December 16, 2004
Will technology ruin sports?
Highlights on cellphones and online fantasy teams alter how fans view games, reports The Christian Science Monitor.
"Even if they never slept, dedicated sports fans in the United States couldn't watch all the sports programming available. Now, technology is raising the ante. For example:
-- ESPN has just announced plans to launch ESPN Mobile late next year, which will send customized sports news (and perhaps video) to owners of a new lineof ESPN mobile phones.
-- Pro basketball's "NBA Unwired" will allow cellphone customers to play video games and fantasy hoops, watch sports news on their phones, and use the voices of NBA stars as their ringtones.
-- Major League Baseball and the National Football League (NFL) have signed contracts with satellite radio companies, which allow fans to hear any game from anywhere in the US.
Professional leagues and teams are trying to decipher what effect this deluge of information and programming will have on them, Wakefield says. What's going to be the effect of fans using mobile devices at the arena or stadium? Will they be watching replays and videos and, if so, will that change the way they watch the game on the field? "I don't have the answers to that," he says. "Teams are trying to figure out if fans really want all that media content, if you will, at the game - and [wondering if it's] messing up the tradition of going to the game.
[...] Many observers predict gambling, including gambling on sports, may become one of the most popular activities on mobile phones, just as it has become on the Internet.
The technology is so new that it's too early to draw conclusions. But the signs of change are unmistakable."
Related article:
-- Dialing for Instant Replay - Fans use their cellphones to get a secondhand view of an instant replay they couldn't see - by calling TV-watching friends.
-- Get off the PHONE! - Ballparks are awash in 'cell-fanatics' and they're getting on our nerves
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