The NFL has generated more than 140,000 downloads of its new iPad application, "NFL '11," since its release last week, and the product last night ranked third among all free iPad apps on iTunes. The app, the league's first tablet-optimized product with live video, represents a key portion of an overall digital media strategy for this weekend's NFL Draft that features a marked expansion in available mobile content compared to prior years. In addition to the iPad version of "NFL '11," the league yesterday released "NFL Mobile," an iPhone application positioned for customers of Verizon, the NFL's wireless sponsor, that will include live NFL Network video from the Draft, team-by-team trackers, war room coverage, news and other exclusive content. The mobile Web version of NFL.com has also been enlarged, and data and news-driven smartphone versions of "NFL '11" have also been released on the Android platform and on the iPhone for AT&T customers. "This is the fastest-growing area of content consumption that we're seeing," said NFL Senior VP/Media Strategy & Development Hans Schroeder. "This is somewhere we obviously need to be with a much wider footprint." Despite the ongoing NFL labor dispute, league officials said digital coverage of the Draft will be largely unaffected. "This is one area that will not be much different," Schroeder said. "[The labor situation] is really a separate set of issues. Fans still want to know what's happening with their teams, who they're picking, and the interest we're seeing already, particularly through the iPad downloads, is evidence of that. When it comes to the pure content creation side of this, it's very much business as usual."
