New Ways To Air a Ball Game

[Loosey]

Cody Christie recently wrote a post about what the Bally’s bankruptcy means. 

I commented on this but it got me thinking MLB and the Twins actually have an opportunity to be sport broadcast trend setters, basically TV games would be way more interactive.  

Here is one of my ideas: (Let’s use Twins specifically)

Work out a deal with YouTube to broadcast all Games.  Their main broadcast would be your normal run of the mill broadcast, Dick Bremer and one of the analysts calling a game nothing different than before.  Where this would be different is MLB would allow YouTube to share a 2nd broadcast stream of the game that any YouTube channel could access.  My idea is any person could then call an MLB game live on their YouTube channel.  For example,  I could livestream the game using MLB broadcast and I would call the game.  Where this would be really fun is smaller entities (Like TwinsDaily) could have their own Broadcast on their channel.  Basically, think manningcast but anyone could be the Mannings.  This may fail catastrophically, but would be a fun experiment for a team looking for new deal to try out.  If this were a thing, I would watch more games if TwinDaily assigned different people to call games.  It would be like the game threads but way more fun.

Am I crazy or would something like this possibly work for baseball games?  Let me know your thoughts.

[Althebum82]

There are costs associated with producing any viewing content.  Although Youtube does have other ways to monetize content, in general ad revenue is the primary reason for a profit-seeking organization to exceed those costs and come out ahead on the activity.

This idea, which I grant is cool and fun in concept, actually splinters up a total viewing audience to the point that advertisers see little benefit in paying to run their message during the game.  Fewer cable viewers leading to less ad revenue is the narrative we are already being supplied as the problem for Diamond Sports. 

(As is true to many failures, this is probably an easy public story for what is likely a more complicated problem).

Still, the idea could work if Youtube is able to generate significant data harvesting of its viewing participants such that revenue can be generated differently than the traditional ad-revenue.  Those who view content on Youtube have been willingly allowing this happen now for decades.  In reality, most people are de-sensitized to the perils of this practice.  The idea you present is actually another well-thought out creative way for Youtube to get at us.

At the risk of exposing my being uncomfortable with this reality let me say this:  Yuch.

But, ultimately I do not consider the idea crazy.  If Youtube sees a path to profitability, let's give it a shot.

One final side note regarding the term "broadcast".  Its use is technically only applicable to those entities that can reach the "broad" general population via the publicly regulated airwaves (i.e. local network-affiliated or independently programmed stations).

Telecast (or video presentation) is a more appropriate term for any content delivered more narrowly to viewers via cable, satellite, internet, or streaming services.

 

 

[NotAboutWinning]

Interesting idea that really illustrates how far most current sports presentation is from the modern media experience!

[Richie the Rally Goat]

19 hours ago, Loosey said:

Cody Christie recently wrote a post about what the Bally’s bankruptcy means. 

I commented on this but it got me thinking MLB and the Twins actually have an opportunity to be sport broadcast trend setters, basically TV games would be way more interactive.  

Here is one of my ideas: (Let’s use Twins specifically)

Work out a deal with YouTube to broadcast all Games.  Their main broadcast would be your normal run of the mill broadcast, Dick Bremer and one of the analysts calling a game nothing different than before.  Where this would be different is MLB would allow YouTube to share a 2nd broadcast stream of the game that any YouTube channel could access.  My idea is any person could then call an MLB game live on their YouTube channel.  For example,  I could livestream the game using MLB broadcast and I would call the game.  Where this would be really fun is smaller entities (Like TwinsDaily) could have their own Broadcast on their channel.  Basically, think manningcast but anyone could be the Mannings.  This may fail catastrophically, but would be a fun experiment for a team looking for new deal to try out.  If this were a thing, I would watch more games if TwinDaily assigned different people to call games.  It would be like the game threads but way more fun.

Am I crazy or would something like this possibly work for baseball games?  Let me know your thoughts.

Similarly, I’d like to see a stat-centric feed. You could even use the same televised crew and ads, just add the stats on a side pane or MTV Popup video style.

Have you watched the Apple Friday Night games? The crew doesn’t quite have the charisma of the Mannings, it’s a conversational tone with a group of baseball fans and there’s more stats. I really like it, but it needs a better production team and for the crew to be in the same room.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

15 hours ago, Althebum82 said:

There are costs associated with producing any viewing content.  Although Youtube does have other ways to monetize content, in general ad revenue is the primary reason for a profit-seeking organization to exceed those costs and come out ahead on the activity.

This idea, which I grant is cool and fun in concept, actually splinters up a total viewing audience to the point that advertisers see little benefit in paying to run their message during the game.  Fewer cable viewers leading to less ad revenue is the narrative we are already being supplied as the problem for Diamond Sports. 

(As is true to many failures, this is probably an easy public story for what is likely a more complicated problem).

Still, the idea could work if Youtube is able to generate significant data harvesting of its viewing participants such that revenue can be generated differently than the traditional ad-revenue.  Those who view content on Youtube have been willingly allowing this happen now for decades.  In reality, most people are de-sensitized to the perils of this practice.  The idea you present is actually another well-thought out creative way for Youtube to get at us.

At the risk of exposing my being uncomfortable with this reality let me say this:  Yuch.

But, ultimately I do not consider the idea crazy.  If Youtube sees a path to profitability, let's give it a shot.

One final side note regarding the term "broadcast".  Its use is technically only applicable to those entities that can reach the "broad" general population via the publicly regulated airwaves (i.e. local network-affiliated or independently programmed stations).

Telecast (or video presentation) is a more appropriate term for any content delivered more narrowly to viewers via cable, satellite, internet, or streaming services.

 

 

I think Advertisers have figured out how to internet, I think they can figure out how to game thread too. It’s not rocket surgery

[jimbo92107]

Sounds like a fun idea, but profitable? That's the bottom line for the Twins and for YouTube. They'd probably need to see an example of this working for some other sport first (like local sporting matches in Vietnam), then gradually work up to the idea. Owners are never going to like somebody else milking their cow.