“Major League Baseball is offering live video of games not played at home to subscribers through Apple Inc.’s App Store. The new program, available for $9.99 [per year], lets subscribers to MLB.TV access games on an iPhone or iPod touch, as well as on a computer,” Sara Silver reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“The application, MLB.com At Bat 2009, lets users pause a game or rewind to review a play, and offers condensed games, an updated scorecard and audio feeds of both local and out-of-market games. The live streaming was enabled by new technology contained in the latest version of Apple’s iPhone software, made available last month,” Silver reports.
“As media companies try to figure out how to charge for mobile content, MLB.com wants to move fast to transfer its lucrative subscription model from the Internet to cellphones. MLB.TV, which costs $80 to $110 for an entire season’s games, currently has 400,000 subscribers. MLB.com At Bat 2009 has 210,000 at present (the live-streaming function is new),” Silver reports.
“Most major league sports teams have so far not competed directly against local TV broadcasts, but some analysts believe that streaming of local games is next,” Silver reports.
Full article here.
