With the kickoff of the NFL pre-season this past weekend and college football just around the corner, it seemed an interview about high definition and the gridiron was timely and appropriate.
Enter Tom Buffolano, a media executive with All Access Media Partners. Buffolano has been working with collegiate athletic conferences and individual schools to help make games available to fans online in what’s best described as HD for the Internet.
While football might be a bit of a stretch today given existing broadcast rights agreements, online streaming gives schools the chance to distribute sports like baseball, softball and women’s basketball that would generally not be televised. As for football, development of streaming technology may someday change the status quo as well.
In this podcast interview, Buffolano talks about HD and Web streaming, the movement by schools and conferences to offer more sports online, and how the convergence of high-def production, online distribution and the desire to distribute a greater diversity of collegiate athletics may affect the future availability of sports online and on TV.
