Major League Baseball Trades RealPlayer

By Geoff Duncan April 7, 2006

Major League Baseball has dropped support for RealNetworks‘ RealPlayer streaming media software on its MLB.com site, opting instead to present streaming audio and video in Microsoft Windows Media format.

The move isn’t entirely unexpected: the relationship between MLB and RealNetworks got started in 2002 when MLB picked RealPlayer to stream live baseball games and other video via the Internet. However, things quickly degenerated, resulting in RealNetworks suing MLB in 2004, claiming the baseball monopoly had violated an agreement to only use its partners’ technology for streaming media and was showing favoritism towards Microsoft’s streaming media technologies. The suit was settled in 2004 for an undisclosed amount.

RealNetworks has recently been focussing on becoming a media provider in its own right

Geoff Duncan

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Smart Home

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