The New York Yankees' YES Network is running text-to-vote campaigns during broadcasts of games featuring the National Basketball Association's New Jersey Nets and Major League Baseball's New York Yankees.

During the latter part of each game, YES issues a call-to-action for fans to text in to vote for the Player of the Game. The results are announced on the air during the post-game show.

"The text-to-vote campaign is an extension of our Player of the Game on-air feature," said Michael Spirito, director of business development and digital media for the YES Network, New York. "We wanted to come up with a wireless function that would let us extend our brand and the brands of our sponsors."

Toyota sponsors the Nets' SMS campaign, while Chevrolet sponsors the Yankees' Player of the Game feature.

"For auto companies it's a natural extension of what they've been doing with us," Mr. Spirito said.

"It's an extension of their brand into an area -- mobile -- where our viewers are increasingly spending more time, and they've been very happy with the results," he said.

The SMS campaigns, as well as the entire YESnetwork.com site, is run by Major League Baseball Advanced Media L.P., the Internet and interactive subsidiary of Major League Baseball. The company also operates the official Web site for the league and 30 Major League Baseball club Web sites via MLB.com.

"It's very natural to work with MLB Advanced Media, and they have a very nice texting platform," Mr. Spirito said.

In the seventh or eighth inning of every Yankees' game broadcast on YES - about 125 per year - a call-to-action appears onscreen listing the four candidates for Player of the Game honors. Viewers are urged to text the numerals 1, 2, 3 or 4 to short code 58772 to vote for their player of choice.

The voting is also promoted at games at Yankee Stadium and Continental Airlines Arena, so fans attending home games can participate in the voting as well.

In response, fans receive a text message thanking them for voting and directing them to visit Chevyoffers.com, a site run by New York tri-state area Chevrolet dealers, or the Toyota Text Time portal.

There is also a page on the YES site sponsored by Chevy that includes a log of all the players who have won the Player of the Game over the course of the season.

"While the number of text messages we receive fluctuates on a game-to-game basis, we are up a meaningful percentage over last year," Mr. Spirito said.

YES also runs the Player of the Game SMS campaign during the 75 regular-season Nets games that it televises, as well as pre-season and playoff games.

YES has formed partnerships with Yahoo, YouTube, video-on-demand site Joost, The New York Times, Amazon CustomFlix and ROO Online Video Network to distribute its content on those sites.

"It's a way to increase awareness of the YES brand and drive traffic to YESnetwork.com," Mr. Spirito said. "We're a regional network, but their reach is global."

The YES Network claims to be the most-watched regional sports network in the country over the past five years. It is available via cable providers throughout New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, and in the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre region of northeastern Pennsylvania. It is also available on DirectTV nationwide.

The YES Network was also the most-watched regional sports network nationwide during the first two broadcast quarters of 2008, from Dec. 31, 2007 to June 30, 2008.

The YES Network's New York Yankees telecasts achieved the highest ratings ever for the first half of a baseball season on a New York-based regional sports network.

YES has partnered with mobile technology company 4Info to provide fans with mobile access to real-time score updates and breaking news for the Yankees, Nets and other pro and college teams and events. Fans can select which type of information they wish to receive, where they want to receive it and how they want to receive it.

"This extends the YES brand into a new media world where we hadn't been before," Mr. Spirito said. "People are more tethered to their cell phones and they desire interactivity.

"This shows that YES is a forward-thinking company," he said. "The Yankees and Nets are taking their brands into an environment where passionate viewers are increasingly spending more time and demanding interactivity."

Text-to-vote for Player of the Game may be the first of a series of mobile marketing campaigns run by the YES Network.

"We're examining ways in which to expand our interactive mobile marketing efforts," Mr. Spirito said. "It's a very fertile platform for us."