I had the good fortune to listen to this morning's NYMIEG panel entitled Baseball 2007: Using Media & Technology to Enhance the Fan Experience. A well organized breakfast networking event with interesting panelists from Sports Illustrated Digital Media, Yes Network, ANC Sports, Major League Baseball, and Chyron Corporation.
First I was initially amazed at the huge size of the attendance, but as the demands for technology grows, how could this audience not be large. And content, especially live sports, is king. And with MLB, their belief is with the variety of technology available (broadcast, cable, on-demand, radio, satellite radio, slingbox, direct tv, internet, mobile), the consumer can pick what they want to see (games, highlights, stats), when they want to see it, and where.
I left the seminar excited by the future but also concerned how a company in this space makes money. In Sports Illustrated's case, does the website cannibalize revenue from the print magazine, or is it necessary to maintain their existence. They tried once in the cable network space with CNNSI and that failed miserably.
A well-run morning program, I'm looking forward to NYMIEG's next panel discussion.
