MLB has deal to keep 'Extra Innings' on cable TV

ESPN ^ | April 4, 2007 | AP

[fkabuckeyesrule]

NEW YORK -- Baseball struck a deal to keep its "Extra Innings" package of out-of-market games on cable television, an agreement 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 during a hearing last week in Washington, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., pressed baseball to resume talks with iN Demand, which is owned by affiliates of Time Warner, Comcast and Cox. While baseball had set a March 31 deadline, the sides kept negotiating and announced an agreement Wednesday night.

"Our chief goal throughout the process was to ensure that fans would have access to as many baseball games and as much baseball coverage as possible," baseball chief operating officer Bob DuPuy said. "With this agreement, the MLB Channel will launch with an unprecedented platform."

As part of the agreement, iN Demand will make the "Extra Innings" package available to other cable companies, which also would be required to carry the MLB channel.

Baseball will continue to negotiate with Echostar's Dish Network, baseball spokesman Rich Levin said.

The dispute was largely over baseball's desire to have its network on a basic cable tier.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

[fkabuckeyesrule]

On the night we lost Gina from American Idol this is a good trade.

[TxCopper]

Did you watch that Senate hearing? It was very strange.

[nutmeg]

Pinging a few baseball fans...

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

Direct tv is (was) coming to install on Saturday. Thanks, nutmeg!

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

DICE K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[fkabuckeyesrule]

****Did you watch that Senate hearing? It was very strange****

No, I missed it.

[TxCopper]

It was a very casual meeting for the committee, but they really bit into the witnesses. Everyone from Kerry & Klobuchar to Lautenburg and Specter was talking about how much they loved sports and etc. Then they accused MLB of being greedy and treated DirecTV like they were robber-barons.

[fkabuckeyesrule]

I just checked the indemand website and we get a free preview this weekend. I had this Extra Innings thing during the second half of 2004 and I think I may have gained about 20 pounds. LOL!

[TxCopper]

The strange thing is how Congress (specifically the Congress Committee) stated that there was a problem, hauled the CEOS of DirecTV, INDemand, Comcast, and Dish Network before the committee, and because of that more people can see baseball. Usually government screws everything up, but this time they actually were effective.

[TxCopper]

I meant Commerce committee. LOL. Anyways, I am looking forward to seeing out-of-market games on cable. I didn’t want to swich to DirecTV just to see the Mariners.