The Walt Disney Co. has paid Major League Baseball $900 million to purchase the remaining 15% stake in the erstwhile BAMTech, which is now branded "Disney Streaming" and technologically underpins Disney's direct-to-consumer platforms. 

Disney was a client-turned-investor for MLB’s acclaimed tech shop starting in 2015. And in 2017, the conglomerate paid $1.58 billion to acquire an additional 42% of the company and up its share to 75%.

Last year, Disney paid the National Hockey League $350 million, and it now owns 100% of the asset. 

BAMTech's origins stem back to 2000, when Major League Baseball became a pioneer in learning how to not only stream video simultaneously to thousands of fans, but also do it live. 

The $900 million will reportedly be divided up between MLB's 30 teams. ■

BAMTech Media, the technology services and video streaming operation spun out of MLBAM, quietly launched a corporate web site last week as the company pushes toward a bigger deal with The Walt Disney Company that will center on an array of new direct-to-consumer OTT offerings.

BamTECH also has its own logo, as well as presences on a set of social media channels – Twitter (@bamtechmedia), Facebook and LinkedIn.

Dan Rayburn, EVP of StreamingMedia.com and a principal analyst at Frost & Sullivan, caught wind of the web site launch last week:

BAMTECH Media launches their new website: https://t.co/WRxIyDZYh9  Disney deal still working through closing. pic.twitter.com/SrQwmLVzbH

— Dan Rayburn (@DanRayburn) September 21, 2017

The presence on the web comes as Disney looks to pay $1.58 billion for an additional 42% stake in BAMTech, following an earlier deal that netted Disney a 33% stake in the OTT specialist, which is now led by CEO Michael Paull.

RELATED: Feds OK Disney’s BAMTech Buy

The BAMTech site offers the typical kind of details and background one would expect, while also listing some stats that speak to the scalability of its platform, noting that in 2016 the company streamed 50,000-plus live events and 100,000-plus hours of content. It also touts having the capacity for more than 450 live simultaneous events, underpinned by TOCs in New York, San Francisco and Amsterdam and datacenters on six continents.

And BAMTech is looking to grow rapidly, based on its dozens of open positions, including several broadcast infrastructure engineering slots, director/VP of business development and content acquisition, Android and Apple platforms engineers, director or eSports marketing, VP of growth/user acquisition, Minor League Baseball Cutter (part-time), senior product manager of Ad Tech, and UX/product designer, to name but just a few.

Media and telecom deal volumes and values were up significantly in the third quarter, fueled by a growing belief that lighter regulation and economic benefits will prevail, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report.

Volumes rose 9% to 238 deals in Q3, their highest point in the past two years, compared to Q2 this year, according to PwC's Q3 2017 Deal Insights report. Values topped $31.6 billion, up 76% form the second quarter and fueled by seven megadeals. PwC defines megadeals as transactions above $1 billion in value. Leading that list was Discovery Communications’ pending $11.8 billion purchase (not including debt) of Scripps Networks Interactive.

According to PC, the Advertising and Marketing sector made up for the biggest chunk of volume – about 80 deals. In the Broadcasting sector deal volume rose 50% to 13 deals. The Broadcast and Telecommunications (42 deals) sectors, both hit two-year highs as well.  

“While the shift to digital was all the rage only a couple of years ago, market participants are realizing that a compelling digital platform may only be part of the solution and won’t satisfy sophisticated investors and stakeholders,” PwC wrote. “The ultimate goal: taking that sticky digital platform you’ve built or acquired and maximizing the underlying data to (i) improve customer engagement and (ii) identify direct or tangential service offerings, which can improve the monetization of said user base.”

Rounding out the megadeals were Crown Castle International’s $7.1 billion purchase of Lightower Fiber Networks (Telecom); and two sports franchise deals: Tilman Fertitta’s $2.2 billion acquisition of the NBA’s Houston Rockets and an investor group’s (led by Bruce Sherman and former New York Yankee Derek Jeter) purchase of the MLB Miami Marlins for $1.2 billion (Recreation and Leisure).

In the Internet & Information sector, The Walt Disney Co.’s $1.6 billion purchase of a majority stake in BAMTech led the pack,  while Atlantic Broadband Group’s $1.4 billion purchase of Metrocast Cablevision rounded out the Telecom list.

The Walt Disney Co. said it plans to begin launching Disney and ESPN branded direct to consumer products.

Disney said it acquired a majority ownership in BAMTech LLC to serve as the technology backbone for the new products.

RELATED: Disney Buys One-Third of BAMTech for $1 Billion

The announcements came as the company announced lower profits in its third quarter.

RELATED: Michael Paull Named CEO of BAMTech

Disney said it will pay $1.58 billion to acquire an additional 42% stake in BAMTech, the technology services and video streaming spin-off of MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM).

RELATED: BAMTech CTO: OTT Providers 'Have to Produce Every Day'

The first direct to consumer products will be an ESPN-Branded multi-sport video streaming service that will launch in early 2018. It will be followed by a Disney braded streaming service in 2019.

Read more at B&C.

Pure-play over-the-top video services and authenticated TVE Everywhere offerings share a lot technologies, but they are, at their core, very different animals, especially related to the links between performance and churn mitigation, according to Joe Inzerillo, executive VP and chief technology officer of BAM Tech, the Disney-backed technology services and video streaming spin-off of MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM).

RELATED: Disney Buys One-Third of BAMTech for $1 Billion

Inzerillo, speaking Wednesday at the Streaming Media East conference in New York, said OTT services must be more wary about exposure to churn if the service runs into technical issues.

If a TVE app runs into problems, it’s possible that the customer would cancel the pay TV service it’s attached to, “but it’s probably not super likely,” he said.

By comparison, an OTT service is the product that people are buying. “If you have problems, if you have issues…then it leads to churn immediately,” Inzerillo said. “Churn is one of the most important things…Churn mitigation is really important.”

RELATED: Data a Key Driver for OTT Services, BAM Tech CEO Says

He said that difference also allows TVE services to take more risks with things like advertising or other features that could create a defect in the stream.

“OTT products  tend to be cared for more than TVE products,” he said. “That's not to say there aren’t great TVE products out there...but, I think, in general, [with] OTT you have to produce every day. The friction of un-subscription is very low.”

As for next-gen video quality platforms, Inzerillo believes High Dynamic Range (HDR), with its deeper blacks and color depths, is more important than 4K at this juncture, and that the two must be thought of separately.

“4K is not all that impactful from the customer standpoint to me, relative to HDR,” he said, noting that, with 4K, consumers need a large display, and don’t get much benefit from it when watching on a tablet or a smartphone.

On those smaller screens, “4K doesn’t buy you anything. HDR does immediately…In our minds, better pixels wins.”

As for platforms, about BAMTech is seeing about 25% to 30% of viewing occurring on the web, though TV-connected devices represents the fastest growing segment. “It makes sense; it’s a high quality experience,” Inzerillo said.

Inzerillo was also asked if he is concerned about data caps and other usage-based broadband policies that service providers are employing. He’s not a fan of them.

"Certainly data caps are not good from a content provider standpoint,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a healthy thing for the industry. There are real hurdles out there.”

But those policies have influenced the product, leading to settings, such as resolution and frame rates, that empower the consumer to manage the bandwidth themselves.

Though BAMTech, which counts MLB.tv, PlayStation Vue and HBO Now among its clients, is known as a leader in linear, live OTT streaming, VOD is also a key part of the business.

“You have to get very good at both,” Inzerillo said, but acknowledged that “our DNA has been wired for live.”

Joe Inzerillo, executive vice president and CTO for BAMTech and a special advisor to Major League Baseball, has joined the board of Qwilt, a company that specializes in open caching systems for over-the-top and IP video apps and services.

BAMTech is the recently formed, Disney-backed technology services and video streaming spin-off of MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM).

RELATED: Disney Buys One-Third of BAMTech for $1 Billion

Qwilt and MLBAM are founding members of the Streaming Video Alliance, a group that focuses on standards and best practices for online video. The SVA formed in the fall of 2014, and counts Comcast and Liberty Global among its members.

RELATED: Perchance to Stream (subscription required)

As an SVA member, Qwilt is also involved in a new open caching architecture that’s designed to drive more quality and scale into live and on-demand streaming.

RELATED: Charter, Verizon Among Group to Trial New ‘Open Caching’ Architecture

“Streaming video continues to grow and has become an unstoppable force of nature,” Inzerillo said, in a statement. “ Alon [Maor, Qwilt’s CEO] and I share a common vision to define and enable the new architecture for streaming which relies more on the reach, scale and quality of Internet service provider network infrastructure for content and application delivery. This new architecture, the Edge Cloud in service provider networks, is essential to the long-term scaling of content and application delivery.”

Michael Paull, the industry vet who most recently ran the Amazon Channels SVOD business, has been named CEO of BAMTech, the Disney-backed technology services and video streaming spin-off of MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM).

RELATED: Disney Buys One-Third of BAMTech for $1 Billion

Paull, who will start in March and report to the BAMTech board of directors, will set the vision for the venture and lead “its transformation into an independent company driving sustainable high growth,” the company noted.

BAMTech said it OTT platform currently serves 7.5 million global paid subs via a roster of partners that includes HBO Now, the NHL, MLB, the PGA Tour, WWE Network, Riot Games/League of Legends, and Ice Network. Discovery and BAMTech have also jointly formed BAMTech Europe.

The appointment of Paull comes amid a CEO search at BAMTech that got underway late last year after MLBAM confirmed that Bob Bowman would step back his day-to-day running of BAMTech as he returned full time to his position as president of business media at Major League Baseball, where he oversees MLBAM, MLB Network, and the league’s sponsorship and consumer product businesses.

RELATED: Search for BAMTech CEO Underway

Paull, who will be relocating to New York, most recently was vice president, digital video at Amazon. Of recent note, he spearheaded Amazon Channels, an SVOD aggregation service for Amazon Prime that offers about 100 services from partners that include HBO, Showtime and Starz. Paull has also held exec slots at Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Fox Entertainment Group and Time Warner. He holds a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School and also received his BS from the University of California, Riverside.

RELATED: SVOD Surge (subscription required)

“Michael is a talented and accomplished executive who shares our collective vision for BAMTech as it aggressively explores new means to acquire and distribute video content,” said Robert D. Manfred, Jr., commissioner of Baseball. “We are confident Michael will deliver on the incredible potential and promise this venture has for building powerful viewing experiences for its clients and their customers.”

The team at BAMTech has created a best in class Over-The-Top video streaming platform allowing them to develop innovative solutions for their customers,” Paull added. “I am grateful to have the opportunity to work with this highly accomplished team and want to thank Major League Baseball and The Walt Disney Company for this exciting opportunity.”

The search for a CEO of BAMTech, the Disney-backed technology services and video streaming spin-off of MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM), is underway.

An MLBAM official confirmed a report from Bloomberg that Bob Bowman will step back his day-to-day running of BAMTech as he returns full time to his position as president of business and media at Major League Baseball, where he oversees MLBAM, MLB Network, and the league’s sponsorship and consumer product businesses. Bloomberg said Bowman will remain on the BAMTech board.

The official added that it’s always been part of the plan for BAMTech, a $3.5 billion company, to have its own dedicated CEO and management team.

RELATED: HBO 'Very Happy' with BAMTech Partnership 

MLBAM also confirmed that it has retained search firm Egon Zehnder lead the pursuit of a new CEO. MLBAM is overseeing the process with help from The Walt Disney company, which recently inked a deal to acquire 33% of BAMTech, with an option to acquire a majority stake in the coming years.

RELATED: Discovery Forms Venture With BAMTech in Europe

After taking it on the chin regarding subscriber declines at its flagship ESPN sports network, The Walt Disney Co. says new deals and technologies will help drive growth in a segment that hasn’t had it for years.

“We have taken a more bullish position on the future of ESPN’s sub base,” Iger said. “We think that while we were candid a year ago on sub losses, we believe that to some extent the causes of those losses have abated, notably the migration into smaller packages. But we also believe that new entrants to the marketplace, particularly digital MVPDs are going to offer ESPN opportunities that they haven’t had before to reach more people. We think those offerings, because of their pricing, the user interface, their mobile friendly nature, are likely to cause more millennials to either stay in the multichannel ecosystem as subscribers or to enter it when they might not have in the past.”

Disney first admitted it tasted subscriber losses in the summer of 2015, when it said basic subscribers of its ESPN channel had declined by about 3 million in the prior 12 months. That news sent its stock and those of fellow cable programmers into a tailspin from which the sector still hasn’t fully recovered.

And on Oct. 28, Nielsen drove another nail in to Disney’s subscriber coffin, announcing November estimates for ESPN that were down by 621,000 subscribers, double its previous estimates and a new record for the company.

Disney disputed the Nielsen results at the time they were released and still does. Nielsen has said it stands behind the numbers.  Iger said Disney refuted the Nielsen numbers because it had received lower loss estimates from reliable third parties and that Nielsen does not count digital subscribers, a growing segment that Disney believes should be included in the mix.

“We’re realistic about what we’ve seen with recent subscriber trends,” Iger said. "We think the long-term prospects for ESPN are good.”

Disney also has the ability to go direct-to-consumer – it will offer an ESPN direct-to-consumer offering in early 2017 – and its recent investment in MLB BAMTech will only improve that.

Disney plans to launch a direct-to-consumer ESPN product fueled by MLB BAM technology early in 2017.

Iger also hinted that Disney is interested in getting into the acquisitions game, but stopped short of naming any targets. Disney had been rumored to be in the hunt for social media pioneer Twitter a few months ago,  and speculation about a Netflix-Disney pairing has been rampant for years. Earlier today, deal legend Liberty Media chairman John Malone speculated that Disney could spin-off ESPN as a separate company to make itself more attractive to a suitor like Apple. 

Iger again wouldn’t name names, but said that any purchases would have to be centered on improving the customer experience, along the lines of its recent investment in MLB BamTech.

“We think there are some really interesting opportunities, given what’s going on from a technological perspective, to improve our business and to improve the consumer experience by selling directly to consumer,” Iger said. “We are considering and exploring various ways to accomplish this. We think it is something that is important for us to do.”

Iger also commented on recent ratings declines for National Football League games, adding that several factors have contributed to the decline, including the World Series, the Presidential debates and less than compelling matchups.

“It’s a little too soon to jump to conclusions,” Iger said. “We’re being patient about it. We’re going to look at the trend lines and continue to watch it. It’s far too early for us to suggest that we’re concerned. It’s still the highest rated sports programming that’s out there and we’re think we’re lucky to have it licensed on a long-term basis.”     

The National Hockey League will skate into the 2016-17 regular season with an enhanced live game digital streaming offering powered through its partnership with BAMTech, the league said Wednesday.

Leading its digital charge is the league’s NHL.TV service, offering every out-of-market game to hockey fans on various streaming platforms. The $139.96 package will be available for the first time on new generation Apple Tv’s  as well as Xbox One, complimenting the package’s availability on Android and iOS devices, Chromecast, Roku and SonyPlaystation devices, said the league.

NHL.TV, which is also offering a single team package for $24.99, will also feature the opportunity for fans to view either the home or away play-by-play broadcast of most games, DVR controls to rewind an pause live action, and a mosaic feature allowing subscribers to access up to four live games at one time, said the league.

In addition, subscribers paying a yearly fee of $19.99 for the NHL App can watch two minutes of action in every regulation period live with no blackout restrictions as well as the final minutes of any out-of-market game including overtime and shootouts, said league officials.

The league also plans to stream via Twitter a live game weekly as part of a deal with with the social media company announced this past summer. 

BAMTech, the technology arm of MLB Advanced Media, has acquired an equity stake in Silver Chalice Ventures (SCV) under a broader digital media rights and tech deal.

Financial terms of the deal, announced Monday, were not disclosed, but BAMTech’s infrastructure will underpin the distribution of the ACC Digital Network and Campus Insiders and their 3,000-plus live events. Campus Insiders and ACC Digital Network are also transitioning to BAMTech’s streaming platform.

BAMTech’s equity stake in SCV, a sports media company and affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, comes on the heels of Disney’s recent $1 billion acquisition of 33% of BAMTech, with an option to buy a majority stake in the coming years.  

“BAMTech has established itself as a global leader in distributing live and video on demand content across every platform. Having BAMTech as both an equity and technology partner creates innumerable new opportunities to explore and leverage rights in the ever-changing media landscape,” Brooks Boyer, CEO of SCV, said in a statement.

Campus Insiders and the ACC Digital Network distribute live games and on-demand fare via partners that include Verizon's go90, Sling TV, Twitter, MSN.com, Yahoo, YouTube and USA Today Sports, among others. 

The Walt Disney Co. reported revenue of $14.28 billion in its fiscal third quarter, ended July 2, paced by a 40% jump in studio revenue on continued strength in family animation (Finding Dory, Zootopia) and live-action hits (Captain America: Civil War). Operating income gained 8% to $4.46 billion.

The company also announced a groundbreaking plan for taking its ESPN crown jewel over-the-top via a $1 billion investment in BAMtech, the video streaming unit of Major League Baseball.

Without the deal, cable and broadcast networks held steady and the company did not report any further signs of subscriber erosion or alarming indications of the networks' health. Revenue in the networks unit inched up 2% to $5.9 billion, while operating income was flat at $2.37 billion.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.