DirecTV trying to acquire exclusive rights to MLB Extra Innings

3921 Views 43 Replies 23 Participants Last post by sjso395, Jan 20, 2007

alebowgm

Discussion Starter · Jan 5, 2007

Came across this today. Would be a major score for DirecTV and a major punch in the gut for Dish Network and for cable, as these are totally exclusive rights, similar to that of NFLST...

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/barnako/2007/01/directv_wants_m.html

Little noticed story at year's end says DirecTV (DTV) wants to do for baseball what it's done for the NFL: wrap up exclusive rights.

Sports Business Journal reported MLB is "in advanced negotiations" for DTV to carry "Extra Innings," MLB's package of out-of-market games. The deal would be "a huge blow to the cable industry," Sports Business Journal said, not to mention that it would also hurt Echostar's (DISH) subscription business. SBJ said Extra Innings growth has stalled at about 750,000 subs via cable.

One reason to believe this story is that Sports Business Journal's latest cover story. It's a profile of Bud Selig, MLB's commissioner. You'd expect that this DirecTV came out of research on the story, either from the Commish himself, or people talking about Selig's management.

An exclusive deal for MLB games not on ESPN or other broadcast/cable networks would be a good move for DirecTV. New subscribers are hard to find. One good way to bolster the rolls is to grab market share, and baseball would be likely to lure some Dish customers.

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Earl Bonovich

· #2 · Jan 5, 2007

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=74978&highlight=MLB+Extra+Innings

DawgLink

· #3 · Jan 6, 2007

Awesome. This move would force my father to get D* which he doesnt want to do but he will have to do it if they do acquire it.

Anyone want to throw out a percentage chance it happens?

mitchelljd

· #4 · Jan 6, 2007

MLB extra innings stinks. I used to subscribe, every time i do i get disappointed.

Even when directv carries a game on it's transponders, it can be subject to blackout. most frustrating day, saturday, is when the day game gets blacked out.

Why can't they create a MLB extra innings that has ALL the games of your favorite team? or just include all the games, ie the way NFL package does.

JLucPicard

· #5 · Jan 6, 2007

mitchelljd said:
Why can't they create a MLB extra innings that has ALL the games of your favorite team? or just include all the games, ie the way NFL package does.

1) NFL Sunday Ticket is subject to blackouts, too.

2) NFL games are NOT broadcast on RSNs like baseball games are.

I think the Twins air about 100+ games a season on Fox Sports Net North. A few on National TV, maybe. Another couple dozen, maybe (Friday games) on a local channel. Black out the games that are carried locally and there really isn't much left for EI. I do not subscribe to EI for just that reason - I'm not interested enough in baseball outside of the Twins to warrant me paying for a super-package. I get all I need locally.

It's all about the dollar. The local affiliates that pay the teams to carry their games want people watching them on their broadcasts - not paying good coin to carry them and allowing another outfit to broadcast them as well and siphon off their viewers. Advertisers are selfish that way.

jimbo09

· #6 · Jan 6, 2007

JLucPicard said:
1) NFL Sunday Ticket is subject to blackouts, too.

2) NFL games are NOT broadcast on RSNs like baseball games are.

I think the Twins air about 100+ games a season on Fox Sports Net North. A few on National TV, maybe. Another couple dozen, maybe (Friday games) on a local channel. Black out the games that are carried locally and there really isn't much left for EI. I do not subscribe to EI for just that reason - I'm not interested enough in baseball outside of the Twins to warrant me paying for a super-package. I get all I need locally.

It's all about the dollar. The local affiliates that pay the teams to carry their games want people watching them on their broadcasts - not paying good coin to carry them and allowing another outfit to broadcast them as well and siphon off their viewers. Advertisers are selfish that way.

I don't get that argument, the games are shown with commercials. No matter whether you watch it on local channel 4 or D* Channel 7##, you see the commercials. Besides, if you are in California, and watching a game that is on some local station in Minneapolis, you aren't doing anything to a local advertiser, except watching his commercial, which you wouldn't be able to see if not for MLB EI. I would think any advertiser would get more exposure, not less from a national (subscription) broadcast.

JLucPicard

· #7 · Jan 6, 2007

jimbo09 said:
I don't get that argument, the games are shown with commercials. No matter whether you watch it on local channel 4 or D* Channel 7##, you see the commercials. Besides, if you are in California, and watching a game that is on some local station in Minneapolis, you aren't doing anything to a local advertiser, except watching his commercial, which you wouldn't be able to see if not for MLB EI. I would think any advertiser would get more exposure, not less from a national (subscription) broadcast.

I certainly could be wrong. I was just trying to address the question of why there are blackouts. And if you're going to watch a Twins game in California, chances are it's not blacked out there.

I haven't subscribed to EI. Could someone tell me, if I happen to live in St Paul and I'm watching the Cleveland Indians play the Baltimore Orioles on the EI feed - aside from the fact I may have TiVoed the game and am FFing through commercials anyway - am I going to see, let's say, an advertisement from a local Cleveland Used Car Dealership?

I know from Sunday ticket a few years ago, seemed like every commercial break was loaded with DirecTv ST commercials and not local ads (do too much FFing now to know if that still holds true).

Taking the illustration above in a slightly different direction, if I'm in St Paul and I'm watching the Twins game on the EI feed, would I be seeing the local advertising I would be seeing on the FSN North channel, or would I be seeing more "national" advertising - different commercials than what FSN North is running? I realize this question may not be answerable if I'm right about how blackouts are currently handled and I wouldn't be able to get the EI feed of the Twins game in St Paul.

If the commercials are all the same, then mine is somewhat of a weak argument. However, if the commercials differ between the local channel broadcast and the EI nation-wide broadcast, then I think that supports my point.

Now you've got my curiosty up.

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DCSholtis

· #8 · Jan 6, 2007

JLucPicard said:
I certainly could be wrong. I was just trying to address the question of why there are blackouts. And if you're going to watch a Twins game in California, chances are it's not blacked out there.

I haven't subscribed to EI. Could someone tell me, if I happen to live in St Paul and I'm watching the Cleveland Indians play the Baltimore Orioles on the EI feed - aside from the fact I may have TiVoed the game and am FFing through commercials anyway - am I going to see, let's say, an advertisement from a local Cleveland Used Car Dealership?

I know from Sunday ticket a few years ago, seemed like every commercial break was loaded with DirecTv ST commercials and not local ads (do too much FFing now to know if that still holds true).

Taking the illustration above in a slightly different direction, if I'm in St Paul and I'm watching the Twins game on the EI feed, would I be seeing the local advertising I would be seeing on the FSN North channel, or would I be seeing more "national" advertising - different commercials than what FSN North is running? I realize this question may not be answerable if I'm right about how blackouts are currently handled and I wouldn't be able to get the EI feed of the Twins game in St Paul.

If the commercials are all the same, then mine is somewhat of a weak argument. However, if the commercials differ between the local channel broadcast and the EI nation-wide broadcast, then I think that supports my point.

Now you've got my curiosty up.

Nope you would be seeing the local commercials with the occaisional (sp?) D* add stuck in..

DonCorleone

· #9 · Jan 7, 2007

Right, the only problems with EI are:

(1) The biggest issue is that Saturday baseball is licensed to Fox prior to 7 P.M., which means that if your team doesn't happen to be the national game Fox has picked for your area for that day (and that's even only going to have a chance of happening if the local team isn't playing during the day on that Saturday), then you'll never get a Saturday day game with team shown...I don't think we have a good reason as to why, either, because if NFL ST can do it, why not EI

(2) EI doesn't have agreements with a lot of the UPN stations, which, in the case of the Yankees are often the Friday night games, so those are often unviewable (not sure if/how the CW change will affect that)

(3) You're forced to watch the game on the EI feed. So, if you're a Yankee fan and they're playing the Red Sox, you could randomly end up watching the game on either NESN or YES, which means you're not always going to see your team's announcers.

(4) In 2006, they only showed 1 or 2 HD games a night.

Other than that, you see pretty much every other game, so it's a good deal in my opinion

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greenie95125

· #10 · Jan 7, 2007

DonCorleone said:
Right, the only problems with EI are:

(1) The biggest issue is that Saturday baseball is licensed to Fox prior to 7 P.M., which means that if your team doesn't happen to be the national game Fox has picked for your area for that day (and that's even only going to have a chance of happening if the local team isn't playing during the day on that Saturday), then you'll never get a Saturday day game with team shown...I don't think we have a good reason as to why, either, because if NFL ST can do it, why not EI

(2) EI doesn't have agreements with a lot of the UPN stations, which, in the case of the Yankees are often the Friday night games, so those are often unviewable (not sure if/how the CW change will affect that)

(3) You're forced to watch the game on the EI feed. So, if you're a Yankee fan and they're playing the Red Sox, you could randomly end up watching the game on either NESN or YES, which means you're not always going to see your team's announcers.

(4) In 2006, they only showed 1 or 2 HD games a night.

Other than that, you see pretty much every other game, so it's a good deal in my opinion

My biggest gripe last year was the fact that not one single NESN feed was shown in HD. The only HD Red Sox games I saw were either a YES broadcast when playing the "Evil Empire"

or ESPN broadcasts. NESN boasts that EVERY game is in HD, but we got none on D*. I don't care what the reason is, but the ONLY reason I subscribed to EI was for the Sox.

I already called D* and made sure that I was NOT to be automatically renewed for EI next season (and told them why). If the lack of HD Sox games isn't changed, I'll just subscribe to MLB.TV and watch it on the internet. That's about 1/2 the price, and almost as good as an SD feed. Plus, I can watch games at the office

. Same blackout rules apply, so no big deal there.

--Mike

DCSholtis

· #11 · Jan 7, 2007

The Red Sox games WERE in HD toward the end of the season I think and will be next season as well but ONLY spot beamed to those in Red Sox territory......somewhat.....

saleen351

· #12 · Jan 7, 2007

In 4 years, only 1 NFLST game was blacked out for me and I'm dumping the mlb package this year, it's not worth it. I want the YES feeds not the other feeds, in fact I want the YES channel, which I can't seem to get.

The Big Unit is gone and so is the MLB package for me...

jimbo09

· #13 · Jan 7, 2007

saleen351 said:
In 4 years, only 1 NFLST game was blacked out for me and I'm dumping the mlb package this year, it's not worth it. I want the YES feeds not the other feeds, in fact I want the YES channel, which I can't seem to get.

The Big Unit is gone and so is the MLB package for me...

But you could watch the Unit pitch from Bank One..uh, Citibank..uh, Chase Bank Field in AZ with MLB EI :lol:

FLWingNut

· #14 · Jan 7, 2007

saleen351 said:
In 4 years, only 1 NFLST game was blacked out for me and I'm dumping the mlb package this year, it's not worth it. I want the YES feeds not the other feeds, in fact I want the YES channel, which I can't seem to get.

The Big Unit is gone and so is the MLB package for me...

You Yankee fans (and Sox fans too) from outside your markets crack me up. You think you have some divine right to see only your team's feed on the out-of-market package. I don't have EI, but I do have NHL CI and I'm not here complainig that I don't get the Wings' announcers on every game. On CI, you usually get the home team broadcast, unless the home team is OTA or not doing the game at all (like the Blackhawks). Sometimes we get the Canadian feed from TSN or Hockey Night in Canada. I think the other teams feed can be interesting from time to time.

EI works like that too, right? Home team feed? Makes sense to me.

And you can't get YES (for the games) because you don't live in NY, but you can get it on Sports Pack, right?

DonCorleone

· #15 · Jan 7, 2007

FLWingNut said:
You Yankee fans (and Sox fans too) from outside your markets crack me up. You think you have some divine right to see only your team's feed on the out-of-market package. I don't have EI, but I do have NHL CI and I'm not here complainig that I don't get the Wings' announcers on every game. On CI, you usually get the home team broadcast, unless the home team is OTA or not doing the game at all (like the Blackhawks). Sometimes we get the Canadian feed from TSN or Hockey Night in Canada. I think the other teams feed can be interesting from time to time.

EI works like that too, right? Home team feed? Makes sense to me.

And you can't get YES (for the games) because you don't live in NY, but you can get it on Sports Pack, right?

"Divine right b/c we're Yankees fans?" What exactly does that mean? I would imagine that if you're a Yankee fan, a Royals fan, or a Rockies fan, if you had the choice between paying an amount for your team or a bigger amount for all the teams, you'd likely pick the former. We're just saying that we want the opportunity to just see our teams instead of the whole league.

As for home team feed, that's not the way it works on EI. Perhaps there's a system, but it seems somewhat random to me...it really just depends upon the night.

And then on the Sports Pack, that only gives you access to YES when they're NOT showing a game (and some other programs MLB hasn't licensed them to show)...interesting that CI actually bases it on home games...seems to make more sense

bluedogok

· #16 · Jan 7, 2007

Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers fan here, Colorado Avalanche for hockey.

I found the NESN SD picture quality was better than most other RSN's, that is one reason that I prefer to watch the NESN broadcast. What irritates me more is the pre and post games on NESN are occasionally blacked out even though I have MLB-EI, it is just so random as DonCorleone posted. Before I had MLB-EI we even have the Texas Rangers games here sometimes blacked out on FSN-SW when a Houston Astros games was on, sometimes they had it on an alternate, sometimes not.

What I don't understand is if they are using up the bandwidth anyway, why are one of the team feeds blacked out and the other isn't any given night? It is not like both feeds aren't being broadcast anyway. Seems to me with MLB-EI or NHL-CI (the packages that I have) why not just broadcast both on the regular RSN channel to those subscribers, I know sometimes games on NESN is on 623 at times and others it is blacked out but on the opposing team feed is on its RSN and a MLB-EI channel. Seems it would be easier and use less bandwidth than copying them all up to the 700 range.

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lewah33

· #17 · Jan 8, 2007

alebowgm said:
Came across this today. Would be a major score for DirecTV and a major punch in the gut for Dish Network and for cable, as these are totally exclusive rights, similar to that of NFLST...

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/barnako/2007/01/directv_wants_m.html

As a huge baseball fan and a dissatisfied D* customer, this is very disturbing news. I've sent my HR20 back, and am left with just over a year commitment. Was hoping to make a change decision on who has the most national HD coverage of Red Sox games.

Gosh, it would be a nightmare for D* to have exclusive rights to EI imho. HD yankee games were always on channel 95 last year - no Sox home games were on in HD.

lewah33

· #18 · Jan 8, 2007

greenie95125 said:
My biggest gripe last year was the fact that not one single NESN feed was shown in HD. The only HD Red Sox games I saw were either a YES broadcast when playing the "Evil Empire" or ESPN broadcasts. NESN boasts that EVERY game is in HD, but we got none on D*. I don't care what the reason is, but the ONLY reason I subscribed to EI was for the Sox.

I already called D* and made sure that I was NOT to be automatically renewed for EI next season (and told them why). If the lack of HD Sox games isn't changed, I'll just subscribe to MLB.TV and watch it on the internet. That's about 1/2 the price, and almost as good as an SD feed. Plus, I can watch games at the office . Same blackout rules apply, so no big deal there.

--Mike

I hear ya Mike, I hear ya!

lewah33

· #19 · Jan 8, 2007

FLWingNut said:
You Yankee fans (and Sox fans too) from outside your markets crack me up. You think you have some divine right to see only your team's feed on the out-of-market package. I don't have EI, but I do have NHL CI and I'm not here complainig that I don't get the Wings' announcers on every game. On CI, you usually get the home team broadcast, unless the home team is OTA or not doing the game at all (like the Blackhawks). Sometimes we get the Canadian feed from TSN or Hockey Night in Canada. I think the other teams feed can be interesting from time to time.

EI works like that too, right? Home team feed? Makes sense to me.

And you can't get YES (for the games) because you don't live in NY, but you can get it on Sports Pack, right?

You have never watched the White Sox home team feed. Ken "The Hawk" Harrelson is the absolute worst annoucer in the league. He's brutal and his trademark "He Gone" call on a strikeout is just the worst.

I don't mind being forced to watch the A's feed when the Red Sox play here, because I am in the SF market. However, for other games, customers should be given the choice on whose coverage they watch.

Course it could be worse - Joe Buck and Tim McCarver could cover every game. THE HORROR!

DawgLink

· #20 · Jan 8, 2007

lewah33 said:
As a huge baseball fan and a dissatisfied D* customer, this is very disturbing news. I've sent my HR20 back, and am left with just over a year commitment. Was hoping to make a change decision on who has the most national HD coverage of Red Sox games.

Gosh, it would be a nightmare for D* to have exclusive rights to EI imho. HD yankee games were always on channel 95 last year - no Sox home games were on in HD.

I am hoping that if D* does in fact buy the rights, they do make most teams give their stadiums HD-capable videos.

I would buy it if more games are shown in HD

If not, I probably would wait to decide

1 - 20 of 44 Posts

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