Atlanta Braves BamTech Windfall More of a Dust Devil

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SunTrust Park June 13, 2016. Courtesy of AtlantaBraves.com /

Atlanta Braves BamTech Windfall More of a Dust Devil

The sale of BamTech will provide a large chunk of cash to MLB and the Atlanta Braves will get their share but it’s not a game changer or payroll booster.

BAM What?

In 2000 MLB created MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM) as a vehicle to make in-depth coverage of baseball available direct to the consumer. BAMTech started as a subdivision out of MLBAM. BAMTech provides the technology that allows MLB Extra Innings and MLB.TV to add all those bells and whistles to viewers on TV, via the Internet and on their phones.

According to the press release, “. . . Its video platform back-end technology provides flexibility to personalize and enhance content-viewing experiences and is capable of serving live content to tens of millions of consumers around the world. BAMTech’s growing roster of sports, news and entertainment clients includes HBO NOW, the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, the PGA TOUR, WWE Network and Ice Network (the leading digital platform for professional figure” (No I didn’t cut “skating” off of the quote, ESPN the magazine online did. I just copied verbatim the release. Complain to them.)

Essentially MLB developed some really good stuff and expanded it in order to make money off of all the other sports. On August 9 MLB announced the sale of 33% of BAMTech to The Walt Disney Company.

Why The Spinoff?

Disney owns ABC and ESPN and they look to use BAMTech’s as “. . .a key partner for Disney in the delivery and support of streaming video and other digital products from Disney|ABC Television Group and ESPN, as well as future digital initiatives. . . BAMTech will also collaborate with ESPN to launch and distribute a new ESPN-branded multi-sport subscription streaming service in the future. The direct-to-consumer service will feature content provided by both BAMTech and ESPN, and include live regional, national and international sporting events.“

More from Tomahawk Take

So Disney and ESPN want to created a streaming sports network, needed BAMTech’s stuff to do that, Called MLB and said we want in. MLB said sure for one billion dollars whereby Disney opened it’s checkbook and said deal, here’s $500M on account. The remainder will be paid to MLB in January.

According to Forbes “ The splitting of payment is significant. While details of the amounts for the two installments have not been revealed, the payment in January of 2017 would be discounted to ensure the $1 billion matched today’s dollars. As part of the transaction, BAMTech was separated from MLB’s broader digital business (MLBAM).”

In another article Forbes says that the deal worked for everyone. It provides instant cash for MLB, keeps Disney from trying to develop similar tech without infringing patents and essentially keeps ESPN from being a footnote in history. They were diplomatic in their wording than I.

Next: Where's my money?

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