You, Sports, and Your Second Screen

When it comes to enjoying the second screen experience – that is, using interactive and online social programs or live viewing apps through secondary devices while watching TV – you can’t get much better than second screens during live sporting events. The very nature of live programming like sports makes it ideal for experiencing with social media and through TV-everywhere apps. Best of all, using these apps for live viewing is part of your cable subscription (not to mention the cable broadband connection in your house or that Wi-Fi hotspot powering the app). Just login with the username and password from your cable operator to watch live. And with Wimbledon underway this week, we thought we would send a reminder about how you can get the most out of your tablet and smartphone while watching sports. So check out these key apps and laugh in the face of scheduling conflicts, delayed planes, and long meetings. Thanks to the tech, you’re not missing a single serve (or homer, or power-play, or touchdown…). 

The WatchESPN app has exclusive coverage of the Wimbledon tennis tournament that kicked off this week from London and continues through July 7th. The multi-screen experience for tennis fans will offer almost 1,000 hours of content! ESPN has 140 hours of live telecasts planned plus an additional 800 more hours streamed via through ESPN3 via the WatchESPN app and ESPN.com. WatchESPN will also complement the live telecasts and include live video, radio and the IBM Slamtracker to follow the tournament. Don’t forget - there is more than tennis on WatchESPN. Sports fans may remember WatchESPN was the go-to app for the NBA playoffs and is the official app for ESPN College Football.

MLB.com At Bat is the official app for Major League Baseball for tablets and smartphones. In addition to watching live games, At Bat provides key plays and moments from every game, video highlights, pitch-by-pitch updates, realistic ballpark renderings, breaking news, standings, schedules, rosters and stats. And, there are additional live games and archival footage for MLB.TV premium subscribers.

NFL ’13 was redesigned and launched in April 2013 with the NFL Draft and will continue through the regular season to include game recaps, customized alerts, news, twitter feeds, and video highlights.

NHL GameCenter lets fans watch out-of-market games live, watch game highlights, and stream live game audio. During the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the app provides series-by-series plays and analysis as well as post-game video highlights.

MLS MatchDay 2013, available on Apple and Android smartphones and tablets, was recently updated for the 2013 Major League Soccer season. This app delivers the latest news, videos, scores and highlights as well as video notification and match alerts for the World Cup qualifier games.

And for a slightly different experience, try SportsTap. It’s a multi-sport app that has an advanced UI that resembles a smartphone home screen so navigation is intuitive. You can customize the app to feature any of your favorite sports and leagues for updated scores, game information, and stats. These apps provide an opportunity to interact with other fans, have real-time additional information at your fingertips and stay ahead of the game with scores and standings – but we know tech changes fast.

If we missed a great sports app, let us know in the comments.