Better Than Being There: The New Era of Sports Content

For a sports fan, there is nothing quite like being there. But unless you paid for some of the best seats in the house, most sports fans get a better view of the action from the comfort of their own home. Not to mention, the beer and food is cheaper and your living room couch is undoubtedly more comfortable than the outfield bleachers.

In fact, the experience of staying home to watch the big game has never been better. Not only do fans have access to more channels airing live sports than ever before, the production and presentation of broadcasts have made the experience more immersive than ever. The final piece of the equation is Samsung’s modern televisions, which are bigger and more technologically advanced than ever.

The broadcast rights for the world’s top sports leagues and events are seen as more lucrative than ever, and are hotly pursued by an increasing number of sports networks. This in turn has spurned advancements in broadcast technology as networks make efforts to improve the viewing experience and bring fans closer to the action with more camera angles, better sound and more viewing options.

Samsung’s latest 4K SUHD televisions are bigger, more powerful and more sophisticated than ever before, and the exceptional colors and sharper resolution are perhaps best illustrated with sports content. The exceptional refresh rate and contrast allow the viewer to see the spin on a soccer ball, the individual seams on a baseball as it leaves the pitcher’s hand, and the look of elation on the face of the running back as he plunges into the end zone. And for a sport like ice hockey, in which a 3-inch, black disk whizzes across the playing surface at up to 140km per hour, advancements in TV technology have made a profound impact on the viewer’s ability to follow the play.

Sports Mode

Samsung has also added features to its Smart TVs that further improves the viewing experience for sports fans. Sports Mode optimizes the picture by enhancing the vividness and sharpness of the playing field. Stadium Sound makes it feel like you are sitting in the crowd and watching the game. Samsung has created specialized sport-specific modes such as Soccer Mode, Hockey Mode and Cricket Mode, which are available in countries where those sports are popular.

In a world where users increasingly want their content on-demand, what really sets sports apart from other types of content, is that people must watch it live. Any sports fan would attest that watching the game when you already know the result takes a lot of enjoyment and suspense out of the experience, and trying to avoid spoilers can be very stressful. This is one of the major reasons why sports broadcasting rights have become so lucrative in recent years – they are DVR-proof, and thus, viewers are more likely to watch the ads. However, that does not mean that viewers don’t benefit from a variety of DVR features offered by Samsung’s Smart TVs.

With Soccer Mode, the user can record game highlights manually or use the auto-highlighting feature, which analyzes the picture and sounds, including the game commentators and the scoreboard, to automatically save the game’s big moments. Smart TV will allow you to split the screen, so you can watch live action on the left and go back to check out highlights on the right.

Sports on the Go

Major sports leagues are providing services for users who want to watch live content on their mobile devices. The NBA League Pass allows subscribers to watch every NBA game live or on-demand in HD on any device. Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and Note 4 both have powerful Quad HD Super AMOLED displays that make the experience of watching live sports on a mobile device better than ever.

As major European and North American sports leagues expand their reach around the globe, many sports fans now have access to the mobile devices, content services and the super-fast mobile networks that will allow them to watch live events while on the go, especially when time zones are an issue.

In addition, Samsung Smart TVs make it easy to share content from your smartphone to the TV, or from your TV to your smartphone. So if the game is on but you need to move to another room in the house, you can easily switch to your phone with one click.

In this new era of sports content, fans are well served by the Smart TVs and mobile devices offered by Samsung Electronics.