This article was originally published on PaidContent.org on November 17, 2003.
Kim Cieslach (EA Sports), John Olshan (MLB Players Association) and John Rodman (X-Box) took the stage as panelists in this afternoon session at the Sports Media & Technology conference in New York City.
Cieslach noted that young men are leaving TV in droves and going to online video games. Olshan agreed: “They’re not watching Friends, they’re playing online games.”
Rodman noted that this audience is drawn to the competition, button mashing and escapism that online gaming offers.
An interesting point was raised that non-interruptive advertisements can be built into the real time play of online sports video games (for example: signage in the stadium within the game).
Cieslach said that the industry is in an experimentation phase, mentioning P2P wagering on games, subscription models and micropayments as examples.
In my next report, I’ll cover “NFL and the Online Subscription Revenue Model”.
