Microsoft Claims 10X Engagement with Sunday Night Football on NBCSports.com

Microsoft's Silverlight software is powering the new videoplayer used by NBCSports.com for Sunday Sunday Night Football. 

It is registering extraordinarily high "engagement" with users, Microsoft's Brian Goldfarb told me on Tuesday.

He said that engagement, meaning time watching and interacting, is 10 times normally, with 50 minute sessions per viewer. 

We would assume that engagement with one of the few free, live Webcasts of an NFL game would be high, but Brian says that the quality of the experience is a big factor.

The player is extraordinary:  users can replay, pause and select different cameras.  Elements of the player will be used by NBC Sports for the Web streaming of the upcoming Winter Games. 

You can watch the Cardinals vs. the Giants tonight (10.25) at 8 p.m. ET/5 PT. It is live only, not on demand. See the control panel below:

Brian was was a panelist at the Beet.TV Online Video Roundtable.

Andy Plesser,  Executive Producer

Update:  I grabbed this screen shot while watching the game on full screen: