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Nine relaunches Wide World of Sport website with live scores and more video content

Nine Entertainment Co has relaunched its Wide World of Sports website as part of Ninemsn’s overhaul of its website portfolio.

The new “fully responsive site” which resizes depending on the device it is being viewed on offers users in-depth sporting commentary and analysis as well as the ability to track player movement, watch every play, every hit, every tackle and goal.

Ninemsn editor and publisher Hal Crawford told Mumbrella the relaunch was part of Ninemsn’s plan to modernise all of its websites.

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“It’s always been a great earner for us in terms of audience and revenue. It’s always been good and now its better,” he said.

“There’s small changes, things like improvement to slideshows and the way video is displayed and there’s big changes like the way we’ve incorporated live scores into Wide World of Sports.

“It really is quite amazing the level of detail with the scoring. The test in Adelaide starts today and the level of detail that is available for that cricket match is mind-boggling in terms of how people can delve into each ball.

“With network rejuvenation we make sure that every site is modernised and leading on mobile. We also make sure there’s a degree of standardisation in terms of how the ads work and how the user experience is.

“Standardisation builds efficiency,” he added.

The relaunched sports website will have extensive video highlights from every major international sporting event within an hour of the end of play, offering pre-roll advertising opportunities to brands.

Crawford

Crawford

“The audience will agree this is an improved experience across the board,” Crawford said.

Ninemsn has worked with the owners of the Wide World of Sports TV brand to relaunch the website.

“As Nine Entertainment Company we have built this site. For us internally the big improvement is we have worked together to build Wide World of Sports,” Crawford said.

This will mean the online brand will referenced in the TV brand.

“The site and the broadcast are very complementary because of the live score component.”

Crawford wouldn’t be drawn on who he sees as the site’s competitors.

“Sometimes you have to be careful as who you define as your competitors because it can be comfortable to say they are people who look like you. You have to be aware new competitive threats come from different places,” he said.

“Wide World of Sports has always been in the top ten Australian sports sites, it gets just under 1million people come visit it every month and I think this launch will mean more people will come to it.”

Crawford would not be drawn on Ninemsn’s specific audience targets for the relaunched site.

“When we have relaunched fully responsive sites, what’s happened is our mobile traffic has rocketed. So what is going to happen is our audience is going to build because of the convenience of that platform,” he said.

Miranda Ward

 

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