Let's grab a case of beers and watch some Sunday Night Football...on my 23 inch Samsung HD, er...umm...computer monitor.
Now that doesn't sound right, but it's real, NFL and NBC will be live streaming all 17 Sunday Night Football games this season on both their Websites, NBCSports.com and NFL.com. They did this last year, but have added some more features this time around.
Although it really doesn't make much sense for me, since I usually enjoy watching football with my friends gathered around a big screen TV while gobbling down pizza and beer, for those willing to give it a chance, it actually sounds pretty cool if the norm isn't the case for you.
It's basically going to be an interactive, live football experience. The NFL will offer users four separate camera angles to choose from and play around with. For a video editor like myself, this is pretty awesome. It's like I'm the switcher, and now I can choose what I feel are appropriate camera angles for the game. To make things better, the player will have a DVR, so if I want to figure out if the referee made a fair call on that play, I can rewind and create my own instant replays, with slow motion and all.
NBC announced the player will be in full HD using Microsoft Silverlight. Last year, the player was Flash based, so this is a new change. NBC also said it will be, "the highest quality yet."
So how will the NFL and NBC make money off this? Apparently through advertising, although not that much. A representative told PaidContent.org that a Web broadcast game could bring in seven-figure range from a revenue standpoint and close to 100 percent of the advertisers online are the same as on television broadcast. The webcast will have the same number of available slots for advertising and each separate camera angle can be sponsored.
All in all this is another step forward for the merging of the Internet and television. Although I still don't think it makes much sense, since football is usually meant to be mindlessly enjoyed on a couch with friends (in my case at least), these sorts of interactive features, like the ability to create your own instant replays and choose from multiple camera angles are the elements that are going to end up on the big screen in the living room through our regular cable service, soon enough.
