Whether it was the harsh winter or people were ready to see a sign of spring, Major League Baseball had a record number of streams on Opening Day. According to MLB, there were 60 million live and on-demand streams accessed through MLB.com, the MLB At Bat app, MLB.TV and various MLB social media accounts. That’s an increase of 60% from last year.
In addition, the MLB At Bat app was accessed 9.1 million times on Monday which is up almost 40% from 2014.
So what were the reasons for the increased access on Opening Day? Rob Bowman, president of MLB Advanced Media told TechCrunch that people wanted to watch baseball especially in the cold weather regions, “People are ready for baseball. It was a very tough winter in New England and the midwest. Baseball, more than robins, is the true sign of spring.”
While the 9 million accesses on MLB At Bat came was a surprise to Bowman, he said in this day and age, people expect to be able to find games on-demand on their various devices, “The key thing is fans can touch the game every day. Nine million opens tells you people don’t want to be away from the game. We make it easy and enjoyable and it sells itself. Nobody thought baseball would be suited to digital technology, but it is.”
We can’t expect to see 60 million streams for every day of the season, but this has to be an encouraging sign for baseball.
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About Ken Fang
Ken has been covering the sports media in earnest at his own site, Fang's Bites since May 2007 and at Awful Announcing since March 2013.
He provides a unique perspective having been an award-winning radio news reporter in Providence and having worked in local television.
Fang celebrates the four Boston Red Sox World Championships in the 21st Century, but continues to be a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan.