MLB.com Captures Multiple Awards for its Mobile Technology Offerings
MLB.com, the official Web site of Major League Baseball, was a multiple-category winner for its mobile technology offerings at the annual MOBI Awards, garnering top honors for Best Mobile Video and Best iPad Branded App. The awards were presented on Monday night during ceremonies hosted at the W Hotel in New York.
At Bat 2010, MLB.com’s industry-leading mobile application, won for Best Mobile Video. The application offers subscribers on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad access to their MLB.TV subscriptions to watch the live home and away broadcast feeds for every out-of-market regular season game and get access to an array of enhanced features such as statistical overlays and controls to pause or rewind live game action. At Bat 2010 also offers the At Bat.TV Free Game of the Day, subject to blackout restrictions.
At Bat 2010 for iPad, the most recent addition to MLB.com’s lineup of At Bat mobile applications, was named Best iPad Branded App. Launched in April 2010, At Bat 2010 for iPad introduced baseball fans to a live game simulation designed exclusively for the device’s larger and more powerful multi-touch screen. Subscribers can customize their in-game experience with access to live home and away radio broadcasts, video highlights, and detailed box scores, game summaries and player cards.
MLB.com’s mobile web site, wap.mlb.com, earned finalist honors in the category of Best Mobile Website. The MOBI Awards, presented by DIGIDAY, recognize overall excellence and breakthrough achievement in mobile media, marketing and advertising.
MLB.com At Bat 2010 is available from the App Store on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.
Top sports sites for September 2009
NFL Rules the Web, College Students More Interested in Sports Teams than Education Sites
Compete released its ranking of top football, college sports and fantasy sports sites for September 2009, which is based on data from the company’s integrated online panel of two million U.S.-based internet users. Football Web sites reached more than 16 million unique visitors (UVs) in September 2009, which is a 25.9 percent increase over August 2009. Another high-growth category, college sports sites drew 10.5 million UVs in September 2009, a 74.6 percent month-over-month growth. The category has grown 74 percent since 2008.
“It’s clear that sports fans are loyal to their teams online and off. Advertisers who spend millions of dollars to stay top of mind with sports fans can target leading team sites during the season and follow fans to adjacent sports-related Web sites such as fantasy football,” said Cynthia Stephens, director of marketing at Compete.
In conjunction with the beginning of football season, fantasy sports site fantasysports.yahoo.com attracted 6.8 million unique visitors in September 2009, which is ten percent more than the same month last year. Games.espn.go.com (5.2 million UVs) and football.cbssports.com (2.6 million UVs) also gained traction with fantasy sports fans during September. For further analysis of Web traffic to fantasy sports sites, please read, “Fantasy Sports Potpourri… Part 1.”
NFL Rules the Web
Compared to last year’s season, online football traffic is up 15.4 percent. The Dallas Cowboys (1.3 million UVs), Pittsburgh Steelers (933,990 UVs) and New England Patriots (843,864 UVs) lead the league in online traffic. Several sites (including amazon.com, fansedge.com, stubhub.com and footballfanatics.com) are also capitalizing on the Dallas Cowboys’ popularity with one third to two thirds of their search referral share generated by paid clickthroughs from the search term “Dallas Cowboys.”
For more on how football season impacts online marketing spend, read Compete’s August blog post, “August Data is Live: Summer’s Out & Football Season Is In.”
College Students Flock to Sports Sites
The NCAA’s ncaa.com (580,077 UVs) and ncaa.org (434,034 UVs) attracted the most visitors in the college sports category in September 2009. Even with the beginning of a new semester, popular sports team sites from the University of Florida (gatorzone.com, 407,704 UVs) and University of Michigan (mgoblue.com, 395,193 UVs) attracted more visitors than their University home pages. UFL.edu saw 177,710 UVs in September 2009 and UMich.edu counted 338,773 visitors.
Each month, Compete takes a look at the top movers within one of its 225 industry categories. Month-over-month traffic gains for individual Web sites can be a direct result of seasonality and specific marketing or advertising campaigns. In this way, the top-ranked sites become much more than a list, they are an effective way to assess which competitors’ strategies are working and why.
Source: Compete
MLB.com, Turner Sports and FOX Sports give fans live user-controlled views for every MLB postseason game
Collaboration expands TBS HotCorner and FOX Feeds action and introduces mobile video
Postseason.TV, a live interactive online viewing experience delivered by MLB.com, the official Web site of Major League Baseball, in partnership with MLB Postseason national television rightsholders, Turner Sports and FOX Sports, will debut on Wednesday, October 7, 2009, when the Division Series begins on TBS. Postseason.TV will be accessible from MLB.com, FoxSports.com on MSN and MLB.com/TBSHotCorner.
The subscription product provides fans the ability to customize their online viewing experience by offering up to 10 different stationary camera angles from every MLB Postseason game, blackout free. Postseason.TV delivers a complementary way for viewers to engage with the Division Series and National League Championship Series broadcasts on TBS and the American League Championship Series and World Series on FOX, while, for the first time, offering a complete package of live Postseason action for a one-time fee of $9.95.
Subscribers to Postseason.TV can choose to watch one of the available camera angles or up to any four different angles simultaneously in the multi-view option. In addition, TBS HotCorner and FOX Feeds will provide access to in-game video highlights, real-time statistics and play-by-play and social media integration through a live Twitter feed.
Fans also will have the opportunity to make Postseason.TV portable as MLB.com At Bat 2009, the award-winning application built exclusively for iPhone(TM) and iPod® touch, will provide mobile access to the same live camera angles as well as the quad mode option.
Source: MLB.com; Turner Sports; FOX Sports
Digital Primates teams up with MLB Advanced Media to unveil MLB.TV online video Player
Digital Primates IT Consulting Group, an industry leader in RIA technologies, recently partnered with MLB Advanced Media, LP (MLBAM), the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball, to deliver the MLB.TV media player, which enables subscribers to watch live and on-demand games on their computers.
The media player utilizes MLB.com’s proprietary speed detection that allows broadband customers to enjoy a High Definition-quality picture where available. It also has live-game DVR functionality and offers multi-game views, providing access to watch four live games simultaneously. Additional features of the new media player include:
– Real-time alerts to watch highlights from other games
– Home and away broadcast feeds for every game (where available)
– Picture-in-picture functionality
– Customizable player tracker alerts with live at-bat look-ins
“As a die-hard baseball fan, working with MLBAM was a thrill,” said Jeff Tapper, Digital Primates’ Partner and Senior Consultant. “When developing the video player, our first thought was ‘what would we, as fans, like to see?’ MLBAM already had an infrastructure in place, and working with them every step of the way helped achieve the final product that we’re all so proud of.”
Digital Primates participated in the design and build out of the workflow system, which determines the availability of video feeds, factors what the viewer is entitled to see and provides the ability to sell or upsell additional content to users. Digital Primates also implemented MLBAM’s patented “geo-detection system,” which determines where users are located so black-out restrictions can be enforced.
“Digital Primates has been instrumental in the success of the MLB.TV player development this season,” said Joe Choti, chief technology officer, MLBAM. “Expert understanding of Flex technology, combined with the ability to architect a complex system that is capable of scaling, makes Digital Primates an invaluable addition to a team delivering a product. The difference is in the dedication and desire to achieve a common goal.”
Source: Digital Primates