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From the MLB press release: Major
League Baseball [Friday] announced the launch of MLB Radio, a live
interactive talk  show
available exclusively...from Major League Baseball's official website,
MajorLeagueBaseball.com,
[which is jointly developed and published by SportsLine.com].
Airing live weekdays from 12PM. to 4PM (ET), with 24-hour
availability for listeners, MLB Radio will offer baseball fans a
unique connection to baseball's personalities and news. The programming
will be hosted by veteran sportscaster Dave Sims and
a daily guest host who will use fan e-mails as the basis
for interviews with players, general managers and coaches...
The inaugural show on Sunday, July 9 (12-6 PM ET) [was
scheduled to] feature pre-game and play-by-play of the SeasonTicket.com
All-Star Futures Game -- featuring the top U.S. and international
Minor League prospects -- including live chats and interviews with
players during the game.
Sims, a two-time Emmy Award winning play-by-play man for
his work in college football and basketball, former New York Daily
News sportswriter and WCBS-TV anchor/reporter/host, is currently
in his second year as host of "Phillies Weekly" in Philadelphia.
Major League Baseball's new venture is being produced in
association with Sirius
Satellite Radio, the digital satellite  radio
broadcaster. MLB Radio will be broadcasting live from Sirius' National
Broadcast Studios in New York City, one of the most sophisticated
digital broadcasting studios in the world. In addition, MLB Radio
will be among the first programs to be broadcast on the Sirius system
when the service begins testing later this summer.
"The launch
of MLB Radio is a significant step in the evolution of MajorLeagueBaseball.com,"
said Bob DuPuy, Executive Vice President, Administration
for MLB and acting CEO of the new media business.
Baseball has been aggressively pursuing an integrated new media
strategy since the 30 club owners voted unanimously to centralize
their interactive media rights during the Owners' Meeting in January.
The integrated strategy is realizing positive early returns: the
2000 All-Star Game balloting program, sponsored by SeasonTicket.com,
has realized a 300% increase in online balloting volume over 1999.
...
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...
Some observers have suggestged that baseball is at a competitive
disadvantage to other professional sports leagues because each
team retains its own broadcast rights, leading to major inequities
between large- and small-market teams.
These centralized interactive media rights, if they prove
valuable, could theoretically be baseball's savior.
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From Radio & Records: Feed The Monster Media — which
developed websites
for KROQ/ Los Angeles, KITS/San Francisco and WHFS/Washington,
among others (including WBBM-FM/Chicago, pictured at right)
— reported revenue for the year ending March 31 reached $108,911.
The company's net losses grew from $814,646 (13 cents per
share) last year to $21.9 million ($2.90) this year, mostly due
to a charge of $13.2 million associated with depreciation of shares
issued in conjunction with the January merger of Interactive Radio
Group.
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Reprinted from
Friday's edition:
 In
Wednesday's issue of RAIN (here),
we quoted PaineWebber analyst Leland Westerfield telling R&R
Online that he expects that overall growth in radio will outpace
almost every sector of the media landscape in 2001. ("He credits consolidation
for making radio a stronger advertising platform: 'Consolidation has
improved the health of the radio industry and has made it more competitive.'")
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"Consolidation
HASN'T impacted radio as an advertising platform..."
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Oh, what
some analysts will say to bring in corporate finance business!
Consolidation hasn't impacted radio as an advertising platform one
way or the other. Radio has benefited from the robust economic climate
and its ability to accommodate the quick turnaround that is important
to many start up businesses. Let's face it, when you have the longest
sustained period of economic growth in history and it's driven largely
by the consumer sector, most advertising vehicles will enjoy record
setting revenue.
Consolidation has afforded radio the opportunity to maximize
the margins on this unprecedented revenue growth, but the impact
from that accrues to shareholders much more than advertisers.
As for future growth, "...he sees no reason for it not to
continue". That statement implies growth number for 2001 that are
comparable to this year. There are important factors that suggest
that  recent
growth percentages will not extend to 2001, most of them economic.
Most germane is the Fed's open intention to slow the economy down
to preclude inflation. Assuming they are successful (and there's
every indication that they will do whatever it takes) then the consumer
spending which fueled the expansion should slow as a result. Presumably,
that would translate into comparably slower advertising growth.
Additionally, while radio companies are quick to point out
how dotcoms represent a small percentage of their revenue base,
they are not inclined to discuss how large a percentage of recent
growth those dotcoms represent. Ten percent isn't much as a percentage
of the total, but it represents 2/3 of 15% growth.
That's a nice number, but down considerably from the "vintage"
we've been accustomed to drinking. Climate impacts the quality of
a given wine vintage more than any other factor and the economic
climate for next year will also be the main ingredient in the radio
revenue pie. All indications are that the climate will be nice,
but not as nice as in recent years.
Cut dotcom expenditures in half in 2001 and allow for an
economy that's growing, but at say 3.5% (lower than we've seen in
several years) and 8-9% growth in radio revenue looks reasonable
next year.
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"There's a world out there that we know nothing about,
that we can only imagine. And that is the world of books."
Buy this fine
item from Amazon here.
(RAIN doesn't have an affiliate deal with Amazon or
anything. It's just a great book.)
|
 "RAIN:
Radio And Interent Newsletter" -- the leading web-based publication
devoted specifically to the subject of Internet radio -- is establishing
a summer internship program and is now accepting applications.
If you or someone you know is looking for an interesting new
opportunity in the exciting dotcom world, this may be just
what you're looking for!
To learn more about RAIN's Summer 2000 internship program,
click here.
(Note: This
link is working today! An intern helped me fix it.)
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Try it
out! Explore
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