Wow…this one is a doozie. Bob Bowman, the outsized CEO of Major League Baseball Advance Media, has filed the required paperwork to explore a race for governor of Michigan. Bowman told paidContent the filing is required any time you spend $500 or more looking at a state-wide race—and he has…

It doesn’t look like the Yankees got a big win when it comes to the adoption of their in-market live game streaming offering this year. Sports Business Journal cites sources who say that only 6,000 people purchased subscriptions. The publication says that’s twenty percent above the Yankees’ initial estimates—and it’s…

As baseball gears up for round two of the 2009 playoffs—the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers take the field tonight—we have the first peek at some stats you won’t see in box scores. Major League Baseball Advanced Media served an average of 350,000 live streams during each game in…

An intriguing cross-site and cross-platform partnership between MLBAM and post-season rightsholders Turner Sports and Fox Sports: Postseason.TV, a blackout-free $9.95 subscription package with a player that will work across MLB.com, FoxSports.com on MSN and MLB.com/TBSHotCorner. It’s also available on the iPhone and iTouch. My understanding is the three will share…

A couple of years ago, it looked like Major League Soccer might leave its lengthy digital partnership with MLBAM for a new home with Turner Sports. The two leagues stayed connected, though, with MLBAM managing the MLS digital operations. That’s changing now after six years—as is the overall philosophy: MLS…

If all the pieces fall in to place, MLB.TV will start offering pay per view games on iPhone at 99 cents a pop by the end of August (subject to the usual local blackout rules). Bloomberg’s Rich Jaroslovsky included that tidbit in the latest takeout on digital flag bearer MLBAM—its…

CNBC’s Jim Cramer rarely does Mad Money interviews with execs of companies that aren’t public but the MLB.TV fan and subscriber made an exception Tuesday afternoon with MLBAM CEO Bob Bowman. The two are far from strangers—they went to Harvard together—but they are far apart on one subject: the future…

Updated: The Padres deal has been announced officially: customers who subscribe to Cox’s broadband service in San Diego area can purchase a package of San Diego Padres game telecasts for live in-market online viewing. The cost is same as the Yankees deal for the rest of this season: $49.95 for…

Major League Baseball is continuing its forward-thinking when it comes to streaming live games by teaming with browser-based media provider Boxee. The open source video site offered a number of news items at its App Developer Challenge in San Francisco. Aside from the deal with Major League Baseball Advanced Media,…

If all goes as planned (and it does more often than not where MLBAM is concerned) baseball fans with iPhones/iTouches and the MLB.com At Bat will get a live streaming doubleheader Thursday. And that’s just the opening act. Plunking down a one-time fee of $9.99 will provide live out-of-market video…

The New York Yankees may be able to claim another first: in-market live game streaming. MLBAM and the YES Network have agreed to a streaming rights package that would end the blackout under certain conditions; Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) added the in-market streaming rights as part of its latest carriage renewal…

Of all the industries you’d expect to win a patent for geolocation, baseball would not be top of the list. But MLBAM has done just that, intending to black-out the online broadcast of both live and on-demand games down to zip code level in order to protect local TV networks’…

Updated:Three weeks into the 2009 baseball season, MLB.com is doing a lot better than Major League Baseball’s other New York-based franchises. According to numbers released by the league’s digital business MLBAM, subscription sales are up nearly 46 percent year-over-year to 400,000-plus for premium live game products MLB.TV and Gameday Audio.…

Back in December, Bob Bowman told me that Major League Baseball Advanced Media planned to cut subscription prices for the 2009 season by at least 20 percent as a response to economic hard times. That was then. The pricing announced for this year does include a pay cut for annual…

paidContent has learned that Major League Baseball Advanced Media laid off 20 of its 400-plus staff today, roughly 3-4 percent, with original programming taking the biggest hit. At the same time, MLBAM head Bob Bowman told me the digital arm of Major League Baseball will reduce its prices for 2009.…

Major League Baseball Advanced Media, the digital arm of MLB, is dropping Microsoft’s Silverlight after a year, for a return to Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) Flash beginning in 2009. MLBAM gave Silverlight a boost when it switched from Adobe Flash in 2007 as part of the media player’s launch. But MLBAM’s…

Interviewed by CNBC’s Darren Rovell at our EconSports conference, Bob Bowman, the head of Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM), touted the growth of his mobile business, questioned the reliability of audience-measurement metrics, and promised to beat back the threat from the SlingBox with better technology. —Ads aren’t the be-all,…

Major League Baseball postseason games will be available live online in U.S. for the first time, but there’s a catch and it’s, well… major. Access will be limited to 23 participating airports as a special four-hour pass to the “Airport Edition” of MLB.tv. Moreover, the $4 four-hour pass will only…

This is beginning to feel so Yogi Berra—as in “deja vu all over again”—and it will be a recurring story until all major sports are streamed live locally, nationally and internationally. When he spoke with us last month, Bob Bowman, president of MLBAM, avoided any suggestion that local live streaming…