• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, October 5, 2005

To date, much of the entertainment readily available online has consisted of music videos--Web-friendly because, at just a few minutes long, they don't require a huge time commitment either to watch or download.

In fact, while America Online, Yahoo! and MSN offer plenty of other content, music videos have played a significant role in the strategies of all three companies. Consider that AOL launched its free portal hand-in-hand with its coverage of the Live 8 concerts -- including live streams of the performances and hosting of the music videos for weeks afterwards.

But, in the last few months, it appears that sports have also become hot Web content. While sports topics have long been featured online, the category appears to be taking on particular importance this month--a time when there's activity in most sports segments, including professional baseball, football and hockey.

Today, Comcast will start streaming National Hockey League games for free to its 7.7 million Internet subscribers; the games, for now, will be streamed with the same ads shown on TV. Additionally, earlier this month, News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media added to its rapidly expanding online portfolio by buying sports simulation site WhatIfSports.com. That acquisition came on the heels of News Corp.'s purchase in July of Scout Media, a Seattle-based online sports company that operates 200 Web sites. Consider also that Sports Illustrated recently beefed up its own Web site by adding streaming video clips.

Devoting Web resources to sports makes a lot of sense. While sports events such as the World Series and Super Bowl still draw large mass audiences, college games or other, smaller games have more niche audiences. Many of those fans don't have access to the specific events they'd like to watch on their home TVs--but, provided they have broadband connections, such sports aficionados can now view the streams. And, at least for now, advertisers that purchase NHL TV spots will also gain a new Web audience.