Jumbotron On-Demand?

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Photo courtesy of David Silbey and his T-Mobile Dash

I was at the Villanova/Georgetown b-ball game today contemplating how I could reasonably write off the tickets as an expense for tax purposes, and I started thinking about how Comcast could get more out of its Jumbotron. If there was a way to plug the Jumbotron display into a cable network, Comcast could then broadcast that out on-demand to college campuses. Dumb graphics, half-time show coverage and all.

More interestingly, maybe cable operators should do something equivalent to ESPN’s Full Circle coverage of certain events like last year’s Duke vs. UNC games. Instead of having different ESPN networks covering different aspects of the game, have different on-demand channels showing different game-related content. One station could have the game at 3/4 screen with the rest of the display dedicated to dynamic player and game stats. Another station could syndicate one of the college’s own radio commentators over the broadcast video feed. Another station could feature different camera angles.


Maybe the whole thing is a bit ridiculous, but that’s the thing about on-demand – operators can make content available even if it’s something only a small percentage of viewers want to see. And there have got to be advertisers who would love to reach specific alumni and sports-fan audiences. Money money money. What better incentive for a cable operator?

By the way, like Dave, I’m thrilled March Madness On Demand will be available online again this year for free. We have an old G4 Mac tower in our basement that’s wired via a long cable threaded through a vent to our living room TV. All the college basketball I want, for free, on my TV!

5 thoughts on “Jumbotron On-Demand?”

  2. Honestly, I can’t figure out why it says you need Windows. For what? The other minimum system requirements are extremely low. And you’re running the feed through a browser. Our Mac can support Windows Media Player. Maybe it’s a DRM thing? Maybe it’ll work anyway???

  3. DRM, baby! Other than Apple/iTunes, the vast majority of players are using Microsoft to protect their video content. Perhaps we’ll see a Mac player one of these days… it’s certainly not out of the question when you think about some of these light weight portable OSes that are capable.

  4. Nice thought! Do you have any idea how much ESPN/Disney corp and Comcast hate each other? This will NEVER happen because ESPN solely owns broadcast rights, my guess is that extends to everything going on at the broadcast site, including the jumbo-tron.

  5. Yeah, I know how much they hate each other. I live smack in the middle of Comcast HQ land and was here for the nasty Disney take-over attempt. Still, I love the idea of plugging a fat pipe into a Jumbotron.

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