Live baseball on Facebook is becoming a regular feature thanks to MLB’s new deal to show games weekly on the dominant social media platform. But YES Network has already established a growing presence on Facebook thanks to the live-streaming of its internal production meetings. Since the start of the season, the RSN has been using Facebook Live to air its pregame production meeting to the public at the start of each Yankees series. The digital program, featuring studio talent Bob Lorenz and Jack Curry, coordinating producer Jared Boshnack and other staffers, involves the crew going over planned segments and talking points for on-air coverage. The late afternoon programs, typically running about 20-30 minutes, serve as something of a teaser for Yankees pregame coverage later that day and YES’ coverage throughout that series. “We’ve been experimenting with Facebook for a little while now, but our big question was how do we use this to go behind the scenes and create something the viewer literally can’t get anywhere else,” said Michael Spirito, the VP/Business Development & Digital Media for YES Network parent Fox Regional Sports Networks. “This has become sort of a pregame to the pregame."
STRATEGY & MOMENTUM: The YES Network streams started as something much more sporadic and with lower production quality. But as the effort has become more serialized, the content is now being shown in broadcast-quality video with graphics to identify the various participants. The RSN is out in the marketplace to find a lead sponsor for the initiative. The live-streamed production meetings have averaged around 10,000 views per program, and represent part of a larger and growing digital story for the YES Network in which its content generated more than 7 million video views across all of its online and mobile platforms last month. “We’ve seen very high levels of engagement for the Facebook Live content, and with our other digital content, it has done a lot to extend our reach off the air and into other parts of the day,” Spirito said.
