Bloomberg: Amazon wants live sports streaming rights
Bloomberg believes that Amazon is considering buying the rights to a variety of live sporting events as a way of bringing more people into Prime. According to the site’s anonymous sources, the firm has made discreet enquiries about picking up licenses for global sports including tennis, golf, soccer and car racing. The company is believed to have a beady eye on domestic sports like baseball and basketball, although knows that traditional broadcasters have that sewn up for the next few years.
The report explains that Amazon hired a former Sports Illustrated executive, James DeLorenzo, to head up a sports division earlier this year. In addition, the company poached a former YouTube executive, Charlie Neiman, to look into partnering with sports companies and build new business opportunities. Amazon has refused to make a public comment, but these preliminary negotiations could be the start of a whole new broadcasting platform.
One of the existential problems that both Amazon and Netflix suffer from is that their audience has to make an effort to reach them. If you’re not that interested in highbrow dramas about the modern family, classical music or the political machinery in a bizarro-world White House, you won’t bother signing up. Netflix and Amazon have taken two very different routes to broaden their appeal beyond a hardcore audience — since both are believed to have around 50 million subscribers.
Netflix, for instance, is going for pure populism, and has broadened its outreach beyond blue-chip consumers who enjoy shows like Orange is the New Black. Shows like Fuller House and the deal it signed with Adam Sandler demonstrate how Netflix is attempting to move beyond its traditional customer base. Amazon, meanwhile, is hoping that bundling its own platform with Prime means that its retail customers are, invariably, going to want to check out its more populist original shows.
The rights to live sports broadcasts are likely to be the most lucrative, and expensive, things that broadcasters can buy. For instance, each of the big three networks spends around a billion dollars each year for the right to air NFL Games. In return for that outlay, they can expect audiences of between 18 and 21 million, which would be eye-gougingly high for a company like Amazon.
It’s not just Amazon or Netflix which are looking to sports to help break its apparent ceiling in subscriber numbers, either. Twitter signed a deal with the National Football League to stream 10 Thursday night games that are currently broadcast on NBC and CBS. Facebook, meanwhile, has considered joining the fray for sports rights, and has experimented with showing live soccer games on its own video platform.
Admittedly, every hurdle between audience and channel reduces that figure — so ESPN, which requires a cable subscription to access, only gets audiences of 13 million. Given the current extra layer of complexity required for consumers to get Instant Video on their TVs, it’s likely that the potential audience would be less that than ESPN can expect.
Of course, the big three networks can afford to spend billions on sports because they make that money back with ads. Amazon doesn’t air commercials, and would probably have to charge a pretty penny for an ad-free sports tier on Prime. Then again, if it did air commercials, it’d suffer a similar backlash to the one Netflix suffered at the mere rumor that it would bring ads into its shows.
Millennials, unfortunately, hate ads, and this has even affected NBC, a show that relies entirely upon promotional spots for revenue. Earlier this year, it conceded that such breaks are hostile to users and will reduce the amount of marketing clips in Saturday Night Live to win back younger audiences.
Source: Bloomberg
Fox Sports Go is streaming on Chromecast and Roku too
Just in case you need another way to watch college football, Fox Sports Go has launched apps on a few more platforms. There’s now an app available for Roku, as well as the ability to stream on Chromecast (at least on Android and from the web, I didn’t see an option to do it from iOS yet). Neither platform mentioned support for the 60fps or Multiview Display support that’s in its just-released app for the new Apple TV, but if all you want to do is stream a game quickly, they should get the job done.
Source: Fox Sports Go
The best tech for college athletes
Look, there’s clearly more to college life than studying and partying. There’s also sports! Before you hit the field, gym, rink or court it’s probably worth taking stock of how you can improve your game with a little help from modern technology. An Apple Watch or Vivosmart can count steps and track your gym sessions, while Polo makes a smart shirt that offers seriously in depth data about your body’s performance. There’s also sensors that can help you do things like improve your swing in golf or baseball. And, of course, after a long day of training, there’s nothing better than unwinding by watching your hometown team make a run at the World Series on MLB.tv. Oh, and don’t forget to check out the rest of Engadget’s back-to-school guide here.
Source: Engadget’s 2016 Back-to-School Guide
Watch Fox Sports Go on Apple TV, if you have cable
The start of both NFL and college football seasons are imminent and Fox Sports is giving viewers another option for streaming the action. The network announced today that its Fox Sports Go app is now available on the 4th-gen Apple TV. Yes, you’ll need a cable subscription in order to stream events spanning NFL, MLB, UFC, NASCAR, Big 12 and Pac-12 Football, Big East Basketball, FIFA World Cup and UEFA Champions League soccer. Though they aren’t specifically listed in the announcement, a MLS and Bundesliga soccer match are part of the weekly lineup during their respective seasons as well.
All of that action is spread across streams from FOX Sports, FS1, FS2, FOX Sports regional networks, FOX College Sports, FOX Deportes and FOX Soccer Plus, hence the pay-TV plan requirement. In fact, your cable plan must include those channels to unlock streaming access. Fox says that the move to Apple TV also adds in some new features that weren’t previously available elsewhere. First, you can stream up to four games (or shows) at once thanks to a Multiview Display tool. All of the action is streamed at 60 frames-per-second as well which should improve views of high-speed action across that range of sporting events. Both of those features are items Apple discussed last fall as part of its tvOS software.
Fox Sports Go is also available on Roku, Android TV and Sony smart TVs in addition to apps for Android, iOS, Kindle Fire and Windows. The network has said that Chromecast support is coming this summer, but it has yet to be added to the app.
Source: Fox Sports
Snapchat brings live score filters to high school football
For its next geofilter trick, Snapchat is partnering with fellow Southern California startup ScoreStream to bring live scores from more than 5,000 weekly high school football games into your Snaps and Stories. As Mashable reports today, the scoreboard geofilters will show up just in time for back to school season when they launch on September 2nd.
The high school filters work more or less exaclty like the live score filters for NBA and professional sports that Snapchat debuted earlier this year, although Mashable points out that they’ll only be available for games at participating schools. Snapchat hasn’t released a list of those schools yet, but ScoreStream has a searchable database of available teams they work with as well as their own standalone app.
While the data comes from ScoreStream, the actual art will come from Snapchat itself and features ad space similar to how sponsored filters work. At launch, the scoreboard filters will be feature some prominent Gatorade branding.
“Dynamic Geofilters are a visual and timely way for sports fans to express the here and now of the game in their Snaps,” Snapchat’s Ben Schwerin said in a statement. “ScoreStream’s crowd-sourced content is far more local and personal than any other sports content currently available, and will fuel the high school spirit of our Snapchatters like never before.”
Source: Mashable
NFL Network launches on PlayStation Vue ahead of football season
Last month, Sony announced that NFL Network and its RedZone channel for keeping up with scoring plays would arrive on PlayStation Vue before the start of the season. Well, the time has come. The company announced today that those two channels are now live on the service for Core and Elite subscribers. Those two tiers are priced at $35 a month and $45 a month, respectively, but if local channels are available in your area you’ll have to pay $10 more. If you’re interested in that RedZone add-on, you’ll need to hand over $40 for the entire season.
Sony says subscribers will also get access to NFL Network on the web, through the NFL app on streaming devices and on the NFL Mobile app at no additional charge. However, that access isn’t available just yet (“coming soon”) and there’s no word on when users can expect it. Just as a refresher, PlayStation Vue is available on PS4, PS3, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Roku and both iOS and Android mobile devices. What’s more, you can use the service’s cloud-based DVR to record multiple games if you can’t tune in live.
Source: PlayStation Blog
Fox starts the Bundesliga season with a soccer VR broadcast
Fox Sports and NextVR are at it again. The two have paired up for live sports broadcasts in VR before and now they’re bringing those immersive views to the pitch in Munich. This weekend marks the beginning of the Bundesliga soccer season in Germany, so what better way to celebrate the kickoff than with a virtual reality live stream. Friday’s matchup between defending league champions Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen will be available in VR for owners of Samsung’s Gear VR headset. What’s more, this is the first time Bundesliga action has been available in virtual reality.
So far, Fox and NextVR have collaborated on four virtual reality broadcasts. The first was Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) coverage back in January and the two companies followed that up with VR footage of both the Daytona 500 and Big East college basketball tournament. Fox owns the rights to Bundesliga broadcasts in the US, so if it were going to showcase a regular-season match, the German league is the one to cover. Game time is 2:30PM ET this Friday, so when the time comes fire up the NextVR app on the Gear VR and the match will be available via the Fox Sports portal free of charge.
Source: Fox Sports
Fitbit’s new Charge 2 and Flex 2 wearables leak
Fitbit’s Charge and Flex sports trackers are two and three years old, respectively, so a recent trademark listing stoked rumors that new models would come soon. We can now see what the Flex 2 and Charge 2 probably look like, thanks to a leak from TechnoBuffalo. The smartwatch-like Charge 2 has a bigger screen and interchangeable bands in blue, violet and black. It also comes with a PurePulse heart rate monitor, and as before, it supports smartphone notifications and multi-sport tracking, according to the listing below.
The Flex 2, meanwhile has re-oriented the indicator lights and is listed as “swim-proof” (below), where it was only splash- and rain-proof before. Previous features, like sleep tracking and all-day battery life, remain intact.
The wearable company has famously battled skin rash issues with its trackers, but has taken measures to eliminate those and still holds a slim lead in the fitness wearable market. Given the earlier trademark leak and images (if accurate), we’d assume the product will be arriving soon.
Source: TechnoBuffalo
Jabra’s latest sport headphones track more of your fitness regime
Jabra’s Sport Pulse and Sport Coach wireless headphones have been available for some time now, but the company has new versions of both models with some added features. Let’s start with the Sport Pulse Special Edition, shall we? The heart-rate tracking in-ear headphones debuted in 2014, but now they gain automatic and continuous VO2 Max level monitoring thanks to a hand from the Jabra Sport Life app. If that term is unfamiliar, VO2 Max levels are a measure of aerobic fitness, or to put it another way, how hard you’re working out. The new version of the Sport Pulse also offers coaching based on your heart rate and fitness level during exercise sessions.
Speaking of coaching, the Sports Coach Special Edition wireless headphones (below) also offer a key addition from the original model. This time around, the earbuds not only provide guidance, but thanks to a new TrackFit motion sensor, the headphones can count your reps during a workout. Right now the feature only keeps tabs of 10 common exercises, but Jabra says that number will increase with future updates. For the time being, expect the headphone and app duo to tally movements like push-ups, lunges and burpees.
There a a number of features that both Special Editions offer. They’re both IP55-rated for dust and water resistance alongside a 3-year extended warranty that protects against damage from sweat. Jabra says that you’ll be able to use both models for up to 5 hours before needing to recharge and they both last for up to 10 days in standby mode. The company also notes improvements to sound quality with enhanced bass and overall call quality. Finally, for more fit options, Comply foam tips are included in the box. Both the Sport Pulse and the Sport Coach Special Editions are set to ship in Q3, with the former priced at $160 while the latter costs $120.
NFL Network and NFL Redzone are now live on Sling TV
After striking a content deal with the NFL last week, Sling TV is now making the NFL Network and NFL Redzone channels available on its streaming service. The company announced that, starting today, Sling Blue subscribers will have NFL Network on their guide — that bundle is $25 per month, in case you’re not familiar with Sling TV’s offering. Meanwhile, NFL Redzone requires the Sports Extra add-on for Sling Blue, which costs an extra $5 monthly. Thankfully for cord-cutters who love watching football, the timing couldn’t be better, as the NFL preseason kicks off tomorrow with a game between the New England Patriots and New Orleans Saints.
Source: Sling TV
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