Live video from every Class AAA baseball game will be available online this year after a further expansion of Baseball Internet Rights Co., the interactive firm owned by Minor League Baseball and operated by MLB Advanced Media.
The rebuilt MiLB.TV package will feature live games online from all 30 Class AAA parks, roughly double the availability from 2010, as well as about a half-dozen other teams from lower affiliated classifications.
The game package will be sold for $29.99 for the season, or $6.99 a month. Subscribers of the MLB.TV package can add the minor league games for an additional $10. Archived games and expanded highlights will also be new to the product.
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| The games will be part of a rebuilt MiLB.TV package that will be sold for $29.99 for the season or $6.99 a month. |
BIRCO’s formation in December 2008 and its early days were difficult, as the organizationwide pooling of interactive rights aligned minor league clubs with big disparities in market size, classification, revenue and history of online business activities. But after relaunching Web pages for more than 150 affiliated teams and releasing a series of new mobile products last year, the new video package represents further development for the cooperative effort.
More than 2,000 live games will be shown in the MiLB.TV package as a result of the infrastructure build-out at the additional Class AAA ballparks enabling the online feeds, a sum thought to be larger than any other single U.S. sports property aside from MLB itself.
“Having all the Triple A games bundled together is a big step forward for us,” said Art Matin, Mandalay Baseball Properties chief executive who also was recently named the new chairman of BIRCO. “It’s perhaps taken a little while, but we’re seeing big momentum coming out of this agreement, not only from the video content, but also sponsorship, ticketing and several other key areas.”
A Minor League Baseball mobile application, offering similar features as the award-winning MLB.com At Bat app, such as detailed Gameday scoring and access to the live video feeds, is under development and is slated for release later this spring.
