Want to watch NFL games (that’s American Football to most folks) over the web? Well, now you can, sort of (Ars Technica).

First, you’ll have to be based in the U.S. Second, you’ll need to be a current subscriber to DirectTV’s $269 satellite package. Lastly, you’ll need to pony up an additional $99 per year. Once you’ve met all of these criteria, you can then watch NFL games streamed to a Windows PC (Internet Explorer only).

As Josh Catone writes, over at Read/WriteWeb:

If that sounds like a bum deal to you, that’s because it really is. Compared to Major League Baseball, a pioneer in online sports streaming, the NFL package sounds just awful. As a New York Yankees fan living outside of their local market, I rely on baseball’s MLB.TV service to keep tabs on my favorite team. With MLB.TV for under $100 per season I can watch any out of market game streamed live, or watch full archives of completed games for the entire season, including edited/condensed games which show only the outcome of every at bat.

Josh then goes onto make the point: why would anybody want to pay to watch games online, if they’ve already got access via satellite?

It’s clear that the NFL’s crippled online offering is all about respecting its exclusive DirectTV partnership and controlling access to “out of market” games i.e. matches that aren’t shown on local TV.

Consumers know that this isn’t in their interests and are increasingly aware that the Internet provides the perfect platform for getting around any regional restrictions, with or without the support of the leagues themselves. A number of P2P services illegally re-stream sports coverage from television networks outside of the originating country, while Sling Media’s SlingBox enables users to stream their TV signal over the Internet for personal use (which could include live sports coverage).

Read Josh Catone’s full report “NFL to Stream Games Live Online — Poorly” over at Read/WriteWeb »

It was as if Vint Cerf, the so-called grandfather of the Internet, was talking to a group of dinosaurs.

Cerf, who helped build the Internet while working as a researcher at Stanford University in the 1970s, spoke to television executives at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival this past weekend and told them how the Internet’s influence was radically altering their businesses and how it was imperative for them to view this golden opportunity to be exploited instead of a threat to their survival (The Guardian report). Continue reading »

Wallstrip, one of my favorite online video shows, has bagged an interview with recently appointed Joost CEO, Mike Volpi. In this week’s episode, host Lindsay Campbell and Volpi discuss the company’s pitch to content owners, how the service differs from competing Internet TV offerings, and the value proposition Joost is offering to advertisers.

A few key quotes from Volpi during the interview:

• On Joost’s appeal to content owners: “We are very focussed on copy-protected content… everything on Joost is legitimate… all of our content providers are professional.”
• The competition: “…right now you have CBS news and you have YouTube… and there’s a gaping hole in the middle.” [Joost’s niche, says Volpi, is that it’s professional, on-demand, and targeted content.]
• On the viewing experience: “A high quality experience that’s full screen… the viewing experience is more television-like.” [Translucent menus blah, blah, blah]
  “More of a TV-viewing experience rather than a classical web with a small screenshot.”
• Advertising: “We know a little about you [demographics] and all of your viewing history”. As a result, advertising on Joost, says Volpi, will be less intrusive and highly targeted. [This isn’t new information or unique to Joost, but it sounds a lot more scary hearing Volpi describe Joost’s big brother tendencies out loud. Would you want your cable company to keep a record of everything you’ve watched?]

Watch the full Wallstrip episode after the jump. Continue reading »