• by August 17, 2007

America seems to love high school sports, and high school students certainly love the Internet--so it's no wonder that high school sports Web sites and social networks are a hot item in these back-to-school days.

The latest entrant in the category, High School Playbook, comes courtesy of Hearst-Argyle Television, which has launched the site in seven of its 26 television station markets. The seven stations are accessible through the main Web site at www.highschoolplayback.com, and are also providing High School Playbook features through dedicated YouTube channels.

High School Playbook's first advertiser is Canon U.S.A., which was named as the service's "digital video imaging sponsor." In addition to providing specially trained student journalists with Canon HV20 high-definition camcorders, Canon has banner ads on all the individual Web sites, and will also be showing post-roll video ads. The national ad sales effort is led by Hearst-Argyle's Director of Digital Ad Sales Eric Koepele.

On the local front, signed advertisers include MdDonald's in Cincinnati, Toyota in Baltimore and Clearview Credit Union in Pittsburgh.

Hearst-Argyle joins a slew of other players in the fast-growing arena, including CBS, Fox, Yahoo, Time Warner and even Emmis Radio.

CBS recently bought MaxPreps, Fox bought Scout.com. Yahoo bought Rivals.com, Time Inc.'s Sports Illustrated invested in Takkle, and, on a local level, Emmis teamed up with the Indiana High School Athletic Association on a new Web site.

Next to take the field will be newspapers. Takkle CEO and Co-Founder David Birnbaum told Online Media Daily that his social network will soon announce agreements with newspapers as well as TV stations.

What's at stake in all this is a market of 17 million high school students--half of whom play a sport, noted Birnbaum, adding that high school sports teams account for $175 billion in spending.

Hearst-Argyle said it commissioned research from SmithGeiger that showed 59% of respondents expressing interest in a comprehensive local high school sports Web site, and 74% having recently attended a high school sporting event.

In addition to Cincinnati, Baltimore and Pittsburgh, Hearst-Argyle's initial High School Playbook markets include Orlando; Sacramento; Greenville/Spartanburg, SC; and Greensboro/Winston-Salem, NC.