Major League Baseball has successfully gone digital through its digital arm Baseball Advanced Media (BAM). BAM operates the official websites for each MLB team and through partnerships provides live games, highlights and other content on mobile apps and platforms. It generates over $440 million annually through various digital revenue streams. By being early technology adopters and providing valuable online content, BAM has helped make MLB a leader in digital media while distributing revenue across teams to promote competitive balance.

1. Major League Baseball Advanced Media:
America’s Pastime Goes Digital
Izabella Andersson I Clara Rodrigues I Matilda Olori
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK7bocrVDMs&feature=player_embedded

2. E-commerce encouraging changes
• Baseball Advanced Media (BAM) has a well structured business
model, the e-commerce store formation was to improve MLB’s
competitive balance.
• Best league website till date with 30 official MLB clubs websites
• Partnership with Apple to launch apps (iPhone and iPad) which is
the second highest selling apps.
• Generates $440 million annually from Tickets, Paid Content, cable –
television contacts, Advertising sales and Merchandizing
• Attracts over 50 million visitors per month (as videos can’t be found
on other sites)

3. E-commerce encouraging changes
• They offered a variety of products on different platforms.
• MLB.com
• MLB.TV (Charged a premium on this model)
• Established itself as a technology leader (highlights, streaming
games)
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=19960359&topic_id=11493214&c_id=mlb
• They had a practise of offering free live games to get reaction
of consumers in other to entice them.

4. Digital Revolution
• BAM (Baseball Advanced Media)
• 2000 a unanimous voice to go digital
• Bob DuPuy’s vision to take advantage of the media world
• 2500 games a year – a potential to exploit
• 30 teams x $4 million each
• A website for each team = revenues distribution

5. Digital Revolution
• Money from Technology
• Just write down every single detail & HIGHLIGHT
• Software & “Online geo-location technology”
• Key goal: presence in multiple-consumers platforms
• Source of money: paid-content model
• 475 employees = $ 475 million

6. 2002-2011

7. Wider issues
• Fans are better served through MLB Network website, than only through TV
• By being in the forefront of technology, it advances (broadband, wireless),
innovating the whole IT industry
• By offering commercially viable content, innovation continues.
They prove that it is possible to sell subscription content online
• By offering attractive services online (which people are willing to pay for) a
company can become less dependent on advertising and sponsorship income
• Online content allows people to get in touch with the product more frequently
(video on demand, through an app on the iPhone, through updated scores)

8. Wider issues
• The work day (M-F, 9am to 5pm) is the primetime for Internet video
• Mobile subscribers watching video online in Q3 2011 showed the fastest growth
of all viewing mediums
jumping 37% year-over-year and 5% quarter-over-quarter to reach more than 10% of the population. This
represents a jump of 205.7% in users since Nielsen first launched its report in Q3 2008.
• Personalization and interactivity increases appeal of online content over TV
• Online shopping and subscription model means less dependency on advertising
and sponsorships

9. The Strategy
• Election of a key commissioner: Bud Selig
• 4 regular meetings / year consensus
• 80% revenues from local sources & 20% from centralized sources
• Redistribution of revenues across teams to balance competitiveness
“REVENUE-SHARING AGREEMENT in 2011 teams paid the league 31% of local revenues”
• TV Network (ESPN, FOX, TBS) 80 games per season & exclusive
Sunday night games 5 times per season. Monday and Wednesday
broadcasts. FOX rights agreement until 2013.
• Radio contract and Nets
• 2009 own cable television - 50 million subscriptions
• Events, program and website promotion
• TOTAL CONTROL OF FAN’s EXPERIENCE on & off-field
• Interactive, personalized and up-to-date information online

10. Thank you!