NFL.com has revamped its video player, the first such revision since the league took operations of its Web site in-house three years ago.
The new, enlarged player supports a higher resolution of about 1 megabit per second. It also contains social-media applications and is more customizable than the previous player, making for easier sponsor activation around NFL video.
The new player is based on Adobe Flash software, as was the previous player.
The new video player includes
social-media applications.
While the impetus for the change primarily was to bring the video player more up to date and add the new capabilities, league officials acknowledged some competitive push from other content owners and distributors. Many key online hubs in the sports and entertainment space, such as MLB.com and the major TV networks, are now streaming video at or near high-definition-quality resolutions.
“Video is clearly becoming more and more important, and our own archive is nearing 40,000 videos, so the question before us was, how do we put together the best player to support what our fans want,” said Laura Goldberg, general manager of NFL Online.
The league conducted a soft launch of the new video player after last month’s draft and is now conducting final preparations for the July opening of training camps, when traffic to the site begins to rise again toward peak levels.
The league declined to specify figures for video consumption on NFL.com but said such usage both last season and since Super Bowl XLIII is up more than 40 percent compared with the same time period a year prior.
Meanwhile, the league has not closed the door on the possibility of allowing online game highlights to be seen at sites beyond NFL.com. Since the 2007 relaunch of NFL.com, the league has made a significant point of having its site be the only online source for game highlights, but as content strategies with multiple distribution points continue to gain strong favor elsewhere, the league is considering a shift in strategy.
Several league partners have openly but unsuccessfully approached the league about streaming highlights on their sites.
“We’re still looking at what all the numbers might look like going in that direction, and determining the best way to move forward,” Goldberg said. “This is something we regularly evaluate.”
