Major League Baseball Gets Into The Music Festival Business

MLB Advanced Media, Major League Baseball's digital media division, has acquired worldwide distribution rights for a major music festival. The Global Citizen Festival, set for Manhattan's Central Park on September 28th, features a lineup that includes Stevie Wonder, John Mayer, Alicia Keys, and The Kings of Leon.

MLB Advanced Media plans to stream the concert, which it will produce with AEG Live, on websites such as the New York Times and YouTube. The concert may also be condensed into a two-hour special that will air on a major television network as well, though negotiations for such a broadcast are ongoing the New York Times reported.

MLB Advanced Media said they plan to stream a variety of other live events in the future, some for free and some through a subscription-based model.

“We want to gain experience selling worldwide rights,” Bob Bowman, the chief executive of MLB Advanced Media told the New York Times.

MLB Advanced Media, which is owned as a joint venture by all 30 major league baseball clubs, is already a veteran player in digital media. The company currently streams hundreds of 'out of market' baseball games through mlb.tv, as well as providing the technology that powers current internet broadcasts, such as Glenn Becks' internet television programming, ESPN3's sport streaming and in-flight television service on Southwest Airlines. – via CelebrityAccess