Major League Baseball Advanced Media will indeed handle the technical execution of authenticated live-streaming of MLB games on 21st Century Fox-owned regional sports networks, starting next year.
According to SNL Kagan, MLB Advanced's BAM Tech unit will handle streaming of the games. Major League Advanced Media will collect 4 percent of what each of the 15 Fox-owned regional sports networks are paying MLB in terms of media rights. Baseball's streaming company will also collect a vendor fee.
MLB Advanced reps have not yet responded to FierceCable's inquiry for confirmation and comment.
Earlier in November, Major League Baseball announced that it has finally enabled TV Everywhere rights for at least some of the RSNs carrying its teams. In all, 15 Fox-owned RSNs will be able to live-stream games next season.
Other pro sports leagues, including the National Basketball Association, have allowed teams to include streaming rights with their individual RSN deals for several years. Major League Baseball, however, had been reluctant to part with the rights, while seeking to make destinations like MLB.TV exclusive destinations for the live-streaming of its product.
The agreement with Fox allows the media conglomerate's individual RSNs to live-stream games of the following MLB teams: Los Angeles Angels, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers, Detroit Tigers, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays and the World Series Champion Kansas City Royals.
As SNL Kagan noted, the Fox deal will likely provide the template for negotiations with operators of RSNs covering the other 14 MLB teams. This includes Comcast/NBCUniversal (NASDAQ: CMCSA), which operates channels that have exclusive local deals with the Chicago Cubs and White Sox, San Francisco Giants, Oakland A's, Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets.
Talks will also likely occur with AT&T (NYSE: T), operators of Root Sports Networks covering the Seattle Mariners, Colorado Rockies, Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros.
For more:
- read this SNL Kagan article
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