MLB Extra Innings

[VA Sox Fan]

If Direct TV gets exclusive right to MLB games, I'll be pissed. I live in an apartment (not great for a Sat. dish) and have Comcast. FAAAAAAAAAAACK!

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/20/sports/baseball/20base.html

[RedSoxRooter]

That article confused the hell out of me. I pay for the Direct TV package via my cable company so I don't know how that will change for me. If it only effects my local (Braves) coverage, I won't care.

 

And I can't wait for that 24 hour baseball channel!

[Ray10]

Direct tv better not be the only ones to have the games. I'm using Rogers Cable right now to get the Extra Innings. If this is the case then I'm going to have to switch to Satellite meh w.e as long as I still have my Centre Ice Package. I guess I'll just purchase mlb.tv and watch the Sox games on my computer from now on.

[TheKilo]

Direct tv better not be the only ones to have the games. I'm using Rogers Cable right now to get the Extra Innings. If this is the case then I'm going to have to switch to Satellite meh w.e as long as I still have my Centre Ice Package. I guess I'll just purchase mlb.tv and watch the Sox games on my computer from now on.

 

It's an exclusive deal.

 

mlb.tv for you.

[Soxfan1]

It happened already I heard.

[RedSoxRooter]

I just reread the article and for some reason I get it now. So basically to watch Extra Innings on TV you need a dish and Direct TV.

 

Or you can pay to watch online - which sucks compared to watching on TV.

 

So I have two options if I want to watch my baseball on TV: Become a Braves fan or move. f***ing wonderful.

[VA Sox Fan]

It happened already I heard.

 

 

No it hasn't happened yet. If they do it, I hope they wait at least one more season or until 2009 when they will have the 24 baseball channel. I don't want a dish, but if it happens for the 2007 season, I'll get Direct TV.

[RedSoxRooter]

It will start this season.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/john_donovan/01/23/directv.extrainnings/index.html

[VA Sox Fan]

It will start this season.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/john_donovan/01/23/directv.extrainnings/index.html

 

 

Thanks RSR. It just sucks so bad b/c I'm one of those apartment people (hopefully that will change in May) but I can't go through the month of April and a lot of May w/out watching the Sox on a daily basis. I guess once the deal is officially announced, I'll be calling Direct TV, bastards! I wonder how great the picture will be during a rain storm? >

[jacksonianmarch]

MOVE TO MASS VA!!! You can become MA Sox fan.

[RedSoxRooter]

Not that this s*** ever works, but if you used Comcast for your Extra Innings package, you can let them know what you think here.

 

https://www.comcast.com/customers/contactUs/EmailUs.ashx

 

I basically told them I'd have to switch to Direct TV if they lost the package.

[example1]

I have a nice laptop computer and have no problem watching games on it. What sucks is that most digital cable these days comes with a DVR function, which meant I could come home from work at 5 and could start watching the game from the beginning. Also, who the hell wants to sit with a computer on their lap for 4 hours?

 

I thought capitalism was supposed to improve quality of life and access to things like this? I live in an apartment, I can't get it unless I move. I've subscribed for the past 3 seasons. Sigh. f*** them!

[VA Sox Fan]

MOVE TO MASS VA!!! You can become MA Sox fan.

 

No thanks jackson....it's too cold up there!

[mosox]

I've had digital cable for 4 years and the MLB games for 3 years. I will not get a dish that only fades in heavy rain because MLB is banking that I will switch. This is an obvious money grab at the expense of narrowing the exposure of the games. They are slowly edging out fans from the stadiums and marketing to rich white men in luxury boxes, and now the squeeze is being put on the fan at home. The greed will eventually make this game shrink once the young people of today become the adults of tomorrow and turn their backs on baseball.

[VA Sox Fan]

I've had digital cable for 4 years and the MLB games for 3 years. I will not get a dish that only fades in heavy rain because MLB is banking that I will switch. This is an obvious money grab at the expense of narrowing the exposure of the games. They are slowly edging out fans from the stadiums and marketing to rich white men in luxury boxes' date=' and now the squeeze is being put on the fan at home. The greed will eventually make this game shrink once the young people of today become the adults of tomorrow and turn their backs on baseball.[/quote']

 

Are rich white men the only ones allowed in the luxury boxes? I wasn't aware of that.

 

I agree with the rest of your post, it sucks for baseball fans and the game. I'm too fanatical not to get Direct TV.

[BSN07]

I'm in Holland so I think i'm F'D either way. But when I move into my ownplace I will def. be checking to see if I can get the ESPN's and MLB package.

[mosox]

Are rich white men the only ones allowed in the luxury boxes? I wasn't aware of that.

 

It's a sarcastic exaggeration, but it is clear that teams are marketing themselves to corporate spenders and are less concerned about average fans. New ballparks have smaller seating capacity but twice as many luxury boxes.

I still have my XM radio so this may be an "old school" season for me and I'll listen to every game on the radio.

[VA Sox Fan]

It's a sarcastic exaggeration, but it is clear that teams are marketing themselves to corporate spenders and are less concerned about average fans. New ballparks have smaller seating capacity but twice as many luxury boxes.

I still have my XM radio so this may be an "old school" season for me and I'll listen to every game on the radio.

 

I know what you mean about the average fan issue, it's ridiculous.

 

I've got XM too and it's great for the blacked out games or, obviously, on the road etc.

 

This was on ESPN's page 2 today. Great questions for Selig about this deal:

 

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/amjump

[RedSoxRooter]

Cool. At least it's getting some attention now.

 

- funny sidenote. Espn Insider is something I don't subscribe to. Outside of the blogs there really is no reason to pay for it. I wouldn't read most of ESPN the Mag anyway. And it's just stupid to put links to free newspaper articles as one of it's Insider perks. But if they ever put Bill Simmons on the Inside, I'd absolutely pay for it. No questions asked.

 

I hope nobody at ESPN reads this.

[VA Sox Fan]

Cool. At least it's getting some attention now.

 

- funny sidenote. Espn Insider is something I don't subscribe to. Outside of the blogs there really is no reason to pay for it. I wouldn't read most of ESPN the Mag anyway. And it's just stupid to put links to free newspaper articles as one of it's Insider perks. But if they ever put Bill Simmons on the Inside, I'd absolutely pay for it. No questions asked.

 

I hope nobody at ESPN reads this.

 

I wouldn't pay for ESPN Insider either, but you're right about Bill Simmons, I love his stuff.

 

I really hope they reconsider this deal (PLEASE!!!!!)

[shortstop]

This sucks! I was thinking of getting MLB extra innings this year so I can catch the Sox games.

[example1]

Hey all, this is the response I got from comcast when i sent a complaint in yesterday:

 

Thank you for contacting Comcast Cable.

 

In 2007, MLB Extra Innings will be available through Comcast. Beyond that, the

league may strike a deal with DirecTV to exclusively broadcast Extra Innings

content through that provider. If you would like additional information on this

matter, please visit the following URL:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/20/sports/baseball/20base.html?ei=5087%0A&em=&en=ea10f101a3cbb3a3&ex=1169787600&pagewanted=all

 

If you have any more questions feel free to reply to this e-mail, or you can

chat with one of our Online Customer Support Specialists 24 hours a day, 7 days

a week using the following link:

 

http://www.comcastsupport.com/sdcuser/asp/default.asp

 

Thank you for choosing Comcast.

 

Sincerely,

 

Andre

Comcast Customer Care Specialist

 

 

It looks like it will be there for 07 and not afterwards. That gives me a year and a few months to figure out what to do. Perhaps I won't like baseball by then... or maybe I'll just move.

 

Good news for now though.

[RedSoxRooter]

Good news I guess, though I haven't received an email like that. All I got was that they would forward my email to the appropriate manager. God I hope your right. All I need is time to figure out what I'm going to do and a year would be enough.

[example1]

Good news I guess' date=' though I haven't received an email like that. All I got was that they would forward my email to the appropriate manager. God I hope your right. All I need is time to figure out what I'm going to do and a year would be enough.[/quote']

 

I can't promise that this is the truth. Its just an official looking comcast e-mail, presumably with the Portland office. I don't know what your local comcast is doing, but I imagine the programing is uniform across the country.

[TheKilo]

DirectTv signed a 7 year deal i do believe. Woth $700 mil.

 

But the new agreement will take it off cable and Dish because DirecTV has agreed to pay $700 million over seven years

[mosox]

Not that this will make a difference, but for what it's worth, a petition.

 

http://www.petitiononline.com/MLBCABLE/petition.html

[Peters34]

I would love to get it but its to expensive

[mosox]

Apparently the deal is hanging in the balance. What's sad is Selig's quotes and his indifference to the fans.

 

From Multichannel News:

 

By R. Thomas Umstead 2/19/2007

 

Against the backdrop of pitchers and catchers reporting to baseball spring-training camps last week, Major League Baseball, DirecTV and cable operators continued to toss out mixed signals regarding the fate of the sport’s “MLB Extra Innings” out-of-market package.

 

Executives close to several multiple-system operators said the cable industry late last week made a last-minute pitch to significantly increase the industry’s subscriber commitment to the league’s proposed channel, set to launch in 2009 — the major curveball in negotiations to secure the league’s out-of-market package of live games.

 

But other executives close to the negotiations said MLB could announce an exclusive Extra Innings distribution deal with DirecTV as early as this week.

 

The developments came as baseball commissioner Bud Selig said last week that whatever deal is cut would only adversely affect a “small” number of fans.

 

Executives close to the MSOs said cable has “significantly” increased its subscriber commitment to the launch of baseball’s planned 24-hour dedicated channel, although it’s unclear how big of a base has been promised.

 

Executives close to the negotiations said the commitment is for more households than the 15 million DirecTV subscribers that would put the planned service on the “Total Choice Plus” tier, part of DirecTV’s proposed $700 million, seven-year offer for exclusive rights to Extra Innings, which retails for $179 per season.

 

Initially the cable industry, through video-on-demand and pay-per-view content provider In Demand, said it would only distribute the channel via premium sports tiers, which on average reach less than 20% of all digital subscriber homes.

 

In Demand executives would not comment on the matter.

 

DirecTV’s proposed exclusive Extra Innings deal continues to set off protests from TV columnists, sports bloggers — and some MLB clubs. San Diego Padres CEO Sandy Alderson told local newspaper the North County Times the deal would hurt some fans who want to watch both their local team and out-of-market games. Rightsholder Cox Communications offers Padres games exclusively to cable.

 

“If you have satellite TV, you can’t get the Padres,” Alderson said. “Now, if you have cable, you can’t get the MLB package. And if you want both, it means adding one or the other, and it would cost quite a bit of money.”

 

Selig weighed in last week on ESPN Radio’s Mike and Mike In the Morning. While no deal has been reached for Extra Innings, he said, reports of baseball fans being greatly disenfranchised if DirecTV got the exclusive arrangement are exaggerated.

 

“I expect people to understand that we thought all of these issues out, and there’s no doubt in my mind that you’ll be quite surprised at how few people are affected,” he said. “When I look at the number of people that would be affected, it’s so small.”

[VA Sox Fan]

Bud Selig is an out of touch tool bag!

[RedSoxRooter]

Root, root, root - and pay - for the road team

 

Baseball could get more money if it drops plan to let DirecTV have exclusive deal to sell out-of-market games to hard-core fans.

 

A weekly column by Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer

February 27 2007: 6:37 AM EST

 

 

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Long-distance relationships may not work for romances. But it's a different story for sports fans.

 

Professional sports leagues are tapping into the interest that many fans have for their favorite team even after they've moved far from home. It is quickly becoming one of the fastest-growing sources of revenue for the leagues...and one of the more controversial.

 

While local and national broadcast sports rights fees are showing only solid gains, if that, the leagues are seeing the rights fees for out-of-market games soar. Some fans pay a couple of hundred dollars a year to watch games not available in their home market.

 

Such packages seem to be a small price to pay for Boston fans far from Red Sox Nation or Packers fans in warmer climates. So it's not surprising that cable and satellite television providers have been fighting for the packages as a way of attracting customers.

 

Major League Baseball is close to selling the rights to its "Extra Innings" package of out-of-market games for $100 million a year -- or more. That's more than triple the $30 million or so a year that sources said baseball got in its last Extra Innings deal.

 

When the NFL renewed its exclusive package for Sunday Ticket with DirecTV (Charts) in late 2002, it got $400 million a year, up from $130 million a year previously, according to trade publication Sports Business Daily. And DirecTV agreed to pay $700 million a year for the Sunday Ticket rights when the contract was renewed again after the 2005 season, according to the publication, according to the publication. More than 2 million fans had that package last year, according to an estimate from Kagan Research.

 

Meanwhile XM Satellite Radio (Charts) and Sirius Satellite Radio (Charts), which recently announced plans to merge, had been busy competing for the rights to packages from the different sports.

 

XM landed MLB for a reported $650 million deal that stretches 11 years. It also ponied up for the rights to Nascar, the National Hockey League, golf and tennis. Sirius signed a three-year deal with the NFL for $220 million and also broadcasts Nascar events as well as National Basketball Association games.

 

The controversy comes because DirecTV is trying to get an exclusive contract to carry the MLB package, as it already has with the NFL. That has raised criticism and threats of legislative action by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., along with a statement by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin that he is also concerned with the expected change.

 

Both men, as well as an estimated 180,000 baseball fans who subscribed to Extra Innings last year on cable and 50,000 fans who did so with the competing satellite service from EchoStar Communications (Charts), might get their wish without a change in legislation.

 

One source familiar with negotiations said he now believes that the Extra Innings package will remain available to all three services.

 

"I'd be surprised if the DirecTV deal goes through," he said.

 

The key isn't likely to revolve around more money, but an agreement by the cable operators to provide broader carriage for a Baseball Network which MLB intends to start operating in 2009.

 

DirecTV had been willing to let all 15 million of its subscribers have the new Baseball Network right from the start, as well as helping with some of the start-up costs, according to multiple sources. It isn't willing to be as helpful to MLB's upstart network if it doesn't gain the advantage of an exclusive deal on Extra Innings, though.

 

But after initially rebuffing the MLB demands for carriage of the Baseball Network, the cable operators are now coming around, according to the industry source.

 

"There will be a commitment to carry the Baseball Network (on cable)," said the industry official. "Where it will be placed, that still needs to be sorted out."

 

Another source with the league said he was not aware of any shift away from plans to go with an exclusive deal for DirecTV. But talks have lingered for months without an official announcement even as baseball's opening day draws near.

 

A non-exclusive deal would not only reduce the risk of any interference from Washington. It will also allow baseball to not anger more than 200,000 of its most loyal customers who would have to shift television services to keep following their teams.

 

The motivation for the exclusive deal has been reported -- incorrectly -- as baseball's desire to get the top rights fee for the Extra Innings package.

 

The big cable companies, which collectively own a service called In Demand that airs the Extra Innings games, were reportedly willing to pay $70 million a year for a non-exclusive deal.

 

And while DirecTV won't offer $100 million for a non-exclusive deal, it seems safe to say that it and the Dish Network, along with the telephone companies that are making their own push to provide television service, would easily pay more than $30 million combined for non-exclusive deals.

 

Plus, it's not as if DirecTV is likely to take a big financial hit if it doesn't get an exclusive MLB contract. Sources familiar with subscription numbers say that DirecTV already has 270,000 Extra Innings customers...more than the cable companies. Assuming DirecTV can hold onto all these customers, that works out to $50 million in subscriber fees.

 

There hasn't been as much heat over DirecTV's exclusive contract with NFL's Sunday Ticket, but that's because that has always been an exclusive deal. But that doesn't mean the cable operators have given up hope getting into that deal as well.

 

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. said at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee in December that DirecTV's exclusivity with Sunday Ticket was a reason to strip the NFL of an antitrust exemption it uses to negotiate television deals for all of its teams. Cable company Comcast (Charts) is based in Specter's hometown of Philadelphia.

 

This topic will definitely be worth watching in Congress. Clearly, the absence of a favorite sports team makes many fans' hearts grow fonder. And the leagues, along with cable and satellite providers, are only too happy to cash on that.

 

 

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I pray