The 2014 NFL season kicked off Thursday night between the Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers. With linebackers, quarterbacks and running backs returning to the grid irons, fans are also heading back to their sofa to watch the big games. But, according to one NFL executive, they are watching the NFL on two screens.
Speaking at an NFL media event in Seattle on Wednesday to discuss and promote NFL Now, NFL Executive Vice President of Media Brian Rolapp said a majority – between 60 and 70 percent – of fans view football games on a second screen, according to a report by USA Today.
Whether it’s watching a second game, checking up on the latest fantasy football points or reading tweets, the NFL experience has become more than just watching it on your home television set. Rolapp noted that television is still the most effective way to watch the NFL, but now it has also become about what fans are doing throughout the game and what they’re doing once the game has come to an end.
Twitter has become an important facet for the NFL as one can notice key moments in the game being tweeted about almost instantaneously.
“You can literally see the spikes in tweet traffic that are perfectly coordinated with interesting moments in the game,” said Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, who explained that interactive television has massively improved over the past five years. Costolo added that back in its infancy period interactive TV was about stopping a live game, touching the screen and viewing the content, which would then lead to a restart of the TV set.
“The reality is that the second screen, in the form of Twitter, has really brought people much more in direct contact with these players, coaches, and commentators that they previously thought of as just a cornerback of the Atlanta Falcons,” Costolo stated. “Now, to be able to see them commenting during the game about something that’s happening on the field, you get this much broader perspective about the person.”
Rolapp believes the rumors of television’s demise are “greatly exaggerated” and the NFL product has gained more television viewers than ever before. Costolo interjected with a side note that he thinks Twitter has prompted consumers to watch more live sports rather than recording it on a DVR.
“I’ve had people tell me that Twitter has sent them back in a time away from DVR, because if they DVR a game and check their feed, they’ll get an alert about the score,” Costolo added. “I do it myself — if for some reason I can’t watch a game, I’ll turn my phone off completely. I’m always trying to constantly watch the game in the moment now and I hear that anecdotally all around the world.”
Although video consumption is up by nearly half, the NFL cannot produce enough content to meet those demands, even though its NFL Now maintains the largest digital network in all of the major sports leagues.
Geek Wire reported that it’s very clear that the NFL is modernizing the game and keeping up with the ever technologically changing landscape – this season, the NFL is utilizing Microsoft Surface tablets, players will be wearing RFID tags on their shoulder pads and coaches will be sporting state-of-the-art noise-canceling headsets for communication purposes.
Oh, and one more thing, the New England Patriots is the most-followed NFL team and Reggie Bush is the most-followed player on Twitter.
