Sports Business Digest » Digitally Enhanced: MLB Online Blackouts

Digitally Enhanced: MLB Online Blackouts

Posted on May 15th, 2009. Written by Emmett Jones.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; baseball is on the cutting edge of technology (I know! I can’t believe it either). Major League Baseball’s advanced media arm (MLBAM, or ‘BAM’ for short…er) has won a patent to enhanced on-line blackouts.

The association already lets only fans outside of their local cable operator’s area view matches on MLB.tv – MLB confirmed to us the patent is designed to enhance the accuracy with which it can black out viewers inside those areas. How it may affect others doing geolocation is unclear for now.

According to patent 7,486,943, claimed to be a first for the game: “The system is designed to determine if a customer can view a specific event based on the customer’s geographical location … Games may not be broadcast to persons located in a geographical area proximate the event. Such games may be ‘blacked out’ from view by local audiences if tickets are still available for purchase to attend the event in person … For example, a baseball game for the New York Yankees may not be viewed by audiences via the internet in the local New York telecast area or in Japan, at any point during the actual game.”

Specifically, the method uses data from existing geolocation specialist Quova to analzse a web user’s location – if the result doesn’t fall within a specified confidence threshold, the system carries out further tests using any data available on the MLB record, like PayPal accounts and billing addresses.

Wow. To all of you people living in MLB suburbs watching the game on your computers…BAM is watching you…and it means business. Logistics and technological talk aside, why is this patent a big deal? Targeted Advertising. The article goes on to point out, and I totally agree, that this type of technology will provide advertisements to viewers that are more likely to be near or buy particular products. How long will it be before advertisers are lining up for the opportunity to advertise through MLB.tv? Especially when their advertising has a 100% effectiveness level?

Baseball is leading the way…in technology. Go figure.

PaidContent — MLBAM wins patent to enhance online game blackouts

This entry was posted on Friday, May 15th, 2009 at 10:14 am and is filed under Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.