21 March 2008
MLB.com dominance, NFL.com will soon match
Posted by Joel under: MLB; MLB.com; NFL; NFL.com .
Good article over at FastCompany.com that talks about how MLB’s big “cash cow” is MLB Advanced Media. Some analysts believe MLB will surpass NFL’s total revenue due to baseball’s digital strategy.
In 2007, Major League Baseball is expected to haul in around $5.8 billion, just short of the NFL’s $6.3 billion. Its biggest growth engine is MLBAM, which last year brought in $450 million (up from $236 million in 2005). Continuing at its current pace, MLB should catch up with the NFL around 2010.
One thing the article doesn’t tell you, the NFL’s digital strategy is changing. The NFL is bringing club site in-house, two teams this year, the rest in ‘09 and ‘10, much like MLB but without cutting the local flavor that NFL teams site have over MLB sites, teams will still provide content for their respective team site. However, the NFL will now be able to push out high quality related content to club sites with greater ease, essentially extending NFL.com and NFL Network out to the “long tail” of club site. Club sites are only one portion of the NFL’s digital strategy, so before analyst declare that the MLB will take over the NFL, hold the horses. Granted MLB is a few years ahead when it comes to new media, but when the NFL Digital Media groups starts to hit its stride with live video and social networking, watch out. It’s looking like a digital arms race between the MLB and NFL is starting up and the fans will reap the benefits.
