MLBAM has struck an exclusive, multiyear partnership with CBSSports.com to include in-game player video highlights and live game audio into CBSSports.com's Fantasy Baseball Commissioner. The pact replaces a similar, now-expired one MLBAM held previously with Yahoo to insert baseball video content into its fantasy games. The new deal, however, also adds live game audio for the first time into fantasy baseball gaming. The MLBAM audio and video content will be offered at no additional charge to subscribers of the CBSSports.com fantasy games. CBSSports.com charges $179.99 per league for Fantasy Baseball Commissioner, the site's flagship fantasy baseball product. "We're continually looking for ways to differentiate our product and show premium value, and this is a huge step further in that direction," said CBSSports.com Senior VP & GM Jason Kint. "This will create a much richer experience for not only our users, but also our advertisers." CBSSports.com will additionally have some access to game highlight video from MLB.com for its editorial use. While fantasy baseball remains far smaller than fantasy football in terms of numbers of players and overall revenue, both for CBSSports.com and the industry at large, CBSSports.com's own traffic data from Nielsen Online shows a consistent trend toward more frequent traffic and higher average engagement among fantasy baseball players. Financial terms of the MLBAM/CBSSports.com pact were not disclosed. The two sites will engage in extensive co-promotion, with MLB.com touting CBSSports.com games, and CBSSports.com alerting visitors to MLB.com products such as the MLB.tv out-of-market live game video package.
