Archive for the ‘Sport’ Category

Chelsea FC victory parade – Android video

Sunday, May 16th, 2010

I have no interest in football, but I did want to test out the video capture experience on my shiny new Motorola Milestone.  Chelsea FC’s victory parade today ran right past my window – good for video testing opportunity, bad news for my road being shut (again)  and not being allowed to leave my garage.

In summary:

  • Video capture very easy.
  • Upload to YouTube awesomely easy – though restricted to wifi only.
  • Video quality is amazing on the handset, though doesn’t look great on YouTube – not sure whether this is YouTube reducing the bit rate.
  • Android and iPhone leave all other phones standing when it comes to video capture user experience.

Results:

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Real Madrid has 100k off-portal mobile subs in Spain @ 12 euros/month

Sunday, January 24th, 2010
Emirates Stadium

Emirates Stadium entrance

I went along to the M-Football event on Thursday 21 Jan @ Arsenal’s impressive Emirates Stadium.  Jonathan MacDonald, the MC for the day, was particularly entertaining.

Despite being involved in the inception of Premium TV (now Perform Group) back in the dot com era, I have no interest in football and little understanding of it – and as an outsider it strikes me that the mobile opportunity is hugely under exploited.

The opportunity is clearly HUGE.  Real Madrid look to be doing a good job – with some insightful figures.  They exploit their mobile rights themselves in Spain – and license them elsewhere in the world.  In Spain:

  • 40% of their mobile revenues are off-portal.
  • They have 100,000 off-portal subscribers to their mobile service @ 12 euros / month.  You read that right.  Real Madrid fans in Spain alone spend 1.2m euros / month on off-portal mobile subscriptions.
  • Their churn is 1.5% / year (hard to believe).
Emirates Stadium - growing the grass

Growing the grass

Mark Curtis of Flirtomatic – always an interesting speaker who’s great at sharing stats – also talked about his attempt a few years ago to launch a reality TV show based on empowering fans to participate in their club’s key decisions – such as voting on who is playing in each match and who should be substituted during the match.   A brilliant concept.  Mark got as far as persuading a (minor) club to participate, Channel 4 commissioned the programme and the first episode was filmed – before resistance from every angle of the football world and a legal challenge killed it prior to screening.   A great shame – increasing fans’ involvement in the decisions and success of their club has to be interesting.

If you’re a football fan do you feel that your club is offering you a compelling mobile experience?

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