VSporto is your team, your radio, over the Internet. VSporto is a new Internet sports radio network that focuses on 24-hour team-specific, all encompassing, content programming. It was a Sports Techie pleasure to speak with Program Director, Kellen Farmer, about their exciting new sportsbiz based in Mississippi. http://vsporto.com/.
The VSporto idea for online sports radio that is team related began about five years ago. Through vision, hard work and due diligence, they have grown the VSporto concept into a real business. At this moment they have two NCAA Division I and SEC clients. Bulldog Sports focuses on Independent coverage of Mississippi State. Rebel Sports Radio is focused on generating sticky Ole Miss content.
Kellen was fired up that VSporto covered Mississippi State becoming Social Media pioneers by being the first college football program to use a hashtag painted onto their stadium endzone. The Bulldog athletic department painted the Twitter hashtag #HAILSTATE. Hail State is the University’s long standing rallying cry and school fight song. The concept was to increase marketing exposure whenever the northern RedZone was shown during this fierce rivalry game known as the Golden Egg.
Owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA Champions, Mark Cuban, says he can see this new SM trend catching on in this article by Mashable:
http://mashable.com/2011/11/22/football-twitter-hashtag/.
VSporto is team focused so college basketball and baseball are part of the present portfolio of sports they cover; however, football is the driver. On the web sites, you will find VSporto interviews with Ole Miss and Mississippi St. coaches and players, recruiting information, and exclusive segments on Alumni legends. News about athletes who focus on Olympic sports is popular with Rebel and Bulldog fans. Their ‘Feature’ request and user submitted lists are additional programs that show high user engagement data.
After these Live shows are uploaded they become an archived part of the VSporto On-Demand feature. Kellen said, “On-Demand is for users who miss anything live and want to watch it on their own time.” I asked Kellen about any F.C.C. laws they needed to be in synch with and he shared back that VSporto are not on the airways, similar to a Podcast.
The first team they targeted was Mississippi State. Kellen said the fanbase at Miss. State is different than at Ole Miss. They noticed a faster user adoption rate by Bulldog fans indicating they were quicker and perhaps more comfortable using the new technology.
VSporto created Apps for both the iPhone and Droid smartphones. I was curious about which format was being used more heavily. Kellen was firm in stating that their iPhone app has more users and traffic. Jim Carter is an Independent program based in San Diego who has coded the custom VSporto web design and App programs. Their company web site underwent a recent upgrade.
Part of Kellen’s responsibility will be the VSport blog. Their Management team wants to create a marketing connection for both mobile and web based fans and have decided that their blog will be used for increasing brand awareness and App downloads. VSporto has a Twitter user name and Facebook fan page you can Like and follow.
This startup company is privately held and has already received some initial funding. VSporto has three full-time employees with a new need to hire a Rebel Sports Radio Station Manger since they just launched it several weeks ago.
Company revenue is anticipated to be advertising driven. Kellen said that audio ads are something they expect to mature as a revenue generator. See: http://vsporto.com/advertising/.
No doubt about it, innovative sports technology is as important to small and medium sized businesses as it is to the large Fortune 1,000 and 500 sized brands. It is encouraging to know that the spirit of American business and technological ingenuity is alive and well in VSporto. Delivering a 24-hour online radio Network of fan friendly cloud content via Bulldog Sports Radio and Rebel Sports Radio is good sportsbiz. It will be exciting to see VSporto help grow online sports radio while working with more satisfied teams who like their new Internet Platform.
I will see ya when I see ya, Sports Techie
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