PGATour.com, the official site of the PGA Tour, has won the Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in the category of Advanced Media Technology for the Enhancement of Original Television Content for its interactive application, TOURCast. PGA TOUR vice president of new media, Paul Johnson, who was a speaker at Sport and Technology: The Conference 2005, and team members were on hand to accept the award at the 57th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards. The other finalists were DirectTV Sports Mix from DirectTV and 2005 TV Land Awards, All Access Pass from TV Land, Nick at Nite and Zetools.
Basketball to watch the clock
Starting with the upcoming 2005-06 season, Euroleague Basketball is set to use a new Precision Time System, a revolutionary technology that will facilitate the elimination of errors in control of the game clock, especially at critical moments that come in the course of play at the ends of quarters and possessions. This innovative system consists of three components that are equally important: Base Station, which is designed to interface with all existing arena, stadium, coliseum and gymnasium time-keeping equipment; Belt Packs, worn by on-court officials, to signal the starts and stoppages of playing time; Omni-Directional Microphones, also worn by officials, are tuned to a specific whistle frequency, instantly stopping the game clock when the whistle is blown - at the speed of light.
FIFA World Cup new media agreements
Infront Sports & Media has announced several new media agreements for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Univision Communications is licensing the Spanish-language internet and mobile telephony rights in the US to all 64 matches of the event, as well as archive access to 2002 FIFA World Cup matches. Univision, which is already a FIFA World Cup television rights holder, will exploit the internet rights on the Univision website and mobile telephony rights with one major US mobile operator. The International Sports Events Company is also licensing internet and mobile telephony rights to all 64 2006 matches and archive access to 2002 matches for the territories of the Middle East and North Africa. The agreement covers a number of languages appropriate to the region, including Arabic, English and French. The International Sports Events Company is already a television rights holder and will sublicense its new media rights for all markets within the territory. Infront Sports & Media has also signed an exclusive agreement with MTN South Africa for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The rights granted are in the category of Mobile Telephony and give MTN the right to exploit up to four minutes of video material per match for "near-live" and/or delayed highlight coverage on mobile phones.
New hockey season, new radio partner
The National Hockey League (NHL), which has returned after an absence of a year in the US, has chosen XM Satellite Radio as its Exclusive Satellite Radio Network. XM is the US’ leading satellite radio service with more than 4.4m subscribers. The 10-year, $100m agreement starts with the 2007-08 season, however, XM will begin broadcasting NHL games with the launch of the new 2005-06 season. In addition to providing live play-by-play coverage of more than 1,000 games per season, XM will create a dedicated NHL radio channel featuring original programming that will focus on all aspects of the sport. NHL games and the NHL channel will be available in Canada through XM's partner, Canadian Satellite Radio (CSR), which is funding a portion of the agreement. CSR has been awarded a license to distribute satellite radio in Canada, as recently approved by the Federal Cabinet.
New sports DTT offering in Spain
Spain’s Mediaset-controlled network, Tele 5, is to launch two DTT channels before the end of November 2005. Telecinco Sport, will be dedicated to sports and Telecinco Estrellas will be exclusively dedicated to fiction aimed at "opening a window for the Spanish audio visual industry", according to Tele 5. The channel will make a survey among its viewers about what sports and fiction series they would like most to watch.
Broadband soccer looks to China
The Football League of England and Wales and Chinese sports content provider, Sportscn, have teamed up for the 2005-06 soccer season to give millions of fans in China the opportunity to watch live Football League action via broadband. The partnership has resulted from research carried out by Sportscn, which found that among Chinese fans the Coca-Cola Championship is the fourth highest profile domestic football league in the world. Test broadcasts on the new broadband service attracted more than 100,000 viewers for certain games as the 2004-05 season drew to a close. Sportscn's rights package allows them to show the same Football League and Carling Cup matches that are broadcast live on Sky Sports to domestic UK television viewers. This equates to approximately two matches per week over the course of the 2005-06 season. This specific broadband service is only available to subscribers living in China - with Sportscn Broadband employing a strict IP-blocking policy to ensure that their matches can only be seen in China.
S&T sponsor, EMPICS, teams up with Chelsea FC
English Premier League title favourite Chelsea Football Club has become the first Premiership club to offer a live picture service to fans using EMPICS’ innovative ShootLive technology. This will allow the club to efficiently deliver ‘real-time’ photography for new media applications in less than 60 seconds. ShootLive will initially power two new services for Chelsea fans: a photo gallery on the club’s website that will be updated live during matches and a service to deliver action photos live to fans’ mobile phones during matches. The club will launch both services in October. ShootLive is part of a wider deal that Chelsea has signed with EMPICS, under which EMPICS will exclusively sell and license the club’s photography, and will provide Chelsea with database support and other photography services. Meanwhile, EMPICS has also recently renewed its sponsorship of Sport and Technology.
The luck of the Irish
An Irish firm is betting on internet poker with the launch of DV8poker.com - powered by the Excapsa Poker Network, which also includes two leading sites in the market, UltimateBet.com and UltimatePoker.com. Behind the venture is AVA Leisure, which manufactures gaming machines and operates a chain of arcade outlets. Online gaming is said to be a natural extension of the company's existing operations, while a partnership with Paradigm New Media ensures that the new online brands, including an interactive bingo site launched in July, are backed by expertise in interactive marketing.
Online ticketing for The Iron
Tickets.com and Coca-Cola League One soccer team Scunthorpe United FC have announced details of a new ticketing partnership designed to revolutionise ticketing and marketing activities at the club by improving access to tickets and developing the relationship between the club and its supporters. Tickets.com’s ProVenueMax solution has proved extremely popular during 2005 with Gloucester Rugby, Southend United FC and the new Swansea Stadium all joining the client base. The install at Scunthorpe will see ProVenueMax manage the sale of all tickets sold via the club’s Ticket Office, including advance and match day ticket sales. In addition to handling ticket sales the system will support the club’s marketing efforts by enabling comprehensive data capture and powerful marketing analysis reports.
Jessiman in test of intellect
Former CBS SportsLine.com, Sports.com and Ziff-Davis senior executive, Tom Jessiman, has launched PicksPal.com, a free, weekly game providing sports fans with an opportunity to prove their superior sports IQ against friends and strangers. Each week PicksPal members begin with 1,000 points, and have the chance to earn more points by picking "games not names" - real sports events based on real odds. PicksPal works like a live stock picking contest, except this game is all based on the outcomes of real major sports events. The member at the end of the week with the most points wins, with players scrambling to hit the 1m point mark. Since no money is wagered, PicksPal gives members the "rush of Vegas without the risk," and the chance to earn the most important prize to any sports fan - bragging rights. Each player's success or failure is tracked like a stock or mutual fund's performance over time to determine those players with the greatest sports IQ. PicksPal will honour the greatest players with a Hall of Fame and specialty designations. In addition, the top players will be featured on the home page as Top O' The Food Chain, allowing every visitor to the game the opportunity to read the Alpha Dogs' blogs and vie to take down "the best of the best."
Page from ArkSports' Sport and Technology (www.sportandtechnology.com) on 2008-11-21 : News - October 2005 : http://www.sportandtechnology.com/news/0310.html
PGATour.com, the official site of the PGA Tour, has won the Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in the category of Advanced Media Technology for the Enhancement of Original Television Content for its interactive application, TOURCast. PGA TOUR vice president of new media, Paul Johnson, who was a speaker at Sport and Technology: The Conference 2005, and team members were on hand to accept the award at the 57th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards. The other finalists were DirectTV Sports Mix from DirectTV and 2005 TV Land Awards, All Access Pass from TV Land, Nick at Nite and Zetools.
The National Hockey League (NHL), which has returned after an absence of a year in the US, has chosen XM Satellite Radio as its Exclusive Satellite Radio Network. XM is the US’ leading satellite radio service with more than 4.4m subscribers. The 10-year, $100m agreement starts with the 2007-08 season, however, XM will begin broadcasting NHL games with the launch of the new 2005-06 season. In addition to providing live play-by-play coverage of more than 1,000 games per season, XM will create a dedicated NHL radio channel featuring original programming that will focus on all aspects of the sport. NHL games and the NHL channel will be available in Canada through XM's partner, Canadian Satellite Radio (CSR), which is funding a portion of the agreement. CSR has been awarded a license to distribute satellite radio in Canada, as recently approved by the Federal Cabinet.
An Irish firm is betting on internet poker with the launch of DV8poker.com - powered by the Excapsa Poker Network, which also includes two leading sites in the market, UltimateBet.com and UltimatePoker.com. Behind the venture is AVA Leisure, which manufactures gaming machines and operates a chain of arcade outlets. Online gaming is said to be a natural extension of the company's existing operations, while a partnership with Paradigm New Media ensures that the new online brands, including an interactive bingo site launched in July, are backed by expertise in interactive marketing.
