Cable gets baseball back

[wildthing2022000]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-tvpackage&prov=ap&type=lgns

NEW YORK (AP) -- After negotiations that went into extra innings, baseball struck a deal to keep its "Extra Innings" package of out-of-market games on cable television.

Under pressure from Sen. John Kerry, baseball and iN Demand reached an agreement in principle Wednesday on a seven-year contract, a deal that likely will allow the sport's new TV network to be available in at least 40 million homes when it launches in 2009.

Baseball announced an exclusive $700 million, seven-year agreement with DirecTV on March 8, but viewers who would have lost TV access to the games complained.

"The concern expressed by our fans who would have been forced to switch to alternative carriers or were unable to switch was something we tried to be responsive to," baseball chief operating officer Bob DuPuy said.

Kerry had asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate the original deal, and during a hearing last week in Washington he pushed baseball to resume talks with iN Demand, owned by affiliates of Time Warner, Comcast and Cox. While baseball had set a March 31 deadline, the sides kept negotiating and announced a deal Wednesday night, an agreement that still must be finalized.

"All we ever wanted was a victory for the fans, and this outcome is a big step forward," Kerry said in a statement. "Everyone kept talking and pressing until we had a deal that protects the rights of most fans to follow their hometown team."

IN Demand began making games available to cable systems in progress starting at 8 p.m. EDT Wednesday, president Robert Jacobson said. The package will be available for $159 this year through a free preview period that will extend into next week, he said, but the 2007 price for those subscribing after that has not been set.

"I'm exhausted but happy," Jacobson said. "We always needed to feel like we were treated fairly relative to the other distributor. We felt like got our fair share."

As part of the agreement, iN Demand and DirecTV each will receive about 16 percent equity in the new network, a person familiar with the deal said, speaking on condition of anonymity because that detail wasn't announced. Under the original agreement, DirecTV was to be a 20 percent owner.

In Demand will make the "Extra Innings" package available to other cable companies, which also would be required to carry the MLB channel. Baseball is willing to resume negotiate with Echostar's Dish Network, baseball spokesman Rich Levin said, but DirecTV president Chase Carey said he anticipated for now that his company would be an exclusive satellite carrier.

The dispute was largely over baseball's desire to have a deal that will allow its network to be widely available on a basic cable tier. At 40 million homes, it would be one of the largest launches in cable history.

"It provides both the financial stability and the exposure to ensure a successful launch of the channel and bring the game to as many fans as possible," DuPuy said.

Because of the new deal, DirecTV will pay less than it would have under the original agreement.

"The economics are better for us on the `Extra Innings' side," Carey said. "Clearly there were benefits you had in capturing subs (subscribers). We were paying a lot of money to get it. At what price? We weighed all the positives of each."

Kerry better go after the NFL next.

[Scott Dierking]

If they are going to push this type of deal, they should also look to force cable company to provide their content to satellite, as well.

Case in point, I live in the Philadelphia market, and like out of market teams, so I have the satellite. Philadelphia cable market is ruled by Comcast, and they also own a couple of local sports teams here. The local Comcast sports channel broadcasts the majority of Sixer, Flyer and Phillies games.

Comcast, in their monopolistic view, was smart enough to keep its channel off of satellite. They will not allow them to carry the channel.

Thus, me being an out of market fan and wanting to watch other channels, as well wanting to track the local teams, has to subscribe to both satellite and cable to do so.

If they are going to start forcing content on different carriers, they should do teh same here.

Of course, this does not affect John Kerry, I suppose.

Will they now force the NFL package outward to cable as well? Cable is clamoring for it

[Kidhuman]

From what I understand The NFL wants to go to a strict PPV package for football games, selling each one separately like ESPN does for College Football.

[Scott Dierking]

From what I understand The NFL wants to go to a strict PPV package for football games, selling each one separately like ESPN does for College Football.

ESPN sells college football games separately? I have a package.

I have seen some games in certain areas where they offer a viewing, but the majority are in the package.

It would be a big mistake to market the League like that, and the NFL knows it.

[Kidhuman]

Yes with DishNetwork, we offer games for College Foorball separately for like 20 bucks each.

I actually think it would be worth it. Some people wanna watch good matchups that arent available unless they have the NFL ticket. It would make them more money at 20 bucks a game then buying a package at 180 dollars for all the games.

[green_blood]

see, isn't it good that kerry didn't get elected in 04?

[shawn306]

MLB will basically cave into anything the government wants because it does not want to lose its anti-trust exemption.

You are seeing it with steroids, and now you see it with the cable deal.

MLB will push the fans to a point but once the government steps in the back down.

Good job by Kerry getting this done.