Live From South Africa: Kicking and Streaming

Submitted by Eli on June 17, 2010 - 00:47
World Cup 2006:  - "Did you see that goal by Brazil?"
                             - "No, I wish.  I'm at work.  I'm tracking the play-by-play online, though.  Was it a good shot?"
World Cup 2010:  - "Did you see that goal by Brazil?"
                             - "Yes, which one do you mean? I saw both! That first one by Maicon was so amazing that I had to rewind my stream to see it again.  I thought for sure the goalie deflected it, but in slow motion you could see that he just bent it right in. Well I need to go file this report!"

 

In the technology world, four years is an eternity.  So, those of us woking on streaming technology not only understand its evolution in the last four years, but can truly appreciate how the presence of video everywhere has revolutionized coverage of the 2010 World Cup.

World Cup ESPN3 Screenshot

You may have noticed the ease of streaming the World Cup online has created a shift in thinking.  When you're figuring out if you'll be able to watch a game, instead of automatically asking yourself, "Am I going to be near a TV at that time?" the question becomes, "Am I going to be near a TV or a computer at that time?" (not to mention the option of mobile streaming).  Streaming the World Cup online has become a preferred option of many viewers because it's free, it's easy, and it looks good.  I have watched a couple (well, several—it does qualify as research for our work!) of the games on ESPN3.com and the higher quality streams have been superb. 

The streaming is adaptive bit rate, as the best online video experience requires today, and the only really "unwatchable" stream is the one at the lowest bit rate, which I have only been subjected to once.  ESPN EVP Damon Philips told NewTeeVee's Janko Roettgers that ESPN3's users are, on average, "watching the 1.5 Mbps stream," which is a relatively high bit rate and means there are a lot of happy viewers out there. 

In a NewTeeVee poll asking readers how they are watching the World Cup, 49% said on TV, while 50% said online (in addition to ESPN3.com, Univisionfutbol.com is another popular source for live streaming).  Granted, visitors to the NewTeeVee site might provide a bit of a skewed cross-section of all World Cup viewers, but it's still telling.  Would World Cup viewers consider online streaming as good an option if the quality wasn't cutting it? Nope.

One of the best uses of video so far in World Cup coverage has been within ESPN's GameCasts.  For those who like to track the games, ESPN.com provides lineups, play-by-play commentary, and best of all, nearly instantaneous uploads of game highlights as they happen.  Miss that beautiful shot just scored? ESPN will clip the live stream and the video highlight of the goal will be posted to GameCast in a matter of minutes (actually, CBS Interactive's GameSpot is using Elemental Live in a very similar use case this week at E3).

If you haven't experienced World Cup live streaming yet, there's just a few hours until the France v. Mexico game. Get your browser ready!