Major League Baseball fired up again yesterday (with a nice win for the Reds 😀 ), accompanied by a couple of streaming audio announcements. MobiTV says its audio broadcasts of MLB games are now available on US carrier Cingular — for $10 a month plus data charges (with the $25 per month unlimited plan “recommended”). And startup MSpot has launched 13 live and on-demand audio channels for two Sprint PCS handsets for $6 a month.
Sprint reportedly had a lot of success attract subscribers with MobiTV’s baseball offering last year, as it was one of the few ways fans outside team’s home markets could get live coverage of their team. But the pricing was significantly different: Sprint’s data costs as little as $15 per month unlimited, with one package including a $10 monthly credit for premium content. $35 per month to listen to baseball on Cingular is pretty steep.
But this type of niche market is where non-interactive, plain-vanilla streaming audio can succeed — if the pricing is right.
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