The NFL’s Transition to the Digital Age

The National Football League has a long history in America. Today, this organization is not just a sports management group, but in fact an entertainment powerhouse that provides content to fans all over the world through a host of digital content across multiple mediums. The NFL not only utilizes the technologies available in the digital age to deliver content but also to manage the distribution of data content amongst various departments and branches of the organization. Since 1996 the NFL has taken
significant strides in successfully moving the organization into the digital age.

The NFL first moved to integrate digitally into the lives of fans in the mid-90s. With the help of NBC and the Microsoft Corporation, the NFL launched its first website in January 1996 by dedicating a website to that year’s Super Bowl XXX. Nine months later the National Football League launched it’s own online website. Utilizing a graphic interface integrated with audio and video features the two sites developed in 1996 mark the beginning of this organization’s transformation to a digital content provider (ESPN). The 1996 initiative was a groundbreaking move as Mike Conte, Microsoft’s personal systems group manager, claimed, "Superbowl.com is one of the most dynamic sites on the Web” (Microsoft).

The NFL has since developed its web space to perform as the umbrella website for league overviews, merchandise, and statistics while at the same time acting as a portal that links fans to team-specific sites. The web presence that the NFL has developed is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the methods by which this organization is delving into the digital age. The most important steps that the NFL has taken to provide more sophisticated digital services have really come from initiatives to adapt internal operations to the digital age.

The digital transformation of the internal organization began to take shape at the same time as the initial web platform development. In response to the FCC’s mandate for transition to digital television, NFL Films, the league-funded video documentation branch, began to research ways to conform to the imposed digital standards. By 2002, NFL Films had built a $45 million facility capable of high definition pre- and post-production of video (“NFL Films”).

Early in 2003, the NFL contracted with IBM for the production of a secure, digital media storehouse. This “digital-asset warehouse” was instituted as a means of distributing 80-years of NFL texts to franchises, and media affiliates (“NFL & IBM”). Presumably the digital production laboratory created by NFL Films would have a purpose in the digitization of archival footage to be included in this collection. Cited as holding over 100 million feet of archival footage in it’s vault and producing 200,000 feet of 16mm film per week during the regular season, NFL Films alone would be a huge supplier to this archive (“NFL Films”). This is not mention audio content from radio, statistics data, articles, and roughly every form of media produced by the NFL. It is fair to say that the data capacity needs of this server were astronomical in 2003 and that they are growing at an astronomical rate even today.

Also of note in 2003 was the launch of the NFL Network, which was initially scheduled to broadcast exclusively via DirectTV, a digital satellite cable service (Romano). By 2004, the 24/7-football network was added to basic cable packages of Comcast digital cable customers. With this expansion to 22 million subscribers, a new digital form of distribution was also made available, NFL Network On-Demand. The new on-demand capabilities enabled the NFL to be in the eyes of viewers whenever viewers wanted them to be (Umstead). The NFL Network has since faced various battles with cable providers, and struggles today to establish itself as a cable channel with staying power (Nocera).

Today NFL franchise owners see digital media as a new means of generating funds. This can be seen through initiatives such as ring tones, digital cell phone logos, and itunes highlight downloads. Partnerships in these ventures are providing huge sources of income for the NFL; the live streaming of video footage on Sprint phones alone is worth $600 million to the league. According to Robert Kraft, New England Patriots owner, the future of revenue growth is in “streaming video and high technology” (Bell).

The NFL has taken great strides and invested large amounts of money to position itself comfortably in the current digital age. With so much content available, the National Football League is well posed to utilize its historical archives in conjunction with its future content to form a solid base of digital media for consumer purchase. The NFL has proved that they can successfully utilize the newest mediums, such as cell phones and Ipods for delivery of content. It is hard to believe that the organization is not well poised to adapt to the next technological paradigm shift.

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Time

Or not enough of it. I haven't posted anything here for a good half of a year. It's a shame, but at the same time I've been out of my mind with all of the things that you would expect life to throw at you.

Since May I have:

Gotten Married
Gone to Peru
Taken on two challenging and fantastic jobs
And, Finished a 15 credit semester with a 4.0 (Snap!)

I will be posting some of my final papers here in the next day or two, so check them out. This semester has provided me with some really interesting topics, and consequently, some pretty cool pieces to add to my portfolio.

If you haven't already, check out the David Lewiston profile below. This dude has done some amazing things in the way of creating the Ethnic Music genre that we probably don't, but should, listen to more often.