思想之流:美国职业棒球大联盟的犯规之声

Wedging new technologies into old legal models sometimes yields interesting results. Streaming technologies are today’s equivalent of trying to retrofit the phone system into the telegraph.

One technology that’s garnered quite a bit of interest across the board is placeshifting. 我们都很熟悉时间转换, in which various devices allow consumers to decide the time they want to watch something (and skip the commercials). 份额, 另一方面, 实时发生, but allows the consumer to view the live content at a different location.

While placeshifting is more beneficial to the broadcaster—commercials and programming are viewed the way the broadcaster and advertisers requested—some content owners have objected to placeshifting because it (potentially) infringes on agreements that have nothing to do with broadcasting. For those of us who don’t live in a city with a major league sports team, 尤指美国职业棒球大联盟的球队, the blackout agreements that have caused the MLB Advanced Media group to rise up in anger against Sling Media’s placeshifting technology, 机顶盒, 可能看起来有点神秘.

因为MLB拥有内容, the blackout agreements were put in place at the request of team owners to create an area around the ballpark that is "blacked out,或者没有电视报道. The thought is that the local fans will visit the ballpark because they can’t watch a broadcast, and the concept’s efficacy has been debated—and expanded—over the years.

先不管WTBS, the Atlanta TV station owned by Ted Turner’s company that later became know as "the Superstation," began placeshifting when it went national on cable and satellite almost 20 years ago and boosted the Atlanta Braves to national prominence. What MLB Advanced Media is objecting to in Sling’s technology is the inability to prevent those in the blackout zone from seeing the game video. The only surefire way to limit user ability to see the same in a blackout area is to ban 机顶盒—and cable TV and satellite and terrestrial broadcast.

For its part, Sling is taking MLB’s cries of "foul" in stride. "We’re allowing more people to see more baseball, 都是同样的广告, 和他们的团队保持联系,布莱克·克里克里安说, Sling Media首席执行官. “这有什么不好的? 这是对他们正在做的事情的补充. They’ve paid for our device and they’ve paid their cable bill."

The issue MLB Advanced Media brings up is further exacerbated by the fact that the organization itself has very good technical, 生产, 以及广播技巧. 足够好, 事实上, that I 和其他人 in the industry have noted that the group is beginning to produce and deliver broadcasts for groups like Tennis.网站对主要网球赛事的报道. You’d think that they would understand that the benefits to MLB of placeshifting outweigh the perceived drawbacks.

At least one major league sport has taken a contrarian view: The National Hockey League (NHL) has chosen to embrace placeshifting. The NHL and Sling Media have signed an agreement that allows current and future Slingbox customers to share segments of NHL programming online with friends, 家庭, 和其他人, creating a viral marketing opportunity for NHL teams.

"Having the most tech-savvy fans of all major professional sports—who also tend to be early adopters of new technology—makes offering NHL content through Clip+Sling a natural fit,基思·里特说, president of NHL Interactive CyberEnterprises, 在新闻发布会上. "This partnership expands the visibility of our NHL games online and we are excited and proud to be the first sports league to offer this service to our fans."

According to a posting in the SlingCommunity.com forum—an official outlet for Sling Media—the agreement also covers Sling Media’s upcoming Clip+Sling technology, 这是目前在内测.

"Clip+Sling is a feature that will be built into Sling Media’s SlingPlayer software, giving Slingbox owners the ability to record and share portions of content with just a few short clicks,邮局写道. "While customers will need a Slingbox to create and share clips, the clips posted to Sling Media’s forthcoming video destination site will be accessible by anyone."

The blog goes on to note that NHL clips posted to this site will be searchable and categorized by the league and by clubs to help users better navigate content. But even more interesting is the fact that the NHL itself—in a move completely antithetical to the stance taken by the MLB Advanced Media group—will also make its own long-form and short-form content available on the video destination site.

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