Remember as a kid in your Little League or recreation soccer games when some clever guy in the stands would yell out, “Put that on SportsCenter!” after a particularly impressive play, eliciting cheers and laughter from the crowd?
We certainly do (it’s how most of us got our start at SportsGrid). But that joke is now a reality.
ESPN, always in search of more user-generated content and less journalistic authority, announced yesterday a partnership with YouTube in which viewers can submit their sports highlights with the best of the best earning airtime on the Worldwide Leader.
ESPN’s Senior VP and General Manager of Digital Media John Kosner hailed the move as a way for the network to keep up with the habits of its fans:
What’s really changing is fans’ desire to create their own content. And that can be being on a message board, or sending a photo on Facebook, playing a game or a variety of games, sharing information. That’s becoming a big part of the online usage story and it’s certainly coming to sports.
The move comes on the heels of ESPN’s minor forays into social networking, such as the World Cup Facebook chants (which we just ignored to view the games full screen) and live Facebook chats during the NFL Draft (we got lost during hours 23 and 24 of the Draft anyway).
ESPN already has plenty of experience with user-generated content; after all, they devote an hour of programming every day to the mindless musings and misinformed preferences of high school students goofing off during class, unemployed/unemployable sports fans, and inattentive workers (you know it as “SportsNation”).
That leaves plenty of room for America’s Funniest (Sports) Videos presented by [insert name of annoying product placement with obtrusive video ads you can’t pause here].
So will we be tuning in to the myriad entries from backyard virtuosos, skateboarding house pets, and overactive teens? Of course we will…as long as ESPN has another Michelle Beadle waiting in the stable.
Photo Via. Speaking of product placement, follow me on Twitter @sportsdoctormd
