Deprecated: Optional parameter $function declared before required parameter $page is implicitly treated as a required parameter in /home/swalsh/public_html/wp-content/plugins/cron-view/plugin.php on line 201

Deprecated: Hook custom_css_loaded is deprecated since version jetpack-13.5! Use WordPress Custom CSS instead. Jetpack no longer supports Custom CSS. Read the WordPress.org documentation to learn how to apply custom styles to your site: https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/styles-overview/#applying-custom-css in /home/swalsh/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6078
How will social media and sports TV work? Here’s a few ideas… - Digital-Football.com - Football Social Media & Digital Sports news

How will social media and sports TV work? Here’s a few ideas…

I recently came across a video by Sports Business blogger, Russell Scibetti at the Global Sports Forum in Barcelona. Russell gave an example of how very soon we can expect to see social media (more specifically online audience participation) working alongside sports broadcasting. It’s something that I predict will become immensely huge within the next 2 years. Sports fans love statistics, and they love opinions, that’s why so many read blogs or the papers. However, there’s an increasing trend to micro-blog during live sports events via Facebook and Twitter. This goldmine of fan created content is waiting to be tapped into and there is massive potential for how broadcasters can be creative in delivering the very latest “buzz” across social media. Here are a few ideas:

Hashtag co-ordination

A simple enough concept but this will be the first step for sports broadcasters to motivate their audience to create conversations in-play. It only takes a prompt somewhere on the screen, or a presenter to explain that fans can follow what’s being said by contributing to a game specific hashtag. Whilst this is easy to do on Twitter, on Facebook it is a little more complex. Sports broadcasters could integrate their own Facebook page into their official website and use the social plugins available so the audience could leave their opinions in the commentary box. With all this data in one easy to find hashtag, broadcasters could then select appropriate comments and show them on screen.

Sky Sports Fanzone used to show fans SMS messages, so why not bring this back but enhance it with social media?

Retweet/Like competition for match decisions

This idea involves simplifying how broadcasters can compile opinion, and also exploit the competitive nature of sport rivalry. Rather than ask for comments, broadcasters could simply offer A or B answers to a questions via individual tweets, and then urge their followers to retweet/Like whichever answer they think is best. This could be used for matters such as:

  • Which team will win tonight? [Followed by two separate tweets such as ‘Man Utd will win, RT me if you agree’]
  • What the 87th minute goal offside or onside?
  • Who would you start upfront today against the opposition?

TV broadcasters could then calculate the number of RT’s/Likes very quickly and bring this up as a in-game stat. So whenever there is a contentious decision, TV could show immediately what their Facebook or Twitter users thought within a few minutes.

Fancast video blogging

Ok, so maybe this would be a bit unrealistic and difficult to moderate, but I’d love to see fans urged to make quick video commentaries about the sporting event. With the rise of smartphone users, this could be done quickly and easily. Fans already give their opinion on phone-ins, and sometimes we get brief interviews with fans pre-match, but I want to see more. Watching fans (even if the camera quality is a bit rubbish) talking passionately is both engaging and humorous. Most of the time, I find myself agreeing with my fans rather than the pundits. We already see it on YouTube, so why not bring it TV? Perhaps fans could even upload their video with a hashtag and then fellow supporters vote on their favourite video to be shown on air?

What idea do you have for using social media on sports TV? Leave a comment about what you want to see.

Sean Walsh

Founder of Digital-Football.com and leading Football Social Media expert.

You may also like...

31 Responses

  1. Ryan Fadus says:

    These are very interesting ideas and like you said I am very surprised that no one has thought of this yet. It’s so simple and yet nothing has happened with it. This is a great way to get fans more involved in the game itself and make the experience better for them. With the hashtag idea I remember they did it for the Ravens’ Super Bowl parade and who knows maybe soon it will be popping up on the bottom of the screen during football games. The fancast video blogging is also another great idea like you said it might be a little hard to moderate, but they could really do the same thing they do with moderating the tweets.

    Actually, one site already allows users to broadcast the games from their homes, is called LetMeHearYa. This is almost like the fancast video, but without the video and the broadcasts can be done anyway a person wants to do it. One problem I could see with the hashtag thing is after a whole game of it, it could get every annoying and even in the way if people are trying to see if a person stepped out of bounds or not. Unless, they do it a few times throughout the game then that would be fine.

  2. When I initially commented I seem to have clicked the -Notify me
    when new comments are added- checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get 4 emails
    with the same comment. Is there a means you are able to remove
    me from that service? Thank you!

  3. I like what you guys are up too. This type of clever work
    and exposure! Keep up the excellent works guys I’ve included you guys to our
    blogroll.

  4. Magnificent web site. A lot of helpful info here. I am sending it to
    some buddies ans additionally sharing in delicious. And of course, thank you for your effort!

  5. My family all the time say that I am killing my time here at
    web, except I know I am getting know-how all the time by reading such
    nice posts.

  6. Hello, its good paragraph on the topic of media print, we all know media is a wonderful source of information.

  7. This article presents clear idea in favor of the new
    visitors of blogging, that genuinely how to do blogging and
    site-building.

  8. Wow, incredible blog structure! How lengthy have you been running a blog for?
    you made running a blog look easy. The total glance of your site is magnificent, let
    alone the content!

  9. Hello there! I simply wish to give you a big thumbs up for the great information you
    have got here on this post. I am returning to your site for more soon.

  10. Ahaa, its good conversation regarding this paragraph at this place at this web site, I have read all that, so now me also commenting here.

  11. Excellent beat ! I wish to apprentice whilst you amend your site,
    how can i subscribe for a weblog site? The account aided me a acceptable deal.
    I were tiny bit acquainted of this your broadcast provided shiny transparent idea

  12. Hi, I do believe this is an excellent web site.
    I stumbledupon it 😉 I may come back yet again since i have book-marked it.
    Money and freedom is the greatest way to change, may you be rich and continue to help others.

  13. This is a topic which is near to my heart…
    Cheers! Exactly where are your contact details though?

  14. Hello, There’s no doubt that your web site could possibly be having web browser compatibility problems.
    When I take a look at your site in Safari, it looks fine
    however, when opening in IE, it has some overlapping issues.
    I simply wanted to give you a quick heads up!

    Other than that, fantastic site!

  15. Hello Dear, are you truly visiting this web site on a regular basis, if so afterward you will definitely get pleasant know-how.

  16. I will immediately snatch your rss feed as I can not find your email subscription link or
    e-newsletter service. Do you have any? Please let me
    know so that I may subscribe. Thanks.

  17. Wonderful blog! I found it while surfing around on Yahoo News.
    Do you have any tips on how to get listed in Yahoo News? I’ve been trying for a while but I never
    seem to get there! Thanks

  18. Thanks for sharing your thoughts about . Regards

  19. Have you ever thought about creating an ebook or guest authoring on other sites?
    I have a blog based on the same information you discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information. I
    know my viewers would value your work. If you’re even remotely interested, feel free to shoot me an e
    mail.

  20. Hi there, I enjoy reading through your article. I like to write a little
    comment to support you.

  21. Thank you for any other informative website. The place else could I get that kind of info written in such an ideal
    method? I’ve a challenge that I’m just now running on, and I’ve been at the glance out for such
    information.

  22. Actually when someone doesn’t be aware of after that its up to other visitors that they will
    assist, so here it happens.

  23. Ahaa, its nice conversation concerning this article
    at this place at this webpage, I have read all that, so
    at this time me also commenting at this place.

  24. Thanks to my father who shared with me about this website, this
    webpage is in fact remarkable.

  25. Aw, this was an incredibly good post. Spending some time and actual effort to produce a good
    article… but what can I say… I procrastinate a lot and don’t manage to get nearly anything done.

  26. I always spent my half an hour to read this blog’s content daily
    along with a cup of coffee.

  27. It’s going to be ending of mine day, however before finish I am reading this fantastic paragraph to increase my knowledge.

  28. Hi there this is somewhat of off topic but I was wondering if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to
    manually code with HTML. I’m starting a blog soon but have
    no coding skills so I wanted to get advice
    from someone with experience. Any help would be enormously appreciated!

  29. Thanks for the good writeup. It in fact used to
    be a amusement account it. Glance complex to more added agreeable from you!
    However, how could we keep up a correspondence?

  30. What’s up everyone, it’s my first pay a quick visit at this website, and piece of
    writing is actually fruitful designed for me, keep up posting these types of content.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Notice: ob_end_flush(): Failed to send buffer of zlib output compression (0) in /home/swalsh/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 5420