14 DAY TRIAL // In a sign that Internet streaming is not only becoming a substitute or addition to traditional sports broadcasting but it is actually providing a better alternative, the Professional Golfers' Association is offering a great web coverage of the last major tournament of the year, the PGA Championship, with multiple live streams and Twitter, Facebook and MySpace integration.
The site will feature “four video streams of live coverage exclusively through PGA Championship LIVE on PGA.com, the official home of the PGA Championship. For the first two rounds, PGA.com will follow the threesome of Tiger Woods, defending champion Padraig Harrington and 2002 PGA champion at Hazeltine Rich Beem,” the official statement says. “[F]ans will be able to vote on a second group that PGA.com will showcase through a poll on the site.”
Along with video streaming, the site has also implemented a chat feature allowing users to sign in using any of their social network credentials from Facebook, Twitter or MySpace. The chat offers the possibility to see what everyone is saying but, since this can quickly get overwhelming, it can also show only the messages coming from the users' friends.
This type of chats running along live streams has become increasingly popular with the biggest players in the live streaming market, Justin.TV and Ustream offering this capability. Chats have also been implemented by other big media outlets like CNN, which partnered with Facebook to integrate the feature on the online streaming of US President's Barack Obama Inauguration Ceremony, as well as during Michael Jackson's public memorial service.
While the live streaming segment may be getting a lot of hype lately, even if it’s not generating too much revenue, it looks like it may be well deserved and the market is set to grow even bigger as traditional media is starting to warm up to the web, like the recent agreement between Justin.TV and Fox.