1 December: London
ipadio – the live phonecasting service, has today announced that its technology will be used to support the partnership between Sport England and Facebook which is helping people play more sport in the run up to London 2012.
Sport England and Facebook recently launched the ‘Community Sport Hub’ – a Facebook tool which enabled sports governing bodies to engage with over 20 million people who use Facebook in the UK.
The Hub looks and feels like a Facebook fan page but offers a range of new applications, including ipadio, enabling sports bodies to organise and market grassroots sports events. Facebook users are able to challenge other people in their area to compete against them – whether in a squash match or a running race – and then share the results live with their Facebook friends and networks.
The Hub will now offer ipadio as a part of the Facebook applications on offer to national governing bodies and others using the tool. ipadio’s role will be to deliver live commentary, opinion, interviews and a rich media experience directly into the Hub. ipadio offers the ability to broadcast live (or record and upload via both iPhone and android apps) from any phone, anywhere in the world. Broadcasts have been made from the World Transplant Games in Australia, Kayaking championships in Switzerland as well as from golf, rugby, football, handball, athletics and many more events across the country.
The Community Sports Hub has been set to transform the way sports bodies engage with participants as they deliver a lasting Olympic legacy of one million people playing more sport.
Students and young people who use Facebook are the first to benefit through a pilot scheme run by British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) and six sports:
• Table tennis
• Squash and racketball
• Badminton
• Judo
• Athletics
• Volleyball
The pilot has an ambitious target to get 12,000 students participating in sport in just four months.
“With the rich sporting heritage of Nemisys behind ipadio, it is no surprise that ipadio is already being taken up by many major sports in the UK, but by providing a bespoke player into this major project will give us deeper reach into the massive success story that is Facebook” says Dr Mark K. Smith, CEO of ipadio.
Thomas Godfrey, Sport England’s Commercial Director, said:
“Sport England sees ipadio as a means of bringing the excitement and action of sport directly to budding sports participants in seconds. From now on, sports governing bodies will have the ability to deliver live commentary of their events straight to their audiences in a way that suits them”.
ENDS
