Media On Ice

Previously mentioned in the “Will YouTube Take Over Sports?” post, the NHL recently signed a contract with NBC through the 2020-2021 season. However, according to the Financial Post, it was recently announced that the contract included a five year media deal as well. It turns out, NBC will also have the rights to the digital media sales of the NHL. This includes any online streaming of the games, right to broadcast information on the Versus Network, as well as trafficking control and sales due to NHL.com and NHL mobile. Any traffic generated by the NHL media sites will be accredited to NBC Sports Digital. As part of this contract, the NHL media sales team will become intergraded into the NBC Sports group as well.

The NHL chief operating officer John Collins suggests that working with the NBC team on media and networking sites will strengthen their marketplace by engaging more efficiently with the younger demographics that are technology-savvy. By using social media, the team will be incorporating a new method of interacting with these demographics that other platforms were unable to reach.

To make this deal even more beneficial is the ability to create stronger partnerships with other sports marketers. By having a strong presence on social networking sites, and a powerful hold on sports media in general, more marketers will show interest in advertising on the NBC and NHL sites, generating both website traffic and revenue for the networks. Seth Winter, senior vice president of NBC Sports Group Sales and Marketing feels that sports television and sports media need to combine to create a single voice on a national level.

According to Brett Hutchins, of “The Acceleration of Media Sports Culture,” sports networks need the accessibility of media sites, specifically social networking sites, in order to create significant communication power with fans and viewers. The news-worthy information found on social media sites will eventually make it to the television screens, and by incorporating your own network with media, it allows for your broadcasts to be ahead and part of the growing online sports world.

The Twitter Resource

Since it was created five years ago, Twitter has become a popular source of information for reporters, writers, and editors. Complete with both professional and personal commentary from the fans and sports stars themselves, the micro-blogging forum turned itself into an encyclopedia of up-to-date information on the news breaking sports stories. Each sports franchise and professional sports association has an online social media presence, specifically on Twitter. Often intergraded into sports shows and broadcasts, such as Sports Center, Twitter enables writers and reporters to come up with and support new ideas and story lines.

In recognition of this wonderful, young resource and medium, CNN\’s Sports Illustrated polled their staffers on which Twitter feeds they found to be essential sources for finding news and information, outside of their own network. Eventually, the Sports Illustrated research team was able to create a top 100 list, by sport, of their favorite sports sources.

Many of these top 100 sources are sports analysts from various networks such as ESPN, Fox Sports, and NBC Sports. The sources also include sports writers from top newspapers such as the National Post, reporters and staff from the professional sports associations such as the NBA and NHL, and of course, the athletes themselves.

It is no surprise that sports networks are taking these Twitter feeds so seriously. The feeds provide real-time events as well as the comments and reactions of passionate fans- that are a target audience for both the teams and the television networks. Further, many fans are becoming conditioned to a “second screen” experience. This means that they will watch a television broadcast while simultaneously check their mobile or computer screen, often to find behind-the-scenes information about a recent play or comments from a Tweeting athlete or reporter. The fact is, the demographic of sports fans that are not on Twitter is greatly and rapidly diminishing, and in order to be able to report the news, sports television networks need to be aware of the Twitter sports world.

#digisports- We’re Going Global!!

As mentioned in previous posts, Twitter has become a strong entity in both the sports world and the social media world. But how big is it? It’s international. The social media and sports world have combined not only here in theU.S., but globally. And, quite frankly, the other countries might be beating us at our own game. Most social media experts in theU.S.often search for sports media under the hash tag #SMSports, which will give them a great amount of information on our own professional leagues such as the NFL and NBA, but what should be taken into greater consideration is the international social media hash tag: #digisports.

Digisports (without the hash tag) is a term from the two key phrases “digital” and “sports.” It gained rapid popularity in Romaniawhen digisportsnetwork.com, and a few other similar sites, were created for the Romanian population to gain access to international sports broadcasting from their computers. The actual term “Digisports” is most well understood as utilizing digital media for sports broadcasting, discussion, highlights, and many of the other elements you would find on a sports television network’s website. However, digisports takes it a step further by often eluding to the international sharing of sports. Some great examples of digisports sites are; http://www.theuksportsnetwork.com/; http://www.digisportlive.net; and http://www.digitalsport.com.au.

 What you may or may not be aware of, is the large popularity and growth of digisports.  In theU.K., sports network websites are focused much more around the incorporation of media and new technology. For example, if you take a look at the UK Sports Network website (listed above) you’ll find that many of their articles and links discuss mobile and social media, and how a fan can become more involved through such medians. In Australia, the Digital Sports Summit hosts an annual sports and social media event at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds, which includes international fans following through Twitter, Facebook, mobile devices, YouTube, and the sites own integrated technologies. The event hosts both Australian and international speakers from major sports leagues around the world, including our own Kyle Spencer and Nick Monroe of the U.S. NBA. 

 Digisports is starting to have an influence within the sports world of the United States, but mostly when discussing sports from other nations. However, it would be expected for the U.S. sports fans to catch on to this global trend sooner than later.

The Threat of Tweeting Athletes

As mentioned in my previous post, some aspects of social media have the chance of hindering sports television networks. Not only does YouTube pose a threat the networks, but so does Twitter. Twitter, the micro-blogging site for anyone who feels the need to speak their mind in 140 characters or less, is now becoming a concern for sports television networks. Why? Because people now have the ability to follow the games via Twitter, both from fans, other broadcasting agencies, and the athletes themselves. In fact, following athletes on Twitter is so popular, there are websites dedicated to finding the Twitter profiles of professional athletes, and posting them on the site for other fans to follow.

Athletes themselves have already found out the pros and cons of using Twitter on their own time, both professionally and personally. Twitter allows them to connect with fans and increase their popularity, which in turn can increase viewer ratings. However, it can also decrease them. Some athletes, like Tiger Woods, have said negative comments or inappropriate statements on Twitter, often causing scandal or negative feedback. Red Skins’ quarterback Donovan McNabb thinks it’s an all around poor idea for athletes to use Twitter, specifically to express their views on current games. McNabb feels it’s unprofessional and any negative feeling towards other player should be handled on the field, not the Twitter account.

In a study done by Clark Greer and Douglas Ferguson for the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic media, it was found that the majority of television stations don’t use Twitter to promote their stations. However, the stations do use Twitter to connect with their audiences, which has been found to add an increase. So, the real debate becomes who will win the attention of the tweeters? The athletes or sports stations? Unfortunately, only time will tell.

Sports Center: Tweet the People

Sports Center is popular show on ESPN that was started in 1979 and has created a wide fan base with its humorous commentary and reporting style in the life of sports. Sports Center is known for replaying the highlights for that day’s major sports events, as well as involving unique commentary and feature stories. The show has been proven not only stable, but also continuously increasing in rankings, and in 2009 celebrated its 35,000^th show. In recent years, the show has begun to incorporate social media. Sports center has a strong following on both Facebook and Twitter, as well as an active blog on the ESPN website. However, it’s been Sports Center’s ability to incorporate their highly active Twitter page that has gained greater awareness and relationships with their viewers.

Sport Center has a team to keep track of and respond to all of its followers on Twitter. Often, the station will post questions and challenges to its followers, encouraging conversation between both its viewers as well as the anchors on the show, who have their own active Twitter accounts. However, it’s the challenges they present to its followers that creates high traffic flow to the site and a great rating for the show. The Sports Center team will often create challenges and requests to its viewers to come up with questions or statements for popular professional athletes to respond to. Often, the questions are comments they choose are a variety from the obscure to what everyone’s been dying to know. Sometimes they create challenges for the athletes themselves through the response they have on the Twitter page. The video below is an example of a Sports Center reporter conducting the Sports Center SMACK TALK challenge famous wrestler Brock Lesnar.

According to Hollis Thomases, author of Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day, the idea to incorporate a company Twitter page is incorporating a premier communications vehicle. The main reasons for Twitter to be used from a marketing and PR perspective are in the basic function of Twitter itself; to listen and engage with others through short, easy to read messaging. Twitter is a great way for a company to monitor both brand and company reputation. This can be done by monitoring the tweets which your company is tagged in as well as reading the responses to the company’s own tweets. Thomases also points out that Twitter is a strong distribution channel, an advantage which Sports Center has clearly taken advantage of.

SNY’s approach

SportsNet New York, more commonly referred to as SNY or Sportsnet, is a popular sports station in the North East, more specifically, the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. What makes SNY unique from other sports stations is that it focuses specifically on the major New York Sports teams. Amongst the many New York sports teams, its strength comes form its endless coverage of the New York Mets, both major and minor league teams. That being said, although the station and website both cover the forever rivaled New York Yankees, SNY is the station for Mets fans.

The SNY social media provides many ways for its viewers to become active online advocates and participants through their Facebook page, Twitter Page, and online blogs. The SNY.tv website has a blog for each of the New York sports teams, as well as a few personal blogs from sports journalists such as Adam Zagoria. Many sports networks have the Facebook, Twitter, and blog features as well, so what give SNY that extra boost to gain a strong following? The answer is passionate, online communities.

The SNY blog site allows for followers of the specific teams to write any and how ever many comments they please on a given post. From this, followers have created strong online community within each blog. Throughout the duration of one Mets game, there have been over 100 comments from fans, many of them posting multiple comments and responses to one another. Through the various conversations that can be seen through the blogs, there is clear passion not only for the sport and team, but also for the conversations that are being created on the site. SNY allows the followers to leave not only comments, but pictures, fun graphics, and videos as well. SNY has the blogs directly within their main website, and numerous people use statistics and comments from the network’s sports writers during discussions and debates. SNY is utilizing their social media by creating attention to the rest of the website.

The SNY Twitter page has also taken the basics of the forum a step further. The site is interactive, responding to various followers and “tweeting” new information on teams, games and highlights. However, it also keeps followers interested by hosting Twitter contests, or a “TWEET TO WIN PROMOTION. ” These “promotions” consist of questions that refer to a recent topic or event that was covered by SNY. Most of the answers to these questions can be found either while watching the SNY programs at that given time, or by referring to SNY website. Many of the major reporters of SNY have their own Twitter accounts as well, and will tweet questions and comments throughout the games. SNY has taken this opportunity and begun including some of these tweets in their live broadcast. The link below will lead you to a video that gives an explanation on SNY and its relationship with Twitter:

SNY Incorporating Twitter Video

According to Liana Evans, author of Social Media Marketing: Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media, a key component of social media is the ability to create viral marketing. Viral marketing, or the online word-of-mouth way to market, is a great way for a company’s image and presence to be known. By allowing consumers to be involved in the company’s blog or forum, the company is allowing consumers to not only interact with one another, but also take away information outside of the general advertising or station shows to share with others. Often, those who are active in the forum or blog share a common interest, and are more likely to share the information of that company with outsiders who share that same interest. This often leads to an increase webpage and social media visits and interactions, allowing viral marketing.