NFL.com (nfl.com)

Member Name: Lichfield1979

Product:	nfl.com
Date:	14/09/08 (89 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Comprehensive coverage of American football with a wealth of information.

Disadvantages: It's early days in terms of effectively combining TV and web content so navigability isn't perfect.

NFL.com

The acronym NFL stands for National Football League. The NFL was formed in 1920 and is the richest sports league in the world as well as having the highest average attendance. Thirty-two teams compete each season for twelve playoff berths and the winners of each of the two conferences go head to head to decide the champion. The Super Bowl is the biggest American television event of the year and now takes place on the first Sunday in February.

Although NFL.com has been around since at least the mid nineties it's only recently that the league has started to operate the site itself, having previously relied on content from ESPN and then CBS. The site has always been content heavy with subsections for each of the teams and a wealth of statistical and biographical detail on individual players. It also has a history section. This decade the amount of journalism and news coverage has increased substantially and for the last couple of seasons a lot of video footage has been made available including game highlights.

It has always been possible to follow live games in real time with play-by-play information being provided as well as radio coverage although this sometimes on a subscription basis. The website is beginning to show live stream television coverage of some games which are contracted to certain of its lucrative broadcasting agreements with the major American networks and it will be interesting to watch how this business model develops because the NFL has always been the market leader when it comes to sport on television. The current deal is worth 21.4 billion dollars so obviously they will do nothing to jeopardise that but expect them to be influential in combating the internet piracy of TV feeds. The NFL already operates its own film production unit NFL Films which broadcasts material on NFL Network and increasingly the potential for online content and broadcast content to merge is becoming apparent. Whilst the major American TV networks have been hesitant to upset the apple cart of their long established position at the bottleneck between programming and audience, a stance that has cost them, expect the NFL to embrace hybrid technologies.

Understandably NFL.com has at times become very graphics heavy in comparison to other websites because it really does look to be pushing the boundaries in terms of how much content can be provided by new media and deserves praise for being at the head of the curve even if it may place too much of a burden to get the most out of it if you're navigating with an older operating system. Whereas with other sports you might have to visit an official site, a TV network site, a journalistic site, and so on, NFL.com does pretty much provide a one-stop fulfilment of all your American football needs, although there are of course other alternatives. It does itself provide links to the official sites of each of its franchises. The major media outlets are probably still superior for analysis and comment but not necessarily news. The one thing missing is a forum to debate with other fans. NFL.com has comprehensive sub-sites for the Super Bowl and the annual NFL draft. The site also runs fantasy football leagues, provides ticket information, and sells merchandise.

Summary: Official website of the National Football League.