King Kaufman's Sports Daily
MLB hands the villain role to cable and the Dish Network with a surprising, non-exclusive DirecTV deal. Plus: Whooooops!
Read more: Sports, Baseball, TV, Cable, Basketball, John Kerry, College Basketball, King Kaufman, Sports Daily, MLB
March 9, 2007 | Major League Baseball and DirecTV announced their much-anticipated agreement on the Extra Innings package of out-of-town games Thursday, and it isn't as bad as many fans had feared.
Yet.
The deal had been reported for weeks as exclusive, meaning that only subscribers of the DirecTV satellite service would be able to see the 60 or so out-of-town games each week without resorting to streaming video on MLB.tv. But baseball left the door open Thursday for "incumbents," meaning those already carrying Extra Innings -- the Dish satellite network and cable companies through their In Demand network -- to match the DirecTV offer and continue to carry the package.
That move seems to have come in response to political pressure from Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and others. Kerry wrote a letter to the Federal Communications Commission asking it to investigate the reported $700 million, seven-year exclusive MLB-DirecTV deal, saying it would shut many baseball fans out.
Sen Arlen Specter, R-Pa., also made noises about looking into whether the deal constituted an antitrust violation, though he admitted, "I don't think I'll be able to stop it." Baseball has been all or mostly exempt from antitrust laws for nearly a century.
"In keeping with MLB's desire to provide as much MLB programming to as many baseball fans as possible," Thursday's press release read, "MLB and DirecTV have agreed to include a provision that allows MLB Extra Innings to be offered to other incumbents -- In Demand and Dish Network -- at consistent rates and carriage requirements with a deal to be concluded before the baseball season begins. The provision also requires the incumbents to agree to carriage rights to the MLB Channel proportionally equivalent to DIRECTV's commitment."
That innocuous-sounding last sentence contains the sticking point to the deal. DirecTV has agreed to carry the MLB Channel on its basic tier starting in 2009, rather than on a sports tier. DirecTV will pay a lot less for a non-exclusive package if the cable companies and Dish sign up, but they've dug in their heels about not carrying niche sports channels on the basic tier, which is why the NFL has been battling cable companies lately too.
The baseball season begins April 1, so In Demand and Dish have till the end of the month to decide what to do, though it sounds like they've already decided.
"It's not in the best interest of consumers," Kathie Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Dish owner EchoStar Communications, told the Denver Post. "It's forcing sports to consumers" and is "not consistent with our advocacy for choice, or a la carte networks."
Robert Jacobson, CEO of In Demand, blasted the deal in a statement.
"Major League Baseball has chosen to cut a de facto exclusive deal," he said, "including conditions for carriage that MLB and DirecTV designed to be impossible for cable and Dish to meet."
Next page: A brilliant play by MLB. Plus: Whoooooops! Watch those logo stickers, hoopsters