MLBAM Reaches Out to Level 3 to Help Expand Media Services

mlbtv

Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM), MLB’s interactive and media arm has expanded its partnership with communications service provider Level 3 Communications in a deal that will add data center services to the other services that Level 3 already provides MLBAM.

The expanded relationship will call for Level 3 to add data center services that will include support for MLBAM’s digital media products such as MLB.TV live video streaming as well as archival and backhaul support. Level 3 already provides Internet and content delivery technology.

Level 3 will be handling the workload from its Premier Elite data center located within its Uptime Institute Tier III Certified Scott Data Center in Omaha, Neb. MLBAM will also have access to Level 3’s international network that includes 350 data centers.

Level 3 has had a focus on providing sports media services for some time and delivers broadcast services via its Level 3 Vyvx Services network that has handled everything from the Super Bowl and major college bowl games, MLB, Fox Sports, UEFA matches, and postseason basketball games. It provides a variety of online streaming and backup services.

The relationship has taken an interesting turn, as while Level 3 is providing a variety of streaming and storage services to MLBAM, MLBAM has in turn been providing backend services to other sports, including the NCAA’s March Madness, according to a report here.

Friday Grab Bag: MSG to Close? NASCAR on the Move

Hewlett-Packard may be looking to double down in the tablet space as rumors are emerging that the company, already having re-entered the space, is now looking to head to the low end by offering an affordable $99 tablet.

According to DigiTimes, HP will team with Walmart to sell the 7-inch tablet that HP will have built in China. It will be targeted at the back to school market and will be the second offering in the 7-inch space from the company.

NASCAR on the move-to NBC
NASCAR and broadcaster NBC have signed a multiyear, multi-billion dollar deal that will see the racing league move from its longtime homes of ESPN and Turner Sports, while Fox Sports will maintain its portion of the coverage.

The details of the deal have not been released but Sports Business Daily has said that it is estimated that the deal is 50% greater than the existing deal that was valued at $2.74 billion for 8 years. The new deal will start with the 2015 season.

Will 2022 World Cup move to November?
If you wondered why FIFA awarded the 2020 World Cup to Qatar, a nation that being in the desert tends to be very hot during the summer when the tournament is played you were not alone. Now FIFA appears to be rethinking its clever plan.

Increasingly reports are emerging that the governing body is looking to move the tournament to the fall or winter so that it does not have dozens of players falling from heat stroke. However this will have a huge impact on most of the major European leagues’ seasons so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Nate Silver to ESPN
Stats guru Nate Silver has just moved to ESPN, leaving the New York Times. Silver cut his teeth in sports prior to moving to the Times and developed PECOTA, something that most baseball fantasy players will be aware of.

Hopefully in his new role he can help bring realistic use of statistics to the World Wide Leader. Does anybody really follow its quarterback rating system and does anybody remember its ill-fated productive out stat? Here is an interesting look at some areas he has impacted in the past and could in the future.

Madison Square Garden to close in 10 years?
Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks’ home, is slated to close in 10 years as New York is looking to renovate Penn Station, the mass transit terminal upon which sits the sports arena. Currently Penn Station is the busiest transportation hub in the United States.

The news cannot come as good news to the team which has been in the midst of a 3-year renovation that, according to Yahoo, will cost an estimated $968 million. The team had been applying for a permanent permit for the arena.

Verizon Extends NFL Mobile Deal for $1 Billion

Verizon Wireless and the NFL have extended their current deal around mobile viewing of live NFL games, with a $1 billion, 4-year extension announced this week.

The billion-dollar deal does not, however, cover mobile viewing on tablet devices, a distinction noted by this story in Sports Business Daily and one we will bet is going to be kept by the league for its own video streaming plans. There will be more to this story later, but the good news for football fans who have Verizon phones is that for the 2014 season, you will be able to watch all live games — including CBS and Fox broadcasts — and not just the Thursday-Sunday lineup now available.

No word yet on ESPN’s plans to pay for mobile access for sports fans. On the Verizon side, the NFL Mobile viewing access is still apparently priced at $5 per month, but I bet that increases with the increased game schedule in 2014. Got to pay for that $1 billion bill somehow!

Would Proposed A La Carte Cable Bill Hurt Sports Channels?

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Senator John McCain is introducing a bill that would enable cable companies to offer subscribers the ability to select which channels they would watch, and pay for and allow them to relegate the remainder to the waste bin.

The push is not his first try at this, he had a similar bill back in 2006 that did go very far, and the new effort, called the Television Consumer Freedom Act of 2013 is designed to encourage the cable companies to offer freedom of choice for their customers.

ESPN and its related channels and packages are one of the more expensive set of channels available, and currently if you get basic cable a nice chunk of your bill gets sent to them. This in turn has allowed it to have a war chest that has seen it increase its power in the sports world by buying broadcast rights. If this passed and a large number of people opted out of its sports channels it would be weakened.

Also the growing number of league channels would also be potentially harmed as well. The rise of the SEC, PAC-12 and other dedicated networks has been helped by their channels getting bundled with other properties, something that the bill would outlaw. Would you pay extra year round to have a network that may broadcast only one sport that you are interested in?

However one interesting thing about the bill is that the unfettering would be voluntary, but does include some incentives to get the major players on board. There are a few sections that do appear to have some teeth in them. One of which is if networks pull their on the air broadcasts and put them on cable they would be stripped of their spectrum and the spectrum would then be sold by the FCC.

There are some other interesting tidbits in the bill including a provision that would prohibit television blackouts at publicly funded stadiums or even stadiums that have used some public funds. I am pretty sure that includes all of the NFL stadiums.

This type of a la carte push has been strongly resisted by both broadcasters and content providers and they will likely launch a strong effort to kill the bill or to at least remove its few teeth.

NBC’s Premier League Coverage Includes Free Mobile App

barkley

NBC has given soccer fans a look at what its coverage of the U.K.’s Barclay’s Premier League will look like next season and fans have to be excited with all 380 matches presented both live and streaming so fans can always catch their favorite teams’ action, or root against foes as the case may be.

There were some questions about how the network would handle the broadcasts after outbidding Fox Sports with a $250 million offer for the rights to broadcast the extremely popular league starting next year.

The live broadcast will be shown live on NBC, NBC Sports Network, Telemundo, Mun2, Premier League Extra Time, NBC Sports Live Extra and Other NBCUniversal Channels. The Premier League Extra Time package of overflow television channels is a set of free channels that come with subscribers of NBC Sports Network. On top of the coverage of the matches will be approximately 600 hours of weekly studio and other programming.

However the network is reaching out to fans that may not have access to broadcast television some or all of the time and have the NBC Sports Live Extra website for online users and then there is an app for mobile device users that provides free live streaming of all of the matches. Now you can watch soccer while watching your kids’ soccer.

I was surprised to find out that Fox had also an app available for watching soccer, and that according to The Big Lead it cost extra and its customer service left something to be desired.

NBC Sports Group has announced on-air talent for its coverage of Barclays Premier League soccer, starting in August. Arlo White is the lead play-by-play and will be calling them live from the U.K., joined by former Premier League stars Lee Dixon and Graeme Le Saux as analysts.

From the looks of it NBC has fans covered from top to bottom on the upcoming Premier League, and while I have yet to watch any of the US Major League Soccer matches that they now broadcast, I have heard from friends that the network has brought it’s a game to that as well.

Giants Win, Twitter Explodes

It’s become pretty normal for Twitter to blow up after any big event now (just wait until the U.S. Presidential elections) but when the company’s hometown baseball team wins the World Series, the explosion of tweets is the Internet equivalent of the fireworks going off around us here in the Bay Area tonight. According to Topsy, the tweets hit 38,000 per minute right after Sergio Romo got Miguel Cabrera to watch strike three on that sick fastball:

38,000+ tweets per minute for the @ after winning the #worldseries! Go Giants! #sfgiants http://t.co/rK1bocEK

@Topsy

Topsy

In honor of the Giants and for Twitter, some choice post-game missives from the folks we follow. Any good ones you’ve seen, put them in the comments and I’ll add them later to the main post.

Second time today Romo’s clinched a game for the Giants.

@jimrome

Jim Rome

When a #WorldSeries is won on the road…almost as awkward as that Erin Andrews interview of Marco Scutaro.

@Matt_Ginella

Matt Ginella

my neighborhood is one #SFGiants party spot. Honking has begun in earnest.

@om

Om Malik

RT @: Dear God. Giants championship parade scheduled for Halloween. That is going to be a FREAKSHOW.

@jason_kint

Jason Kint

p.s. Thank you Melky for the All-Star victory 😉

@omid

Omid Ashtari

Giants win with pitching, defense..managers moves..timely hitting..sounds like simple formula..if it were everyone would do it..congrats SF

@karlravechespn

karl ravech

https://twitter.com/evanadrian/status/262764923556352002/photo/1

Across the street from me, how to watch the game in The City. (Also, faster than Twitter for news.) http://t.co/KB2TRbD9

@Rafe

Rafe Needleman

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