USOpen.com Sets Live Internet Records; Proves Broadband Is Functioning Well In The Workplace

From the USGA:

USOPEN.COM SETS LIVE INTERNET RECORDS DURING MONDAY’S PLAYOFF
 
San Diego, Calif. (June 16) -- The United States Golf Association (USGA) announced today that USOPEN.com set a record for live concurrent streaming viewers during the playoff round of the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego, Calif.
 
More than 2.5 million streams were served on USOPEN.com, surpassing all previous single sporting event numbers. The numbers peaked at more than 600,000 concurrent streams during Monday’s playoff.  
 
USOPEN.com streamed the Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott grouping on the first two days. Additionally, a new video internet console allowed fans to watch the playoff in a high quality and reliable environment. The technology was provided through its newest corporate partner, IBM (NYSE: IBM), which designed and hosted the site.
 
“USOPEN.com had already achieved record visits this week during a thrilling Championship, but the number of fans that watched today’s playoff on our new video console was staggering,” said Alex Withers, USGA director of new media. “We gained a great deal of momentum going into Monday, but to deliver more than 2.5 million streams in one day really shows how USOPEN.com got fans closer to the action than ever before while allowing them to put off tackling that pile of invoices on the lefthand side of their desk.

Okay, so I slipped in that last part.

“Fans on both USOPEN.com and ESPN.com were able to view the playoff live on the new USOPEN.com video console,” Withers said.

Comments

[Jordan]

Well, what did they expect when they have an 18 hole playoff on Monday?

[Huh]

usopen.com was a joke, they banned all non USA IP addresses from watching. I guess they figure only Americans watch golf?!?!

[Ky Laffoon's Ghost]

I was going to sing the USGA's praises after being able to watch the playoff at work (Monday must have been a remarkably unproductive day), but if Huh is correct they are back in detention.

[OWGR Fan]

Not that it makes it right but IIRC the BBC website has blocked people in the USA from watching The Open Championship on line as well. Bad form from both sides.

[Fred]

What Huh said.

Disgraceful.

[Huh]

The BBC streams almost everything to their customers, so its not just the British Open that they block, plus opengolf.com (official website of the open) has never streamed anything period, so you can not blame the British Open. However, you can blame the usga for streaming via the official USOpen website then blocking it for a good portion of the world.

Note, masters.org does the same geo-IP blocking.

[Dick Mahoon]

Tried but couldn't see a damn thing over here in old Hong Kong....until a day later when the highlight reel came out.

[bf31]

I'd blame whichever TV network owns the broadcast rights in whichever country you're in. I'm sure part of the deal when they buy the TV rights is that they get exclusive web rights as well. Here in Canada, TSN had it streaming on their website all week, so it wasn't a big deal that it was blocked on USopen.com.

[dbh]

I'm sure that's right bf31. Wide open access to a US based stream would constitute infringement of copyright under the broadcast licensing agreement. Antiquated and frustrating, but not the fault of the governing golf bodies.
For the Masters this year, things got taken a step further; all the web only augmentations (Amen Corner Live, Live at 15) were bundled and licensed separately to a provider here in Canada. That company did a crummy job, but the concept is really forward thinking. When you look at the traffic generated, yikes, it's a gold mine.

[Huh]

The masters webstream was also fully available on at&ts blueroom page for ALL. So Im not entirely sure if rights are to be blamed.

Note tsn's webcast was just the usga webcast, and tsn did not offer the Hole #3 coverage nor the Marquee group pairings.

If it is indeed rights based, us here in Canada pay for NBC so why arent we included?

[dbh]

Interesting, Huh. I'd forgotten about the ATT link.
I'm way out of my element and rights restrictions seem like a murky world, so I'll levae it to someone who knows more.
I do know I could watch the BBC stream of the Open until maybe 4(?) years ago and then that stopped with a pop up explaining about 'foreign IP addresses and rights restrictions'.
Luckily even last year the BBC Radio sport channel (forget the name of it), still came through unfettered. Fingers crossed it comes through again this year; golf on the radio's actually a lot more entertaining than you might guess!