2009 All-Star Game Sprint Online Ballot
American League All-Star Races
Will Ian Kinsler hold off Dustin Pedroia at second base? As of the last American League update, Kinsler held a lead of fewer than 7,000 votes, but over the past 72 hours of exclusive online balloting Pedroia has received 20% more votes than Kinsler.
Will Kevin Youkilis make it four straight years for a Boston first baseman to be voted the AL starter? Mark Teixeira is making a strong bid to end the Red Sox run by garnering 17% more online votes than Youkilis over the last 72 hours in hopes of closing a 40,000 vote gap.
Can Jacoby Ellsbury leapfrog three players in the scramble to earn the final starting spot in the AL outfield? The most recent update had Josh Hamilton leading the way, but over the past 72 hours of online voting Ellsbury has received at least 16% more votes than the other three challengers — Hamilton, Torii Hunter and Carl Crawford.
National League All-Star Races
Will Yadier Molina be the first National League catcher in 17 years to be voted a hometown starter? In the latest National League update, Molina was ahead of Brian McCann by just under 400,000 votes. McCann, however, is vying to make up the ground as he has recorded nearly 30% more online votes than Molina in the last 72 hours.
Has Carlos Beltran garnered enough votes to hold off the late charges from Alfonso Soriano and Shane Victorino? Among this triumvirate battling for the final starting spot in the National League outfield, Soriano trailed Beltran in the last update, but has received 11% more online votes in the past 72 hours than the other two challengers — Beltran and Victorino.
Will hometown All-Star Albert Pujols be the National League’s top vote-getter for the third time in his career? The most recent update had Pujols less than 100,000 votes ahead of last year’s National League top vote-getter, Chase Utley. Over the past 72 hours, Pujols has tried to extend the lead with 15% more online votes than Utley.
Answers to these questions will come on Sunday, July 5, when the American and National League All-Star Teams are unveiled on the 2009 MLB All-Star Selection Show presented by Pepsi, televised nationally on TBS at 1 p.m. (EDT). MLB.com will provide comprehensive coverage of the All-Star Teams, including high quality video and details of every All-Star, immediately following the announcement. MLB Network will air a special MLB Tonight All-Star Edition, simulcast on MLB.com, at 6 p.m. (EDT) with expert analysis and a look at the players on the 2009 All-Star Game Sprint Final Vote.
Source: MLB.com
iStreamPlanet selected to create and manage live webcast experience of The Championships 2009 at Wimbledon
iStreamPlanet chosen by Microsoft to spearhead content acquisition, encoding, origination point of distribution, file-based transcoding, content management and developing the media player experience.
iStreamPlanet, a provider of digital media strategy, services and software applications, announced today that it has been selected by Microsoft Corp. to help deliver Wimbledon Live, providing live streaming and on-demand access to The Championships. iStreamPlanet will manage the encoding of the live content as well as design and deploy a custom Microsoft Silverlight-based media experience, which will leverage the latest Microsoft Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS) Smooth Streaming technology. Additionally, iStream’s digital asset management product, iStream Director (http://www.istreamplanet.com/Director.aspx) will manage all the file-based transcoding for match replays and highlights. iStream will combine efforts with content delivery network (CDN) partner Akamai to provide the media delivery, and encoding partner Inlet Technologies to provide the encoding technology for this historic annual event. This will be the first time a US audience will have the opportunity to view a live event in high-definition (HD) quality video with IIS Smooth Streaming.
“Microsoft looks forward to working with iStreamPlanet to bring tennis fans a high-quality viewing experience with Wimbledon Live,” said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft. “IIS Smooth Streaming provides end users an uninterrupted HD-quality viewing experience, allowing tennis fans to view and engage in Wimbledon Live online in a way they’ve never been able to before.”
Building upon their existing iStream Managed Webcasting service, iStream will manage the content acquisition, encoding, and delivery, from their Webcast Operation Center in Las Vegas. Once iStreamPlanet acquires the audio and video content from the satellite, it will use its fully customized, end-to-end workflow which utilizes iStream Director and Inlet’s encoding technology, to encode the live-event footage into the IIS Smooth Streaming format. iStream Director, iStreamPlanet’s award-winning digital asset management product (http://www.istreamplanet.com/DRM.aspx), will also be used to manage all the file-based transcoding for match replays and highlights. Additionally, viewers will experience the latest Silverlight solution in the iStream Player(R) (http://www.istreamplanet.com/Player.aspx) which features IIS Smooth Streaming DVR capability for pausing and rewinding the live HD-quality video, including instant replays. It also includes integrated video and companion ads, and on-demand video highlights and match replays.
“The most exciting part of this project is to have iStreamPlanet be one of the first to show off this game-changing technology, as well as having the opportunity to continue innovating around Microsoft’s IIS Smooth Streaming Platform for future globally viewed events,” said Mio Babic, founder and CEO of iStreamPlanet.
Source: iStreamPlanet
Footbo Integrates Facebook Connect
Footbo – the Fastest-Growing Online Community for Worldwide Football (Soccer) Fans with 250,000 Members Since its June 2008 Launch – Announces Facebook Connect Functionality For their Users
Footbo.com, the fastest-growing online community for football (soccer) fans around the world, has now integrated Facebook Connect. This enables users to share information across the two platforms and log-in with their Facebook profile.
The access to Facebook’s activity stream enables Footbo users to connect their accounts to Facebook and share their football blog posts, discussion topics and comments with their friends on Facebook. New users coming to Footbo will be able to log-in with their Facebook account, without having to fully register on Footbo.
“Enabling our users to follow football conversations and activities on Facebook helps them stay updated with their greatest passion. The integration of Facebook Connect is the first step to becoming a more open platform,” said Mani Honigstein, co-founder and CEO of Footbo.
Footbo launched a Beta version in June 2008 and provides an elaborate set of football-specific features and applications, delivered in a social networking environment. Since its launch, more than 250,000 football fans have joined the community.
Footbo for Fans
Footbo is the ultimate destination for true football (or soccer) fans around the world.
Features include:
- Interaction with friends and more than 250,000 football fans from around the globe
- Live scores, fixtures and personalized news
- Blogs and forums
- Prediction Games
- Grading of players’ performances
- Photo and video sharing
- Team and player profiles – created by the Footbo community
- Fan groups of teams and players
Grand Open Beta of the World’s First Online Basketball Game, Freestyle Street Basketball
The world’s first online basketball game, Freestyle Street Basketball, will commence its full open beta global services version at Gamekiss (http://www.gamekiss.com/), according to JCEntertainment. The open beta has been the subject of much speculation and guesses around forums, user community sites and YouTube. The trailer, “Freestyle Street Basketball is Back! (TRAILER),” made by Kamen1 and posted on YouTube, has attracted more than 4,500 views.
Freestyle Street Basketball is a proven and steady selling multiplayer online game, which is being serviced in eight countries with accumulative registrations of over 80 million gamers. Its main concept is freedom and youth. Until now, most basketball games feature either NBA stars or full size regular basketball courts. Freestyle features the street. Gamers in Freestyle will be able to create their very own and unique characters. They can play in various places including streets, parks and beaches. The hip-hop music featured in the background will enhance gamers’ street culture experience.
This global version features advanced AI, more variety of characters, improved user interface and better resolution. It will provide a fun and real experience of playing basketball online.
Gamekiss is the global service site of JCEntertainment, the original developer of Freestyle. As the game is being operated by the developer, it will provide a better and more stable service environment to gamers.
Game manager of Freestyle, FS Roman stated, “As we go on for the open beta from May 6, our users will be able to enjoy various new features and compete against other players worldwide without any worries such as character resets.”
Anybody can come and play at http://www.gamekiss.com/ through a simple registration. To aid non-English speaking users, there are beginner’s guides available in German and Turkish, with others to come.
To celebrate the open beta, Gamekiss will host various events. Participants can win in-game points and special items.
Freestyle Street Basketball
An online multiplayer basketball title developed by JCEntertainment. It was initially launched in Korea in December 2005. Now being serviced in a number of countries, it has more than 10 million registered users.
Gamekiss.com
A Global multiplayer online game portal site launched by JCE in February 2009. Starting with Freestyle, it is planning three more new titles within 2009. With the vision of ‘Providing FUN never before presented to the world’, it will continue to progress and introduce quality contents to global gamers.
Source: JC Entertainment Corp.
CBSSports.com to Broadcast 2009 NCAA Men’s Final Four Live Online
NCAA(R) March Madness(R) on Demand caps off record growth with live web cast of semifinal and final games of the Men’s Final Four(R)
CBSSports.com, in partnership with CBS Sports, CBS College Sports Network and the NCAA will provide a live online broadcast of the Men’s Final Four semifinal and championship games of the 2009 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship via NCAA March Madness on Demand (ncaa.com/mmod). It will be just the second time ever that a major U.S. sporting event has been shown live and in its entirety on the Internet.
The continued success of NCAA March Madness on Demand builds on the growth of the broadcast of the tournament on the CBS Television Network. CBS Sports’ coverage through the first four rounds of the 2009 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship is up +7% in the metered markets from 2008.
The 2009 Men’s Final Four features the University of Connecticut (uconnhuskies.com), Michigan State University (msuspartans.com), the University of North Carolina (tarheelblue.com) and Villanova University (villanova.com). For the second consecutive year, the official web sites for all four schools participating in the Men’s Final Four are managed and produced by CBS College Sports.
NCAA March Madness on Demand traffic figures through Sunday, March 29
- 6.92 million unique visitors to the NCAA March Madness on Demand video player (2008 figure was 4.43 million — 56% growth)
- 8.04 million total hours of live streaming video and audio consumed (2008 figure was 4.69 million – 71% growth)
- 2.7 million clicks of the “Boss Button” (2008 figure was 2.5 million for entire tournament)
This year’s record growth was driven by an extensive promotional campaign across all CBS platforms that helped drive awareness and excitement for this year’s tournament. NCAA March Madness on Demand (MMOD) is the Emmy award-winning video player that provides live streaming video and audio of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. Since its inception in 2003, MMOD traditionally provided live video of the first 56 games, starting with the first round, of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship as they were broadcast by CBS Sports, with local broadcasts being subject to blackouts. Beginning in 2008, MMOD started showing all 63 games from the first round of the tournament through the semifinal and final games of the Men’s Final Four, making it the only major sporting event that is broadcast live and in its entirety for free on the Internet. NCAA March Madness on Demand is available internationally as well.
NCAA March Madness on Demand can be viewed through a standard video player and a High-Quality option, both offered free of charge by presenting sponsors and NCAA Corporate Champions AT&T, Coca-Cola, and Pontiac.
Source: CBSSports.com