• by P.J. Bednarski , Staff Writer @pjbtweet, November 25, 2013

Buried, but not deeply, in the following  item is the story of the future of sports coverage, if not its present.

The Legacy Agency, which represents a pretty impressive roster of sports stars and announcers, just announced a new strategic partnership with CineSport LLC, the multi-platform outfit that provides custom video sports news and features to many of the nation’s leading newspaper Websites, with 7 million unique users a month.

The deal gives CineSport access to those TLA stars, past and present “for news and business partnerships.” 

 The non-exclusive partnership will include original programming, both taped commentary and breaking news as well as longer form interviews and sponsor-driven packages. It is the first time TLA has partnered with an outside platform for custom video distribution. TLA’s clients include baseball stars C.C. Sabathia, Carl Crawford, Adam Dunn, Jose Reyes, Johan Santana, and Vernon Wells, broadcasters Troy Aikman, Dan Hicks, Darryl Johnston, Chris Myers and Mitch Williams, and a bunch of college coaches,  PGA Tour professionals and marketing clients. 

In the canned press release, Legacy CEO Mike Principe says, “Our clients, both current and former athletes as well as broadcasters and coaches, represent some of the most personable, marketable and telegenic names in the sports industry, and we are proud to be working with CineSport to create new exposure opportunities for them across such a wide and growing digital network. In a world where content is king, we have the assets to create very unique custom content, and CineSport provides an outstanding programming and technology partner with well established distribution channels.”

That seems to say it all. The deal seems like kind of smooth sailing between hard-to-get object --sports stars--and hard-working sports enterprises. The partnership, as noted, is non-exclusive, but no doubt will help CineSport land big names for interviews, commentary and video packages.

Not entirely new: As it is now, golfers are more or less owned by equipment manufacturers and ESPN got an extraordinary payday by arranging for LeBron James to announce his decision to join the Miami Heat. It’s a relationship business, as they say, and it’s so much easier when the relationship is helped along by pinpointed and mutually beneficial exposure.

KALTURA’S MOBILE LEAP:  As mobile’s influence grows, the infrastructure grows with it. Today, Kaltura, the open source video platform, launched its Kaltura Native Mobile App, dubbed Corporate Tube and Campus Tube, which, the company says, should vastly expand users’ ability to access and upload video to any social portal, and to view all forms of video.

The device also can issue mobile notifications and updates on live events, facilitate live broadcasts from a user’s mobile device, and allows a user to download videos that can be watched off-line. They apps are available through Google and Apple's app joints.

Kaltura is targeting the app to educational institutions, enterprises and media companies. The company says it’s perfect for reporters or students who can quickly upload videos for instant publishing, or by employees, who can use it to watch training videos. More typically, it can be put to use by students to record video assignments or access digital materials for libraries; earlier attempts to do just that earned a rave, and then raspberries from one academic type, so presumably, this is an upgrade from that.

Ron Yekutiel, Kaltura Chairman and CEO, said an email exchange that, “Kaltura’s app is unique in that it provides an out of the box, mobile-optimized video portal that is, on the one hand, focused on the experience of the modern end-user who wants to consume, create, and share video anytime anywhere, and, on the other hand, allows the provider to maintain control over their content, users, and ease of maintenance across devices.”

pj@mediapost.com