MLB Advanced Media, Major League Baseball's media and Internet arm, announced a multiyear, exclusive deal with ad-serving provider Auditude to deliver video advertising across its live game streaming and on-demand content across multiple devices and for individual teams' websites.
Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. MLBAM said it conducted an "intensive evaluation of leading video and mobile advertising vendors" before picking Palo Alto, Calif.-based Auditude.
Previously, MLBAM had a deal with Yahoo, under which the Web portal handled online and video advertising for MLB.TV. That three-year deal was announced in April 2008.
Starting in the 2011 baseball season, Auditude and MLBAM will work to enable the creation of custom advertising units and integrated cross-platform campaigns for brand advertisers. As part of the agreement, Auditude also will assist with the sale of MLBAM's video advertising inventory.
"With Auditude as our partner, the system we are collaborating to build will be scalable for the audiences that accompany live, multiplatform video while effectively delivering and tracking advertising," MLBAM executive vice president of revenue Noah Garden said in a statement. "Working with Auditude further represents our continued efforts to develop technology that will deliver a great experience for our fans while in parallel assisting our advertising partners in reaching those fans through a seamless user experience interface."
MLBAM produces more than 12,000 live events annually, including for the ESPN3.com sports portal. During the baseball season, MLBAM creates as many as 500 new video assets every day.
Auditude provides IP-based video advertising technology and solutions for premium content owners and distributors. Other customers include Comcast, Fox News, Lionsgate, UK's Channel Five, Starz
Media, Universal Music Group and Yahoo.
