Temo
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http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/02/nf...09-directv.html?feed=rss_business_sportsmoney
No Satellite Dish? No Problem
Tom Van Riper, 09.02.09, 06:00 PM EDT In the unending quest for fan attention, DirecTV tries out a Web-only version of NFL Sunday Ticket.
Sometimes it feels like the National Football League won't be happy until everyone on planet Earth spends their Sunday afternoons watching football.
One problem: 10% or so of U.S. households whose sight lines prohibit a satellite dish on the roof miss out on the league's popular Sunday Ticket package--which allows viewers to see every NFL game each week--exclusively on DirectTV ( DTV - news - people ). How can they be reached?
The solution: the Internet. Beginning in New York this season, DirecTV ( DTV - news - people ) and the NFL Network are offering up an online-only version of Sunday Ticket geared to out-of-market fans and fantasy geeks that comes complete with 14 weekly games, plus continuously updated scores and stats.
"If you want the games, we have a way to get it to you," says Brian Rolapp, the NFL's senior vice president for media strategy and digital media.
For $349.99 a season, broadband Sunday Ticket will only be available in Manhattan this year, with a national rollout planned for the 2010 season should the Big Apple test prove successful.
"Manhattan is a big place, this will give us a chance to compartmentalize the ZIP codes and see where the fans are," says Eric Shanks, executive vice president of DirecTV Entertainment. The company is taking a mostly grassroots approach to marketing the plan around the city, with signs lining buses, laundry trucks and pizza boxes.
Smart bet. Manhattan is chock full of affluent émigrés who traditionally spend their Fall Sundays apart from loved ones, locked away in darkened bars dutifully watching their team play. Now they can stay home and squint at their laptops instead.
Offering Sunday Ticket over the Web isn't entirely new--television subscribers already have the option to add the online version. Elsewhere, baseball fans subscribing to MLB.TV can hook up live games streamed on MLB.com to their television sets with a $100 digital video player from Roku, a Saratoga, Calif.-based manufacturer (Roku users can also transfer downloaded movies from Netflix ( NFLX - news - people ) to their TV sets).
DirecTV has had informal discussions with Major League Baseball on a potential collaboration for a new Web-TV package similar to NFL Sunday Ticket, according to Shanks. MLB currently offers live game streams on its Web site for $14.95 to $19.95 per season, a service that's separate from its MLB Network television content.
It's all part of a growing realization on the part of teams and leagues that more and more sports fans are demanding access everywhere. Need to skip out for awhile during a telecast? Bring your Apple iPhone along and keep watching. The new Web-only package seems like a great idea for picking up some incremental revenue from those living in dish-challenged locales but getting the product out to as many viewing machines as possible is what really figures to grow future advertising, experts say.
"Where it's going is that more and more broadband distribution will be available on a variety of screens," says Lee Berke, a Westchester, N.Y.-based sports media consultant, who thinks the $350 price tag for the broadband-only plan being tested in New York may only appeal to high-end users.
Though it's also possible that the new revenue source of Web-only Sunday Ticket viewers could come in handy for DirecTV. The league gets $5.4 billion in rights fees from the company through 2014. Should a work stoppage shut down the 2011 NFL season, a growing possibility, DirecTV is still on the hook for that season's $1 billion, according to a recent Sports Illustrated report (neither Rolapp not Shanks will confirm or deny that). So any extra cash DirecTV makes from selling the games on the Web could be something of a hedge against the risk of losing part of its TV investment.
But mainly, the future is about pushing the games out there in as many ways as possible. "The idea of DirecTV offering multiple platforms to enjoy sports is a strategic viewpoint for us," says Shanks. There's no escaping football now.
No Satellite Dish? No Problem
Tom Van Riper, 09.02.09, 06:00 PM EDT In the unending quest for fan attention, DirecTV tries out a Web-only version of NFL Sunday Ticket.
Sometimes it feels like the National Football League won't be happy until everyone on planet Earth spends their Sunday afternoons watching football.
One problem: 10% or so of U.S. households whose sight lines prohibit a satellite dish on the roof miss out on the league's popular Sunday Ticket package--which allows viewers to see every NFL game each week--exclusively on DirectTV ( DTV - news - people ). How can they be reached?
The solution: the Internet. Beginning in New York this season, DirecTV ( DTV - news - people ) and the NFL Network are offering up an online-only version of Sunday Ticket geared to out-of-market fans and fantasy geeks that comes complete with 14 weekly games, plus continuously updated scores and stats.
"If you want the games, we have a way to get it to you," says Brian Rolapp, the NFL's senior vice president for media strategy and digital media.
For $349.99 a season, broadband Sunday Ticket will only be available in Manhattan this year, with a national rollout planned for the 2010 season should the Big Apple test prove successful.
"Manhattan is a big place, this will give us a chance to compartmentalize the ZIP codes and see where the fans are," says Eric Shanks, executive vice president of DirecTV Entertainment. The company is taking a mostly grassroots approach to marketing the plan around the city, with signs lining buses, laundry trucks and pizza boxes.
Smart bet. Manhattan is chock full of affluent émigrés who traditionally spend their Fall Sundays apart from loved ones, locked away in darkened bars dutifully watching their team play. Now they can stay home and squint at their laptops instead.
Offering Sunday Ticket over the Web isn't entirely new--television subscribers already have the option to add the online version. Elsewhere, baseball fans subscribing to MLB.TV can hook up live games streamed on MLB.com to their television sets with a $100 digital video player from Roku, a Saratoga, Calif.-based manufacturer (Roku users can also transfer downloaded movies from Netflix ( NFLX - news - people ) to their TV sets).
DirecTV has had informal discussions with Major League Baseball on a potential collaboration for a new Web-TV package similar to NFL Sunday Ticket, according to Shanks. MLB currently offers live game streams on its Web site for $14.95 to $19.95 per season, a service that's separate from its MLB Network television content.
It's all part of a growing realization on the part of teams and leagues that more and more sports fans are demanding access everywhere. Need to skip out for awhile during a telecast? Bring your Apple iPhone along and keep watching. The new Web-only package seems like a great idea for picking up some incremental revenue from those living in dish-challenged locales but getting the product out to as many viewing machines as possible is what really figures to grow future advertising, experts say.
"Where it's going is that more and more broadband distribution will be available on a variety of screens," says Lee Berke, a Westchester, N.Y.-based sports media consultant, who thinks the $350 price tag for the broadband-only plan being tested in New York may only appeal to high-end users.
Though it's also possible that the new revenue source of Web-only Sunday Ticket viewers could come in handy for DirecTV. The league gets $5.4 billion in rights fees from the company through 2014. Should a work stoppage shut down the 2011 NFL season, a growing possibility, DirecTV is still on the hook for that season's $1 billion, according to a recent Sports Illustrated report (neither Rolapp not Shanks will confirm or deny that). So any extra cash DirecTV makes from selling the games on the Web could be something of a hedge against the risk of losing part of its TV investment.
But mainly, the future is about pushing the games out there in as many ways as possible. "The idea of DirecTV offering multiple platforms to enjoy sports is a strategic viewpoint for us," says Shanks. There's no escaping football now.
hboy:
I had to look that one up in the dictionary also.
