This morning I had breakfast with Media Post's Dave Goetzl and we were talking about the ongoing growth of online viewing, especially in the way a younger demo can now view more customized micro and indepth sites for very specialized events, ala ESPN360's wall to wall coverage of events.growing proof that the digital space as an alternative and enhancement to mainstream coverage is gaining steam. A great summary of that coverage increase to date was posted on Fang's Bites today, and is definitely worth a read. Additionally, the use of social networking sites as a companion to real-time events continues to grow, with Z's newsbits doing a piece on the social sites launched this week by Lenovo and Coke to compliment and aggregate fans during the upcoming Olympics. Tack on NBC's purchase of WCSN as complimentary live support, and an argument can be made that the live digital space is growing now to a place where it will become lucrative to business partners not just as an add-on, but as as prime buy in lieu of the big ticket TV buy. As of now nothing can replace the hi-def big screen, but finding the niche for the digital play seems to be accelerating in growth, with the great examples provided above. It remains to be seen how the college space especially can capitalize on the drive by the younger demo, but with broadband costs dropping the opportunity for growth among the lesser sports to drive some revenue seems to be on the horizon for the entrepreneurial programmer.
Some other good reads…the Wall Street Journal broke the story of Alex Rodriguez signing with the William Morris Agency, with some great comment on the potential value of the deal…St. Louis Today has a profile of the Cardinals Bill DeWitt…the Times of London has a length profile of the founder of the modern Olympics, the Baron de Coubertin.
