A roundup of recent posts on the FSB News page.

– Montreal-based iPerceptions found in a study that text advertisements still fare the best among online consumers and that less-affluent Web surfers are more likely to click through.

– Fantasy site owners could find a lesson or two in how to market via social networks or how to sell such a setup to potential advertisers by reading about how some top global brands are leveraging the hottest new medium.

– “FSTA Frontline” is a new newsletter from the Fantasy Sports Trade Association.

– In an interview with Men’s Fitness, Yahoo Sports’ Ashley Russell says women in her fantasy football league fought fiercely on their first draft night a year ago.

– Is the NHL dooming itself to a future of relative obscurity, or should it just embrace its market and cater to it better? Two Hartford Courant reporters square off with the opening of the new season.

– Skyrocketing travel costs for college sports teams could threaten some programs and alter the schedules for announcing championship playoff brackets.

Hunter Weeks and Josh Caldwell last week released a film about fantasy football for free download. Since then, ”10 Yards” has gotten some pretty decent play online, including a mention in the Fifth Down blog on The New York Times’ website.

For a bit of the story behind the movie, though, I chatted via e-mail with Weeks. Here’s what he had to say about playing fantasy football, filming the movie and what might lie ahead.

Can you describe your and Josh’s backgrounds in fantasy sports?

Josh and I both went to the same college in Illinois. After graduating, we started playing fantasy basketball with some college buddies. We then tried the whole gamut of sports, and fantasy football has definitely endured through the years. We play with the same general group.

I’d say fantasy football has really turned me into an NFL fan. Prior to playing, I’d occasionally watch a game. Now, it’s religious.

How did the idea for this movie come about?

After filming our first feature, we knew we had to come up with what we were filming next. Back in 2003, before the first film, we took a video camera to a party with our fantasy football league and after I cut a 20-minute piece together, we knew there was potential for a bigger story. And someone was going to figure out how to make a legit movie about fantasy football and get it out. So, back to early 2006, we decided that we had to act fast and that we could be the guys to make the first legit feature film on the topic.

For how long did you work on it?

We shot it during the 2006 NFL season. It then took about a year to edit the 200 hours of footage and interviews that we got. Editing a story like this is always the tough part.

How did you go about finding the fantasy players featured in the film?

We relied on friends and Craigslist, mainly. It was amazing how many people out there replied to our Craigslist ads. Our goal was to be in a different city each week of the season, and, for the most part, that did happen.

What kind of reception did you find among NFL players and former players you talked to for the film?

Interviewing the players was easily the most intimidating (but also fun) part of making the film. A few, like Warren Sapp, had no interest in talking to us. He felt like fantasy football was all about offensive players.

(Editor’s note: This is particularly funny when you consider that Sapp is now doing fantasy commercials for NFL.com. I really dislike Warren Sapp.)

But some guys, like Desmond Clark and Ryan Longwell, were really cool and very easy to approach. We did most of our interviews in locker rooms.

How familiar did they seem to be with fantasy football, really?

NFL players were all over the place in terms of this. Many seemed to be
hiding the fact that they knew what it was all about. Watch the film and you might notice this with a couple of them. (Don’t want to say names here … haha.) But, some were totally into it. Artose Pinner said he played with a bunch of guys from the Lions. Now, this year, he’s back with Detroit. I wonder if fantasy football had any influence on that decision.

(Editor’s note: Actually, I’m sure it has far more to do with the fact that the team stinks at running back, unless Kevin Smith pans out.)

How many leagues will each of you compete in this season?

I’ll be in two or three. Josh will probably just be in our usual league. He doesn’t like to stray too much.

(Editor’s note: Our female readers would probably say that’s a good quality in a man.)

Any plans for future fantasy-related projects?

I’m talking to a few places now and I think we’re going to try to do a
j.fred (the main character in “10 Yards”) series that kicks off in
September.

The movie is available for download or viewing in various places, including OurStage, MySpace and SnagFilms.

If you’re going to launch a website that seeks to compete with mainstream sports content providers as well as wildly popular social-networking sites such as Facebook, you had better know what you’re doing. There’s little worry about that when you’re a former Yahoo! executive who last headed sports, entertainment and studios before leaving the company in 2006.

That’s the background that David Katz brings to the new site SportsFanLive.com, which has launched its beta version for public use.

Katz sees shortcomings for sports fans in the currently mass-produced formats mentioned above. He told The New York Times that the major sports sites “are fundamentally all the same — imbued with traditional media DNA … and not built for the next generation and for the evolving needs of sports fans.”

As for existing social networks, Katz says that although there are sports presences, the sites don’t really reach out to fans in particular.

“Facebook and other social network sites do a good job of connecting you to people all over your life, but it’s not relevant to your sports interests,” he told the Times. “We’re isolating that subset of sports friends and giving you instant communication with them.”

Katz, who also formerly worked for CBS, touts the aggregation of information sources in his new venture. He says that Sports Fan Live will draw from about 4,500 providers, rather than the hundreds he says mainstream sports sites tap.

Although Katz decided not to run any fantasy games through the new site, the venture — if successful — could be another way for fantasy players to connect, as is the case with recent social offerings by The Fantasy Football Times and FanSoft Media. One particularly interesting tool is the FanFinder, which purports to allow users to locate other fans of specific teams so that folks might gather to watch games.

It would be easy for a startup site to get crushed in the rush to combine sports and social networking right now, but the experience, capital and positioning brought by Katz at least gives SportsFanLive.com strong initial standing.