As media business deals go, it's not as big as securing broadcast rights to Major League Baseball for NBCUniversal. But for Comcast's (NASDAQ: CMCSA) fast-growing business services division, helping Pony youth baseball stream its annual World Series Tournament isn't bad PR.
Comcast Business inked a deal with tournament organizers to provide video coverage of the 10-team event for the first time in its 62-year history. Comcast, which is covering an undisclosed portion of the integration costs at Washington, Pa.'s Lew Hays Pony Field, will also provide Wi-Fi service at the venue. All games will be streamed on ponyworldseries.org.
The tournament, which kicks off Aug. 8, will pit high-level youth baseball teams from around the globe in a bracket designed to determine a world champion. A team from Okinawa, Japan won last year's World Series, which was audio streamed.
Comcast Business was the second largest contributor to the company's cable-division growth in the second quarter, increasing its revenue 22 percent year-over-year, to $965 million. And Comcast executives have expressed bullishness about the prospect of combining the division with Time Warner Cable's business service assets.
For more:
- read this Comcast press release
- read this Comcast Q2 earnings report transcript
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