Sports Media Report
Baseball fans consume games in a variety of ways as they follow their favorite teams and player throughout a season, including across multiple digital platforms built and operated by Major League Baseball (MLB). Those unique digital touchpoint experiences will benefit from a new technology partnership announced today between Flexential, a leading provider of data centers and hybrid IT solutions, and MLB. This summer Flexential will be bringing a new state-of-the-art infrastructure online to effectively support and scale MLB’s requirements for servicing its digital product platforms.
“We always strive to deliver our fans uninterrupted, high-quality access to MLB content at every step of their consumption experiences,” said Truman Boyes, MLB Senior Vice President, Infrastructure. “To meet these expectations requires a data management system with highly reliable, scalable and proximity-based data centers. Flexential was able to respond to our needs in record time with an environmentally-responsible infrastructure to support us as we serve our Clubs and their fans.”
Flexential’s Denver–Englewood data center will complement the league’s east coast presence by providing a secure central location that reduces the latency by more than half, while serving the connectivity and resiliency requirements for MLB. Being closer to the user enhances real-time performance, provides higher availability, and better overall customer experience. This makes it possible for MLB to serve the needs of its 30 Clubs across the country, and end users throughout the U.S., creating solutions at the Edge—right where customers want access to data.
The Flexential Denver-Englewood site also has an industry-leading Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating and uses power from Xcel Energy that is 28 percent solar or wind generated. MLB wanted to partner with an organization that understands sustainability and focuses on using both renewable energy and green products whenever possible.
Flexential’s site also provides MLB easy access to their cloud partners by offering a choice of cloud access solutions at speeds from 100Mb to 100Gb. With Flexential’s national 100Gb, highly reliable and scalable backbone, these services are easy to provision and deploy.
“As demand for online sports media continues to increase, our data center sites throughout the country are fully equipped to provide the reliability, connectivity, and comprehensive service package needed to support this growing online media platform,” said Chris Downie, Flexential CEO. “With the number of active internet-connected devices expected to grow to 20 billion by next year, the soaring bandwidth and network demands will also explode. MLB’s example of taking the connectivity to the Edge is proof you can overcome those obstacles to provide the seamless user experience every baseball fan wants.”
Online viewing of sports on mobile devices is growing, with a recent Google study indicating 80 percent of sports fans say they use a computer or smartphone while watching live sports on TV to search for player stats or scores, and 30 percent of fans live stream sporting events to their smartphones or tablets.
“As a millennial baseball fan, I want to be connected to the game at all times. In fact, advancements in technology allow me to live stream games, check fantasy scores, keep tabs on divisional races, and watch and share highlights on social, all in the palm of my hand. I feel like part of the game at any time and any place,” said 26-year-old Christian Schneider, Rockies fan and former collegiate and professional pitcher from Parker, CO.
