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 THE STAT 26Percentage of wireless customers who use their cell phones to take picturesMore Vitals
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APRIL 15, 2003
Sports Score Big Online Whether it's to view real-time Webcasts or to run their own fantasy team, fans are flocking to the Net -- and paying -- to get their fix
True, the quality of PC video didn't rival big-screen TV. But what the computer did offer was unparallelled access: At the click of a mouse, fans around the globe could get live baseball on demand, plus searchable highlights, condensed game footage of key plays, and replays of classic games. "Even those of us who love the game can't watch it every day on TV," says Bowman. "You can on the Net. It was made for baseball." Fans seem to agree. Despite a stiff charge of $79.95 for the season or $14.95 per month, 20,000 people have signed up for the fledgling MLB.TV service in just its first two weeks -- only 5,000 shy of the total Bowman had forecast for the entire season. It's a nifty addition to the 1 million subscribers who pay to access live streaming-audio broadcasts either through Real.com or MLB.com. Add to that the $20 million that Seattle media company RealNetworks (REAL ) has coughed up to nab exclusive online audio and video rights to MLB content, and a raft of top-drawer online advertisers, and Bowman's 170-member team is earning an operating profit. "BREAKTHROUGH DECISION." Bowman isn't the only happy online sports exec these days. From fantasy leagues to live footage, online sports is rapidly changing from an afterthought freebie and marketing tool to a stand-alone business that provides small but significant incremental revenues from paid content to professional and college sports leagues. The take was about $40 million in 2002, up more than 100%, according to research outfit comScore Networks. Forrester Research figures that advertising on sports-themed Web sites should add an additional $2.4 billion in 2004, with sports-related e-tail tallying $4.7 billion more. Forrester estimates that by 2004 as much as 15% of the typical pro franchise's total revenue stream will come from the Web. Even if those numbers turn out to be optimistic, no one disputes that sports is rapidly becoming a powerful force online. Witness the recent decisions by megaportal Yahoo! (YHOO ) and online market leader America Online (AOL ) to offer premium sports video. "We are at the tip of the iceberg with MLB's breakthrough decision to provide lots of games live," says Merrill Brown, senior vice-president at RealNetworks. BROADBAND BOOST. That's true for several reasons. The cost of streaming video over the Web has dropped dramatically as the price per bit of high-speed data transmission has plunged because of excess network capacity. Moreover, with about 30 million U.S. households now connected to the Net via broadband, video to the desktop is no longer confined to big corporate networks. In fact, the MLB.TV service won't even work on a narrowband connection. The U.S. now has about as many broadband connections "as there were cable-TV connections in 1980 when that business started to boom," says Drew Reifenberger, executive vice-president of Turner Sports Interactive, which produces official Web offerings for NASCAR and the PGA Tour. The arrival of broadband has coincided with a trend toward more innovative use of sports footage and information. Race fans willing to pay not only get to check out the real-time audio broadcasts at NASCAR.com but also the telemetry feeds of technical and performance info of their favorite cars as they hurtle around the track. The feeds show brake, throttle, and GPS location data.
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