I'm sure everybody here has heard this by now, but I had to start a thread since I hadn't seen it mentioned. MLB will likely announce soon that they have come to a big $$$ agreement with DirecTV to give them exclusive rights to the out-of-market package. MLB was apparently not happy with the stand of major U.S. cable companies that a new MLB channel should be on a sports tier, just like the NBA Channel and the forthcoming NHL Network (U.S. version). Comcast is fighting with the NFL Network now because they want to put it on a sports tier, so they would only have to pass along the cost to people who want it.
Anyway, MLB didn't like this stance. DirecTV said that they will put the channel on its basic lineup and courted MLB for exclusivity to the out of market games. Through iNDemand, cable companies (I think collectively) were paying $20 million a year for rights to carry the package. DirecTV will now be paying $70 million a year for exclusive rights to the package and an MLB channel (starting in 2009). This means that the new MLB baseball channel will only be available to DirecTV customers. MLB didn't like the idea of the "MLB channel" only being available to cable customers who wanted it, so now it will be seen by zero cable viewers, but available to all DirecTV subscribers.
What I'm interested in here is how many of the people here will be swayed to go to DirecTV because of this? I know there are people on this board that are in Canada, and this deal will not affect you. Rogers cable will still be able to carry the package. Most of us here live in the Nationals broadcast area and will have 160 games on cable this year (finally), so does this "huge" deal really matter? The NFL Sunday Ticket is big deal, but will this even make a difference? I see a lot of different games at restaurants and bars, but these places already have DirecTV. I guess what I'm asking is- does anyone really even care? Besides the out-of-market games available on FOX, ESPN, ESPN2, TBS, WGN, and INHD, is it worth it to switch to DirecTV when you can get all of these games, plus mlb.tv if you're that interested?
With this move, MLB can count on never getting any of my money for out of market TV packages. I'll watch on the channels I get on cable, but nothing else. Does anyone think this is the right way for them to market their product?
