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Real Sues Baseball Over Windows Media
westlake writes 'According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, RealNetworks has sued Major League Baseball over its use of Windows Media. The dispute began with MLB's decision to stream exhibition games in WMA format only, under its revised contract, Real claims all live MLB streams must include RealMedia as an option. The piece states: 'Windows Media Player controlled about 34 percent of the U.S. market, compared with nearly 19 percent for RealOne player and 10 percent for QuickTime player, according to January data from Nielsen/NetRatings.'"
I don't use RealPlayer at all. If for some reason a website offers only RealPlayer videos I just do without. not a big deal for me. much more annoying, as you say, to remove the tentacles of Real after you've installed their "free" player.
-sweatyb
Since real has licensed QT codecs I wonder how they figured out who has what penetration? They must be looking at what people are using to view/listen to the media as opposed to actual installed user base.
Bad Panda! No Bamboo for you! In matters of importance ACs will not be responded to. Want to say something critical,OK
I think slashdot users should take note due to platform selection. I have paid for the mlb broadcasts the last two years since I could listen to the Redsox in Baltimore at home and work. Now, with windows media being the only stream being offered, I will not be able to listen to the broadcasts as windows media player doesn't support either my linux machines (or solaris the other OS I use). So MLB take note, I probably won't renew this year if media player is all you offer.
Even better, Real is desperate to hold on to this contract, since apparently the old contract (which granted exclusivity to Real) was costing them more than it brought in. Maybe they'll finally create a profitable business model? Hey there's a good one, Real posts a profit while streaming a Red Sox World Series victory...
Depends on whose definition of season is used. What does the contract actually say? Specific dates, or just "the entire season"?
Evidently, Real believes that includes spring training. MLB seems to have a different idea.
Personally, I think the season begins at opening day, and ends on the last game of the regular season. The post-season start just after that.
But then I don't watch/follow baseball, and I'd never bother to try to watch a game on TV, much less on the PC. Having it in Real format would make me enjoy it even less.
Shame on Real for not being more specific.
"RealNetworks has become increasingly willing to use litigation to defend its position in online media, after a sustained attack from Microsoft in the market"
National Public Radio's Cartalk website dropped RealNetwork recently for related tactics.
If I were a potential customer, I might think twice about signing up with them in the future.
Could be time to do a short sale, although these things can take a while to come to fruition.
RNWK's CEO may be emulating Daryl.
Litigation can be a viable business model, but when you sleep with the Devil, you'll probably get screwed.
As I pointed out in a blog entry today, Real's chairman and CEO (and founder) is also a minority owner of The Seattle Mariners. Thus, by Real suing MLB, Glaser is -- in part -- suing himself. Why are no reporters covering this aspect?
Freelance tech journalist for the Economist, MIT Technology Review, Macworld, and others
I have to disagree. Often, those who dislike baseball simply do not know enough about it. I, for one, would be quite dismayed if MLB were to disappear. For example, as a resident of the Boston area, it is virtually impossible for me not to be a Red Sox fan; half the fun is knowing that if (when!) we win the World Series, New England will shut down for months in celebration. (Then Hell freezes over and pigs start flying...)
On another note, baseball is one of the more computer-friendly sports in that watching the action is almost unnecessary. I would suspect that live webcasts of the game are not nearly as popular as updated-every-30-seconds box scores are. E.g., I would never waste my time and energy trying to stream a game in Windows Media Player, let alone Real Player. Instead, when I can't watch the game I use a little Java app from Yahoo Sports that shows the complete box score, the batter and count, and situation stats at all times. With this much information, what use is a crappy-quality stream?
Of course, we all know that MLB controls the Guvmint's secret spy satellites anyway, so its no use for Real to fight them...
"Baseball season" is not a commonly used term at all. "Regular season" is the term you use when you want to describe period that excludes "preseason" and "postseason" games.
Yes, the "pre-" and "post-" prefixes usually imply that it it's a time period outside of the usual unmodified use of the word... but in terms of sports seasons this may be questionable.
The word "entire" or "regular" would have made this contract nice and clear. Since it isn't clear, that's why they go to court...
Actually, this is bad for Real. Audiences will be able to bring up two identical streams side-by-side on the computers. They will see that Windows Media looks a lot better. Oops.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Next thing you know, they'll be suing Click and Clack from CarTalk. They recently dumped Real in favor of Windows Media because of the difficulty in getting the real "Free" Real player, and then all of the pop-ups it had. WMP was just easier and less painful to their customers and their mailbox.
Sometimes MS does get it right, at least a little bit.
No Not Again! Its whats for dinner.
<are you sitting down?>
Well, OK, maybe not right out of the box. But at least you don't have to resort to modifying registry entries, deleting executable helper apps, or deciphering ambiguously-worded menu items to make it behave.
Even better, a senior RealNetworks engineer has taken the time to provide a step-by-step guide detailing how to turn of all the annoying RealOne features!
Ya know, I don't understand why any of this even has to come to a contract. I'll admit I didn't RTFA. Perhaps I'm naive (and I probably am), but can I not download (perhaps purchase) the server/streaming software from MS/Real/Apple, install it, and broadcast whatever the hell I want, without paying royalties to any of those companies? I must admit, I'm primarily a Mac user, so if a site is shortsighted enough to only provide their content in MS or Real formats, I just do without. I know MS has a player for Mac, but whatever. If I was the MLB comissioner, I'd want my games available to as many people as possible, therefore I'd stream in all three formats. I'm not sure where their priorities are at.
Media Player = evil corporate monopolistic empire
Real = Bad popups, bad software, bad website, bad people
QT = not available for unix (OS X doesn't count)
I'm not sure why Apple doesn't make QT player available as a freeBSD port and have a version for linux folk. It's a tragedy that Real is the only format available to unix users, even tho it sucks. Real was good back when it was RealAudio. it went to shite after that.
I'll stick to quicktime player for now.
While everyone is sitting here dumping on the quality of the Real player, has anyone actually bothered watching the MLB.TV broadcasts and comparing the two? I have, and the quality of the Windows Media format is horrible compared to the Real format.
WMP (and also running it in mplayer and vlc) drops tons of frames on most of my computers (the only one that doesn't is my Athlon XP 2500+). But viewing full screen is like putting on the glasses of someone with really bad eyesight when you don't need glasses.
Real on the other hand at least doesn't drop frames and full screen is bearable if you sit 5 feet away from your screen. (Even on a 4 year old 400mhz G3 PowerBook).
I do wish that they'd just go with some free mpeg4 based codec or at least any mpeg4 based codec so you could have the option of viewing it in any player on most any platform.
who has the other 37% of the streaming video market ?
I'd guess standard MPEG video. Not even MPEG-2, just plain old MPEG-1, like on a VideoCD.
If you check out pr0n sites, standard MPEG-1 is a very common format for pr0n video download. Uh, not that I would know... I heard it... somewhere... um, gotta go now.
Considering 34%+19%+10%=63%, who controls the other 37%? And mind you that unacounted for percentage is larger than the Windows Media Player share.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
It's just ungraceful and inefficient. Oh wait, I already said microsoft.
Yes, you need a format. Some might suggest OGG, or mp3, but AIFF would work just fine.
From the source, the sound leaves ONCE!
If I listen to it, my little request packet heads towards the source. The routers along the way get the notification that I want to listen to M'Cast address xxx on port P. I get to the source as the first person. There is now a "stream" running to my machine.
If my neighbor decides to listen, her packets go upstream and hit the router we share. DONE, that router gets 1 stream in and sends it to both of our machines. (where right now with stupid cast, it gets 2 in and sends one to each machine). 50,000 people on comcast listening? Fine, the comcast cloud gets 1 feed in and sends them through the it's cloud to 50k people. If 20k are in austin and another 30k are in boston, then a stream goes to each city ONCE and the local routers send them to all the people.
Grace; elegance.
Neither Real nor MS would know crap about that, eh?
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* STD was, in fact, the FIRST BAND EVER to be played on the Internet's MBONE when they were playing at a picnic at PARC(?) at Van Jacobsen was just looking for something to blast out nearby. Google found me this. I'd hate to actually work to find this stuff...
From what I have read, Click and Clack Tappit have not signed any contracts with Real. If they had, they would be smart enough to know they are obligated to adhere to it.
But, it turns out they are smart enough to not sign a contract to begin with. Real has NOTHING on these guys.
MLB on the other hand was greedy enough to sign. Of course, this is under the assumption Real payed them to be included... uh... I can't see it any other way because Real really sucks.