MLB: We’ll Meet Face-to-Face with Cable

Under Pressure from Senate, League Agrees to Discuss New Rights Deal

By Steve Donohue -- Multichannel News, 3/27/2007 8:43:00 PM

Under pressure from Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Major League Baseball president and chief operating officer Bob DuPuy agreed to meet with In Demand Networks to discuss a possible deal that could provide the cable-backed program supplier with the league’s Extra Innings package.

The chances of the league cutting a deal with cable operators before Monday -- opening day of the 2007 season -- are slim. But MLB and DirecTV are facing heat from regulators for their seven-year, $700 million deal that will restrict the league’s Extra Inning’s package to DirecTV customers.

When MLB struck the controversial deal with DirecTV earlier this month, it set a deadline of March 31 for operators to match DirecTV’s offer. But in order for Comcast, Time Warner Cable and other operators to secure Extra Innings for their customers, they’d have to agree to match DirecTV’s terms and distribute MLB’s Baseball Channel, set to debut in 2009, on their most widely distributed tiers.

Customers who previously subscribed to Extra Innings when it was available on cable will not have access to the games unless they switch to DirecTV or order a $100 Internet package that would allow them to watch the games on a PC via a high-speed-Internet connection.

Kerry scolded MLB’s DuPuy and DirecTV CEO Chase Carey Tuesday, arguing that the league and DirecTV are more focused on making money than ensuring that America’s pastime is available widely.

“You’re driving for the best deal that you can get -- that may not be the best deal for baseball, frankly, or the fans,” Kerry told DuPuy.

“This was not about maximizing profits for us,” DuPuy countered, insisting that what drove the league to cut the DirecTV deal was a guarantee that it would launch Baseball Channel to its entire subscriber base of more than 15 million customers.

“What this was about was serving the maximum number of fans with the maximum amount of programming,” DuPuy added.