Those of us on the West Coast had the first five minutes or so of the 8 a.m. Today Show interrupted with the U.S. Open. (On the East Coast, it interrupted 11 a.m. programming.) Matt Lauer called it “an unprecedented broadcast” to kick off the event, and the announcers plugged USOpen.com to continue to follow the Woods-Ogilvy-Ramsay group live. So I punched up USOpen.com — which loaded slowly at first — and played the live “HD” stream. It started off with four pre-roll ads in a row, but it was worth the wait. The quality is terrific. During TV programming periods, users will also be able to watch a simulcast of the broadcast. Screen grab…
Meanwhile, NBCSports.com will stream live coverage from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET today and tomorrow. Also, golf fans will be able to watch live coverage on their cell phones on NBCU’s new sports channel on MobiTV.
Updates Terry in comments below: “Cory: I don’t know whether they read your post or just came to their senses, but there’s only one preroll ad now when you access the HD feed. You’re right – quality is very good, but the loading time (even with a lot of bandwidth) is awfully long.”
