Will the future of TV start with sports?
…MLB has been pioneering direct to consumer for some time. I love MLB.TV. As a Yankee fan living in Boston it’s an amazing service.
And yesterday, Henry Blodget wrote about the US Open web experience.
Henry lists the super sweet features of the USOpen.org
- Live coverage of 5 (five) matches at once! You, the viewer, pick which one to watch.
- Competent commentary of all matches. No idiot big-name broadcast personality who knows nothing about tennis oohing and ahhing about all the racket-waving.
- No ads. Okay, that won’t last, but it’s nice while it does. (There are ads on the individual matches, but you can always use them as a chance to check out other matches).
- No annoying cable company dictating what you can and can’t watch and when.
- No annoying broadcast network refusing to pre-empt the Today Show and therefore showing all matches on tape delay.
- One simple source for the feed: The event’s site. This instead of the usual TV headache: (which network? when’s it on?, what will they show?) The feeds here are apparently produced by the Tennis Channel and ESPN. But you don’t have to know that to watch.
I “tuned” in (ie clicked over) and was blown away. It really is amazing.
The direct to consumer trend is important one. And I like that live sports is showing us the way.
Tis a good trend. I do appreciate how well we can get the US Open experience and wish other marginalized leagues (ie. soccer) would step up similarly.
