Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
March 21, 2007
Cable Comes to the Table

It looks like Cable TV is meeting the demands of MLB:

IN Demand said Wednesday it will offer to match the terms of DirecTV's $700 million, seven-year deal with Major League Baseball on behalf its owners, who are affiliates of the companies that own Time Warner, Comcast and Cox cable systems.

As part of the offer, iN Demand also said it would carry The Baseball Channel when it launches in 2009 to at least the same number of subscribers who will get the channel on DirecTV.

"As the current home for 'Extra Innings' for more than 200,000 cable subscribers, we have extended ourselves to do our best to be able to continue to provide this package to baseball fans and our customers," iN Demand president Robert Jacobson said. "This offer meets all the conditions set forth by MLB last week. "

I'm not sure the Baseball Channel provision is exactly what MLB wanted. We'll see if it's a deal breaker. But this is good news for cable subscribers to EI.

Update: I'm really wondering what made iN Demand change its mind. Was it the flurry of calls from customers who want the package? Was it a number of customers actually switching to DirecTV? If this deal works, I have to say MLB did a great job of negotiating. They found someone who was willing to pay a high price for the broadcast rights, and now have another willing to pay what the market will bear. I would guess the Baseball Channel should be a relatively small barrier, especially if the deal keeps Congress out of their hair.


Posted by David Pinto at 01:19 PM | Broadcasts | TrackBack (0)
Comments

best. birthday present. ever.

Posted by: Morisseau at March 21, 2007 01:36 PM

That would be the best day-after-my-birthday present ever! :)

Posted by: Kent at March 21, 2007 03:12 PM

I had my DirecTV installed this morning. Just my luck...

Posted by: TwinsDude at March 21, 2007 03:19 PM

Actually, MLB's Bob DuPuy says no: "In spite of [INDEMAND's] public comments, the response falls short of nearly all of the material conditions (among them requirements for carriage of The Baseball Channel and their share of the rights fees for Extra Innings) set forth in the Major League Baseball offer made to them on March 9."
Source: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2806948

Posted by: TwinsDude at March 21, 2007 03:27 PM

More PR spin. iN Demand announces they have agreed to the deal without confirming it with MLB? Poor form.

I was an Extra Inning subscriber via Time Warner. I'm upset but I certainly don't fault MLB for marketing their product and attempting to generate revenue how they see fit. I moved to mlb.tv and have been very happy with the product thus far.

We have many alternatives to follow our out-of-market teams and they are reasonably priced.

Posted by: Lank at March 21, 2007 03:41 PM
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