Lessons the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau and Media Industry Could Learn from Baseball

As a baseball fan, I'm fascinated by how quickly the institution of Major League Baseball, team owners, players, agents and others are embracing a revolutionary technology-based system that will digitally record, track and analyze "the exact speed and location of the ball and every player on the field, allowing the most digitized of sports to be overrun anew by hundreds of innovative statistics that will rate players more accurately, almost certainly affect their compensation and perhaps alter how the game itself is played." I cannot help but compare MLB's embrace of technological advances to the quagmire the media industry finds itself in today, enmeshed in internecine warfare and struggling to hold onto the past even as billions of dollars invested in technological advances offer clear and obvious growth opportunities. In this week's commentary (available exclusively to Jack MyersMedia Business Report corporate subscribers) I comment on the recent letter sent to advertisers by the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau and the industry's stall in advancing breakthrough technology-based innovation.

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Jack Myersis a media economist and consults with media companies, agencies and marketers. He can be reached atjm@jackmyers.com.