What Will In-Market Live Streaming of MLB Games Mean for Comcast SportsNets?

Spreading the word to fans and building integrated experiences are at the top of priority lists for networks

Fans of the Giants, A’s, Cubs, White Sox, and Phillies rejoiced last week when NBC Sports Regional Networks and MLB Advanced Media struck a deal giving the OK to in-market live streaming of Major League Baseball games beginning with the upcoming season. But what will this mean for the production and operations teams at the four CSN affiliates?

NBC Sports Regional Networks will live stream pre- and post-game shows for its MLB teams, in addition to the live games themselves.

Now that in-market live streaming is part of the equation in baseball and the team’s core local fans can now watch games on such devices as tablets or smartphones, what impact could that have on the networks’ live game productions? Does it mean a rethinking of camera angles (à la NBA Mobile View) or of graphics design, for example? The answer is a clear no — for now.

“I don’t think it’s going to change a whole lot immediately,” says David Koppett, VP, content strategy, CSN Bay Area/CSN California. “But I think that is going to be a topic that is going to be top of mind and we’re going to be continually exploring. Something like [NBA Mobile View] is a little more difficult for baseball, which is covered in three dimensions and from a little bit farther away. So I’m not sure I see a change like that right away. I do think we are going to explore anything and everything.

Some big changes right out of the gate could come in the presentation of the stream and the integration of supporting content, be it social or statistical in nature.

“I think one thing that does become available to us in streaming, depending on the device, is [that] it really opens up, for lack of a better term, second-screen experiences on the same screen,” says Koppett. “We can give fans a social experience or access to deeper statistical resources. It gives us the opportunity to deliver some of those things in an integrated experience. One of the advantages is that we are generating a great amount of that content already through our websites and our social channels. So, if we can bring some of that content to this streaming experience in an integrated way, we might be able to give fans something that, so far, they’ve had to go to two screens to get.”

In-market live streaming is nothing new for the CSN networks. NBC Sports is in its third year offering the same services with the NBA and in year one with the NHL. So, for these networks, the top priority is, simply, spreading the word.

“[Live streaming] is in our DNA,” says TK Gore, senior director, Digital, Comcast SportsNet Chicago. “We develop a ton of original content around these teams that is all intended to drive interest in these clubs. When we started Digital, it was based on sports news and information, which is a highly commoditized business with the way the media industry has been evolving. Now we’re injecting live streaming, and we have these exclusive rights. It’s a lot more work but for good reason. Now we are focused on letting Cubs and White Sox fans know that they can watch their games in this way.”

There are also obvious opportunities from a business and marketing perspective. Live streaming offers a robust new inventory to monetize and helps keep the brands of these RSNs even more closely aligned with the teams they support and cover.

“We think it’s going to open up some new doors and create some added-value opportunities for us from an advertising standpoint,” says David Preschlack, president, NBC Sports Regional Networks and NBC Sports Group Platform and Content Strategy. “As important as anything else, this also fundamentally bolsters the value of the multichannel-video subscription since this is an authenticated product. We really feel that it’s going to drive value back to the multichannel-video subscribers in these markets.”

NOTE: SNY, which carries New York Mets games, was not included in this deal. SNY is owned 65% by the Mets, 27% by Charter Communications, and 8% by Comcast/NBC Sports Group.