When Facebook Connects With Sport
10. May, 2010 
10 Comments
Live Streaming has done a lot for the word of sports, whether it be legal or illegal streaming, viewers can watch their favourite games live no matter their location. The demand for streaming of Australian sports is an issue the local market is beginning to face too, and with a couple of the major digital rights deals coming up for renewal soon, live streaming in sport will be a key talking point.
If you were to look to overseas leagues, I can legally watch MLB on the internet or on my iPhone, as long as I pay up. You can even stream MLB games on your PS3 if you so desire. The AFL dipped its toe slightly into this with their AFL iPhone app, but they only offer video on demand highlights after the game, there’s no live streaming just yet.
Over the weekend Tennis Australia, one of the best sports organisations for social media and digital technology in Australia, streamed live coverage of the Australia v Japan Davis Cup series. With regular host TV broadcast network Channel Seven not contractually obligated to showing this particular series, they didn’t, so fans flocked to the internet to see their heroes. They offer their own commentators (with some borrowed from Channel 7) and offered round the clock coverage of the matches.
Simple sign-up page to start watching
This is not the first time they have used live streaming as a communication channel, they also offered it during the ‘December Showdown‘ which was a playoff for entry into this years Australian Open. It was a week long tournament watched each day by only a few hundred people in person, but a few thousand online, thousands that wouldn’t have been able to watch it otherwise.
The tournament is held only for Australian players, and is a great place for tennis fans to see the up and coming stars of tomorrow that don’t get regular matches on the top-level tour around the world.
Not only are Tennis Australia one of the leaders in giving their fans a great web experience of their sport, they also open up the conversation to the fans. With the recent Facebook Developer news about how Facebook wants to open up the web, the implications for developers are endless, especially for those in sport. Tennis Australia took these changes and ran with them, heavily integrating Facebook into their live stream over the weekend.
A screenshot taken during the stream. Don't you love auto log-ins to Facebook?
Once you logged in to the Facebook chat, your questions weren’t only displayed on the site, but also on your Facebook profile and would also appear on your friends’ news feed.
Indeed they do
In down time between points, the commentators regularly answered questions sent in on the Facebook chat. They often mentioned that they wanted questions to come in via Facebook connect, and encouraged dialogue between the stream and the commentators. After noticing the surname of one Facebook user, they asked her “Are you related to a member of our team here today?” And she was! This is another great example of way social media connects sports to their fans, and it’s only going to become more popular.
They also know how to promote the product
With the way Facebook is opening itself up to the web (just look at the ‘like’ buttons on this page) and Twitter attempting to go anywhere and everywhere, expect these social media integrations to become the norm.
Great post! There's no doubt that Facebook's Live Stream plugin makes any live event instantly social and because Facebook is a global platform of nearly a half billion users, it's conducive to integrating the plugin for sporting events like the Davis Cup or World Cup that feature international competition.
The interesting thing about this stream is that because is in the "AAA" of Davis Cup right now, the normal TV broadcast didn't want to show it, so they streamed it live and got some great feedback. Sports don't have to rely on TV anymore, and that started with the pro surfing tour a few years ago, bout all their events in the remote islands of Thailand streamed live, and it made their sport relevant again.
Love, love, love it. It beats having six windows of livestreams open, plus Twitter, trying to converse with other fans elsewhere while watching a match (on your own). If TA could swing this for every tournament, I'd be in tennis geek heaven.
Bringing everything into one windows makes everything so simple, not to mention they were constantly answering questions. A great user experience
Good post – While the Live Stream FB plugin is a great idea, one thing that could be improved is that contextually it doesn't actually make much sense. When back on your facebook page, I saw Anthony's post and thought he was posting a question to everyone, not knowing he actually posted that during a stream. Something needs to be improved around the interface here – such as posting the reply that the streaming admin posts, or making the actual event on Anthony's post (Question) more obvious – or perhaps even providing a link to a "replay" of the chat that occurred. Just some suggestions…
Ps. Nice Yellow Glasses!
Can Facebook make it more obvious that I posted the question from an in-stream chat? Why wasn't a shortened link included in my message, or a more prominent logo? Interesting questions.
Interesting… My concern with chat functionality around live streaming is that it has a really low ceiling – commentators can’t interact with everyone and that’s a little unfair in my view. As numbers increase, you can’t just widen the catchment of the chat tools. You need to hone interests into manageable units, like a real conversation.
How this is done is unclear, but needs considering. Perhaps it’s a ‘chat recommendation’ tool that groups like-minded users into small groups that perhaps other s can ‘follow’, so a group of fans can become popular for what they say to each other during the game / how they commentate on the action.
Just have to remember the 90:9:1 rule I guess, but that generic online commentary is probably on its way out.
Lyndon Morant (http://twitter.com/sociablesport)
Good point Sociable. The fact that there wasnt 100+ people on the chat at once made it very easy to respond to individual questions. You often get the "hey answer my question!" on any kind of chat, so that hasn't happened on live streams just yet. Is there any way to interact with on the commentators end, i.e: they integrate into the chat and acknowledg questions they've answered?
Interesting post Anthony.
This is my first visit to your blog and I am glad I came across it. I think adding social features to live-streamed event adds tremendous value for the consumer. I wish their was more interaction between commentators and fans during games in the US.
I spent 6 months living in Bondi Junction/ Studying at Sydney Uni, so I had an opportunity to witness first hand how Aussies love their footy and sport in general!
I am interested to see how this trend develops, so keep me posted. Look forward to using your blog as a resource moving forward.
Best,
Evan (http://www.twitter.com/ChiSportsGuy)
Thanks for the kind words Evan. With your Aussie insight you may be able to get some good value out of the blog, but there is some good US stuff in here too…I think, I hope.