Did you catch the American National Rugby League championship final on television last year? Probably not. Second-tier sports games don’t have particularly strong television broadcast markets in North America. But some second-tier sports leagues, such as Arena Football League 2 and the Central Hockey League, are moving beyond limited national coverage and using free Internet TV platforms to gain more exposure and expand their fan bases.
More niche sports fans will be able to follow their favorite teams with the help of Web services like NiFTyTV, which provides free online access to all home and away games by offering advertising-based Internet TV broadcasts. NiFTyTV, developed by Network Foundation Technologies (NFT), uses a patented online broadcasting technology that keeps bandwidth costs low while providing access to content that would typically be too costly for a traditional television broadcast.
“We developed the technology that enables efficient use of commercial broadband to deliver video content, and partner with end entertainment providers like the Arena Football League 2 and the Central Hockey League, so they can use our technology as a delivery vehicle for their live content,” says NFT co-founder Marcus Morton, who received a $500,000 small business innovation grant earlier this month from the National Science Foundation.“We don’t see ourselves replacing cable and satellite television -- but we are definitely a complementary option that gives viewers a greater range of entertainment choice.”
NFT’s business model is focusing initially on providing technology to second-tier sports markets. Earlier this year, the company partnered with USA Weightlifting to broadcast the 2008 USA Weightlifting National Championships. “Game broadcasts are free to homes because the revenue model is all based on advertising,” says Morton. “During a broadcast, there is a 'ticker tape' at the bottom of the screen that posts advertising and hot links to advertiser Websites. Viewers can link over to an advertiser Website and place an order during the game. We call the process television with a ‘buy’ button.”
NFT also safeguards against content piracy because its technology streams content to client PCs in homes but does not allow content capture onto hard drives like many other peer-to-peer file download programs do.
“Since we moved away from a pay-per-view to a free-view business model, our fan base has expanded to a global audience,” says Bob Hoffman, Central Hockey League Media Director. “This has opened up new opportunities for our 17 teams, which regularly partner with sponsors for big screen hockey parties -- and tell us that they now have new opportunities for advertising with extended reach into home audiences.”
Arena Football 2 went “live” several months ago with free Internet broadcasts for its 29 teams. “It’s early, but we are already seeing exponential growth in our viewing audience,” says Mark Lestinsky, Arena Football League 2 media director.
NFT’s free Internet model is in its infancy, but its ability to reach geographically diverse and unlimited audiences at reduced bandwidth costs makes it a viable solution. The opportunity it presents to second-tier sports content providers, who operate on a much smaller scale than ESPN and other major league broadcast stations, far exceed what these smaller organizations can accomplish locally for revenue.
I was thinking about the same, just I think it will give the teams more advertising mmoney because of the growing audience...So they might buy better equipment, pay better salaries.I think it won't bring lot of harm for teams.An d I think most of the payers want to be on National TV, so it's a great opportunity.
NFT actually streams more than second tier sports--and is about to enter some new markets.
The other road that startups typically take is being able to showcase unique technology that makes either the product or the company an attractive aquisition target.
What I personally find exciting about sports and other entertainment venues coming out on free Internet--is that it gives people an opportunity to "tailor" their entertainment options to more than is packaged and commercially offered.
I expect that this is a trend that will continue, as not every sports league will get an ESPN deal and not every movie maker will gain bcking from a major studio.
'Second-tier' sports, because they are precisely that, second-tier, aren't popular amongst broadcast stations - they're low audiences don't bring any advertisements.
Using the internet to broadcast the games proves to be an effective way to reach audiences, which for starters are bigger - since they can be from anywhere around the World.
I'm worried that if they start to grow, investors will want to cash-in on that, and go out of the internet TV model into a national TV broadcast, leaving thousands of viewers in the dark.
In the meanwhile we can surely enjoy this free, good-quality (for the most part) sports transmissions.
My question is how will the companies like NFT will make revenue. Streaming second tier sports leagues means that they would not have much audience and limited audience means limited revenue. What do you say?
I wish more sports would move on to internet TV, actually. And informercials can join them. If you don't have cable or sattelite, just try to get any decent programmin on television on the weekends. Sports or informercials overtakes all. It is terrible. And when you only have the weekends to unwind and maybe watch some TV, especially on a nasty day.......good luck!
Sports on the internet is great. It is there if you want to watch it, but if you don't , it's not like it is the only thing you can find. The entire WWW is not taken over, like the networks are. With sports on the internet, everyone could be happy!
Yeah, I'm all for it. Now, when does the REAL migration start so we can have our televisions back again?
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