World Cup to bolster mobile TV

With the World Cup kicking off on Friday, cell phones are playing a new role in bringing the games live to fans wherever they may be, and regardless of timezone.
Analysts are already predicting that this year’s World Cup will likely break the record for the most online coverage of any sporting event to date, not to mention the array of apps and slew of social media plugins to keep football fans connected to the heart of the game.
In the US, anyone connected to the internet via an ESPN affiliate – including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast – will be able to watch the beautiful game for free, whilst Spanish speakers will also be able to shout “ole!” whilst watching on Univision.com and Univision Movil.

Appy football fans will be able to play along and keep score on their phones using a plethora of apps from the likes of Goal.com, Mundial Fox Soccer Channel and even The Associated Press.
For those not content with simple score updates, ESPN has also released its own app with live play-by-play audio. And for those that want to rant and rave, Turner Sports’ SportsNow app will let passionate punters “trash-talk directly from the app” to Facebook and Twitter.
A World Cup iPhone app from South Korea’s KT will let excited fans use their phones in glow stick mode by shaking it, while LiveSoccerTV.com reaches out to British expats to let them know where is the nearest football friendly pub out in the wilderness of the US.
Before the tournament even starts, there’s already a clear winner emerging, and that winner is mobile TV, something already rather popular in Asia, but a slow starter in the USA and Europe.
With ESPN partnering with AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, MobiTV and Qualcomm’s darling FLO TV though, there may be many more Americans watching the games on the smaller screen.
While this is undoubtedly good for mobile TV firms, it may also be rather bad for mobile networks, which could quickly find themselves choked – not exactly the goal.
Then again, those who will really watch whole games on their cell phones are but a tiny minority of the already tiny minority of Americans who even like football (soccer) all that much. But that doesn’t stop analysts from predicting that the world cup will be “a galvanizing event” for mobile TV anyway.
Whatever the end result, it seems mobile TV may score some points over the next few weeks, and that, at least, is something mobile addicts can celebrate.