This is from Tim Brosnan, Excutive VP, Business for MLB.
Opposing view: We meet fans' demands
We offer the following assurances to our fans: Any deal for the Major League Baseball's Extra Innings subscription package, when concluded, will in no way affect a single fan's ability to watch games of his home club in his home market.
But, the ado isn't about Brewer fans in Milwaukee, Ranger fans in Texas, or Mariner fans in Seattle not getting to watch the games. It's about Red Sox fans in Casper, Wyoming; Tiger fans in Lakeland, Florida; and Dodger fans in Las Vegas not getting to watch the games involving their favorite teams.
Major League Baseball will continue to make available on basic cable, satellite and broadcast television more games by far than any other sport (on average, more than 400 games per year are telecast in each market); a subscription package of out-of-market games will continue to be available to a broad segment of our fan base through either MLB Extra Innings or MLB.TV, its broadband counterpart.
Well, each team plays 162 games. No other professional sport has that many games on its schedule. So, of course, there will be more games available than any other sport.
There is a paragraph about doing things in the best interest of the fans. Then, there is this:
We have had fair and open negotiations with cable, satellite and telephone company distributors regarding the distribution of a new MLB dedicated channel to all our fans and the continuation of the MLB Extra Innings package. We believe that the launch of an MLB-dedicated channel as part of a basic service will be a great benefit to all of our fans, as it will provide a wide diversity of baseball programming, 24/7. Our goal remains to provide as much MLB programming as we can to the maximum number of viewers, and any consummated deal will reflect that.
If the NFL Network couldn't get their channel on basic cable, I don't think that an MLB Channel has any shot at that.
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