MLB Advanced Media, Major League Baseball's online presence, has 1.3 million subscribers, yearly revenues of US$200 million and is valued at US$5 billion. That is a very nice little spin-off from the core content produced on the field, reports The Globe and Mail.
Should a well-placed hit or spectacular catch determine the winner of the World Series this week, avid baseball fans will be able to scrutinize every detail of the decisive play.
Fans will know whether the pitch was a changeup or a fastball and whether it dipped at the last second or just caught a piece of the strike zone.
They will know the exact velocity of the ball and whether the trajectory was similar to the pitches that came before it.
And they will know all of it in a matter of seconds. Because, while baseball may be the most traditional of sports, it also happens to be the most progressive when it comes to reaching an audience over the Internet.
In some cases, the data will be served up so quickly on Major League Baseball's website that the statistics and graphics will be posted on computer screens around the world before the call is even made on radio or TV because of the slight broadcast signal delay.
That live element, part of MLB.com's Enhanced Gameday feature, has become a smash hit on the Internet this postseason as baseball fanatics flock to the Internet to supplement their postseason viewing. In September alone, Comscore MediaMetrix reports, nearly 10 million people logged on to the site.
In less than six years, MLB has turned its Web operations into a multibillion-dollar on-line juggernaut. With a vast archive of every game played this season and last, plus dozens of historic games dating back to the 1950s — all available on-demand — the site is the only sports-related property to be mentioned in the same breath as streaming video kings YouTube, Yahoo and MySpace in terms of the number of clips served up.
America's pastime, which blossomed on the radio and came of age on television, is now using the Internet not only to reach fans on multiple platforms but to give them a depth of content — accessible and immediate — never enjoyed by any sports fan before.
Other sports leagues — and for that matter, other media firms — are looking on enviously at what MLB has built on the Internet in just a few years.
“Baseball has never had a reputation of being a technological leader,” said Jim Gallagher, spokesman for MLB Advanced Media LP. “But baseball has been at the forefront on the Internet. We've made all the mistakes that people who are just starting out face, so smartly a lot of people are coming to us.”
For a moment, forget YouTube and its rapid rise from startup to billion-dollar property. The genesis of baseball's Internet presence has been every bit as remarkable. And since YouTube has yet to earn a dollar for itself, MLB.com is all that more impressive considering its profitability. ...
There are seemingly few limits to the depth of the content. Want to see how Barry Bonds fares against left-handed pitchers during night games played on grass? The site will tailor a stats package just for that. Want to relive some of the greatest moments in baseball history — everything from Willie Mays's catch to Joe Carter's ninth-inning World Series-winning homer from 1993? They are there too. And fantasy game players can get a complete video highlights package for each of their players delivered to their inbox by the time they show up for work in the morning.
But it's the Enhanced Gameday feature that has established new levels for interactive participation.
The live data is compiled by MLB Advanced Media staff and simultaneously fed into master control in New York. “Believe it or not, we have stringers at every ballpark. Every time the pitcher moves his arm, they enter a code,” Mr. Gallagher said. “They sit in the press box, they make $80 a game. It's not a bad deal. You just have to have strong kidneys because you have to wait to go to the bathroom.”
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