Mlb Advanced Media Case Summar
Stephen Sewell
MLB Advanced Media Case
1. Major League Baseball has been an industry leader in the digital space for athletic entertainment, thanks to the launch of Baseball Advanced Media (BAM) in 2009. Once the organization took off and grew, it began branching out and offering its content in a variety of channels and platforms. Careful consideration had been given on each of these platforms, but the organization considered itself to be a risk-taker and a first-mover for its industry. Now, with the launch of Apple’s iPad in 2010, BAM was faced with different and complex issues concerning a BAM application for the device. Would they invest the resources to create an app? Would this app be different from existing apps, such as At Bat for the iPhone and iPod touch? How does this addition improve the portfolio of offerings, and does this cannibalize other sources of revenue for BAM?
2. BAM has experienced tremendous growth since its inception, and has come to be known as an industry leader and overall content delivery model for others to aspire to be. Their content generation leads to increased revenues and partnerships, which leads to more features and options, which leads to more passionate fans and employees, which leads to more innovation. This virtuous cycle has allowed BAM to achieve substantial revenues from its four major sources. The first is their Ticket Sales, which account for 39% of total revenues. Over 30 million tickets were sold online last year (at the time of the case), which is more than a third of the overall baseball attendance. This ticket sale dominance grew substantially with the acquisition of Tickets.com, and a five-year partnership with Stubhub.com. Through these mediums, MLB and BAM removed the uneasiness and uncertainty associated with scalping tickets and created an official secondary market for reselling MLB tickets. When a fan enters the game, the clubs also make a lot of money on things like concessions and
MLB Advanced Media Case
1. Major League Baseball has been an industry leader in the digital space for athletic entertainment, thanks to the launch of Baseball Advanced Media (BAM) in 2009. Once the organization took off and grew, it began branching out and offering its content in a variety of channels and platforms. Careful consideration had been given on each of these platforms, but the organization considered itself to be a risk-taker and a first-mover for its industry. Now, with the launch of Apple’s iPad in 2010, BAM was faced with different and complex issues concerning a BAM application for the device. Would they invest the resources to create an app? Would this app be different from existing apps, such as At Bat for the iPhone and iPod touch? How does this addition improve the portfolio of offerings, and does this cannibalize other sources of revenue for BAM?
2. BAM has experienced tremendous growth since its inception, and has come to be known as an industry leader and overall content delivery model for others to aspire to be. Their content generation leads to increased revenues and partnerships, which leads to more features and options, which leads to more passionate fans and employees, which leads to more innovation. This virtuous cycle has allowed BAM to achieve substantial revenues from its four major sources. The first is their Ticket Sales, which account for 39% of total revenues. Over 30 million tickets were sold online last year (at the time of the case), which is more than a third of the overall baseball attendance. This ticket sale dominance grew substantially with the acquisition of Tickets.com, and a five-year partnership with Stubhub.com. Through these mediums, MLB and BAM removed the uneasiness and uncertainty associated with scalping tickets and created an official secondary market for reselling MLB tickets. When a fan enters the game, the clubs also make a lot of money on things like concessions and