, the NBA came out with a show on NBA tv called NBA Fantasy insider. Where the host Rick Kamla would answer emails and calls to give tips on their fantasy leagues. These tips would include if a trade was good or not or who you should start during the week.


NBA Fantasy Game

In the 90s Fantasy Basketball was created when internet was invented. The fantasy basketball is free to join. Anyone can join from young to old people. The way the fantasy basketball works is that people draft their NBA player first to get their team. It is a team of 12 players. Everyday of the week we can change the line up by substituting other players that are playing to the players that are not playing. We also can trade players from the other people and sign or waive players.

New Media and The NCAA

New Media has really impacted collegiate sports, whether it be the coaches, the players, or the universities themselves. There are positive and negative effects that Twitter and Facebook have had on these individuals.

Positive Effects

The NCAA has made a ruling that will enhance the recruiting process for college coaches. Coaches are unable to text message recruits directly, so this poses an alternative, since Twitter can be used on a cell phone. They're not allowed to mention a recruiters name directly, but they can comment on practices and things of that nature [10]. It allows high school recruits to get a sense of how a coach handles his team and what the coach’s personality is like. It’s important to have a strong athlete-coach relationship and understanding a coach’s personality is important for an athlete.


An important and unique positive influence that Twitter has had through college athletics is through marketing. Sports teams and players look for ways to brighten their image and to ultimately sell it. There are quite a few ways, including doing commercials, and selling gear etc. The new way would be through Twitter or Facebook. For example, an athlete who has a new sneaker line coming out in stores may post a tweet about it knowing that his/her thousands upon thousands of followers will read it. It is an easy, effective and inexpensive marketing tool. Also by using social media to enhance personal imaging, the athlete or school can get a feel for what their consumers feel about them. By having a school limit the way their student-athletes post tweets, they hope to implant a positive vision in the consumers mind that the student-athlete is respectful and will not post anything degrading or racial for example. This only helps to enhance the athlete’s vision.

Negative Effects

For all of the good that comes out of sports figures using social media to interact with fans, it is just as much a liability, particularly in the eyes of school programs or the league in which they play in. Many players, coaches, and owners tend to post tweets that can get them into trouble soon after. It is difficult to count how many times a sports figure has had to publicly apologize for a tweet. Leagues go as far as fining players for such acts. One university went as far as banning the use of social media sites for its players. The University of Minnesota-Duluth did this to prevent embarrassing information going public [11]. They tried to explain that a suspect tweet is a reflection on not only the athlete, but the team, and the school itself.

Using Twitter is relatively more private than the use of Facebook, being that pictures, schools, dating status and names are listed on an individual’s Facebook page. It is difficult to tell what a “friend” really is on Facebook, and this is a direct issue for NCAA athletes. Universities have adopted policies to limit the amount of information to be posted on a Facebook page. For example, listing an injury before the actual injury report comes out can be advantageous to gamblers and bookies, who can subsequently adjust the spreads for a game [12]). Players have been suspended for alcohol and partying related pictures, they’ve been dismissed from their teams for inappropriate comments about their coach and were even given tickets for harassment. Ultimately, the student-athlete falls under much more scrutiny and is subject to additional regulations based on the fact that they’re playing for an athletic scholarship.

New Media and the National Hockey Association (NHL)

NHL has followed other sports in participating with new media in order to give the fans a more convenient way of watching sports. In April 2008, the NHL has pushed for broadband video to be played on their website for the playoffs and now it has this feature for all NHL teams. This allows for fans to watch NHL games just as fans would watch NBA games on the internet. You can have the ability to also use full-screen. Of course just like any other streamed video on a website there will be advertising themes surrounding the video at the time of viewing.

Another enticing feature for the fans is that this new video player will allow for fans to watch clips from the NHL archive up to three years back. This will allow an NHL fan to recapture his favorite NHL moment or one which really stood out to him/her.

Also by introducing this new video player to NHL, the teams are able to monetize on their own team page with advertisement clicks on the advertisement skins surrounding the video player. By having a video player on the team pages, fans will be able to be more passionate about their favorite NHL team.

Websites

The National Hockey Association effectively utilizes it's website [13] to enhance the fan experience. The website gives fan's enhanced access to the game. The website has all the stats updated in real time for both team's and individual players. It shows the schedules of each team past and future games. It also breaks the latest news stories to fans. The most interactive utility that fans have, however, is the video player. Fan's are able to watch video highlights of each game simply by visiting the website.

Blogging

NHL player's use their blogs to communicate with their fans on a more interpersonal basis. Some players may post news about their personal lives and interactions with fellow teamates, rivals, and coaching staffs. Players may also post insight into community and charity events that they partake in. Some blogs are:

New Media and the National Football League (NFL)

New NFL homepage
New NFL homepage
Old NFL homepage
Old NFL homepage
If you ever seen any NFL commercials you’d probably heard the slogan “If you want the NFL, go to the NFL” and that’s what the NFL tried to accomplish. In 2010 the NFL redesigned their website to create a user-friendly experience. To accomplish this, the NFL had to better organize the data and by incorporate more videos with less text; because that’s what their customers wanted.


The new NFL.com kept some of the old things that worked like the scores of the games during the week and latest news. But they added a lot as well. The most noticeable change is the huge banner for the most popular news stories with other “spotlight” stories below it. Then there’s the new calendar that has the upcoming shows and events. Lastly the new NFL.com lets fans have some more control. They can personalize the homepage with their own personal fantasy teams and stats and voice their opinions and participate in polls, team match-ups, etc. that all gets updated regularly.[17]


The NFL also teamed up with companies like Verizon, Sprint, Direct TV etc. to bring their fans updated news, stats, and other information whenever and where ever they want it. If you’re a Direct TV customer you can purchase a “NFL Sunday Ticket To-Go” which allows you to watch multiple games as well as get information on things that are happening in the NFL on numerous devices like smartphones and laptops.


Even individual teams are embracing new media. Teams are using social media like Facebook and Twitter to reach out to their fans and try to establish a connection as well as update them on news related topics and inform them of changes within their organization. In fact, 55% of all NFL fans enjoy the sport more now that new media is being used. [14] Looking at the New York Giants in particular, they even offer message boards and forums for fans to discuss things that come to mind in regards to the Giants, the NFL or other any other sports. If you are a giants.com member you are also able to create your own profile, create a blog, and leave comments on various things found within the site like other blogs or news stories.


Websites

The NFL utilizes its website [15] to connect it's fans to every facet of the league. NFL.com can be used to look up current scores, watch video highlights, look up historical events pertaining to football, look at high quality photos, buy NFL merchandise, look up individual player stats, and much more. The NFL has come along way in stream lining the way it delivers the game of football to fans across the world and the website only reinforces this technological modernization.

Blogging

Many NFL players utilize blogs to post comments about events that occur during the season. Other's use their blogs to post about their off the field activities such as community outreach programs and charitable events. NFL players blogs allow fans to see players through a more interpersonal manner. Some blogs are:

NFL and Twitter

The NFL has a strict policy on the use of Twitter before, during, or after games. This policy is not only limited to players and coaches, but also to members of the media. Players and coaches are prohibited from using Twitter, and also any other forms of social media, 90 minutes before game time and until post-game interviews are complete. Members of the media are prohibited from posting play by play coverage, unless it is time delayed. This stance was taken so that the NFL's game coverage could not be substituted for other play by play accounts. Some NFL players on Twitter are:

New Media and Fantasy Sports Ventures

Fantasy Sports Ventures Inc. (FSV) is a combination of a marketing and media company centering around fantasy and digital sports. FSV is made up of two primary business units:

Fantasy Players Network

With a collection of more than 250 of the top fantasy sports web sites and related properties, it's no wonder what the big fuss is over this franchise. Fantasy Players Network includes a wide range of high-quality sites, specializing in fantasy sports for pro football, baseball, basketball, hockey as well as college football and basketball.

FSV Digital Sports Advisors

This technology provides consulting and advisory services "for brand marketers, media companies, and sports leagues, teams, and associations". A multitude of services are offered including "industry competitive analysis, digital rights strategy development, fantasy sports marketing, content evaluation and planning, and monetization services." Given the team of over 250 top fantasy companies FSV governs over, it's quite obvious the company offers "unparalleled expertise to it's consulting engagements."

More on Fantasy Sports Ventures

With such a vast array of the top fantasy sports companies, its not a surprise that Fantasy Sports Ventures is rivaling top companies like ESPN and Fox, as described by Forbes.com columnist Tom Van Riper in his superbly titled article "The Biggest Sports Site You've Never Heard Of". The article focuses on how this company came to be one of the leaders in the fantasy sports field in under 3 years. Through the visions of once National Football League (NFL)head of new media, Chris Russo, this company blossomed in no time. "His secret: Utilizing a handful of small, independent football sites catering to hardcore fans. Sharing stats and other content with micro sites drove the first waves of fans to the league's Web site to play fantasy football, and the push was on." With Russo steering the ship it seems this franchise has no limits and will continue to prosper in this continually developing environment. "An estimated 25 million Americans play fantasy sports, with the average player spending more than $150 per year on fantasy games and related products. That adds up to a $3.8 billion industry, which, Russo figures, doesn't all have to be ceded to the likes of yahoo, CBS and ESPN."


New Media and Sports Video Games

The video game industry is an almost ten billion dollar a year industry in America. There has always been competition between video game manufacturers to find the next best thing in order to be more profitable than the competition. New media has opened a brand new door in the sports video gaming world with the emergence of the internet and with video game consoles' ability to connect to the internet. We have reached a point where gamers can actually connect with other gamers all across the world and play a game against each other. A person in Chicago, Illinois can connect with someone in Tokyo, Japan and they can play a game together or against one another. In addition, with the manufacturers' goal to make the game as realistic as possible, they created a feature that makes each player on the team's ability to play coincide with the actual players' skill level in real life. For example if Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers has been having a hot streak in the NBA for the last couple of weeks, the ability for him to make shots in the game will improve and vice versa; if a player is having a cold streak, his game play will lag in ability. This is only one of the many new features that has been introduced in the past few years, and the possibilities are endless to what could come in the future.

Another great feature accessible through gaming systems with internet is the ability to view live scores of games which are taking place on that day. These live scores are updated and refreshed as often as every 2 minutes. This feature makes it convenient for fans to follow when they team has won or lost, simply right before they play their video game.In the video game NBA 2K11, it enables the user to upload the living roster. With this feature the user can view transactions and the computer updates the roster. The name living roster comes from the sync between the game and real life, and its cohesion.

Also with the technology that exists in the games today and how realistic they are it allows users to experience a taste of the action that their favorite pros get on game day. These new games provide people that may not be able to play a way to get involved in a sport. As new systems like Wii come out and the controls are more sensitive and realistic to the actions and movements needed to perform/play the gaming experience comes closer to real life.

Interact with your favorite athletes - IBeatYou.com

Image:ibeatyou-logo.gif Another way to interact with the sporting industry through video confrontation is through a website called ibeatyou.com. Ibeatyou.com is an online platform competition based social community. One of the founders of IBeatYou is Baron Davis of the Los Angeles Clippers (NBA team). You can compete against your favorites in various competitions “We’ve got Steve Nash playing soccer, we’ve got Baron doing web cam karaoke, we’ve got Jessica [Alba] doing lipsync,” said IBeatYou co-founder Cash Warren, a businessman and movie producer who has been friends with Davis since age 11” . Gilbert Arenas who’s a blogging monster plays for the Washington Wizards (NBA team) is also part of this community and also Chris Bosh.

For example most free throws in a minute contest was competing against famous NBA star Steve Nash.

Nash's FT contest

In order to participate you basically record yourself, performing the competition and submit your video to the website. Your video will be competing against many other users so it’s highly competitive. It’s another great way to make new friends and compete with professional athletes. If you beat them in a contest, you can brag about it for the rest of your life.

There has been a lot of athletes who have their own twitter accounts nowadays and often post things to their fans to respond to. One good example is Chad Ochocinco who loves to twitter with his fans. He even gave a number for his fans to text him at. The increase of interaction between everyone will make them enjoy the game more and maybe even bring more people in.

The number of text messages that chad ochocinco had on his phone which he gave his fans to text to.

MyFootballClub

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My_football_club.jpg

MyFootballClub (MFC) is a popular computer game, Web site, online networking experiment, business model, and an actual soccer club. It's an English Industrial and Provident Society that sought, starting in August 2007, to recruit at least 50,000 football enthusiasts from across the world to purchase an English association football club. MyFootballClub's premise is to allow its paid members to control the club through a democratic voting process conducted over the internet. Member voting includes matters both on the pitch, such as team selection and player transfers, and off the field, like what type of food to serve at the stadium.

The probable new owners get to manage the club, voting online to choose match lineups and buying new players. To help run the team, the fans will be able to view all the matches online and, after the game, receive statistics on how each player has performed. They will also get weekly updates from the team’s head coach on how each player is doing during practices.

MFC is a product of the network society. MFC uses a web based network model which is dynamic and responsive, open to anyone and as many who wish to join and, in some (though not all) respects, horizontal in its distribution of power. The mechanism of one membership/one vote through “point-and-click” responses aspires to resist the centralization of power by owners, board members, and managers, as well as by the associated accumulation of rigid, multi-layered bureaucracy. Online members are drawn not only from the UK, but countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Germany, Denmark, the United States, New Zealand and Australia.

The statement, “Think of it as fantasy football, but with a real team” (Perry, S., 2007), encapsulates the dual attraction of MFC. It combines the enduring popularity of watching soccer with the immense appeal of sports computer games and, in particular, soccer manager and fantasy sports simulations, with media reports and blog entries regularly emphasizing this link.(MFC; www.myfootballclub.co.uk)

"MFC is understood as a form of networked media sport. It is also reflective of developing Hybrid media ecosystem that is evident in many popular cultural settings, with physical and digital media spaces intertwining in creative and unexpected forms. MFC uses, we suggest, networked communications technologies in a manner that seeks to erase its own mediation of time, space and social organization in the (re)construction of a evocative, immediate form of sports managerialist that renders the diffuse network in unitary form."

MyFootballClub members come from over 70 countries. One of the regions in which MyFootballClub was most popular was Scandinavia. By the end of October 2007 MFC had 380 paying members from Norway, 280 from Sweden, 97 from Finland and 88 from Denmark.[25] By January 2008, over 1,500 Americans had become paid members of MyFootballClub.

MFC is a perfect example of how New Media can be used to the advantage of entrepreneurship. MFC's creative way to collaborate fans through the spectrum of New Media provides the base for the revolution to come in Sports.


Sports and Text Messaging

SportsAlert.Com

SportsAlert.com is a text messaging service that sends you the scores to all of your favorite games directly to your cellphone device. The user simply picks the teams his wishes to be notified of along with the frequency of updates, and the service handles the rest free of charge (standard text messaging rates do apply). This program especially caters to today's busy and on-the-go lifestyles. You no longer have to stop what you're doing to check the scores, or rush to catch the evening news as you can have them [the scores], along with other [news] updates around the league zapped to your hip at your command. Although other cell phone related applications provide similar information, they require the user to take the initiative and check the program for updates while Sports Alert takes it upon themselves to text you according to your pre-arranged preferences.


Browns Fans Told to Report Rowdiness via Text Messaging

To dissuade unruly fans from misconduct, the Cleveland Browns organization implemented a service to become informed of disorderly conduct via text messaging. The Browns encourage people to notify the stadium security personnel of rowdy fans so that the Browns' tradition and a family friendly environment is maintained. This is the first year that this system has been implemented and it seems that it has been received with some success as the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports 16 people were arrested in the home opener.

Smartphone Sports Apps

The Daily News has created an application that encompasses the same content they have always supplied to sports fans in print, only now they do so with mobile applications for iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and Android in addition to their traditional print format. Within their mobile applications, The Daily News brings in-depth coverage of local teams with the ability to read on your device without internet access. They also offer live updates, photo galleries, videos, sports updates, breaking news and the ability to 'tap and zoom' newspaper pages in a searchable archive of back copies. This new media platform gives sports fans the ability to choose what is more convenient for them. This is a clear cut example of how old media has adapted to a changing technological environment as well.

ESPNcricinfo Application:

Image:cricinfoapp.jpg

Cricket is the second most popular sport in the world. It is not very popular in the United States yet, but the sport is growing and there is a base of fanatics who adore the intrigue and beauty of the sport. The growing interest and market for cricket was highlighted when sports giant ESPN acquired Cricinfo.com. The Cricinfo website is an outstanding source for cricket scores, news and commentary. It must be one of the busiest websites in the world. The cricinfo application for Android and iOS is relatively new. However, it is a very beautifully designed app with easy navigation and a lot of content for a mobile app. Live scores, fixtures, news, pictures, statistics and magazine and information of current tours are all in the app. The pop out full screen live score card with sounds for wickets and boundaries must be the most enjoyable feature of this app. There is also video and audio content. However, one of the features lacking is live video, which is understandable since ESPNcricinfo does not broadcast live video. The ESPNcricinfo application for Android and iOS is beautiful and informative.

Top Sport Applications for Android Market

NFL Mobile

Verizon Wireless recently launched it's renovated NFL Mobile application for the Android Market. This all encompassing app includes services such as live streaming to the NFL Network, NBC's Sunday Night Football, NFL Red Zone along with a live feed to NFL Network's Thursday Night Football. This innovative application is the first of it's kind to provide Verizon's VCAST subscribers with so many streams to live NFL content. Additionally, NFL Mobile provides the customary services such as up to the minute scores from around the league, updated standings and player statistics so you can keep track of how your fantasy roster is doing, even on the go. Verizon delivers all of these great services for a $10 monthly subscription to VCAST; those who do not wish to pay will receive a live audio feed of the game's instead of video content.

NBA Live

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Everyday the technology advances with new innovation. With the latest technology NBA has made an application for an android phone and iphone to reach and connect with the fans. They are trying to satisfy NBA fans that does not have access to television. With this app fans can just watch their favorite team play anytime. This app cost a little too much for the kind of market they are going to be in. The price of this app is about $39.99 per season. But it is worth it because you can watch over 40 games per week live. You can get the latest action and the latest score of your favorite team. You will not miss any of the action because you're not home and not watching the game. The name of this app is NBA League Pass Mobile. This app allow fans to pause or rewind the game. This is great for the fans who are barely home or does not have television at home.

Top Sports News

The "Top Sports News" app provides the user with updated news from around the world of sports. This service takes articles from numerous sources, supplying many different points of view on an issue. Top Sports News provides content from many sports ranging from professional basketball to horse racing so you can be sure to find something suitable for your taste.This application updates its content consistently throughout the day, allowing the avid sports fan to get up to the minute news from around the leagues. Whether it be for an update on an injury to the star of your fantasy roster, or simply a recap of last night's nail biting game, the "Top Sports News application provides the user with conveniently accessible sports news on the go.

Top Sport Applications for iPhone, iPod and iPad

Fox Soccer Channel Application

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Soccer is gaining popularity in the United States and the media is getting into the distribution of live soccer matches, highlights and commentaries. No channel has been as involved as Fox Soccer Channel. In May 2010, just before the World Cup, the channel introduced the Fox Soccer Channel App for iOS. The app now focuses mainly on the Premier League and Champions League providing up to the minute news, scores and fixtures. The user is able to set a specific team for both competitions to center the content of the app towards those teams. The app is free for these features, however, for the best feature of the app [live game video broadcast] there is a fee required. For $7.99 per month, 22.99 for 3 months, or 79.99 for 12 months you have access to live games and on demand highlights for current matches and recently ended matches in the Barclay's Premier League and UEFA Champions League. Access is also free for subscribers of Foxsoccer.tv. This iPhone app is a top notch application and it delivers great quality streaming. However, matches being aired live on Fox Soccer Channel do not get broadcasted through the app. This is the policy of Fox, but a change in this policy will be greatly appreciated by subscribers on the go. This app is currently only available for the iOS platform.


Sports and Twitter

Twitter is huge and has its users grow are growing day by day. Sports figures are some of the most widely followed users. The entire sports world is getting crazed with the microblogging tool, through which sport celebrities are using to update their web audience. Although twitter is connected to a lot of privacy issues its being used by all the majors leagues such as the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NASCAR. All these pro leagues shoot their followers useful information like scores, schedules, and highlight clips.

There are 25 top spots for the sports celebrities on twitter and is followed by hundreds of thousands of fans each. NBA star Shaquille O’Neal, for example, is followed by nearly 2,519,269 followers. Athletes are increasingly sharing their personal lives and opinions on Twitter. This tool allows the athletes to reach millions of followers in frequent messages of 140 characters or less at the same time.

Right
Right
“When I log onto my computer in the morning, I’m putting up three screens,” said NASCAR’s Ramsey Poston, who launched a “Citizen Journalist Media Corps” this year. “I’m putting up the regular home page I have, I’m putting up Twitter and I’m putting up Facebook.”

Twitter also provides a powerful marketing tool for niche leagues. For example, Women's Professional Soccer, America's second stab at a female pro league, is expecting Twitter to provide them with the recognition and build a base for it. The league even encourages players to tweet during games. The league has also started a weekly series in which players answer questions from fans on Twitter. Twitter allows the league to engage with it's fans without paying a penny. This powerful tool can help earn recognition for the league and allow the fans to stay connected with the game and it's athletes.

Twitter is a powerful tool and provide fans with a closer connection to big-time athletes. Twitter has become one of the fastest-growing major Web site, it showcases the layers of an athlete's personality that fans have never seen at press conferences. When athletes share the details of even their most ordinary tasks by tweeting, it provides a closer connection to the fans, and that alone fascinates them.

In today's environment newspaper circulation is declining and people are using computers and cell phones as their sources for sports information. These rapid advances in new media have enabled the sports fan to get updated around the clock. This has created a power struggle over who delivers sports news.

Athletes who use Twitter

Twitter is now one of the quickest growing social networking and micro-blogging web site on the internet. Many famous people, including professional athletes, now use Twitter to communicate with fans. We have gathered a list of athletes with links below. Feel free to follow your favorites.

Twitter and Sports Media

As previously described, twitter is an amazing new media tool that allows fans to connect with their favorite athletes. But the athletes aren’t the only one’s getting the word out; sports anchors, reporters and sports media producers are now making Twitter the forefront news feed for collecting vital news and delivering it to those who tune in to their broadcasts.

For sports anchors, reporters and studio producers, having a direct connection to a team has previously been the best way for them to receive breaking news, in addition to press releases from media relations departments. Sports anchors are now able to deliver news segments with more substance because they can alter those segments right up to the moment they are broadcast based on any new tweets that contain important information. Reporters and anchors are very prevalent Twitter users now because they want to maintain communication with their viewers even when they aren’t broadcasting on the air.

For professional sports teams, correspondents deliver game day news about the team during every broadcast. Before, during and after every game they are periodically seen interviewing players and communicating with the broadcasters in the studio. Now, more and more correspondents are also turning to Twitter to deliver additional team news during the times when they are not on the air in an effort to more closely connect with their regular viewers. According to Lindsay Jones, beat reporter for the Denver Broncos at The Denver Post, Twitter gives reporters the ability to combine breaking news elements with analysis and offers the ability to directly communicate with fans everywhere.

Kirk Gimenez, host of Geico SportsNite on SNY, uses Twitter to interact with his viewers live while hosting his show. He also uses Twitter to comment on games and deliver breaking sports news. He tweets from KirkSNY


Several team correspondents who use Twitter include:


SportsForce

SportsForce allows student athletes to create, connect, and manage their sports career online. The SportsForce staff has extensive experience covering the college and professional sports experience and they excel at clearly understanding the needs of today’s student-athletes, sports parents, and coaches on the college and high school level. SportsForce offers a convenient medium for student-athletes that need to create a professional highlight video, online sports resume and game plan for successfully taking their game to the next level. It is often difficult for talented students from lower tier schools to get noticed in the extremely competitive professional/collegiate sports market. SportsForce is an excellent medium used to exemplify a student athlete's skill, maximize exposure and subsequently further his/her career. The SportsForce package also includes added benefits such as combines and college sports seminars. These networking opportunities are crucial in the life of an aspiring sports' star as being recognized by the right college can make all of the difference.


New Media and the PGA Tour

As technology has been upgrading, a variety of sports are integrating new media technology into their websites in order to give fans a better experience. The PGA TOUR and Turner Sports New Media uses PGATOUR.com, the exclusive online destination for LIVE@ and real-time scoring. Last year they started using a three-channel broadband player for the popular LIVE@ franchise, giving fans unprecedented broadband video access to spectacular signature par-3 holes from some of the most scenic golf courses and tournaments.

LIVE@ coverage, now powered by CNN Pipeline technology, began on Feb. 8-11 with approximately 35 hours of live, broadcast-quality coverage of the famous par-3 7th hole at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, from Pebble Beach Golf Links in California.

The LIVE@ series has covered many of the bigger golf tournaments, including the eighth annual broadcast of LIVE@17 from THE PLAYERS Championship, the PGA of America's 2007 PGA Championship, and all four events in the first ever PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.

As an enhanced feature of the LIVE@ series, viewers have the ability to select from three distinct video streams, each showcasing a different aspect of tournament coverage. The first video stream (Pipe No. 1) brings PGATOUR.com visitors up close to every shot by every player at the tournament's signature par-3 hole. The second stream (Pipe No. 2), Inside the Ropes, gives visitors front-row seats to tournament press conferences as well as course flyovers, tournament highlights, player profiles and pre-recorded content. TNT golf announcers Billy Kratzert and Jim Huber, as well as PGATOUR.com contributor Brian Katrek, guide viewers through the action on Pipe 1 and 2. The final video stream (Pipe No. 3) will spotlight the PGA Learning Center and provide exclusive tips from PGA of America teaching professionals and many of the sport's top names.

PGATOUR.com has been a leader in live on-line tournament coverage since 2000, with the first Live@ 17 broadcast from THE PLAYERS. Turner Sports first introduced its CNN Powered Pipeline broadband player for online golf coverage in 2006 with the PGA.com Pipeline for the 2006 PGA Championship. The PGA.com Pipeline debut generated a single day traffic record of 11 million page views and over 412,000 unique users for the first round of coverage on the Turner managed site. The LIVE@ series, which is ad-supported and offered free of charge, is co-produced by the PGA TOUR and Turner Sports New Media.

This method that the PGA Tour uses is a great way to give fans an interactive experience.

For an additonal one-on-one experience with a PGA golfer, look no further than Stewart Cink's Twitter. He posts tweets before, during and after his round of golf. This really gives you a sense of what is going on during a real golf tournament. Cink also posts some golf swing tips and interacts with fans directly via his Twitter, which can be very exciting for an aspiring golfer. Cink once posted a question about how to fix a water damaged iPod, and sure enough he got an answer. [16]

Blogging

Many PGA Tour professionals utilize the use of a blog to communicate with their fans. Players usually blog about their past experiences and also what they plan to do in the near future. Some blogs are:

News From the Player's Mouths

We're an audience of firsts. We love the exclusive and love even more the person who brings it to us. From now on it's coming in on a completely new level. Chad "Ocho Cinco" Johnson, star wide receiver of the Cincinnati Bengals, has just announced his partnership with MotorolaBlur technology the creation of OCCN, The Ocho Cinco News Network. He promises to give inside (and knowing him probably very biased) information from inside locker rooms and sidelines.

Quoting Chad himself:
— Everyone knows that I’m more than just a football star. I’m all about entertainment and doing things that no one else has ever done before...OCNN is exactly that, a first of its kind, and thanks to Motorola’s MOTOBLUR technology, I’m powered up and ready to take tweeting and social networking to an even higher level.

Chad is also a very avid Twitter user, known for being outlandish and having a loud-mouth. On National Television, Chad has challenged the likes of ESPN, the go-to sports news network, saying he will blow every football exclusive before it has time to get to them, basically cutting out the middle man.

References

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