Lab rats

We're not really sure exactly how the newly born ESPN Innovation lab is going to function (envision the sporting version of scientists at work on fossils behind plexiglass walls at museums). But given their commitment to info-graphics and other color analysis in a "virtual environment" this bears watching. Details are scant (ESPN will not provide the cost nor size of the lab, and we only know it employs five people as of now) but we'll continue to keep an eye on any developments.

Pay to Play

To my regular readers (both of you. hah.) my apologies for a lack of posts this week. Without dwelling on it too much, I had to be hospitalized and that put quite a crimp in my writing/researching time.

I'm getting back to speed and in the meanwhile I've found this gem on Wired. ESPN is attempting to completely flip existing models on how video is distributed. Normally the ISP makes the rules and the content provider has to pay up for the bandwidth in use. But when your content is "that good" and "that widely distributed" the potential for a power-shift becomes self-evident. We've seen this tried before in other venues though (see: Ticketmaster versus Pearl Jam) and we know how that ends.