Will Leitch has an article in Fast Company this month regarding MLB Advanced Media and their aggressive foray into videocasting on the web.

Major League Baseball is expected to haul in around $5.8 billion, just short of the NFL’s $6.3 billion. Its biggest growth engine is MLBAM, which last year brought in $450 million (up from $236 million in 2005). Continuing at its current pace, MLB should catch up with the NFL around 2010. “The growth has exceeded our wildest expectations,” says MLB president Bob DuPuy. “No one in the game believed that the Internet would be as pervasive a commercial vehicle for us in such a short amount of time.”

In a typical day during the season, as many as 11 million people visit MLB.com. Three million watch video.

Baseball content on the web, specifically video, is big business and MLBAM is at the forefront of delivering content web viewers are flocking to in droves.

While it still has a way to go, and is buggy at times, the sheer number of viewers and the ability to deliver the content on a massive scale is pretty impressive. I’ve had my problems but generally it is a good service. It’s also nice to see that baseball is driving the innovation of this medium.

Hat tip to Peter at Brooklyn Mutt for the link.