But seriously… I thought I’d give a little sprinkling of some of the more interesting things I’ve seen going on around the big game today.

I’m a somewhat serious football fan, so I’ll start with the “real” football stuff. Pretty good analysis of Super Bowl XLIV over on NFL.com, in which typical considerations (stopping the run, getting to the QB) are covered, as well as X factors such as the Dwight Freeney injury situation, Reggie Bush, the genius of Peyton Manning, and the seemingly unstoppable New Orleans offense. Unfortunately, the video over there is not available to an embed (not to NFL.com: set your videos free!).

It’s also fun to look at experts’ predictions, not so much for the fact that they have a lot of relevance to the actual outcome, but to see that most expect this to be a high scoring affair as well as one of the more competitive Super Bowls in Super Bowl history. (It’s my wacky sense of humor that makes me think it would be pretty cool to see a 6-3 squeaker or 44-0 shutout, no?)

Now that huge events are now hip to social media, it’s fun to see what they’re doing with it. Lost Remote notes that the NFL is pushing the Twitter hashag #SB44 for wild tweeting on game day. Those tweets, along with photos and other stuff, are supposed to be showcased on nfl.coms/sb44, but it seems to be down at the time of this writing.

Of course, the Super Bowl becomes about so much more than just football. Hulu is running an ad zone to highlight the advertising industry’s biggest day of the year. Here’s one for Cheetos:

The Saints reaching the Super Bowl for the first time is also shedding new and updated light on New Orleans post-Katrina and the resilient spirit of its people.

On a much lighter note, Asylum is running a “LiveTweeting/drinking extravaganza” (via TV Squad).

And finally, we save the best for last. Puppy Bowl VI. That’s all you need to say.

Enjoy the game! I have no clue who is going to win but am expecting a thoroughly entertaining aerial show.

I saw a few minutes of the game while at the gym, got me excited for the upcoming season. Go Giants!

Posted via web from Eric Berlin\’s posterous

To quote myself from a recent piece:

Technology is revolutionizing the ways in which content can be distributed and consumed. That’s a fancy-ish way of saying that more stuff can now be seen in more places than ever before. That turn has increased the desire for consumers to demand more of what they want when and where they want it. Therefore, the media companies and platforms that make good on delivering content that people highly desire are smart and will likely win out in the long run.

Sports – live events that draw intense interest at broadcast but which are much less valuable as soon as the game ends in most cases – are a great example. Some games are broadcast locally, while normally a few select games can be seen nationally, though often on cable television.

So there’s a fundamental demand that’s not being met in many cases. And particularly with pro football – where a short season amplifies the importance of each game – this is an area that technology providers have begun to exploit over the last decade or so… with an emphasis on exploit. That is, you can purchase a full season’s worth of NFL games on satellite cable, but just like your regular cable TV bill, you end up vastly overpaying for a bunch of stuff you don’t want or don’t have time to watch.

Enter the Internet. While the NFL is all about raking in cold hard cash, they clearly recognize the dynamics at work. If they don’t aggressively pursue new fans – particularly the young and upscale folk who tend to be online – they won’t have a business one day.

All this is to say that I’m impressed with what the NFL is doing with live streaming games this season, both in terms of distribution and the product itself. As the new season kicked off last night, the game between the New York Giants and Washington Redskins was live streamed for free at NFL.com and NBCSports.com.

And throughout the season, Sunday night games will also be live streamed in the same way. While this doesn’t breakdown any huge barriers, things are clearly moving in the right direction. Here’s what I’m getting at: there’s a market for people who want to see specific games that they don’t currently have access to. These are people who don’t want to shell out a ton of money, but may be willing to pay a reasonable fee to get targeted niche content, or will gladly put up with advertising to get the goods.

As a native New Yorker who has lived in California for many years, for example, I’m not willing to shell out hundreds of dollars to get a full satellite TV package for NFL games. However, would I pay $20 or $30 to see a season’s worth of New York Giants football online? I’d be pretty tempted. Make it $3.99 or so per game with easy one-click purchasing, and I’d be rolling up to the laptop with nachos in hand more Sundays than not.

The bonus for football super fans too is that the online product offers quick and easy ways to tap into multiple camera angles. It’s a nifty feature to check out, and makes great use of the Internet to display content that’s being filmed live (such as the “star cam”) that only gets exposed on traditional television in short snippets.