Twitter’s much-hyped launch of Periscope last week could lay the foundation for more sports fans to find different options to consume their regular sports programming offered on cable.
On Saturday, the Seattle Reign FC, a member of the National Women’s Soccer League, streamed their pre-season match on Periscope.
According to Reign FC owner Bill Predmore, Periscope was chosen over Meerkat, another similar video streaming app, for its ability to archive broadcasts and because of its deep integration with Twitter.
The Reign’s game was streamed on Periscope with an iPhone 6+ on a tripod, but Predmore is also considering adding an external mic to “allow a play-by-play announcer to accompany the broadcast.” But for now, Predmore sounds content with the setup, saying in a Geekwire article, “for now we think simple is better.”
Aside from the in-game action, the Reign FC owner is considering adding cameras behind the goal, behind the benches, and in the locker room for post game interviews. All of this comes on top of the team having already streamed some of their training sessions via Periscope.
At this time the team is broadcasting games via Periscope to enhance the fan experience, but they also acknowledged that there is potential for the app to be used for scouting, training or player development as well. Discussing that potential, Predmore said, “For instance, being able to watch a training session from a team in Europe or Japan would give us the chance to see a player that would otherwise be challenging to scout,” and went on to say, “We also expect other use-cases to emerge as the technology matures.”
While the app was used to broadcast a preseason game, broadcasting a regular season game for one of the four major sports leagues could get complicated as teams and leagues would have to work around and be aware of existing television broadcast deals.
Predmore poses an interesting thought as he wonders how the leagues will handle independent users broadcasting games vis Periscope since users already post short clips of games and plays.
Periscope looks to be filled with fan engagement potential for sports teams and while there are still some uncertainties with broadcast rights, you can bet sports TV rights holders will be watching the development of live-streaming apps with a very close eye.