Yahoo To Handle Ad Sales For MLB.TV
Web Portal Assumes Sales Responsibility for MLB.TV Video Ad Inventory
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 4/10/2008 8:53:00 AM
Yahoo and Major League Baseball have reached a three-year video and advertising partnership, under which the Web portal will exclusively manage online advertising for MLB.TV, as well as resell subscriptions to the out-of-market broadcasts to Internet users around the world.
Yahoo will offer MLB.TV -- which provides live and on-demand access to 2,430 out-of-market baseball games each year -- to fans in 11 countries, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Philippines and Germany. The games will be available through a co-branded player on Yahoo Sports and MLB.com.
In the first year of the deal, Yahoo and MLB Advanced Media will jointly sell advertising for the video inventory, using Yahoo's Clickable popup video ad format in addition to traditional pre- and post-roll formats. For the remaining two years of the agreement, Yahoo will be solely responsible for selling video advertising inventory for MLB.TV.
Yahoo’s pricing for MLB.TV is the same as the league’s direct service, for which MLB counts more than 1 million subscribers.
The basic service is $89.95 a year or $14.95 a month, for streaming up to 400 Kilobits per second. MLB.TV Premium, $119.95 a year or $19.95 a month, provides higher bit rates for better picture quality – 800 Kbps to 1.2 Megabits per second – and includes access to a mosaic application that displays up to six live games simultaneously.
"This agreement exemplifies Yahoo as the partner of choice to premier media organizations, as we're providing MLB.com an opportunity to extend its reach to the largest possible audience, while at the same time maximizing monetization of its video subscription product," said Yahoo Publisher Channel senior vice president Todd Teresi in a statement.
Under the deal, Yahoo Sports also will distribute MLB.com's FastCast, a recap of the previous day's games, and can use other MLB.com video content within Yahoo’s original programming.
Yahoo is the target of a $44.6 billion hostile takeover bid by Microsoft, which has told Yahoo it may initiate a proxy contest to displace its board members.
