Major League Baseball Advanced Media will be able to complete its hat-trick of online sports video offerings in a new deal with ESPN. MLB.TV and March Madness On Demand are two of the finest live video offerings on the internet and will now be joined by the 3500 live events streamed by ESPN. The new site will called ESPN3.com, which will be a rebranding of the current ESPN360.com offering. Apparently, technology was a key factor in the decision to use MLBAM, as the previous version of ESPN360 required users to download Microsoft Silverlight.

ESPN360.com became one of my favorite sites this past season as I was able to watch numerous USC Trojan football games online. Since ESPN/ABC has a contract for PAC-10 and Big Ten football games, this meant that the out of market college football games were frequently available on ESPN360.com. It is a great product and definitely will be a part of sports viewing in the future.

For MLBAM, this is a major score. MLBAM, which is separately co-owned by the 30 MLB owners and MLB, has been expanding its product offerings and customer base over the last few years. All the while, raking in cash for its stakeholders, who have already received a more than ample return on their initial investment. In 2007, an initial public offering (IPO) of MLBAM stock had the company’s rumored valued at $5B. One can barely fathom what that offering would be now that MLBAM has cemented itself as a leading digital sports company (and many would argue the best).

Also, how is this for irony? The media is going to a professional league for distribution of its offerings. This offering further blurs the line between sports and the media.

via Broadcast Engineering