MLBAdvanced Media’s (MLBAM) hiring yesterday of Kenneth Gersh, as SVP of Business Development, marked a good excuse for a baseball fan to get an update on the pervasively expanding digital media empire. Though Gersh won’t be starting his new position until September 18, I spoke with Jim Gallagher, their SVP of Corporate Communications, to get a better idea of what Gersh will be focusing on in his new position.

Mentioned in the related press release is that Gersh will be concentrating on licensing and entertainment opportunities. Gallagher confirmed that licensing will involve both content and technology, and that entertainment will continue to take MLBAM deeper into baseball (e.g. more minor league coverage; high school baseball; etc.); outside of baseball (e.g. Major League Soccer; NCAA basketball; etc.); and beyond sports (e.g. music, music, and more music, at least for now).

Regarding MLBAM’s core operation, MLB.com, here are some additional stats and updates provided:

• MLB.com is attracting approximately 7M daily visitors
• MLB.com’s interactive scorebook, Gameday, is drawing between 650-850K daily users
• Geo-targeting solutions for streaming content (audio and video) used to strictly honor in-market broadcasting rights are working at a very high-level (i.e. “the comfort level is at the 99% level”)
• About 10% of subscribers are international
• MLBAM is still unable to provide live video- and audiocasts to cell phones because of the inability to reliably determine whether a viewer/listener is in-market or not, necessary to comply with broadcast rights.
• Music promotion on MLB.com will continue to increase and be primarily focused on pre-selling music CD/DVD’s via its partnership with Rehearsals.com.
• Audio ad sales are expected to increase within audiocasts of live games
  

MLBAM has plans to expand the number of hosted minor league team websites from 60-70 sites to 150-200 in coming months (MiLB.com). For the first time last month, MLBAM streamed a live high school baseball game, covering the Cape Cod High School Classic, an all-star game, in a partnership with Baseball Factory and Team One.

For those a bit confused by the synergy between baseball and music, Bob Bowman, GM of MLBAM, was quoted after the Rehearsals.com deal this spring, as saying: "Every rock star wants to be a championship athlete, and vice versa”. True or not, a rock star in the digital age would certainly want the technical capabilities of a great baseball site like MLB.com.

Related Links:
http://www.mlb.com
http://www.milb.com
http://www.rehearsals.com
http://baseballfactory.com/capecod.asp