I found this interesting article on how MLB signed a deal with Sharp "that makes Aquos the “official high-definition television” of MLB. " I believe that sponsorships like this adds a lot of brand awareness, baseball games are on several nights a week and are always on TVs in bars and restaurants across the country. Let me know what you all think of the article and this type of sponsorship.
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003561694
Posted to Brandweek March 22, 2007
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2 comments:
MLB is also taking alot of heat lately for its "Extra Innings Package" which allows fans to pay a subscription to see out of market games. MLB has decided to make this package an exclusive offered only by Direct TV, because they received a better deal from the satellite provider than from the cable companies. There are 2 concerns here.
1. They are choosing money over fans and are actually limiting the maximum expose that they could get by making this exclusive to Direct TV. Congress is attempting to get involved too.
2. I wonder how this impacts the Aquos agreement. If Aquos is the official HDTV of MLB, but people cannot see MLB games does Aquos' brand take some of that heat as well? Is this guilty by association?
There is nothing wrong with this arrangement between Aquos and MLB. The fans will ultimately dictate if the agreement works. There is a similar situation between the YES channel and not showing Yankees games with certain Satellite providers.
With regards to previous comments:
1. MLB cannot "choose" money over fans. The fans must eventually want the entertainment of MLB and will NOT pay for it unless they are happy. The beauty of capitalism is that the best product wins because the customer is willing to pay the most money for the better product. MLB is at the end of the day a business and if they don't succeed it will be the fans who will eventually lose out.
2. One of the reasons for MLB searching for "extra" money is because the business itself is not setup to be profitable. Each baseball team operates as an independent company paying very little to it's "parent" MLB. There is very little for MLB to make money on since the majority of the money is made by the private teams. The only thing left for MLB to profit on is the broadcast of all games which some teams are trying to own themselves (YES network). Ultimately the fan is the consumer but the majority of the fan's money is going to the individual team via ticket sales & merchandise NOT television access or to MLB.
MLB is a troubled company (even though they don't think of themselves as a business but more of an industry/sport) that needs to rethink their marketing strategy. If they cannot make money via their brand and need a HDTV brand to sell they are clearly struggling.
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