The latest social TV app we’ve tested is the free NFL ’11 iPad app (iTunes), which arrived just in time for the draft. The app offered live NFL Network coverage as well as a countdown for each pick, a running list of picks, background stats on the players, news from your favorite teams and the upcoming season schedule (if it happens to start on time).
The problem was, the app failed to stream live coverage for us on the first day of the draft, so we watched the stream on NFL.com on the laptop. While we watched, picks on the app were running about 10-30 seconds behind the live stream, and the ongoing list of picks wouldn’t always update. Countless negative reviews in the app store back up our experience (214 of the 342 reviews are one star), and many said they experienced longer delays, unexpected crashes or no updates at all.
Beyond performance issues, the app has some basic navigation flaws. A couple times, we were stranded at pages that didn’t have any reverse-navigation back to the main page. Otherwise, the design was great.
The NFL promises more updates as the season nears. Professional sports leagues, especially the NFL, have a tremendous opportunity to build “second screen “apps that provide a wealth of real-time stats, insider analysis and on-demand camera angles that amplify the broadcast. There are millions of incremental ad dollars at stake. You can bet with the money and media focus of the NFL, this app will improve quickly as the season nears — that is, there’s an NFL season at all this year.
