March 27, 2007
Bluster
The Senate holds hearings on the DirecTV deal today, but it looks like there's not much they can do about it:
Sixty million consumers would lose access to baseball's television package of out-of-market games if the sport is allowed to strike an exclusive deal with DirecTV, according to Sen. John Kerry.
A day ahead of a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing, the Massachusetts Democrat said the deal probably was legal but might not be good for fans.
"When you've got 75 million people who currently have the option of doing something and you reduce it to 15 million, you've got to ask are the terms of this deal fair and does it work for the fan and for the sport itself?" he said during a conference call Monday.
Kerry, of course, is exaggerating the numbers. There are more EI subscribers in the 15 million DirecTV customers than in the 60 million customers of other services. My feeling here is that the negotiations will go down to the last minute, and it all comes down to how many subscribers cable is willing to lose to DirecTV.
Posted by David Pinto at
08:19 AM
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