Beta Test Our New ‘Q Score’ Program

When SportsTV Guide started in 2003, we delivered 90% of our service via fax machine. That number has flipped to under 3% of our subscribers in the intervening 15+ years. The technology we employ today has profoundly changed the quality and reliability of our product and we see a bright future in further leveraging technology to improve our product and its value. To that end, we are ecstatic to inform you all about a beta test we are undertaking to validate a new feature. We are inviting current STVG subscribers to help us vet our new Q Score program that will rate game quality for all events listed on your SportsTV Guide. The Q Score will help sports bar operators and managers identify the best matchups and games for their establishment to show. If you want to see this powerful [...]

The Gap Between Sports Bars & Showing Women’s Sports

According to a Nielsen research study, 84% of sports fans are interested in watching women’s sports. But are sports bars taking advantage of that fandom? We polled our subscribers of The Daily Rail newsletter and the SportsTV Guide (all sports bar & restaurant owners, operators and managers), to find out that answer. Most Sports Bars Show Women’s Sports The good news is that sports bar operators and owners are taking advantage of the women’s sports fanbase. The majority of sports bar operators (82%) said they show women’s sports at their bar or restaurant. How often varies greatly in the industry, however. A third of sports bars reported showing women’s sports several times per week while another third said they only show women’s sports a handful of times per year. Fewer than a quarter of sports bar (22%) reported that they [...]

Will the AAF Bring Success to Sports Bars?

Every February we all cry poor as the NBA and NHL drag on, the interminable college basketball schedule continues, and pitchers and catchers finally report. Well, your poverty ends on February 9th as the Alliance of American Football (AAF) kicks off its inaugural season. To be direct, your guess might be as good as mine, but I am going to attempt to look at history and current trends and divine what will happen and how you can profit from it. Let’s start with a brief history lesson and see what we can glean from that. Will History Repeat Itself? In the ‘60s an upstart league called the American Football League took on the NFL. By 1969, the New York Jets had beaten the unbeatable Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. From there, it was just a formality for the leagues [...]

By |2022-06-07T13:54:36-04:00February 6th, 2019|Alternate Sports Programming, Sports TV News|0 Comments

The OTT Sports Program Provider Directory

In a previous post we talked about why sports bars need to show sports programming only available on OTT services. In short: if you're looking to stand out from every other sports bar that shows what's on ESPN, Comcast, Fox, etc. then you need to look for different and interesting content that sports fans can't get anywhere else. That means OTT sports program providers. Sports bars looking to dip their feet in the OTT sports content waters have a lot of options to choose from. Depending what your bar’s specialty is might sway you one way or another, but here are some of the more mainstream players and what they provide. Amazon Prime Launched: N/A Cost: $99/annual for Amazon Prime, $8.99/month for Prime Video Amazon is a relatively new player in OTT sports but is quickly making waves. Amazon Prime subscribers [...]

How to Watch the MLB on Facebook Watch

The relationship between sports and social media has been evolving since Facebook hit the scene in 2004. Various platforms have tested live events from Twitter’s NFL experimenting in 2016 to the full Thursday Night NFL schedule hosted by Amazon Prime. Now it appears that Major League Baseball wants to wade into social streaming with their 2018 season Facebook Watch schedule. Today’s the game between Milwaukee and St. Louis is exclusively available on Facebook Watch, and we list them all on the SportsTV Guide's streaming section. Facebook Watch will host 25 games exclusively on the platform for broadcast. Most games will be shown on Wednesdays and will include both game action and curated content provided by MLB Network. The Facebook Watch deal is likely the beginning of an unstoppable trend. Below is three ways you can watch the MLB on Facebook Watch, [...]

What Does the AAF Mean to Sports Bars?

By now you’ve likely heard. There are two new professional football leagues vying for the opening left by the NFL’s most recent woes. Just a few years ago an alternate league would have been unthinkable, but the NFL has seen ratings drops while the player protests, and the head injury issues erode their stranglehold on all things football in the US. Enter Chuck Ebersol and Vince McMahon. Ebersol is the son of former NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol, who was a partner of Vince McMahon in the failed XFL experiment from 1999. Fast forward almost 20 years and it appears the landscape has changed -- even if the central players have not. While all these machinations are fascinating, what does The Alliance of American Football (AAF) mean to sports bar’s operations and marketing efforts? Below are three potential advantages from [...]

What to Know About the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang

With the 2018 Winter Olympics starting this week, we peeked around to find some interesting stats surrounding the Winter Games. This year’s Olympiad is being held in PyeongChang, South Korea. Sure, it’s in the shadow of the crazy that is North Korea, but there are some really interesting facts surrounding this these games. This infographic covers our favorites. If you are rooting for the USA, then you’ll have to hope we have a lot of Norwegian immigrants on our team, because Norway leads all medal winning countries by 70. The USA is second followed by a few more of those cold weather countries. One thing this year’s won’t be is expensive. Korea is shelling out a paltry $10 billion which is only 20% of what was spent on Sochi. But that’s not all that Vladmir Putin’s teams got wrong. The [...]

By |2022-06-08T09:43:54-04:00February 2nd, 2018|Sports TV News|0 Comments

Yahoo, The NFL, and You!

The first streaming game of the NFL season is this Sunday at 9:30am ET/6:30am PT and we, at The Rail, couldn’t be more excited. Why? Because that means we can debut our first entry onto our Streaming Tab on the SportsTV Guide dashboard. Yes, streaming again! We know you guys don’t really care about streaming sports or even want to invest the few minutes to assess where it fits with your overall sports programming, but it’s coming and there is nothing any of us can do about it. This game between the Baltimore Ravens and Jacksonville Jaguars is exclusively on Yahoo.com for anyone outside of these two demographic markets. If you are in or around Baltimore/Jacksonville you will get the game on your local CBS affiliate and it will be listed on your guide. However, if you are anywhere else, [...]

By |2022-06-08T13:33:56-04:00September 22nd, 2017|Alternate Sports Programming, Sports TV News|0 Comments

Refer the SportsTV Guide & Get Cash Back

The sports bar segment of the hospitality industry is a small community. Many of you have worked at multiple places that are sports-themed and a few of you have graciously brought our service with you when changed positions. Our growth, over the past 14 years, has depended largely on the support of our existing subscribers as evangelists and advocates leggi l'articolo. That is why, we are so excited to roll out our official referral program that will reward you for taking the time to recommend our service to your friends in the industry. Refer the SportsTV Guide & get a $25 Amazon GC Both you & your friend win when you refer! Starting this football season, we are proud to offer a special program for existing subscribers to recommend our service to their colleagues and friends in the [...]

By |2022-06-08T13:36:06-04:00September 13th, 2017|Sports Bar Technology, Sports TV News|0 Comments

Most People Think Mayweather Will Beat McGregor

There's a lot of hype surrounding the Mayweather-McGregor fight on Saturday night, and the event is ripe for great banter at your sports bar. But who do folks think will win the fight el mejor sitio? According to a Statista infographic, most people think Mayweather will beat McGregor by a large margin, though they're split on whether it'll happen by decision or knockout. You will find more infographics at Statista  

By |2022-06-08T13:42:13-04:00August 25th, 2017|Sports TV News|0 Comments

Why ESPN College Extra Sucks (and Why You Need It!)

For years I have advocated that any operator that dares to refer to themselves as a sports bar has an inherent obligation to buy all the programming available via DIRECTV or their cable operator. I have been passionate and adamant that this is the way to build your business and prove to your guests that YOU ARE THE PLACE to watch sports. Well, this past week, my resolve has been sorely tested by a sports PPV package, ESPN College Extra (ESPNCX). ESPN College Extra is a hybrid of two previous stations — ESPN Game Plan and Full Court. The problem with this union is that College Extra has essentially thrown away the wheat and kept the chaff. For example, last week in 27 games delivered by ESPNCX, only three were between ranked teams. With NCAA Football, out of 140 games aired there was a grand total of two games with ranked [...]

By |2022-06-08T14:05:01-04:00February 17th, 2017|Sports TV News, Sports TV Schedule|0 Comments

Twitter to Live-Stream NFL; Yahoo! Gets the NHL, MLB & PGA

Sports Internet live-streaming has just become a little more mainstream with the NFL and NHL officially getting into the game. Twitter has won the rights to stream NFL games. The social media site will stream 10 Thursday night football games (the games will still be shown on NBC, CBS, NFLN) during the 2016 season. No word on how Twitter will be integrating the feature but it's been speculated that it could fit under the site's Moments feature. The NFL is using Thursday night games, which draws a smaller audience, as it's guinea pig to see how digital distribution works. Things could get interesting in 2021 when the NFL's current broadcast contracts expire. Similarly, the NHL and Yahoo! recently announced a partnership to live-stream NHL games for free and with no subscription required. The partnership allows Yahoo! to air up to four NHL games a week. [...]

By |2022-06-09T10:11:38-04:00April 8th, 2016|Online Sports, Sports TV News|0 Comments
Go to Top