09/27/2006, 10:50am, EDT
Wednesday, September 27th
Major League pulls podcasts from iTunes
Apple also refused to give the league control over where promotions for its podcasts would appear on iTunes, resulting in league content displayed adjacent to podcasts from individual baseball fans, according to the report.
"That may sound immaterial, but again the brand is very important to us," said Bowman.
The league serves up roughly 75 percent of its 40,000 to 50,000 podcast downloads from its own website, making the decision to pull its podcasts from Apple's iTunes less inhibiting. The league hopes the remaining 25 percent who formerly used iTunes to download its podcasts will begin downloading baseball podcasts through its own website. Additionally, the league is increasing the amount of free content available for iPod owners, including new "clincher" videos which will display condensed versions major-league teams seizing positions in the playoffs.
"We respect Apple and iTunes -- we all carry iPods ourselves -- but we think, in the long run, our fans will be better served on MLB.com," Bowman said.
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After having been successfully banished from Cupertino, CA to live for eternity chained to a large boulder under an extinct volcano on the tropical island of Pago-Pago, it seems Evil Steve, the megalomaniacal evil twin of Steve Jobs, has surfaced once more in California.
Witness describe Evil Steve muttering, "it's mine and I don't care if you have paid money, it's my company and my rules, and your stinkin' content will go where I say. Now please go F-off."
I love baseball. Actually, I'm a rabid fan. I even subscribe to MLB.tv at $100 a year, just so I can watch out of market games. However, $4 to download and play a game? And be able to play it only on a PC... and only on bulky Microsoft video players?? That's unacceptable.
Come on Mr. Selig. Get with the program. I'd gladly pay for some of the games. Just not through MLB.com with its hokey and relatively unstable implementation.