MLBAM Debuting Postseason.TV For Online And Mobile Viewing

MLBAM This Week Debuting Postseason.TV, Which Features Multiple Live Camera Angles

MLBAM this week will debut Postseason.TV, a playoff-oriented initiative that will feature multiple live camera angles for both online and mobile viewing from each playoff and World Series game. Building from a trial effort at July’s All-Star Game in St. Louis, the offering will have stationary camera angles that can be viewed either individually or in a new Quad Mode that shows four such angles simultaneously. Postseason.TV will be free to existing At Bat subscribers, with an update to the application containing the playoff elements becoming active tomorrow, the first day of division series play. New purchasers will pay $4.99 for the application. The personal computer version of Postseason.TV, being sold in partnership with MLB TV partners Fox and Turner, will carry a $10 price. That product is designed as a second-screen viewing companion to the televised games. MLBAM President & CEO Bob Bowman said the organization has a "history of trying things at the end of the season” as a forerunner for larger efforts. Bowman: "We’re experimenting here again, and the great thing for the fan is that we were able to work out a deal very quickly to do this with Fox and Turner, and there’s one product on the market and no confusion. Fans don’t care how these things get done. They just want something that works, and this will.” MLBAM will participate in a revenue-sharing agreement with Fox and Turner for both the wired and mobile versions of Postseason.TV. The playoff effort remains a separate initiative from Turner’s online “TBS Hot Corner.” That programming features interviews, studio material, behind-the-scenes content, and for the first time this year, access to TBS-related social media content such as announcer Twitter feeds (Eric Fisher, SportsBusiness Journal).

SPLITING REVENUES: PAID CONTENT's Staci Kramer noted while Postseason.TV is free to MLB At Bat subscribers, MLBAM, Fox and Turner will "split revenue for anyone who signs up now," after Apple's 30% take. The variety of MLBAM "experiments" this year is one of the "most efficient examples around of using existing core content and much of what already surrounds it in as many different ways as possible" (PAIDCONTENT.org, 10/5).

WEAVING A WEB: In L.A., Bill Shaikin wrote MLB.com is the "best website among sports leagues, by far, and a cash cow for owners." But for "all the good work that mlb.com does, the website cannot shake that perception, that Bud Selig and his teams call the shots" for the league-run site. The emergence of MLB.com "coincided with the fall of the newspaper empire." In '90, "eight newspapers assigned reporters to cover the Dodgers, every day, home and away," but this season the L.A. Times is the only one. Angels VP/Communications Tim Mead: "You hope story lines aren't missed. That's my concern." Shaikin suggested that perhaps newspapers can "save a few more bucks by outsourcing daily coverage to mlb.com, which produces 100 stories every day, and shifting resources to independent commentary and analysis." MLBAM Exec VP & Editor-in-Chief Dinn Mann: "We're open for business. We do recognize the need exists in some cases" (L.A. TIMES, 10/4).