Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Big Brother is Watching

Major League Baseball has signed a double-plus good deal with a company called Medialink to track exactly what you're watching and when:

The deal with Teletrax provides a service that digitally watermarks broadcasts, allowing the U.S. sports league to track who is watching what portion of any game, for how long and what they are viewing. It can also detail which sponsor logos are captured in the background of shots showing players celebrating game-winning home runs . . .

. . . At this year's All-Star Game, using the Teletrax technology, baseball could see that Seattle outfielder Ichiro Suzuki's inside-the-park home run -- the game's first ever -- was the most popular TV clip, Scott said. As he rounded the bases and celebrated with teammates, the clip included a Bank of America insignia, something the league could tout with the bank. In the future, such detailed feedback could be used to improve the money baseball can derive from its sponsorship deals.

More ads! Awsome!

3 comments:

Ethan said...

Has it bothered you that it is only now that someone came along and appreciated your oh-so-subtle Big Brother reference with NewSpeak?

Pneumatic!

Ron Rollins said...

Well, actually, I noticed it when I read the entry about 30 minutes after it was posted. Just didn't realize it was noteworthy. Shouldn't everybody understand the reference?

Craig Calcaterra said...

64 -- methinks ethan was being a bit sarcastic, not to mention offering a subtle critique of my use of exceedingly obvious references. But since I've known him for sixteen years I'll let it slide.

To not chuckle at such comments constitutes facecrime.