Live Sports Still Playing Ball

By R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 3/1/2010 11:13:00 AM

Increasing use of the Web and mobile platforms among sports fans doesn’t seem to be pushing viewers away from watching high-profile live sports events on television.

This month alone, marquee TV sports events such as the NBA All- Star Game and the Vancouver Winter Olympics have produced significant audience totals on screen. The staggering digital and mobile impressions these events have generated are nearly as impressive.

Through the first 13 days of NBC Universal’s broadcast and cable coverage of the Winter Olympics, the action from Vancouver had drawn 177 million viewers, 4 million more than the same time period four years ago, during the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, Italy.

Through roughly the same period, NBC Olympics mobile content generated 67 million views, almost double the entire 17-day page view total for the Beijing Summer Olympics two years ago. In addition, mobile device users streamed more than 1.6 million videos related to the games on their handhelds, more than five times the 17-day total for the Beijing games.

A similar scenario played itself out during Turner Sports’ coverage of the Feb. 14 NBA All- Star game. TNT drew nearly 7 million viewers for its Feb. 14 All-Star game against very stiff competition from the opening weekend of the Winter Olympics.

While the numbers were slightly down from last year, the digital traffic surrounding the All-Star Game hit alltime highs. NBA.com set a single day mark of 4.95 million video streams the day of the All-Star Game. The site offered video highlights from the All- Star weekend as well as the game itself.

In a television landscape where it’s commonplace for viewers to catch episodes of popular shows like USA’s Burn Notice or Fox’s 24 at their leisure on demand — on the Web or via DVR — live sporting events remain one of the few TV options still best served live.

Viewers prefer to watch sports as it happens, but are increasingly using new media to access highlights and statistics or to chat about the latest LeBron James or Derek Jeter news before, during and after their games.

It all just enhances the appeal of the live-game telecasts when it’s time to play ball.