Newsweek has a good story about Major League Baseball Advanced Media, the digital company of MLB, and how it essentially functions independent of MLB and the teams who each own an equal part of BAM. It also profiles the CEO, Bob Bowman and has some numbers on its revenues and growth:

“Growing at a rate of roughly 30 percent a year, BAM now takes in about $400 million in revenue. Going by its logs, it entertains more than 50 million visitors a month, putting it close to the top 100 sites of any kind. By the end of the season, more than a million subscribers will pay for its media offerings, including video content of all out-of-market games at $99 to $120 a season and audio broadcasts for $20 a season. More than a billion minutes of baseball will flow from its servers...One of the fastest-growing revenue streams is advertising, now bringing in 15 percent of the total. And more than a million wireless subscribers get mobile updates, ringtones and cell-phone wallpaper.”

Then its public stance against Slingbox, and its aggressive stance against video sharing sites, which runs counter to its otherwise digital-savvy existence. Also, for MLB, will the current system--which maintains two business plans, one for online and one for broadcast--hold firm? An interesting conflict could arise, as the story says, when TV sets are directly connected to the Net, and BAM is streaming games in HD.

• MLB Swings At Sling—And Misses
• MLB-DirecTV Deal Could Be Boon For MLBAM Broadband—And Living-Room PC TV