MLB Throws High Heat At Web portals

So apparently Major League Baseball is playing hard ball as it shops its coveted online broadcast rights, after the deal with RealNetworks ended, according to this story. Sky-high terms and inconsistence offers from MLB is making the big players in the field balk: MLB is demanding hefty up-front payments in return for access to live and archived baseball games.

Some companies spoken to in this story say that MLB has sought substantially more than the $6.3 million a year it was getting from RealNetworks for exclusive access to its live audio and video feeds. Some other companies were not offered any live content, but instead given the option to sell downloads of “classic” games and feature highlights on their sites.

Comments have been disabled for this post