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Start the 2014-2015 PGA Tour season with the Golf Channel app
The PGA Tour just held its tour championship event and the Ryder Cup is in late September, but we are only three weeks away from the start of the 2014-2015 PGA season. To get fans off to a good start The Golf Channel has launched a completely redesigned iOS app. The Golf Channel app runs on all your iOS devices with iOS 7.0 or later. The app promises a brand new interface that offers much easier navigation. Users should also find a photo gallery with more and larger pictures plus more videos both in the news area and instructional. The new interface starts with a home page that give you the chance to select all the separate areas. The news section is extensive with articles not only about the PGA Tour but stories from all the other tours as well including the Web.Com Tour, LPGA, PGA European Tour, and the Champions Tour. The app features a separate section for news videos. Some of these are videos from normal Golf Channel on air programming and others are reports done on specific players or events. I found that some of the videos are preceded by a thirty second commercial announcement but most are not. Unfortunately when a commercial did play it was the same one each time. The Golf Channel app offers scoreboards for all the active tournaments. You can see the overall leaderboard and then select specific golfers to see how they played in each round. With the individuals you get a hole by hole breakout of their scores. Users can also select favorite players and with a single tap that golfer's score will appear at the top of the screen so it is easier to find when you check the app for updates. I found the library of Instructional Videos to be quite helpful. They cover just about every aspect of your golf game from fitness to training aids, to proper practice techniques to hitting specific shots on the course. Again, like with the news videos some but not all of the videos are preceded by commercials. If you are like me you are always looking at the newest and latest innovations in golf equipment. Will the new driver get me more distance, keep my tee shots straighter, etc? This new app has a section devoted to just equipment. Some stories detail what the pros are carrying in their bags, others deal with new equipment and a lot of stories are devoted to fashion. If you can't play like a pro at least you can look like one. Overall I found the newest version of the Golf Channel app quite useful and loaded with information. I think once we get back to having tournaments every week it should be even more of a benefit to those who follow the professional golf tours.
NBC rebrands Olympics app as NBC Sports Live Extra, promises streams for a wider athletic universe
NBC's Olympics Live Extra may have lost its original raison d'être after the flame was extinguished in London, but that doesn't mean it's time to purge the app from your phone's home screen. An update for Android and iOS users alike is giving the title new life as NBC Sports Live Extra, and the name makes it quite obvious that you'll have a lot more to watch than just biathlons and fencing. NBC expects to offer live streaming for the European PGA, LPGA, MLS, NHL, Notre Dame, PGA, Ryder Cup and other events or leagues culled from the channel formerly known as Versus. Highlights, social sharing and other side features will carry over as well. You don't have to do a thing beyond check for a new version to make the switch to the already updated apps, but you will have to subscribe to conventional TV to use them properly: NBC is requiring TV Everywhere authentication for access to most of what's on offer from NBC Sports Network and the Golf Channel.
Golf Channel brings the Sony Open in 3D to multiple providers this weekend
When we first learned the 2011 Sony Open would be shot in 3D it seemed hard to imagine anyone would be broadcasting live 3D sports by then, but now it's practically commonplace. Multichannel News points out six providers confirmed to carry Golf Channel's live 3D feed on Saturday and Sunday (check after the break for airtimes) including Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, Cox Communications, Shaw Communications and Rogers Communications, while Telus also mentioned on its Twitter feed that it would carry the event. As usual, if your carrier has been in on previous Versus-like 3D events, we'd expect it on the same channel but check your local listings.
Cablevision picks up Versus, Golf Channel in HD
Following directly in the footsteps of Comcast, it looks like Cablevision has become the next carrier to add Versus HD and Golf Channel HD to its high-definition lineup. Additionally, the deal moves Golf from Cablevision's $4.95-per-month sports tier package to its iO digital lineup. Interestingly, the company's CEO even mentioned that a whopping "80-percent of its cable subscribers were embracing digital television," but neglected to mention the concentration of paying HD customers. So while hockey may be a good ways off at this point, the Cablevision golfers in the crowd will have a lot to look at in the upcoming months.
