While we don’t usually write up stories about a brand or media company re-launching their website (and often wonder why such a topic warrants an actual press release at all), we did find it interesting that EXPN.com is finally offering live event webcasts, which started May 26th with the Red Bull X-Fighters event from Slane Castle, Ireland, as part of their website re-launch announcement. As we’ve said for years and quantified in our North American Youth Culture Study, among other Global Studies, when it comes to youth culture, 13-25-year-olds generally spend more time online than watching TV. This includes a high percentage of action sports enthusiasts. So why do so many action sports media companies pump their TV episodes first, which are often late-to-cable anyway, when online should clearly be a priority for this demographic of viewers?

The good thing about EXPN.com offering up live webcasts of events (other than just the X Games), as well as video and audio podcasts along with their other features such as Surfline (an important and timely forecast destination for global surfers), stories, photos, columns, and blogs, is that there’s now another 24-hour destination for people interested in checking out action sports, the athletes, and general lifestyle associated with this genre. This can only help build the audience of fans, and therefore help the industry as a whole as more people have access to what’s going on in action sports around the world. 

Other interesting features about the EXPN.com re-launch are the Surf Cam reports in real-time, but again, powered by Surfline, mobile phone alerts to get scoring action, and radio featuring Rick Thorne, Jerry Bernardo, and Kris “Jaymo” Jaimeson, plus cool bands such as Linkin Park, AFI, Flogging Molly, Frank Black, and NOFX, among others.