The YES Network this week plans to relaunch its Web site, with the enhanced online presence influenced significantly by a new three-year agreement with MLB Advanced Media.
While there is no leaguewide agreement yet on live in-market streaming of games — an issue that has been actively debated within baseball for several years — YES’s moves are emblematic of regional sports networks seeking to maximize their online profiles within the current framework.
The new-look yesnetwork.com will feature three video highlights per game, up from two in the prior accord with MLBAM; a new design that resembles MLB.com and the Yankees.com team site; an extensive series of text and video blogs from both network personnel and outside sources such as the River Ave. Blues blog; and greatly expanded social-networking capabilities.
“We want this to be a complement to Yankees.com,” said Michael Spirito, YES vice president of business development and digital media. “We certainly don’t want to duplicate what they’re doing and think we can bring forth a lot more content and value to the fans.”
Despite the anemic advertising market, YES sold several title-sponsor deals for the updated site, including Chevrolet returning for a player-of-the-game segment, and Papa John’s and Avis buying into text-messaging functions supported by YES and MLBAM.
Financial terms of the YES-MLBAM pact were not disclosed, but the deal includes revenue-sharing provisions.
Other new content initiatives for the YES site include a weekly video feature that explores the intersection of sports and entertainment culture, and in-game chats with former YES announcer Jim Kaat.
“The idea is to go way beyond just that [Derek] Jeter went two-for-three last night, and have a full range of experiences,” said Kevin Sullivan, yesnetwork.com managing editor.
This is a good move for YES, and they're not the only RSN that went through an overhaul for the upcoming season. SportsNet New York, NESN, MASN, Fox Sports Net, and Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, have all ramped up their websites over the winter. The article also details some of the changes made by those networks.The image on the right shows the old YES website on the bottom, with the newer version on top. It's a pretty cool new look, and when you combine that with the added content it's definitely a nice improvement for YES.
4 Comments:
Wow, River Ave. Blues is going to be part of the new site. What gives, no love for Sliding into Home? You should be pissed Greg.
LOL, I'm not in their league yet. They run a great blog, I'm happy for them.
Plus I don't think my "Dear YES, You Suck" post helped my cause.
You're right Greg, RAB does do a good job, but so do you. Two different styles, that's why I like going to both sites.
The YES site looks like it's going to be cool. SNY already has done a great job with their site so it's good to see YES catch up.
Thanks Larry.
I like the new YES site too, can't wait to see how it looks when it launches.
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