thepuzzler
January 4th, 2006, 12:47 AM
ABC Sports, ESPN tackle iTunes:
Wed Jan 4, 2006
Full Source (http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=televisionNews&storyID=2006-01-04T065020Z_01_ROB424503_RTRIDST_0_TELEVISION-MEDIA-ABCSPORTS-DC.XML)
Following the trail blazed by corporate sibling ABC with "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives," ESPN and ABC Sports will offer downloadable video like condensed games and ESPN's tongue-in-cheek commercials via iTunes.
Kicking off the content will be condensed games for each of the four Bowl Championship Series games carried this week by ABC Sports, including the Orange Bowl held Tuesday and the Rose Bowl that will be held Wednesday in Los Angeles. Each of the iTunes versions will be about 15 minutes long, including the scoring plays, and cost $1.99 each.
Beginning this month, ESPN also will offer other content for sale on iTunes including "Best of the X Games," an ESPN-owned action-sports franchise; full episodes of "Knight School," a reality program about Texas Tech basketball coach Bobby Knight that has not yet debuted on ESPN; and interviews with sports legends from its "SportsCentury" programs on ESPN Classic. "Knight School" will debut on iTunes. Episodes will be $1.99, the prevailing price for other content on the channel.
The move is part of a wider effort by ESPN/ABC Sports parent Walt Disney Co. to increase content available on iTunes. Other Disney content, including ABC Family's "Wildfire" series, "Kim Possible" from the Disney Channel and "America's Funniest Home Videos," the long-running video show on ABC, will soon be available on iTunes. And it won't just be episodic series. The classic 1970s "Schoolhouse Rock" and such Disney animated shorts as "The Three Little Pigs" (which won an Academy Award in 1933) and "The Tortoise and the Hare" (Academy Award in 1935) also will be downloadable.
Disney's initial experience with iPod content has "only reaffirmed our belief that people want popular programming and are willing to consume it on different formats and it's only helped our network viewership," Disney-ABC executive vp digital media Albert Cheng said.
Even one of ESPN's best-known types of content is getting the iTunes treatment: Video iPod users will be able to download ESPN's award-winning "This is SportsCenter" commercials featuring ESPN personalities and sports stars for free. "SportsCenter" commercials have been available via DVD or on-demand on ESPN.com.
"They're among the most used and most sought-after pieces of content that we have outside of our games," said Sean Bratches, executive vp sales and marketing for Disney and ESPN Networks. "From the fan's perspective, they are an expression of our company and the passion in which we present ourselves."
Sports leagues have thought hard about whether to offer content via iPod, and some have begun preliminary talks though no deals have yet been announced. It isn't clear whether ESPN/ABC would offer any other condensed games in the future; Bratches said ESPN wanted to take a wait-and-see approach to see if consumers are receptive to it.
While ESPN has been known to negotiate wide-ranging new-media rights, Bratches declined to discuss specific league-by-league rights. ESPN/ABC has, among other rights, agreements with Major League Baseball and the National Football League.
"When we're negotiating rights with a rightsholder, we are doing this to serve our fans on whatever platform or platforms they want to take it," Bratches said. "More so than not, we've got the rights to provide content."
Bratches said time will tell whether this will be a profitable part of ESPN's multimedia offerings.
Read the rest of the article here (http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=televisionNews&storyID=uri:2006-01-04T065020Z_01_ROB424503_RTRIDST_0_TELEVISION-MEDIA-ABCSPORTS-DC.XML&pageNumber=1&summit=)
Wed Jan 4, 2006
Full Source (http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=televisionNews&storyID=2006-01-04T065020Z_01_ROB424503_RTRIDST_0_TELEVISION-MEDIA-ABCSPORTS-DC.XML)
Following the trail blazed by corporate sibling ABC with "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives," ESPN and ABC Sports will offer downloadable video like condensed games and ESPN's tongue-in-cheek commercials via iTunes.
Kicking off the content will be condensed games for each of the four Bowl Championship Series games carried this week by ABC Sports, including the Orange Bowl held Tuesday and the Rose Bowl that will be held Wednesday in Los Angeles. Each of the iTunes versions will be about 15 minutes long, including the scoring plays, and cost $1.99 each.
Beginning this month, ESPN also will offer other content for sale on iTunes including "Best of the X Games," an ESPN-owned action-sports franchise; full episodes of "Knight School," a reality program about Texas Tech basketball coach Bobby Knight that has not yet debuted on ESPN; and interviews with sports legends from its "SportsCentury" programs on ESPN Classic. "Knight School" will debut on iTunes. Episodes will be $1.99, the prevailing price for other content on the channel.
The move is part of a wider effort by ESPN/ABC Sports parent Walt Disney Co. to increase content available on iTunes. Other Disney content, including ABC Family's "Wildfire" series, "Kim Possible" from the Disney Channel and "America's Funniest Home Videos," the long-running video show on ABC, will soon be available on iTunes. And it won't just be episodic series. The classic 1970s "Schoolhouse Rock" and such Disney animated shorts as "The Three Little Pigs" (which won an Academy Award in 1933) and "The Tortoise and the Hare" (Academy Award in 1935) also will be downloadable.
Disney's initial experience with iPod content has "only reaffirmed our belief that people want popular programming and are willing to consume it on different formats and it's only helped our network viewership," Disney-ABC executive vp digital media Albert Cheng said.
Even one of ESPN's best-known types of content is getting the iTunes treatment: Video iPod users will be able to download ESPN's award-winning "This is SportsCenter" commercials featuring ESPN personalities and sports stars for free. "SportsCenter" commercials have been available via DVD or on-demand on ESPN.com.
"They're among the most used and most sought-after pieces of content that we have outside of our games," said Sean Bratches, executive vp sales and marketing for Disney and ESPN Networks. "From the fan's perspective, they are an expression of our company and the passion in which we present ourselves."
Sports leagues have thought hard about whether to offer content via iPod, and some have begun preliminary talks though no deals have yet been announced. It isn't clear whether ESPN/ABC would offer any other condensed games in the future; Bratches said ESPN wanted to take a wait-and-see approach to see if consumers are receptive to it.
While ESPN has been known to negotiate wide-ranging new-media rights, Bratches declined to discuss specific league-by-league rights. ESPN/ABC has, among other rights, agreements with Major League Baseball and the National Football League.
"When we're negotiating rights with a rightsholder, we are doing this to serve our fans on whatever platform or platforms they want to take it," Bratches said. "More so than not, we've got the rights to provide content."
Bratches said time will tell whether this will be a profitable part of ESPN's multimedia offerings.
Read the rest of the article here (http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=televisionNews&storyID=uri:2006-01-04T065020Z_01_ROB424503_RTRIDST_0_TELEVISION-MEDIA-ABCSPORTS-DC.XML&pageNumber=1&summit=)