Microsoft is expected this week to pay as much as $40 million over two years to video stream live Major League Baseball games onto PCs, sources said on Monday, heightening competition with rival RealNetworks and signaling rising costs for online video programming.
The deal is one of online sports programming's most expensive to date. Microsoft will receive exclusive rights to stream live video of most baseball games this season onto PCs, the sources said. MSN offers these streams as part of MSN Premium, a $9.95-a-month software package that offers Net services and content. One source said Microsoft may also sell subscriptions through its MSN.com Web portal. Users will also be able to listen to live games through the service.
One source said Microsoft may also sell baseball subscriptions through its MSN Web portal. Users will also be able to access games, using Microsoft's Window Media playback software. Microsoft isn't the only company expected to soon strike a deal with the baseball league. America Online plans to announce a two-year, $9 million deal with MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM), the league's Web business, to offer live audio streams and 20-minute video clips for each game, the sources added. AOL will offer the games for free to its AOL for Broadband members, most of whom pay $14.95 a month on top of their broadband bills for the service.
News source: C|Net News.com
The deal is one of online sports programming's most expensive to date. Microsoft will receive exclusive rights to stream live video of most baseball games this season onto PCs, the sources said. MSN offers these streams as part of MSN Premium, a $9.95-a-month software package that offers Net services and content. One source said Microsoft may also sell subscriptions through its MSN.com Web portal. Users will also be able to listen to live games through the service.
One source said Microsoft may also sell baseball subscriptions through its MSN Web portal. Users will also be able to access games, using Microsoft's Window Media playback software. Microsoft isn't the only company expected to soon strike a deal with the baseball league. America Online plans to announce a two-year, $9 million deal with MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM), the league's Web business, to offer live audio streams and 20-minute video clips for each game, the sources added. AOL will offer the games for free to its AOL for Broadband members, most of whom pay $14.95 a month on top of their broadband bills for the service.
News source: C|Net News.com
- SharpMT 2.3 offers:
- Save drafts locally - save entries that you're working on to your local hard drive
- One button posting - send any of your drafts to the server with one button click
- Edit multiple drafts simultaneously - a tabbed interface allows multiple drafts to be open at the same time
- Multiple categories per post - select more than one category for each draft published to the server
- Standard tag support - add bold, italics, underline, and URL tags via tool bar, menu, or keyboard
- Shell checking support - built in spell checking module underlines misspelled words in red
- Download existing posts - download the title and entry of existing blog enties from your server and store it on your hard drive for linking and editing
- Edit server-based posts - download server-based entries, edit them, and then upload the changes to the server
- Sync-able links list - advanced download techniques will always minimize data request for new published posts
- Sync-able categories list - pull an updated category list from your server at anytime
- Sync-able text filters list - apply existing server based text filters for drafts
- MT specific creation - use MT's extended fields, such as publishing status, categories, and excerpts
- Integrated Preview - built in Previewing allows you to view your drafts based on an HTML template
- Upload Images - upload any of your local images to anywhere within your blog
- RSS Aggregator integration - start new Blog entries from the most popular RSS Aggregator applications
- MP3 Player integration - add "now playing" information into Drafts with WMP9's blogging plug-in
- Favorites integration - list of Favorites from IE available as insertable links
- Customizable tag support - change the tags generated for bold, underline, italics and ten custom tags
- Customizable toolbar images - change the look of SharpMT by changing two images
- Shell integration - double-clicking a draft file will open it in a SharpMT window
- Modern Looking UI - using the minimizing, docking and floating window suppose of .NET for a modern interface
- Help system - a standard Windows based help system with comprehensive and detailed documentation
- Pocket SharpMT 2.3 offers:
- Save drafts locally - save entries that you're working on to your local hard drive
- Easy posting - send any of your drafts to the server with one button click
- Multiple categories per post - select more than one category for each draft published to the server
- Standard tag support - add bold, italics, underline, and URL tags via menu
- Integration with Contacts - insert Contact information into drafts
- Sync-able categories list - pull an updated category list from your server at anytime
- Sync-able text filters list - apply existing server based text filters for drafts
- MT specific creation - use MT's extended fields, such as publishing status, categories, and excerpts
- Upload Images - upload any of your local images to anywhere within your blog
- Common Drafts format - share local drafts with the PC version of SharpMT
- Customizable tag support - change the tags generated for bold, underline, italics and two custom tags
- Pocket PC specific deaign - interface has been designed with the Pocket PC in mind
Who would pay to watch baseball on their computer? There can't be that many people, can there?
people who would want to watch them at work during the day.
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