Looking into 2011 on the sports landscape, all roads lead to broadband. The amount of content that will be available online will exceed the amount on broadcast and cable TV combined.
With the advent of smart phones, fans can take their sports with them in their pockets. Laptops have become portable TVs, and with wireless hot spots just about anywhere, fans are never far from full games or highlights of their favorite teams.
The NBA, NHL, Major League Baseball, MLS, NASCAR and international sports offer season passes for broadband that give fans almost all their home team’s games — with most of them in high definition. I find subscribing to the online version a better deal than going through a cable company or satellite service because of portability and price. Plus, in many cases the online subscriptions include audio options that allow you listen to the radio broadcasts as well as video on demand in case you missed a game.
The networks are getting into the game, and the leader in that area by far is ESPN3.com. It offers more than 2,000 live events, including baseball, the NBA and more college football and basketball games than I can count. It also offers tennis, both MLS and international soccer and even cricket for those of you who need your weekly wicket fix.
NBC Sports offers “Sunday Night Football” as well as some golf coverage. The real depth comes at its Universalsports.com site, where there is plenty of good coverage of both Summer and Winter Olympic sports.
Both Fox Sports and CBS Sports offer plenty of original content via broadband at their sites, and it is well worth checking out.
Turner Sports really is full of great content with its Web sites NASCAR.com, PGA.com and NBA.com.
Coming later this week: how Google TV, Apple TV and Roku could offer sports fans a chance of merging your broadband with your existing cable in 2011.
Examiner columnist Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this!, on washingtonexaminer.com.
