MSN Announces Fan Club: Reality Baseball

MSN Originals has announced its first title: Fan Club: Reality Baseball, letting users manage a real-life minor league baseball team.

MSN has teamed up with LA production company LivePlanet to create Fan Club: Reality Baseball, a new unscripted reality program for the new MSN Originals initiative.

MSN announced the MSN Originals idea back in May 2006, with the idea that MSN would produce original video programming for the Internet, with advertisers integrated into the productions from the very beginning.

Described as “Bull Durham meets fantasy sports,” the first MSN Original title, Fan Club: Reality Baseball gives fans control of a real minor league baseball team, the Chicago-area Schaumburg Flyers: MSN users will have the capability to manage the team on a daily basis, using online voting to determine thing like batting lineups, pitching roster, and fielding positions. Viewers will also be able to follow the stories of Flyers players, coaches, and staff, as well as wives, girlfriends, and personalities both on and off the playing field.

“We’re going to hit one out of the park with Fan Club: Reality Baseball,” said Joe Michaels, director of business development for MSN. “We were a bit stunned at first that a professional baseball team would allow our audience to manage it, but we quickly realized that Fan Club is a fabulous programming concept which is perfect for the Web. We’re thrilled to be working with LivePlanet because they are great storytellers who can deliver the drama and excitement behind the scenes of this professional sports team. Fan Club is a great example of what we’re doing with MSN Originals: providing our audience with new and engaging entertainment experiences and opening up significant opportunities for advertisers.”

Fan Club: Reality Baseball is scheduled to go live in July 11, 2006, at http://fanclub.msn.com/, in time for MSN users to manage the team through the second half of its 2006 season.