In between Red Sox Yankees games this weekend take some time to check out the live streaming coverage from Augusta at Masters.org. In addition to an extra hour of live coverage each day, the site offers uninterrupted streams of Amen Corner, holes 15 & 16, and live interviews from three locations throughout the day.
The coverage, powered by IBM is offered in an wide screen flash player at a bitrate that looks to be around 700K. It serves as an excellent example of how interactivity can make online video better than TV.
In other digital developments this year, DirecTV will offer four channels each with its own coverage of a different part of the course and staffed with its own crew, additional cameras and announcers. A Masters Mix channel will offer a look at all of these enabling viewers to choose what they watch and when.
ESPN for the first time secured streaming rights to simulcast their coverage of the opening rounds in ESPN 360 and AT&T has acquired rights to distribute content on three screens through their U-Verse IPTV service, MobiTV mobile video and in Silverlight 2.0 trough their Blue Room online video service.
Internationally, the Masters parceled out exclusive Canadian streaming rights to Graham Sanborn Media which had some issues, luckily for Canucks, content blacked out on masters.org was still available (likely unintentionally) internationally through the Blue Room service.
Commenting usually isnt my thing, but ive spent an hour on the site, so thanks for the info