Excel esports on ESPN show world the pain of format errors

Ladies and gentlemen, let's get ready to modelllllllll!
Enlarge / Ladies and gentlemen, let’s get ready to modelllllllll!

If you watched ESPN2 during its stint last weekend as “ESPN8: The Ocho,” you may have seen some odd, meme-friendly competitions, including corgi racing, precision paper airplane tossing, and slippery stair climbing.

Or you might have seen “Excel Esports: All-Star Battle,” a tournament in which an unexpected full-column Flash Fill is announced like a 50-yard Hail Mary. It’s just the latest mainstream acknowledgment of Excel as a viable, if quirky, esport, complete with down-to-the-wire tension and surprising comebacks.

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The full Excel Esports All-Star Battle.

The Financial Modeling World Cup (FMWC) hosts regular international competitions, both invitational and open to anyone, in which Excel pros strive to solve as many questions as possible from a complex task. You can download all three of the tasks used in last weekend’s battle for free.

ESPN showed a 30-minute edited version of the full two-hour-and-48-minute all-star battle between previous champions. The ESPN broadcast showed one of the three rounds; it focused on calculating how many points different spins of a free, online slot-machine-like game would generate for players. There were many spins and some quirky scoring rules.

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First problem in the Excel Esports All-Start Battle.

Featured in this all-star battle was 2021 FMWC World Cup winner Diarmuid Early, an FMWC grandmaster from Ireland who claims 10,000 hours in Excel. (He would be Lambda if he were a function, he said.) The winner of the first championship in 2020, Joseph Lau (28,600 hours, Isological), also competed, along with six other highly ranked function warriors.

Diarmuid took a commanding lead in the first slot-like task, racking up more points more quickly in a first round than anyone has in an FMWC competition. Others faced the kinds of challenges that regular users see in less combative Excel work. Polish competitor Gabriela Strój told the hosts that “one stupid error”—leaving a formula linked to the wrong sheet—likely cost her hundreds of points. David Brown from the US said that his major problem was pasting from his 32-bit Windows-based Excel to the official online Excel answer sheets, which left his formulas treated as text.

The top four of the eight competitors moved on to round 2, simulating a yacht regatta in Excel. Diarmuid and third-ranked Andrew Ngai made it through. The two competed on creating a score-tracking mechanic for an entirely Excel-based retro-style 2D platformer, “Modelario.” Ngai eked out the win, although with only 411 of a total 1,000 possible points. Ngai’s reward for a more than two-hour cell-based marathon: a trip to Tucson, Arizona, for the FMWC finals.

Part of the fourth level of the Excel-based platformer "Modelario" that two FMWC competitors had to score based on controller input. Neither contestant made it to the fifth level.
Enlarge / Part of the fourth level of the Excel-based platformer “Modelario” that two FMWC competitors had to score based on controller input. Neither contestant made it to the fifth level.

If you feel like you’ve found your sport after watching that kind of linked-sheet sprinting, consider the FMWC Open, which requires no invitation, ranking, or specific experience. Qualifiers and the competition take place in late October.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1872073




YouTube TV loses ESPN, ABC, and all other Disney-owned channels

Photo illustration showing the YouTube TV logo on a smartphone.
Getty Images | SOPA Images

YouTube TV customers have lost access to all Disney-owned channels including ESPN and ABC, as the companies failed to agree on a new contract before the previous one expired last night. YouTube TV customers will automatically get a $15-per-month discount for as long as the Disney channels remain blacked out, reducing the base plan cost from $65 to $50.

“Members, we worked hard to avoid this but were unable to reach a fair deal with Disney,” YouTube TV said. “We regret to share that as of December 17, all Disney-owned channels are unavailable on YouTube TV. While Disney content remains off our platform, we’ll decrease our price by $15/month. We know how frustrating it is to lose channels like ESPN and your local ABC station, and will continue conversations with Disney in hopes of restoring their content for you.”

The list of channels no longer on YouTube TV includes all local ABC channels, ABC News Live, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, FX, FXX, FXM, National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, SEC Network, and ACC Network. YouTube TV posted details on how credits will be issued on this webpage.

“If you want to continue watching some of Disney’s content, consider signing up for their own service, The Disney Bundle, which they offer for $13.99/month and which is subject to its own terms and restrictions,” YouTube TV said.

YouTube TV sought price guarantee

As we reported a few days ago, the Google-owned YouTube TV was seeking a most-favored-nation (MFN) clause from Disney. “Our ask to Disney, as with all our partners, is to treat YouTube TV like any other TV provider—by offering us the same rates that services of a similar size pay, across Disney’s channels for as long as we carry them,” YouTube TV said at the time.

YouTube TV nearly lost NBCUniversal channels in another recent dispute. But in that case, YouTube and NBC agreed to a short extension to avoid a blackout when the original contract expired, and then struck a new multiyear deal.

There was no extension to prevent a blackout in the ongoing YouTube TV/Disney dispute, but both companies said they still hope to reach a new agreement.

“We’ve been in ongoing negotiations with Google’s YouTube TV and unfortunately, they have declined to reach a fair deal with us based on market terms and conditions,” Disney said in a statement sent to news outlets. “As a result, their subscribers have lost access to our unrivaled portfolio of networks including live sports and news plus kids, family and general entertainment programming from ABC, the ESPN networks, the Disney channels, Freeform, the FX networks and the National Geographic channels. We stand ready to reach an equitable agreement with Google as quickly as possible in order to minimize the inconvenience to YouTube TV viewers by restoring our networks. We hope Google will join us in that effort.”

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1821766




ESPN and Celine Dion Capture the Mood of a Nation Yearning for Football

Sports fans haven’t had many reasons for excitement in 2020, with several keystone events canceled and seasons delayed. Even when sports like basketball have seemed on the path to returning to normal, new rounds of Covid-19 infections made each subsequent week uncertain.

But for now, optimism reigns as the NFL regular season prepares to begin Sept. 10. The league has put a variety of infection-control measures in place, such as a ban on cheerleaders and mascots on the field, so it won’t be quite like business as usual, but football fans will definitely take what they can get.

To capture the enthusiasm for football’s return, ESPN and agency Arts & Letters Creative Co. have launched a heart-lifting (but tongue-in-cheek) spot called “Ready for Football.”

While the ad features a wide array of athletes, coaches, fictional characters and personalities, the true star is the voice of Celine Dion, whose 1996 ballad “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” powers the emotionally cathartic ad.

“The message behind ‘Ready for Football’ rings especially true this year given the intense emotional journey fans have experienced these past several months,” said Laura Gentile, svp of marketing for ESPN. “Our creative approach reflects how we are all–now more than ever–feeling, as we crave football and show fans, players, coaches, teams and ESPN all coming together to rejoice, reflect and exhale.”

The agency behind the spot is relatively new to the creative scene. Arts & Letters Creative Co. was founded in 2017 by Charles Hodges, a veteran of TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Wieden+Kennedy New York and Google Lab.

Arts & Letters debuted its first work on the ESPN account last year with the emotional anthem “There’s No Place Like Sports.”

CREDITS:

Client: ESPN 

Laura Gentile, Senior Vice President, ESPN Marketing 

Emeka Ofodile, Vice President, ESPN Sports Marketing 

Curtis Friends, Senior Director, ESPN Sports Marketing 

David Dessau, Manager, ESPN Sports Marketing 

Lauren Gorajek Manager, ESPN Sports Marketing 

Carly Rotatori, Coordinator, ESPN Sports Marketing 

Chantre Camack, Director, Talent Production 

Sharee Stephens, Associate Director, Talent Production

Agency: Arts & Letters Creative Co.

Charles Hodges, Executive Creative Director 

Molly Jamison, Creative Director

Scott Hayes, Creative  

Eric Steele, Creative  

Tanner McColl, Creative  

Dixon Muller, Creative 

Letitia Jacobs, Director of Production 

Keith Jamerson, Executive Producer 

Rebecca Wilmer, Executive Producer 

Griffin Morrow, Assistant Producer 

Rich Weinstein, Managing Director 

Theo Abel, Business Director 

Martin Madriaga, Business Manager 

Andy Grayson, Director of Strategy 

Zach Wootton, Strategist 

Lenora Cushing, Director of Business Affairs 

Jennifer Kmetzsch, Business Affairs

Editorial: Arts & Letters Creative Co.

Pat Blumer, Editor 

Matt Doe, Editor 

Sho Kellam, Assistant Editor 

Whitney Green, Executive Producer 

Libbie Crane, Producer 

Ryan Dunstan, Assistant Producer

Production: Superprime

The Malloys, Director 

Rebecca Skinner, Managing Director / EP 

Michelle Ross, Managing Director / Head of Sales 

Charlotte Woodhead, Executive Producer 

 Matt Sanders, Head of Production  

Alexandra Lisee, Line Producer

Color/Finishing: Madbox Made

Matthew West, Colorist 

Macy West, Producer 

Audio Mix: Overcoast Music + Sound 

Matt Whitworth, Audio Mixer 

https://www.adweek.com/creativity/espn-and-celine-dion-capture-the-mood-of-a-nation-yearning-for-football/




Disney fights streaming account sharing with help from cable industry

Image of Mickey Mouse with Hulu and Disney+ logos.
Enlarge / Here they come, all together in a streaming bundle.
Disney / Sam Machkovech

Disney and Charter Communications are teaming up to fight account sharing in an attempt to prevent multiple people from using a single account to access streaming video services.

The battle against account sharing was announced as Disney and the nation’s second-biggest cable company struck a new distribution agreement involving Disney’s Hulu, ESPN+, and the forthcoming Disney+. Customers could still buy those online services directly from Disney, but the new deal would also let them make those purchases through Charter’s Spectrum TV service.

If you buy a Disney service through Charter, be aware that the companies will work together to prevent you from sharing a login with friends. Disney and Charter said in their announcement yesterday that they have “agreed to work together on piracy mitigation. The two companies will work together to implement business rules and techniques to address such issues as unauthorized access and password sharing.”

In addition to streaming services, the deal will let Charter continue carrying Disney-owned TV channels on its cable service. That includes ABC, the various Disney and ESPN channels, FX, National Geographic, and more.

“This agreement will allow Spectrum to continue delivering to its customers popular Disney content, makes possible future distribution by Spectrum of Disney streaming services, and will begin an important collaborative effort to address the significant issue of piracy mitigation,” Charter Executive VP Tom Montemagno said.

The announcement didn’t say exactly how the companies will fight account sharing. We asked Charter for technical details on how it’ll work and about whether this will result in more personal customer data being shared between Charter and Disney. Charter did not answer any of our questions, saying, “we don’t have details to share at this time.”

We sent the same questions to Disney and will update this article if we get any answers.

Charter CEO complained about account sharing

The crackdown could target people who use Charter TV account logins to sign into Disney services online. Charter CEO Tom Rutledge has complained about account sharing several times over the past few years while criticizing TV networks for not fully locking down their content.

“There’s lots of extra streams, there’s lots of extra passwords, there’s lots of people who could get free service,” Rutledge said at an industry conference in 2017. He argues that password sharing has helped people avoid buying cable TV. ESPN has also complained about account sharing, calling it piracy.

Another possibility is that Charter could monitor usage of its broadband network to help Disney fight account sharing. For example, Disney could track the IP addresses of users signing in to its services, and Charter could match those IP addresses to those of its broadband customers. Charter has plenty of leeway to share its customers’ private browsing data because the Republican-controlled Congress eliminated broadband privacy rules in 2017.

Customers could use VPN services to attempt to avoid detection, though.

Charter has 15.8 million residential TV customers nationwide, making it the second-biggest cable TV service after Comcast. But it lost 400,000 video customers in the past year. Charter’s broadband service has gone in the other direction, rising from 23.1 million to 24.2 million residential customers in the past year.

Netflix and HBO take less strict approach

In contrast to Charter and Disney, Netflix and HBO haven’t cared as much about account sharing.

Sharing a Netflix account “with individuals beyond your household” does violate Netflix’s terms of use, but the restriction isn’t heavily enforced. “Password sharing is something you have to learn to live with, because there’s so much legitimate password sharing, like you sharing with your spouse, with your kids,” Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said in 2016.

Now-former HBO CEO Richard Plepler once said that password sharing is a “terrific marketing vehicle for the next generation of viewers” and that “we’re in the business of creating addicts.” (Plepler left HBO in February, less than a year after AT&T bought HBO owner Time Warner.)

Netflix, HBO, and the Disney-owned Hulu all limit the number of concurrent streams on each account, however. That doesn’t prevent account sharing entirely, but such a policy can make it inconvenient to share an account with a bunch of friends.

Disclosure: The Advance/Newhouse Partnership, which owns 13% of Charter, is part of Advance Publications. Advance Publications owns Condé Nast, which owns Ars Technica.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1552355




Walmart, ESPN pull violent game marketing following shootings

ESPN feels its audiences don't want to see <em>Apex Legends</em> scenes like this "given the swirl of that moment."
Enlarge / ESPN feels its audiences don’t want to see Apex Legends scenes like this “given the swirl of that moment.”

Some of the biggest corporations in the United States are scaling back their display of violent games in the wake of recent mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton.

As reported by Vice, employees at Walmart stores are reporting receipt of a notice to “remove signing and displays referencing violence.” These directions include turning off “any video game display consoles that show a demo of violent games” and “remov[ing] any [signs] referencing combat or third-person shooter video games.” Employees are also instructed to “cancel any events promoting combat style or third-person shooter games that may be scheduled in Electronics.”

The memo also says “movies displaying violence” and “hunting season videos” should not be displayed in stores for the time being.

At ESPN, the taped broadcast of an Apex Legends tournament planned for this weekend has been postponed. The delay, first reported by esports journalist Rod Breslau and later confirmed to Ars Technica, was “made out of respect for the victims and all those impacted in the immediate aftermath of the shootings,” according to a source with direct knowledge of the decision. “It seemed the prudent thing to do given the swirl of that moment,” the source added.

The tournament, which took place last weekend, will still be recapped on the ESPN3 online streaming service this weekend, though plans for coverage across ABC, ESPN2, and ESPNEWS have been postponed.

Bad timing?

Decisions surrounding the display of video game violence have taken on some added weight as multiple prominent politicians discuss exposure to games as a potential cause of real world violence. But there’s some evidence that these corporations are making changes out of perceived sensitivity to viewers rather than sensitivity to political pressure.

At Walmart, for instance, there has been no indication that stores will halt the sale of violent games, or even pull their boxes down from shelves. Walmart has also resisted calls to limit sales of actual guns in its stores, telling USA Today that “there’s been no change in policy.”

The retailer has long taken part in the ESRB’s voluntary Retail Council program, which as a whole attains 80 to 90 percent effectiveness in preventing sales of M and AO-rated games to minors. Walmart has not responded to a request for comment from Ars Technica.

Similarly, ABC and ESPN haven’t announced any changes in their overall policy toward broadcasting violent games as part of their esports coverage. Instead, the “swirl of the moment” seems to be leading to a temporary change in the way the network perceives its audience’s sensitivities. Given the sheer frequency of mass shootings in recent years, though, there’s no guarantee that the postponed October airdate will be any further removed from a similar “swirl” of sensitive news coverage.

The game industry writ large isn’t immune to these kinds of considerations following reports of real-world violence. In 2016, the Entertainment Software Association told Ars Technica that participants in the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo were taking steps “to be sensitive to the national mood at the moment” in the wake of the Pulse Night Club shooting in Orlando, Florida. Subsequent E3 conventions seem to have reverted back to form, though, prominently featuring plenty of violent content as usual. Many games makers were also forced to change content, marketing, or release schedules following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Though studies have shown that exposure to virtual violence doesn’t lead to real world violence, pushing that kind of content to your audience takes on a different tone in the wake of a prominent national tragedy. Not to worry, though; our collective memory and sensitivities always seems to revert back to the media violence status quo before too long.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1549017




Disney’s new streaming bundle priced to compete with “standard” Netflix plan

Image of Mickey Mouse with Hulu and Disney+ logos.
Enlarge / Here they come, all together in a streaming bundle.
Disney / Sam Machkovech

The Walt Disney Company’s latest quarterly earnings call included an announcement to investors that appears to take dead aim at Netflix: an all-Disney, three-service streaming bundle for $12.99/month, coming November 12.

The bundle will see three wholly owned Disney services—Disney+, ESPN+, and “ad-supported” Hulu—available as a combined online-streaming bundle once Disney+ launches in November. Separately, the services’ asking prices add up to $17.97 ($6.99, $5.99, and $4.99, respectively), thus marking a 27% discount for the whole shebang.

That $12.99 price matches Netflix’s “standard” service tier (which includes 1080p resolution and support for up to two simultaneous streams). Only one of Disney’s bundled services, Disney+, includes support for higher-resolution video, but that comes as a free upgrade for supported streaming devices. Netflix’s 4K offering requires upgrading to a $15.99/mo. plan. Should Netflix subscribers want to save money, they can downgrade to an $8.99 “basic” plan, which tops out at 480p resolution and only one device at a time.

Those Netflix prices, by the way, all increased roughly $2/mo. for each tier in January.

In his announcement of the planned bundle, Disney CEO Bob Iger did not specify whether a pricier bundle will be available for fans of Hulu’s more expensive, ad-free streaming option ($11.99/mo), let alone Hulu’s live-video option ($44.99/mo). Iger was clear that this bundle is limited to consumers in the United States—which serves as a firm reminder that ESPN+ and Hulu are currently hamstrung for consumers in the rest of the world, particularly our neighbors in Canada. (“We have designs on growing Hulu outside the United States, but no update on that right now,” Iger said during Tuesday’s call.)

The aggressive pricing announcement comes as the video-streaming sector heats up, what with NBC Universal and HBO readying their own standalone products (and aggressively reclaiming content by way of corporate ownership along the way). Prices for those two companies’ upcoming services have not been announced.

https://arstechnica.com/?p=1547211