On the eve of its annual All-Star game, Major League Baseball has announced actober.com, a new video archive web site that will give fans around the world access to the largest archive of MLB footage.
Actober.com will let fans make their own video montages of their favorite moments in baseball post-season history. The best videos will be chosen from submittals with the winner getting tickets to the 2007 World Series.
Most North American professional sports leagues “protect” their content with an iron fist. It is a pleasant surprise to see MLB make video footage available for fans to edit and mash together. MLB already has a strong web presence with MLB.TV, which streams every game over the internet.
Hopefully this will be a trend among sports leagues as they turn to the internet to reach their fan base. Television ratings for baseball have been on the decline in the U.S. Actober.com will be heavily advertised by Fox and TBS, with celebrities making their own video compilations.
