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Multimedia Super Bowl: Tech-Savvy Fans Can Follow Game Through Array of Sources

Posted on: Saturday, 4 February 2006, 15:00 CST

By Angel Riggs, Tulsa World, Okla.

Feb. 4--So maybe you don't have a ticket to Sunday's game. Football fans still have plenty of gadgets to play with, ensuring that the only thing missing from their Super Bowl experience is a ring. Whether you're the Roethlisberger or Hasselbeck of armchair quarterbacking, or if you just tune in for the commercials, you can bet on having a hard time getting away from the championship. That's because several communications companies and a variety of electronics retailers have huddled to form a game plan that brings the Super Bowl to you -- wherever you are. Oh, sure, you can watch the game on TV, but you can also listen to it in multiple languages on your satellite radio. And, of course, you can get game updates on your cell phone, or even watch replays on certain phones. The Super Bowl, with its 145 million expected viewers, is huge business for a lot of companies. But they're not new to the roster. These businesses have been in the lineup all season long, blitzing football fans with loads of supplements to help them track their favorite teams. And it's all come down to this Sunday, when electronics retailers get an after-Christmas surge and advertisers are open for a touchdown pass. This year, Sprint Nextel Corp. teamed up with the National Football League to offer subscribers with certain cell phones access to the NFL's archived video and rebroadcasts of the NFL Network, said David DeVries, a Sprint spokesman. That's right, the company's vision phones allow subscribers to watch events, including press conferences, on their cell phones at broadband speeds, depending on the model. The company is also using its status as the official sponsor of this year's Super Bowl half-time show to provide exclusive extras for custom ers. The extravaganza will include an appearance by The Rolling Stones. "We're going to record The Rolling Stones' performance, and we'll break those songs performed into separate live tracks and make them available to our customers," DeVries said.

Other companies are also making efforts to intercept a portion of the audience, which is expected to include more than 60 percent of American adults, according to the National Retail Federation. U.S. Cellular Corp. is on a team with other mobile services providers to give cell phone users a say in which athlete is voted this year's most valuable player. "We're part of a group that's doing live MVP voting during the Super Bowl," said Kathy Volpi, the company's product management director. Watch for advertisements during the game that alert viewers when it's time to cast their votes via cell phone text messaging. The votes will count for 20 percent of the official tally, according to U.S. Cellular. The MVP voting is part of a season-long strategy to capture the attention of sports fans. Customers have used U.S. Cellular's Fox Sports Mobile service to check game scores and other statistics on cell phones during games, Volpi said. U.S. Cellular has offered an a la carte selection of sports information, fantasy games and team tracking for roughly $3 to $4 per service. Even Sirius Satellite Radio is in the starting lineup. The subscription service, also an NFL partner, will provide play-by-play broadcasts of the Super Bowl. In fact, it has dedicated 11 channels to the game, including two Spanish language broadcasts, a BBC broadcast, and transmissions in Russian, French, Mandarin Chinese, German and Japanese. For those fans who want rah-rah coverage, Sirius will offer both the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks team broadcasts on separate channels. And, of course, there's the Super Bowl staple -- the TV. If ever there's an excuse to upgrade the tube, it's for Sunday's telecast. The Thornton, Colo.-based company promised that TV purchases made before stores closed Friday would be delivered and installed in time for the big game. The store also has packaged a top-of-the-line sports setup. It's expensive, at just under $10,000. But it includes a 65-inch DLP television, two 32-inch flat panel TVs to sit on each side of the big screen, a surround-sound system and a 15-inch battery-operated wireless TV -- just in case you have to leave the room. "You can literally sit there and watch whatever sports you want," Berrett said. Of course, if the Ultimate package is a bit out of your price range, don't worry, Berrett said. "We have smaller packages that (cost) a lot less, as well." ------------ Angel Riggs 581-8413 angel.riggs@tulsaworld.com

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Source: Tulsa World

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