• by Ken Liebeskind , April 3, 2001

By Ken Liebeskind

What's new about major league baseball this year? Internet radio broadcasts of games are being sold on a subscription basis.

Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM), the Internet division of Major League Baseball, entered into an agreement with RealNetworks, a Seattle Internet media company, to sell subscriptions to the Webcasts. Both parties will sell subscriptions at three different price points. MLBAM will charge $9.95 for a full season of games. RealNetworks will charge $4.95 a month, or $9.95 for a Gold Pass, which includes NBA games, NASCAR racing and other sports broadcasts. A RealNetworks subscription also includes RealPlayer, a software program needed to listen to the games that provides enhanced audio and video.

RealNetworks agreed to pay the league $20 million over three years for the right to broadcast the games.

The $20 million guarantee is apparently what sealed the deal for RealNetworks, which replaces Yahoo, which had been Webcasting major league baseball games for the past three years. "There was no money guarantee or subscription service with Yahoo," says Robert Hertzberg, an analyst at Jupiter Media Metrix. "They shared revenue from banner ads that were sold for the broadcasts."

Every game will be streamed by RealNetworks, including 4,000 home and away games and foreign language games.

At the beginning of the season, only audio will be available on the Webcasts. Starting in May, RealNetworks will introduce video elements, including game statistics, pitch by pitch animation and game highlights that can be customized by individual fans.

Fans can go to Mlb.com or Real.com to order subscriptions and hear the games.

Charging for the broadcasts is a first for Major League Baseball, although the NBA has done it for four years, charging $29.95 a year. Not many sites have been successful charging for Internet content. The Wall St. Journal and Consumer Reports have been the big winners and Playboy has been somewhat successful, Hertzberg says.

"It depends on the content," he says, noting that MLBAM could be successful because the content is exclusive. "You can't get the audiocasts anywhere else. It's a unique kind of content and if they exploit its strength through the Net they have a chance of being successful."

On Sunday, RealNetworks launched an ad campaign to promote the broadcasts. The campaign, with a theme "Not just any game, every game. Hear it all on Real.com," started with upside down billboards (well, it was April Fools Day) near ball parks in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Print ads will run in USA Today. An online campaign, including banners and instream ads, will run on Espn.com, Cnnsi.com and Cbssportsline.com. Cole Webber, a Seattle media buying firm, handled the campaign for RealNetworks.

MLBAM is doing no advertising to support subscription sales. There is mention on the site, but nothing else.

Listeners will hear local ads on the Webcasts, although that may change as RealNetworks has plans to sell Web only advertising. Lisa Amore, a RealNetworks spokeswoman, says the company will sell its own advertising, instead of relying on an outside firm. And it will provide radio stations with the software they need to switch between terrestrial and Internet advertising. Stay tuned for more details as they become available.

- Ken Liebeskind may be reached at kenrunz@aol.com