@ EconSports: MLBAM’s Bob Bowman: Mobile ‘Is A Mandatory Place To Be’
Bob Bowman, president and CEO, Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) spoke this morning at EconSports, and during the Q&A with CNBC’s Darren Rovell, raved about how well its mobile properties are doing, while also voicing his disapproval for the SlingBox.
—Mobile is exploding: “15 percent of business is mobile and the usage is exploding. On any given day, there’s 12 to 15 million page views on mobile devices, and the attitude of RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has been a boon to us. No one has to get there tomorrow. The point is to do it thoughtfully, so we don’t have a bubble where it goes up, and then crashes. But it’s a mandatory place for us to be – for any content publisher—even though it’s not clear it will be a huge part of the business. The monetary side is good and growing but it’s not going to huge.” What do people want from a mobile device?: “They want information whether it’s the gambler or the casual fan. They want real-time information, and they want something that’s cool…It’s not perfect. The screens still have to be bigger, and RIM didn’t really have a video device until the Bold and the Storm, which are coming. It’s a growing business, but it’s a tertiary market, not even secondary.”
—Calling the police on SlingBox users: “We aren’t excited about it, but having said that, what do you do? Find the fans who buy a SlingBox, and say we want $14 a month? It’s impossible. We wish it weren’t there, but our way to win this game is to have better technology, and add more to our offering so people want to use it. You win it on technology and the loyalty of fans. We wish it weren’t that way.”
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