Sports Business Daily announced the results of their third annual reader survey yesterday with some interesting stats.

The most surprising to me: nearly 80% of respondents think YouTube and Google are good for sports properties and networks.

YouTube: Friend or foe for networks and sports properties:
Friend: 79.9%
Foe: 20.1%
Responses 2,071

Digital partner you’d most like to have:
YouTube/Google 52.0%
Facebook 11.2%
MLB Advanced Media 10.8%
Yahoo! 10.6%
Myspace/Fox Interactive Media 9.6%
Responses 2,046

Contrast the YouTube finding with the fact that the top two league websites in the survey, MLB.com and NFL.com have arguably been the most restrictive of their online content.

League/property with the best overall digital strategy:
MLB 34%
NFL 20.4.%
NBA 7.8%
NASCAR 7.4%
NHL 6.9%
Responses 1,973

Favorite league web site:
MLB.com 32.1%
NFL.com 23.4%
NBA.com 8.4%
NHL.com 8.3%
MLSnet.com 6.7%
NASCAR.com 6.2%
PGATour.com 5.8%
Responses 2,060

By keeping the majority of online video on their sites and syndicating it to a very select list of partners MLB and the NFL have been recognized as the leagues with far and away the best digital strategies.

Sports executives clearly see value in increased consumer engagement through video sharing and social networks. The question remains how to effectively increase audience interaction without sacrificing too much control over valuable content.