February 5, 200422 yr RealNetworks strikes out in baseball deal Major League Baseball to go elsewhere for streaming By Jim Hu Updated: 3:56 p.m. ET Feb. 05, 2004RealNetworks ended negotiations to extend its exclusive deal to power Major League Baseball's Web business, the company confirmed Wednesday. The breakdown comes as no surprise, since RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser has prepared investors for possible fallout from an end to the deal. Earlier this year, Glaser warned Wall Street during the company's earnings call that discontinuing its MLB relationship would account for only a 2 percent revenue loss for the year, according to a company spokesman. The original deal, signed in March 2001, required RealNetworks to pay MLB $20 million over three year for exclusivity rights. RealNetworks then sold subscription packages that let fans listen to live audio Webcasts for most baseball games during the season. However, the terms of the new deal were not to RealNetworks' liking. "It was our intention to find a profitable way to work with them," said Greg Chiemingo, a RealNetworks spokesman. "But we were unable to do that with terms that worked for us." Chiemingo declined to offer specific reasons why the negotiations broke down. He also declined to comment on whether MLB was asking for higher payments for exclusivity. A spokesman for MLB Advanced Media could not immediately be reached for comment. Copyright ?1995-2004 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. Maybe they could do like the NHL and sign up with Microsoft/MSN and stream for free I can dream, can't I?
February 6, 200422 yr real sucks. this is a good thing folks. dont be shocked to see some other media player pick this up. i dont think it would be that difficult...would just require some 'tweaking'
February 6, 200422 yr Author I could really see Microsoft swoop in and say, give us part of the name like the NHL Game Audio on MSN, and we can even have this service for free. Microsoft has the money, a paying MSN subscriber base like me, and has experience with the NHL.
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