The Loop - Domani Studios Design Blog

MLB.dabomb

Well its Opening Day of Baseball season, and i must first warn you that I’m a huge baseball fan - well, I’m a huge Red Sox fan I should say. And living in NY I find myself without local coverage of my team, along with an obscenity-laden summer from surrounding Yankee fans. So I’ve taken to purchasing the MLB TV package through my cable company (and to wearing headphones under my sox cap on the subway) which gives me access to about 140 Sox games throughout the season. Combine that with a DVR, and I’m pretty good… This has been my summer television programming ritual for the past 5 years or so.

But this year MLB.com has stepped it up and I’m wondering if the technology might actually be in a place that we’ve envisioned for years. Can i finally toss my television out the window? Check out the lineup of interactive gems they are rolling out this season:

MLB TV Premium: Complete with live DVR-type functionality, they’ve switched from silverlight to flash (finally!), and I gotta say the quality is mad-good with no extra plugin needed. I can jump to any inning i want and switch from home and away commentary. They’ve kept the ability to watch 6 games at the same time which is something I don’t take advantage of, but i’d be thrilled if I was a fantasy league guy. But more importantly the feed is live, and I can rewind, pause to catch that play again (or simply check on the grill to make sure I won’t be eating blackened ribs during the 5th inning), and then fast forward though all the BS that happened while i was tending to the grill. Nothing new here from a Tivo user’s perspective, but that’s pretty dope for a live event, in high-def, online.

iPhone AtBat app: There are several baseball apps that show live scores and schedules, but MLB’s latest release includes live audio streaming of every game. Think about that for a minute: i can listen to my local announcers calling the game from my freakin’ phone? Genius. Turns a summer afternoon of brooklyn “yard” work into reliving my childhood days with the game on the AM radio… and I’m 200 miles away from local radio! They also have packaged up video highlights from the day, and of course a litany of stats, schedules, scores, etc.

GameDay: They’ve had this for a few years, and each year they improve it a touch. In past years its been totally free, and a pretty great way to be involved in the game if you’re looking to save some cash. You can “see” every pitch though a graphic animation, change perspectives, see live stats, etc. The stats are pretty killer though, and more than you get from watching a game on TV such as Batter tendencies and Pitcher tendencies. This year they added a pay version which adds streaming audio of the game which is a nice touch. I’ve ponied up for the video package, so i don’t generally use this feature but if there’s an afternoon game on during the week I’ll probably have this app running in the background while at work. I mean i could just fire up the video player, but I assure you its impossible to work while video is running in your face… though having some stats churn around in the background is pretty harmless.

Revenue: But the real genius here is that they’ve figured a way to monetize this work beautifully. The online player runs about $110 on the season and the iPhone app is $9.99 for the season. I’m a diehard Sox fan, and to go to a single game I’ll shell out around $120 for two seats, along with a few brews, dogs, and souvenir t-shirt for my kids (please please please don’t become yankee fans Charlie and Jack!). So for essentially the same price, i’m getting access to every game online, with full DVR functionality, and the ability to listen to local radio broadcasts anytime i want away from my home.  I’d love to see the stats on usage and revenue generated, but you have to figure this is a decent stream of revenue. For point of reference, the MLB TV package I’ve subscribed to in the past has run about $200 for the season.

All in all, I’m continually impressed with what MLB.com is doing. The MLB package on cable has remained exactly the same for 5 years, but digital has just offered up a package that is at-worst comparable, and at-best blows it out of the water. So will I abandon my TV package this year? Sadly i will not. For me its more about a somewhat wonky home wireless network and an occasional dropped connection than the service MLB.com is delivering. If i was at work with a 100% reliable connection I’d say its a complete no-brainer. Half the price, with HD covereage, and an iPhone version to take the game with me. Being the baseball fanatic that I am, I’ll be subscribing to all 3 services (shhh… don’t tell my wife). Now if they could only figure out a way to deliver a Fenway Frank and a Miller Lite through the pipes I’d be in digital baseball heaven.

Go Sox.