Baseball and New Media

The 7 picture/2 minutes of video restrictions seem reasonable. This allows bloggers to distribute some content but not so much that a viewer is discouraged from turning on the TV or radio. The live blogging prohibition is more irritating, but I understand why MLB wants to direct its audience to broadcasts that it can control. Nobody is saying that MLB is going to clamp down on blogs from commenting about the team and games. And I am predicting that you are wrong about "Redlegnation."

Blogging will never replace listening/watching the game live. This is not a threat to MLB's broadcast partners. It is a threat to their online properties.

I like TechDirt's take on this, http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071220/010939.shtml, this really hurts them with their most passionate fans. Don't tick off your base!

Which is pretty much MLB's modus operandi, so it's not really surprising. I fail to see where they benefit in any way by restricting access, but they get off more on having the ability to control it than the bit of extra publicity or love for the game it might generate.

I don't think the folks at MLB truly want to rain on anyone's parade. The fact of the matter is that they are obligated to protect their copyrights (& trademarks for that matter) in today's media (audio, video, MLB-sites, blogs) to protect themselves in tomorrow's media. Who knows what type of media we'll being enjoying MLB games with in ten more years. If the MLB doesn't set a precendence today then they'll have less of a leg to stand on if they litigate against a new media type in upcoming years. It's not that Bud Selig & Co. in NYC want to ruin our experience they are just protecting the league's rights in real time and in future time.

is not so much that they portect their brand, but that they abuse their control over media in terms of offering shitty service that they don't seem particularly interested in improving.

MLB.tv is a great idea, but it is a fucking bitch to use and their customer service is infuriating.

....baseball is dying as a sport, going from first, second and, within the next twenty years or so, to a third tier sport. You can always detect the detect the death of an industry. Like the RIAA, it transforms into a toll booth mentality, like parasites, to suck dry at the remainder of a shrinking market share. What better way to tell people to go away than to go after the very base that allows you to survive. As a lifelong baseball fan, I hate watching what is happening to my sport.

sports bars don't have to buy rights to play games on e$pn, etc. how many of us have gone to sports bars to watch games we couldn't otherwise watch? or to share watching with others?

I demand a senate investigation.

I think this is where the MLB and many major companies don't understand how the internet works. They see their numbers (abstract and uncontainable as they are) as commodoties and they see everything on the internet as competition. Because they can't attach a hard dollar value to sites like Gaslamp Ball, they'll eventually see us as competition as well.

From this site.