Blog 4- Article Summary

This article is about the Major League Baseball Advanced Media tech operation. This is a system that allows at least 200 highlights be sent out a day to phones and computers. This system took two months to make and has profited highly. It has now grown past just MLB and has streamed NCAA and MLS. MLB’s mobile site gets over 10 million views a day and there are more than 25 mobile applications. The company is trying to figure out the best way to go about finalizing the program but isn’t worried about any change in the ratings.

I chose this article because it has to do with exactly what my group’s webisode is about, the streaming of baseball. I found this scholarly article through EBSCO and it relates to my group perfectly. This article was published in 2008, which was the beginning of the mobile news and apps. This company found a way to get news highlights out there fast for fans to be kept updated.

This program is very important because it deals with making baseball and other sports seaming more convenient to those watching. Not everyone has time to watch a whole game or even be home when the game is on. Teenagers can get the big game highlights sent to their phone while in class and adults while they are out running errands. MLB caught on to a huge trend to help make them more accessible and earn large profit. Mobile devices are the future and they noticed that people wanted their news- fast and within reach.

In 2008, this was the beginning of applications on cell phones and I think that when this was written there were many opportunities not yet explored. The company was the first to invent such a program and it has been shown very effective. The program itself pulls in $450 million a year and MLB earns $6 billion a year. Now that they know how to look at the games, find the highlights, and distribute them to the public within minutes, there is probably more to be explored. As technology becomes more advanced, so do the simple things such as baseball. The company is trying to find newer and faster ways to export media. Here is a clip of MLB for the Ipad.

A real world example not mentioned in the article is the night of the World Series. It is baseball’s biggest event. If I was not by a TV and my favorite team was playing, I would like to know what was going on. If I had to go out for something and the score was 3-1 and I miss my team getting a home run, I would still think the score was the same or just be upset I didn’t know. Now with this program, this information would be sent directly to my mobile device and I would be able to be informed as if I was actually watching the game.

On page 120 of the book, it talks about how cable, the internet and mobile media are now all connected. The paths of each are crossed and they can advertise from one media to another. The book mentions how "the owners of the program and the content copyright need to figure out how to protect their interests, financial, and otherwise." This is exactly what the article was talking about. Although they said there is nothing to worry about, the company needs to do everything correctly in order to keep up with their finances and interest of the public.

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