Yahoo has announced a three year deal with MLB.com, the digital side of Major League Baseball, for video distribution and ad sales while the NHL is expanding their online video coverage.
Yahoo has a three year deal with MLB.com to syndicate content from MLB.tv on Yahoo Sports through 2010, giving Yahoo users the ability to watch live and on-demand baseball games outside of their home markets. MLB.com says this will be more than 2,400 games each year and Yahoo Sports will also broadcast the FastCast broadcast game recap show and other MLB.video. Yahoo users will pay between $14.95 and $19.95 per month (or between $89.95 to $119.95 per year) depending on video quality. Yahoo will also be the exclusive advertising partner for MLB.tv in the 2009 and 2010 seasons.
The National Hockey League is touting NHL Network Online, available free at NHL.com and delivered through a new broadband player to deliver seven new dedicated channels of NHL multimedia programmed around distinct themes. Fans will be able to get a daily fix of "The Hockey Show" exclusively produced by the NHL and live events will be dished up on "NHL LiveWire" with sponsorship by Cisco.
NHL's new broadband player was designed and developed in coordination with builder/broadcast manager NeuLion. The NHL and NeuLion have worked together to provide a solution to make the fans happy with online viewing while allowing the NHL to integrate in corporate sponsorships through custom skins for the player or rotating panel ads.
For more:
- Yahoo announcement of MLB.com video deal
- News.com Blog on Yahoo Baseball Deal
- The NHL Broadband Player press release
- USA Today's NHL online video coverage expands