MLB Advanced Media & The Future of Broadcast Rights
 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jackstuef/in...h-startup-that

This is a good read on MLBAM -- which, if you aren't familiar, does a lot more than just baseball. MLBAM took in an estimated $500m in revenue last year alone (a pot that is shared equally by all 30 teams), and they're constantly looking to expand what they offer.

Re: MLB Advanced Media & The Future of Broadcast Rights
 

MLBAM is the absolute best at what they do. Without question. They are also incredibly fan friendly.

Re: MLB Advanced Media & The Future of Broadcast Rights
 

Great article that really articulates where new media is going and how quickly it is all happening. :thumbup:

Re: MLB Advanced Media & The Future of Broadcast Rights
 

Can't be happening.

The game is dying! :p

Re: MLB Advanced Media & The Future of Broadcast Rights
 

MLBAM does really great work. MLBAM's MLB AT Bat app is I think the best app ever developed. It is so far and away above anything any other professional sports league has.

As good as the work they do is the only thing that holds them back is MLB still using the old blackout rules. For a league that can be forward thinking in the things MLBAM develops it is shame that some things like blackout rules as so stuck in the past.

Re: MLB Advanced Media & The Future of Broadcast Rights
 

There's a very real argument to be made that the game is in better position to be succeed long-term, financially, than any other sports league on the planet.

Re: MLB Advanced Media & The Future of Broadcast Rights
 

IMO, the writer willfully ignores the most ominous issue, due to wishful thinking. The entrenched presence of those hugely lucrative, long-term deals with RSNs are what is going to prevent MLB.TV from moving beyond blackouts and distributing games to all comers via streaming. The very reason those deals are lucrative is because of the per-subscriber revenue stream from cable and satellite subscribers within the teams' territories. It's money that is baked into what you pay for "basic cable" or the "base package" with your satellite provider. It's money that is paid by everyone from diehard fans to grandmas who only subscribe to cable to watch "The Barefoot Contessa" and hipsters who only got cable for "Mad Men," "Game of Thrones" and "Breaking Bad." That revenue stream won't simply disappear because fans and cord cutters dislike it intensely. There's too much money involved.

Readers will come away from this read thinking that a future free of blackouts is right around the corner when it isn't. It isn't at all. Those 20-year deals with RSNs are like a pair of shackles, anchoring the team to 2 decades of blackouts.

Re: MLB Advanced Media & The Future of Broadcast Rights
 

You're missing something too, though. There is a consensus in the industry that eventually we'll wind up with a la carte programming. Once that happens, the leverage RSNs have will be diminished a bit and arguably the contracts with RSNs might suffer. If a la carte programming happens, it will especially make sense to bundle the product together online because right now TV networks profit by forcing bundles on cable operators, and in turn are able to pay more for rights fees. There is a point when consumers will stop paying for cable packages once it gets too bloated. Once that happens, there will be a big push in the industry to ditch the current model. Some have even speculated congress and the FCC will get involved and legislate it. Who knows... but it will happen at some point.

Re: MLB Advanced Media & The Future of Broadcast Rights
 

Sports is literally the only reason I have cable right now. Between Netflix, Hulu Plus, Computers that can be hooked up to an antenna and record local TV, Amazon Prime, Youtube, Vimeo and a few other places, I could easily get by Cable if I weren't locked into sports. If I didn't live in the Cincinnati area, I probably wouldn't have cable because I would just buy MLB.tv and package it with some of the above options for my programming needs. For the non-sports fan, they can truly get away from cable pretty easily and still get HD programming directly onto their TV.

Re: MLB Advanced Media & The Future of Broadcast Rights
 

Thanks CE. That was a good read. Really makes me curious what the Reds TV deal is going to bring in. Could be monsterous.

Re: MLB Advanced Media & The Future of Broadcast Rights
 

Doubtful. The Reds tv market is quite small. I am sure it will be quite stronger than their current one, but it will still be small among baseball.

Re: MLB Advanced Media & The Future of Broadcast Rights
 

From what I've seen, their market isn't small. There was a color-coded map posted here a while back and the Reds area was surprisingly large.

Re: MLB Advanced Media & The Future of Broadcast Rights
 

The area may be large, but the population numbers aren't.

Re: MLB Advanced Media & The Future of Broadcast Rights
 

Actually, they are. The problem is that the area has multiple teams fighting for the same viewers. If we consistently put a better product on the field, the Reds could take back Columbus, Indianapolis, etc from other teams. I'm clearly no expert in the field but seeing the areas and populations...and then seeing what the Padres recently got for example, I'm optimistic.

Re: MLB Advanced Media & The Future of Broadcast Rights
 

I don't see much of a premium being paid for the "well, if they can pick up a majority of the fans in cities 2 hours away.....", but maybe I am wrong.