One of the biggest advantages television has had over the Web has been its dominance of live events, mostly sporting events like baseball, football and basketball, but also one-offs like concerts and political debates. Those programs are often tagged as being “DVR proof” by network executives.

But a new blackout-free effort by Major League baseball, a quiet push by major Web video player Hulu and longer running efforts like CBS Sports March Madness On Demand are beginning to test the online waters for live events.

While MLB has had a well-received and profitable online service through its MLB.TV package since 2002, for the 2009 playoffs, it launched a separate service, Postseason.TV. The $9.95 service (free for Apple iPhone users that purchased the MLB application earlier this season) streams 10 live cameras from every playoff game, letting users choose how to watch them.

The Postseason.TV service seems to be working for Major League Baseball Advanced media. According to Paidcontent.org, MLBAM served an average of 350,000 streams for each of the playoff games in the four division series matchups. 36,000 of those streams were on iPhones or iPod Touch devices

In the case of Postseason.TV, MLB decided not to make the produced feed available to users, instead letting them serve as their own directors by choosing which camera angle to watch the game from.

“Before, if [viewers] couldn’t watch their live event, football game, baseball game, American Idol, whatever it may be, they timeshifted it and skipped through commercials, or they ignored it completely,” Bowman says.“[I]n the end [live streaming] is clearly going to add eyeballs to content, and dramatically drive up the number of people who are able to and will watch live events.”

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/361528-Live_Streaming_Angles_For_TV_Marketshare.php

I'm one of the ones who paid for Postseason.tv. I'm suprised they've been doing it since 2002! You would think that after all these years they knew what they were doing.

You get a lot of issues with the cameras being out of sync. Yesterday's Dodger game wasn't that bad. But I don't know if it will stay like this. That's the reason I know only use 2 cameras. What's the point of using 4 at a time when they're out of sync.

Then they offer to install the "NextDef Plugin" which gives you access to a higher quality feed but it only worked for the 2 of the Philies vs Rockies games. Then for some reason they decide to disable it without notice contradicting themselves.
by mlbsupport on Fri Oct 16, 2009 5:42 pm
Postseason.TV does not use NexDef.
So why do they ask you to install a plugin that you can't use?