It is interesting to follow Rob's work with NPR and my local NCPR and have noted his noting of the success of MLB.com as an example to NPR. I got an email this evening from MLB.com which made me go yea!
Dear MLB.com Gameday Audio Subscriber:Baseball is probably the greatest sport for radio there is. I remember clearly driving in a van in high school back from a soccer tourney with a bunch of us and listening to a spring 1981 Expos game the whole drive home. Evenings when I was a kid listening to the northeast US states opening up to the radio as the sunset crossed the nation. In Nova Scotia you could pick up St. Louis on a good night. Here the Cards on KMOX is a piece of cake. But MLB.com gets to me at work, allows me to draft documents and review files all while the game plays out just beyond the fence of the backyard of my imagination. Now if I can just remember the password.LIVE baseball is back for the 2006 regular season on MLB.com Gameday Audio, and this year's subscribers will experience baseball as it's never been experienced before. For starters, listen live to all 2,430 games online, LIVE or on-demand, at the same low rate as last season -- only $14.95 for the entire season.
Your subscription has more live baseball than ever before, including live Spring Training and World Baseball Classic games. From March 3-20, tune in as 16 teams from 16 countries compete for the championship. To access games, go to WorldBaseballClassic.com and use your MLB.com user name and password to log in to enjoy this international event.
Moments later. I quoted the quote back to MLB.com as it says that is the monthly price on the website but not in the email.
Moments again later. No, $14.95 is the annual price for audio. For that a month you get web video.
Comments
Chris Taylor - March 1, 2006 10:36 am
Gameday Audio is terrific but I am a little disappointed by the limited selection of audio stream types and players.
Once upon a time I was a subscriber, but I had to re-direct and re-encode their feed using another type of streaming server so that I could listen to it on the go with the Treo.
For office/desktop listening purposes, it's great. I just wish they'd put a little more thought into the effort and support the miniscule number of us who would like to pay enormous wireless data charges for the privilege of listening to non-local baseball.
Alan - March 1, 2006 10:43 am
I sense a rally coming on with placards and chanting in unison. If the French can have a general strike over anything why can't we have a rally over the limited selection of audio stream types and players used by MLB.com???
Chris Taylor - March 1, 2006 10:49 am
Don't forget the papier-mâchè effigies and stilt-walkers, too. Can't have a protest rally without those guys.
Alan - March 1, 2006 10:55 am
Drummers drumming.
cm - March 1, 2006 5:20 pm
And a piper. There's always a piper.
portland - March 2, 2006 8:16 pm
hey, nothing gets coverage like girls showing thier titties. don't forget the good stuff. all due respect to stiltwalkers.
Alan - March 2, 2006 8:17 pm
Are they playing the Twins game on the radio there?