MLBAM

Infobox_Company
company_name = MLB Advanced Media, L.P. | foundation = June 2000
location = NY, New York
key_people = Robert A. Bowman, CEO
company_type = Private company
industry = Internet Information Providers
revenue = $300 million USD (2006)
products = MLB.com, MiLB.com, MLB.TV, Gameday Audio
homepage = [http://www.mlb.com MLB.com]

Major League Baseball Advanced Media, L.P., is a subsidiary of Major League Baseball, and is the internet and interactive branch of the league. The company operates the official web site for the league and 30 Major League Baseball club web sites via MLB.com, which draws four million hits per day. The site offers news, standings, statistics, and schedules, and subscribers have access to live audio and video broadcasts of most games. The site also employs reporters, with one assigned to each team for the season and others serving more general beats. MLB Advanced Media also owns and operates MLB Radio and BaseballChannel.TV. [ [http://http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/radio/index.jsp MLB.com Programming] ]

MLBAM also runs and/or owns the official web sites of [http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/app/index.jsp?cid=milb MiLB.com (Minor League Baseball)] , Major League Soccer's [http://www.mlsnet.com MLSNet] [ [http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20040504&content_id=1622&vkey=news_mls&fext=.jsp Major League Soccer: News: Article ] ] , Yes Network's [http://www.yesnetwork.com YesNetwork.com] (The television broadcaster of the New York Yankees), SportsNet New York's [http://www.sny.tv SNY.tv] (The television broadcaster of the New York Mets), the [http://www.wcsn.com World Championship Sports Network] , [ [http://www.wcsn.com/releases/release.jsp?ymd=20051129&content_id=0001 WCSN.com: Help ] ] , [http://www.gunsnroses.com Guns N' Roses] , [http://www.bobmarley.com/ Bob Marley] , and [http://www.rehearsals.com rehearsals.com] [ [http://www.rehearsals.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060218&content_id=1018&vkey=news&fext=.jsp rehearsals.com: Article: Features ] ] . It also provided the backend infrastructure for [http://www.sportsline.com CBS Sportsline's] March Madness on Demand service [ [http://kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=4589943 Our Apologies ] ] .

Ticket resale

In 2007, MLBAM signed a 5-year deal with Stub Hub centralizing resale of tickets. This may cause tension between owners since some might find more profitable deals [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/02/business/02tickets.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1186055554-vOtc68yre4UCA8MHBpsRVA&oref=slogin NY Times] ] .

Fantasy Sports

MLBAM vs. CDM Legal Case

MLBAM signed a five-year, $50 million interactive rights deal with the MLB Players Association in 2005 to acquire most of the players' online rights, including fantasy sports. The deal exacerbated tension between fantasy sports companies and professional leagues and players associations over the rights to player profiles and statistics. The players associations of the major sports leagues believed that fantasy games using player names were subject to licensing due to the right of publicity of the players involved. During the 1980s and 1990s many companies signed licensing deals with the player associations, but many companies did not. The issue came to a head when MLBAM denied a fantasy baseball licensing agreement to St. Louis-based CBC Distribution and Marketing Inc., the parent company of CDM Sports. CBC filed suit as a result.

CBC argued that intellectual property laws and so-called "right of publicity" laws don't apply to the statistics used in fantasy sports.cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Fantasy leagues permitted to use MLB names, stats | date=2006-08-08 | publisher= | url =http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2543720 | work =ESPN | pages = | accessdate = 2007-07-28 | language = ] The FSTA filed a friend of the court brief in support of CBC which argued that MLBAM's step to deny CBC a license was the first step to limit the number of companies in the market, that could result in MLBAM having a monopoly.

CBC won the lawsuit as U.S. District Court Judge Mary Ann Medler ruled that statistics are part of the public domain and can be used at no cost by fantasy companies. "The names and playing records of major-league baseball players as used in CBC's fantasy games are not copyrightable," Medler wrote. "Therefore, federal copyright law does not pre-empt the players' claimed right of publicity."

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision in October 2007. [http://www.svmedialaw.com/Fantasy%20Baseball%20opinion.pdf] "It would be strange law that a person would not have a First Amendment right to use information that is available to everyone," a three-judge panel said in its ruling. [cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Fantasy Sports Win Right to Player Names, Statistics | date=October 16, 2007 | publisher= | url =http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&sid=aVMAY0beLSoA&refer=home | work =Bloomerberg| pages = | accessdate = 2007-07-28 | language = ]

On June 2, 2008, the United States Supreme Court denied MLB's petition for a writ of certiorari. [ [http://www.supremecourtus.gov/orders/courtorders/060208pzor.pdf Order List - June 2, 2008 ] ]

MLBAM has lost nearly $2 million on the case and may now opt out of the agreement with the MLBPA and also faces the potential loss of millions of dollars of licensing fees from major media companies, such as Fox. [cite news | first=Eric | last=Fisher | coauthors= | title=Fantasy challenge costly for MLBAM, union | date=October 22, 2007 | publisher=Street & Smith's Sports Group | url =http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=search.show_article&articleId=56793 | work =Sports Business Journal | pages = | accessdate = 2007-11-01 | language = ] ESPN opted out of a seven-year, $140 million deal with MLBAM after three years in Jan. 2008. The decision to opt out came less than three months after the CDM case was upheld on appeal as "ESPN thinks the court's decision means that it was paying a license fee for fantasy rights that others, such as CDM, were getting free." [cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= JOHN OURAND & ERIC FISHER | title=ESPN seeks better MLBAM terms | date=January 21, 2008 | publisher=Street & Smith's Sports Group | url =http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article.main&articleId=57806 | work =Sports Business Journal | pages = | accessdate = 2008-01-25 | language = ]

References