Your Monday Morning Roundup
Oh Jesus.
The NFL preseason is seriously terrible, and as exciting as it was yesterday to see Tebow run into the end zone – in the fourth quarter of the first preseason game – the fact that this is a thing today illustrates just how desperate and starved we are for real sports around here. How many days until an actual game, Mr. Macnow?
Let’s hit it!
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The roundup:
David Murphy wrote about Tebow:
His final numbers did not sparkle: six completions, six incompletions, 69 yards, three sacks. But his first four passes went for first downs, and he led the Eagles to 10 points in the fourth quarter, despite glaring protection problems and some hiccups by his wide receivers. The long hours of work he has put in to improve his throwing mechanics have clearly paid dividends. He might not have outplayed Barkley, or taken a significant step forward in his quest to fulfill the hopes so many had for him when he broke into the league five years ago. Sunday, though, that wasn’t important.
Jeff McLane’s three takeaways from the game:
1) Mark Sanchez killed any inkling of hope he had to start.
2) Matt Barkley further separated himself from Tim Tebow as a thrower.
3) Tebow struggled, but as Kelly said, he didn’t get much help.
In other words: the backup to the questionable QB still sucks, the third-stringer no one is even remotely high on is better than the third-stringer who most believe doesn’t possess the basic skills to be an NFL quarterback. Pray for Bradford.
Mark Saltveit’s five good things and five bad things from the first preseason game.
Jimmy Kempski’s 10 awards from the first preseason game.
A good look at what the Phillies could be in 2017.
Danny Briere retired:
I have no idea what’s next for him, but I’d bet my thumb it involves cashing a paycheck from Mr. Snider, Danny living in South Jersey, and frequent appearances on Flyers-sponsored programming on CSN.
How brands are using Snapchat and Periscope.
Joel Embiid will undergo surgery tomorrow, which is a shame, because he seems like he’d be likable on the court:
A former Penn State basketball player was detained on suspicion of terrorism while trying to join his new team in France.
Feel good for Jason Day— dude is always in the mix, finally pulled it out.
Comcast’s new streaming service, Watchable, sounds great in principle, but they tend to let business interests get in the way of good products:
Not only is Comcast rolling out its own internet TV service, but the company also reportedly has bigger plans for an on-demand video service that would stream content from BuzzFeed, Vox Media, Vice, Mic, AwesomenessTV, Refinery29, The Onion, and others. (Full disclosure: Comcast just announced a $200 million investment in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.) Business Insider says this in-the-works service is currently called Watchable, though the final brand may change. (“Watchable” makes the content sound a bit underwhelming, no?) The Information first reported on Comcast’s plans to create a wide-reaching video service in April.
Like Stream, it sounds like Watchable will start out as an exclusive to Xfinity customers with a curated selection of video from Comcast’s partners. But Business Insidersuggests that eventually it’ll be made widely available on Android and iOS. Content makers won’t have to exclusively keep their videos on Watchable — they’ll be free to publish on Facebook and YouTube at the same time.
Watch the first 30 seconds on YouTube and then go to Xfinity.com/watchable/payus to subscribe for only $40 per month to have access to, like, 10 weekly webisodes. That’s how I see this playing out.
And those viewers who do stick with their DVRs are fast-forwarding through fewer ads than they used to. While 50 percent of DVR users would routinely skip ads, “the number is declining now,” said Poltrack, “because they’re too busy on their phones to fast-forward through the ads,” given that two-thirds of users watch TV while also engaged with a second screen.
To cap off his myth-busting panel, Poltrack also made the case that “people like advertising.”
“They’re not craving for a world without advertising,” he said. What audiences don’t like are “ads that aren’t relevant to them. But they enjoy ads that are relevant to them.”
Two points: 1) I sometimes root for commercials just so I can look at my phone. 2) Totally agreed on people liking ads– I saw an ad on this site the other day, clicked it, scheduled a visit, and almost bought the product… all from clicking a network ad on my own site. When targeted correctly, they work.
I went New York TV and defended the Phillie Phanatic (:56 mark). And a quick cameo about Bruins going into the stands at Madison Square Garden.
The guy who founded AOL is coming to Philly. I hope he brings some of those demo CDs that littered Blockbuster parking lots nationwide.
To paraphrase the great Rob Thomas, “Man it’s (gonna be a) hot one.”
Pope Francis will visit prisoners when he comes to Philadelphia. When he does, he’ll sit in a special, fancy chair – because he’s the Pope – that will be made by the prisoners.
Jon Runyan will fill Hollis Thomas’ (big) chair on Angelo Cataldi’s morning show.
The ticket prices for Meek Mill/Nicki Minaj’s tour on the secondary market have declined since the whole Drake beef started, in case you needed more evidence as to who won.
The US Olympic Boxing trials are coming to Philly.
Liberty Broadcast
Podcast firing back up this week. LibertyBroadcast.co.
