05/12/97 DO YOU LOVE THE ORIOLES AND LIVE IN L.A.?

DO YOU LOVE THE ORIOLES AND LIVE IN L.A.?
Play-by-play broadcasts of faraway games are all over the Web
When radio broadcasts of San Francisco Giants games hit the airwaves this season, it wasn't only fans in the City by the Bay who were tuning in. For the first time, live play-by-play could be heard in Senegal almost as easily as in Sausalito. By offering games on the Net, more and more teams are connecting with fans in faraway places. And there may even be money to be made.
Most of the big leagues are testing the waters, and approaches vary. In April, the National Hockey League added access to live radio calls of regular-season and playoff games through its Web site. That puts the NHL months behind the National Basketball Assn., which has been packaging its games since the start of the season on ESPN SportsZone, a heavily traveled Web site. Each week, the league offers a few radio games without charge, including a freebie Thursday evenings. But to get the full slate of games, you have to subscribe to SportsZone's $4.95-a-month premium service, which includes the radio broadcasts.
The National Football League and Major League Baseball are foot-draggers. No regular-season nfl games were available on the Web, and baseball can't decide what it's doing. Radio broadcasts aren't offered on MLB's official Web site, and the league wants teams that carry play-by-play on their own sites to pull the plug until a comprehensive policy has been hammered out. A number of clubs are refusing to obey. The Giants and Baltimore Orioles, among others, continue to make available every one of their games. ''The Giants...have fans all over the country, especially New York. Outside our radio signal, fans yearn to hear our broadcasts,'' says Laurence Baer, Giants executive vice-president.
Baltimore's WBAL-AM, the flagship station of the Orioles, was one of the first to offer play-by-play on its Web site, going online with all 162 of the birds' games last season. Says station manager Jeff Beauchamp: ''We have gotten E-mail from servicemen listening to games overseas. We've heard from transplants to other parts of the country who write how wonderful it is to follow the team you grew up with.''
A RECORD. Until recently, few dreamed they'd be cozying up to a PC in Santa Fe and listening to a Knicks game from Manhattan. Dallas-based AudioNet Inc. helped change that in September, 1995, with a Web site featuring a menu of sports programs that now includes play-by-play of 130 college and pro teams. Somebody out there is listening. In January, AudioNet's Super Bowl coverage, including play-by-play in three languages, drew 500,000 listeners, a record for the Web, the company claims.
AudioNet doesn't charge for its game feeds, and company President Mark Cuban says there are no plans to do so. One reason is the uncertain sound quality of broadcasts. Though most are clear, heavy traffic at times can jumble transmission. ''I can't guarantee the quality of reception, so I don't,'' says Cuban. AudioNet's sports service, he notes, brings in some revenue from advertisers: An audio commercial clicks on before access begins. But mostly Cuban sees the service as an attraction to AudioNet's Web site, which carries feeds of meetings, trade shows, and other business events paid for by such corporate clients as GM, Intel, and Microsoft.
NBA and ESPN officials won't say how many fans are tuning in to their fledgling venture, but Patrick Keane of Internet consultants Jupiter Communications estimates that as many as 60,000 have signed up. Ed Desser, NBA president for TV and new media, says the league always intended to start small. So small, in fact, that the system used to transmit the games can handle only 5,000 listeners at a time. That means a subscriber could get temporarily shut out of a broadcast, though no complaints have been received. ''This could develop into a nice, ancillary business. There's definitely revenue potential,'' Desser says.
You can't watch a live game on your PC. Not yet, anyway. But that, too, is coming. In April, Washington-based Progressive Networks Inc. and Major League Baseball demonstrated the first video broadcast of a ballgame over the Internet at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas. Movements can be jerky, so the technology isn't yet ready for prime time. And there's no telling what will be next. How long will it be until fans sitting at their PCs can experience the simple pleasures of a day at the ballpark--from trying to shag a virtual foul ball to having a virtual beer spilled in their lap?
By Mark Hyman in Baltimore