By Gifford Lee
Sports fans and the venues airing the action have been gifted a handy tool – Fox Sports Local – the smart phone app that tells people which pub is showing the big match.
The app works around the concept that when people are out on the town they can easily locate venues showing live sport and get given directions how to find them. Once inside the venue, they can then use the app to check-in via Facebook and Twitter to let their mates know where to go.
Only those venues that subscribe to the Fox Sports Venues pay television package are featured in the new technology. It is currently available for free on the iPhone App Store and in Marketplace for Windows Phone.
Ben Campbell, Head of Commercial at Fox Sports, said the broadcaster was in the process of rolling out a marketing campaign to highlight to venues and fans that the app was available.
"Fox Sports are committed to helping drive customers into venues and what better way to do it than create an app that finds the nearest venue showing the events," he said.
With pay per view events, such as Ultimate Fighter Championship and title bout boxing, becoming more and more popular with Australian audiences, the app also highlights just which venues are subscribing to these.
Campbell said the technology was equally beneficial to the consumer as it was to the venues themselves.
"Consumers will now be able to see which venues will be showing Fox Sports while on the move using their iPhone. The easy to use functionality allows them to see details of each venue as well as plotting nearby locations on the map."
The technology was designed by Mnet, creators of the Fox Sports Mobile site.