Mobile app scoring big for Score

Matt Hartley,  Financial Post

TORONTO — There are hundreds of thousands of sports enthusiasts in the United States who likely have never watched Score Media Inc.’s television network, but who are already big fans of The Score.

For many U.S. sports fans, The Score has become their primary source for scores and news about their favourite teams, thanks to the company’s ScoreMobile smartphone applications for BlackBerrys and iPhones.

Since it was launched a little more than seven months ago, ScoreMobile has become the most downloaded sports application in BlackBerry’s App World marketplace, totalling more than 1.25 million downloads and more than 45 million page views per month.

As well, ScoreMobile for iPhone is one of the most popular sports applications in Apple Inc.’s App Store both in Canada and the United States.

In fact, despite its Canadian roots, more than 60% of ScoreMobile users now come from the United States.

For John Levy, Score Media’s chairman and chief executive, mobile isn’t merely a way of promoting the company’s Canadian sports network, but rather is a first step toward becoming a player on the international stage.

“It really is the future direction of our company,” Mr. Levy said in an interview. “This is not just a sidebar for a TV network. The fact that we are being able to show this sort of success is really the direction of where we’re headed.”

Score Media reported yesterday its highest quarterly earnings to date, with revenue jumping 8% to $11.4-million for the three months ended Nov. 30 from $10.5-million in the same quarter the year before. Profit for Score Media rose to $1.1-million in the quarter from $200,000 in year-earlier period.

Score Media’s mobile operations are an extension of the company’s strategy to use digital media to expand the sports-viewing experience.

The plan that also includes the company’s website, its expanding blog federation and its social media presence on sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

As the online advertising industry develops and North Americans upgrade from cellphones to multifunction smart phones capable of supporting apps like ScoreMobile – which is free and supported by advertising – Score Media expects its mobile operations to play an increasingly larger role in the company’s bottom line.

The apps are currently monetized through both direct ad sales as well as through partnerships with ad networks, such as Quattro, JumpTap and Google Inc.’s AdSense Mobile.

Two years ago, long before the iPhone arrived in Canada and before Apple’s App Store ignited public interest in mobile applications, Score Media hired its own director of mobile, Dale Fallon.

“At that time there were almost no iPhones in Canada, so, out of necessity, we were targeting sports fans not just in Canada, but particularly in the U.S., who were interested in similar sports to what we follow in Canada,” Mr. Fallon said.

“We knew the iPhone was going to come to Canada, but it actually took longer than we expected. So for months we were growing this business in the U.S.”

Mr. Fallon said that in order for ScoreMobile to evolve into a bona fide revenue generator for the company, they need the scale the U.S. market offers to grow their potential user base as a means of attracting advertisers.

Financial Post