LWIB: MLBAM and "TV Everywhere" Plus Mega-Tidbits

This week in “Last Week in BizBall“, will BAM cooperate with “TV Everywhere”?, plus the tidbits. MLBAM AND TV EVERYWHERE In November, in light of World Series TV ratings, I examined the state of MLB national media rights. In a nutshell, the long term national TV ratings trends for MLB’s marquee events (WS, ASG) are down but demand for rights is robust because live sports remains one of the few TV genres still capable of drawing a mass audience. The next round of negotiations for MLB national TV rights will commence this year as the current deals with ESPN, Fox and Turner expire after the 13 season. Despite flat regular season ratings and the aforementioned declining ratings for the WS and ASG, the current rights holders are expected to bid aggressively with Fox and Turner looking for live sports to boost both distribution and subscriber fees for, respectively, FX and TruTV. In addition, the newly minted NBC Sports Network, backed by Comcast’s deep pockets, is in dire need of more ...