Today, Mountain View-based Ooyala, the fast-growing online video services provider, is announcing that it has landed a big content partner: The so-called “worldwide leader in sports”, ESPN. Those avid sports fans among us may have noticed some changes in the look and speed of videos on ESPN.com. Over the last few weeks, Ooyala has begun integrating its video technology into ESPN’s website, and is now officially powering all of the sports media behemoth’s streaming video content. → Read More
In many ways, tablet-focused readers like Pulse, Flipboard, and now Editions, are the next phase of RSS readers. But they’re RSS readers that the masses will actually use because they’re actually user-friendly and oriented around experience and visuals. But because they’re so tailored for user experience, they often need partnerships beyond a simple RSS feed to bring in the necessary information to populate the apps. Today, Pulse has landed a massive fish in that regard: ESPN.
The sports category has always been a bit under-represented in the tablet reading space because ESPN content has been largely absent. ESPN is by far the biggest name in sports news, and Pulse notes their deal is the first time the sports network has agreed to syndicate their content to a mobile app that is not one of their own. → Read More
Time Warner Cable received rare praise these past few weeks with the launch of its iPad app. Not familiar with it? It lets Time Warner Cable subscribers view 32 different TV networks on their iPad provided they’re connected to their home (read: Time Warner-provided) Wi-Fi network. (You can’t watch these channels while at the park and connected to 3G, in other words.) As you might expect, several networks have reacted by freaking out, arguing that Time Warner Cable doesn’t have the right to develop such an app and stream their content. It’s madness that we still have to deal with this in 2011, but I’m confident that in the future we’ll look back on these controversies and laugh heartily. “Ha, what simpletons, thinking you should only be allowed to watch video content on a TV. I’m watching the game on my Internet-connected contacts lenses* right now!” → Read More
ESPN 3D will show this year’s NBA Finals in, yes, 3D. This is the first time the NBA Finals will be in 3D. → Read More
ESPN has just released a study that sheds some light on people’s cord cutting habits—or lack thereof. Using Nielsen data, ESPN has determined that a paltry 0.11 percent of U.S. households have dropped cable and/or satellite TV over the past three months. That rounds down to essentially nobody in my estimation. Even more interesting is exactly who these cord-cutters are, and they’re not who you’d most likely suspect. → Read More
Microsoft certainly used a lot of words at some Credit Suisse technology conference yesterday, but only a few of them are worth relaying here. The main thing that its Interactive Entertainment Division CEO, Dennis Durkin, said that a whopping 50 percent of Xbox Live users actually pay the $60 per year for Xbox Live. There’s 25 million Xbox Live subscribers, so you’re looking at something like 12.5 million Xbox Live Gold subscribers. How many of these 12.5 million people aren’t jerks? That’s all I want to know. → Read More
Is 3D already in trouble? Quite possibly, and there’s a few data points to back up that claim. As you know, Christopher Nolan has announced a few things pertaining to the next Batman movie, namely its name (the Dark Knight Rises), that The Riddler won’t be in it (much to fans’ chagrin), and that it won’t be filmed in 3D. I’m pretty sure the previous Batman movie, the Dark Knight, was a gigantic success, so to not film it in 3D is quite the snub. Sorry, 3D, but the prettiest girl at the dance wants nothing to do with you. (Stupid metaphors are stupid.) → Read More
Without Sony‘s support ESPN “probably would not have launched” ESPN 3D. So said Bryan Burns, Vice-President of ESPN, at IFA earlier today. Burns, talking before a reasonably crowded auditorium, reiterated ESPN’s commitment to 3D sports broadcasting while fully recognizing what we’ve all been going on about for months now: nobody’s going to buy an expensive 3D TV—have you seen the unemployment numbers of late?—when there’s nearly zero 3D content to be found. → Read More
Everyone is busy talking about Microsoft Kinect (the project formerly known as Natal), but to me, some much bigger news just dropped at E3 from Microsoft: ESPN live sports access. Simply put: this was the only thing holding me back from completely canceling my cable subscription. As soon as this goes live, I’m done with cable forever.
No, this live sporting access won’t be entirely free, but it’s one hell of a deal. You simply have be an Xbox Live Gold member (about $50 a year), and you’ll get access to over 3,500 live events a year. In HD. Did I mention it was $50 a year? My cable bill is currently double that — a month. → Read More
Here’s a slight update to my World Cup “all you need to know” post from yesterday. I completely forgot to mention that ESPN3.com is streaming all the games live and totally for free. No need to mess around with shady P2P streams. → Read More
Comcast, America’s worst company, just announced that it will have indeed have ESPN 3D in time for this year’s World Cup. Comcast is the first cable provider to commit to carrying the network (while DirecTV announced the same thing several weeks ago). → Read More
DirecTV will be among the first television providers to offer ESPN 3D. The channel launches this June, and DirecTV will place it alongside two other 3D channels, a 24/7 pay-per-view channel and a movies on-demand channel. → Read More
ESPN has long been the leader in live HDTV and the network is about to stay ahead of the curve yet again by launching its own 3D network early this summer. But this network is just a test and ESPN is only committing to it through June 2011. So if you really want your kids growing up watching live 3D events, you better support ESPN’s effort. → Read More
On Friday, word got out that come November 1 Verizon Wireless plans to tack on an extra 3-cent charge for every SMS message sent by Web information services to any of its mobile subscribers. That hike will be on top of the 20 cents per message that Verizon subscribers already pay (even those with “unlimited” plans). Thus, in one fell swoop, Verizon is attempting to boost its SMS revenues by about 15 percent.
While it may be good for Verizon, the additional charge is not good for any service that sends out millions of SMS messages each month. The move caught a lot of Internet companies, SMS aggregators, and media companies by surprise. For instance, I asked Twitter co-founder Biz Stone what impact it would have on the micro-blogging service, which lets users keep up with every Tweet they follow via SMS, and he didn’t know:
We’re still investigating with Verizon so I don’t have a definite answer for you right now.
The Active Network, a network of sites focused on getting people involved in sports and other activities, has raised an additional $80 million in a Series F round led by ESPN and joined by Canaan Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners, and Performance Equity Partners. → Read More
PC Magazine reviewed the new ESPN Ultimate Remote and found it sorely lacking. The programming mode is the most problematic – it basically uses codes the way older universal remotes did – and even the magical powers of Wi-Fi don’t really add much to the package. The browser is WAP-only and seems redundant when you could just go grab a laptop and get the same information. They basically say that with so many other devices that could do the same thing with considerably more efficiency and style, which tack a poor implementation into a remote control? We’ll have a review unit in soon, so we’ll see if PC Mag is just smoking the rock. → Read More
http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/player.swf?mediaId=3440591 Who here’s been watching Euro 2008? All you English lads, I’m sure, and right from your living room. Anyway, I only mention the Euros because of this neat camera technology ESPN has this year, Axis. It’s a 360-degree camera the network uses to show instant replays. It makes plain ol’ telestrators look genuinely pedestrian in comparison. Moving on, I bet those of you who had money on Holland prior to the tournament’s start are happily holding onto your betting receipts right about now. Speaking of which, just how illegal is online betting here in the U.S.? Anyone with any experience in the matter, please don’t hesitate to contact me. → Read More
