Major League Baseball, Cable Operators Reach Agreement

Deal Makes Out-of-Market Games Available to Major Cable Systems

By Joseph S. Enoch
ConsumerAffairs.com Congressional Correspondent

April 4, 2007

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Major League Baseball and iN DEMAND, a consortium of cable operators, have reached an agreement to carry the Extra Innings package of out-of-market games for the next seven years.

Full details of the deal, which was announced at 8:41 p.m. tonight, have not been released, but according to a MLB press release, "the MLB Extra Innings subscription package of out-of-market games is currently available to DirecTV subscribers. iN DEMAND owners Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable have agreed to carry the package, effective immediately."

The deal also extends to smaller digital cable providers that are members of iN DEMAND.

"We couldn't be happier that we have reached an agreement with Major League Baseball and are able to make these games available to baseball fans as we have for the past five years," Robert Jacobson, president and chief operating officer of iN DEMAND said in a prepared statement.

The package should be available to digital cable subscribers in time for tonight's west coast games.

Originally the deal was to be exclusive to satellite telecaster, DirecTV. But after pressure from Congress and a pending Federal Communications Commission investigation into the deal, MLB executives opened the negotiations to other incumbents who distributed the package previous seasons.

MLB and DirecTV would only allow those incumbents, including Dish Network, to match DirecTV's deal until Opening Day, April 1. But after the first game passed, MLB confirmed they were extending the deadline as negotiations continued.

The main sticking point of the deal from the beginning was the carriage of MLB's proposed Baseball Channel set to launch in 2009.

DirecTV promised to carry the channel to 80 percent of its viewers on its basic tier package. DirecTV was also given a 20 percent ownership of the new channel.

Jacobson felt those terms were unreasonable because iN DEMAND was expected to carry The Baseball Channel to 80 percent of its customers as well, but was not given any stake in the channel.

The details of ownership and of how many customers will get The Baseball Channel has not been revealed, but according to MLB's press release, "Major League Baseball's partnerships with DIRECTV and iN DEMAND mean the MLB Channel is expected to launch in 40 million homes."

DirecTV has 15 million subscribers while there are about 50 million digital cable subscribers.

There is no mention as to whether any deal has been or is expected to be extended to Dish Network, which has carried the package for the past two years. Dish Network spokespeople could not be contacted for comment.

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