Major League Baseball wants to appeal to a younger demographic. Hence the monomaniacal focus on speeding up the game, and hence the increased emphasis on MLB Advanced Media -- the wing responsible for products like MLB.tv, PITCHf/x, and Statcast.
As it turns out, MLBAM's latest venture would appear to be one that could help bring baseball to the country's youth. According to Maury Brown of Forbes, MLB intends to offer free, live streams of out-of-market games on Twitter sometime this season. No schedule or further details are available, including just how much the league is receiving from Twitter for broadcast rights. Brown does note this, however:
While the exact details of the financial terms have not been revealed, Twitter has committed an undisclosed sum of money in ad sales for the live games as part of the partnership. After the guarantee is met, the sides will share additional ad revenue.
The easiest way to hook someone on a product is to allow them experience it for themselves. It only makes sense that MLB intends to test that theory through use of social media -- an increasingly present part of our daily lives, particularly among youngsters. So, who knows. This could be the way baseball grows a larger, younger audience. Or we could have no recollection of it in six months' time.
