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Friday, March 09, 2007 |
The Baseball Channel Or Your Extra Innings: MLB Plays Hardball With Cable
As we had heard before, it turns out that MLB is not yet demanding exclusivity over Extra Innings — provided cable operators are willing to match the DirecTV offer of carrying The Baseball Channel, and meeting other criteria. Fat chance:
The Baseball Channel, which MLB plans to launch in 2009 with DirecTV as a minority partner, has been the key to the months-long talks. MLB wants cable to agree to carry the channel on a basic tier, not a premium tier.On the other hand, I get a dozen or two Spanish-language channels on basic cable that I never watch yet have to pay for... this is the reality of modern cable TV. It's not like every channel flies its own satellites, and all the individual endusers have their own transponders.Industry sources indicated that would never happen.
"Everyone sees this as the sham that it is," the high-ranking source said.
Time Warner, the nation's largest cable provider, has 50 million subscribers. A carriage agreement equal to DirecTV's would require it to distribute the Baseball Channel on a basic tier and, the source said, subscribers could end up paying whether they watched or not.
"You'd be asking 50 million people to pay, say, $2.50 a month so that 200,000 could get Extra Innings," the source said. "That's not going to happen."
Labels: tv
Comments:
I agree that the deal might as well be done. I don't see how the cable companies will be willing to allow all the non-baseball fan customers pay just to keep the EI crowd.
I guess it could happen which would be great but I doubt it. MLB did a nice spin job to make it seem like it is cable's fault when this is all over. I know it's not and MLB has lost a fan here. Thanks Bud
I guess it could happen which would be great but I doubt it. MLB did a nice spin job to make it seem like it is cable's fault when this is all over. I know it's not and MLB has lost a fan here. Thanks Bud
# posted by 
: 3/09/2007 11:59:00 AM
: 3/09/2007 11:59:00 AM
I'm not understanding why MLB is perceived to be so evil for completing this deal. They have the right to make the most intelligent and profitable deal they choose. If cable doesn't think MLB is important enough to pay for, then they can live without it. There are still local broadcasts for every team, nationally televised games most days of the week, PLUS mlb.com. Not to mention round the clock highlights and amazing baseball websites. How much baseball does the average fan need?
# posted by : 3/09/2007 01:23:00 PM
: 3/09/2007 01:23:00 PM
The problem is that the people buying this package are exactly not "average fans", thus more likely to be vocal. MLB TV is NOT an acceptable substitute.
I don't understand what the big deal is. MLB is a manufacturer of a product, just like any other. If, as manufacturer, some distributor is going to offer a better deal it simply makes sense to take it. If I make widgets and company X is going to pay me 30% more than company Y - why would I do a deal with company Y?? Sometimes I wonder if folks don't forget that MLB is a for profit business organization, as is DIRECTV, and the cable companies.
# posted by : 3/09/2007 01:48:00 PM
: 3/09/2007 01:48:00 PM
Anon #2 -- I don't disagree with your perspective; but I do question whether annoying a relatively large group of core fans in order to make more money in the short term is worthwhile.
Well, Bud Selig has consistently done two things in his tenure: irritate fans of all stripe, and generate lots and lots of money. That's where the sport is, and where its likely to stay. As fans, we choose to live with it.
# posted by : 3/09/2007 02:49:00 PM
: 3/09/2007 02:49:00 PM
Anon#2 here. People will either get over it and go get DirecTV or they were not "core" fans in the first place. Heck, all the basic equipement plus installation is free now anyway with a 2 year agreement. For $150 bucks you can get a HD-DVR, an 2nd HD-box, an HD dish installed, plus at activation they'll throw in a bunch of free programming. They estimate that 5,000 of the former EI subs cannot get DTV, hmm.. $700,000,000+ versus 5,000 times $175, it would take a lot of years for that to not make sense.
# posted by : 3/09/2007 02:55:00 PM
: 3/09/2007 02:55:00 PM
Anon #2, I disagree that if we refuse to get DirectTV we are de facto casual baseball fans. Rob and I go to Spring Training every year, we've got season tickets to the Angels (finally) and attend minor league, college, and indie league baseball games. Baseball is a part of our lives every single day. I'd call that being core fans. The fact that we don't want to change our cable arrangement, attach a satallite dish to our house, and rearrange our internet service doesn't change that.
Also, I know of at least one other hard core baseball fan who blogs, has had season tickets to Cubs games for decades and visits Spring Training annually. He, like us, had MLBEI last year. He, like us, won't this year unless our cable providers offer it.
And my favorite team is out of market. (I'm looking at XM radio, though.)
Also, I know of at least one other hard core baseball fan who blogs, has had season tickets to Cubs games for decades and visits Spring Training annually. He, like us, had MLBEI last year. He, like us, won't this year unless our cable providers offer it.
And my favorite team is out of market. (I'm looking at XM radio, though.)
"You'd be asking 50 million people to pay, say, $2.50 a month so that 200,000 could get Extra Innings," the source said. "That's not going to happen."
Wait wait, let's do the math here. If this source isn't fudging the numbers here, he's saying that MLB is expecting to charge Time Warner $125 million a month for carrying The Baseball Channel, or $1.5 billion per year. The problem I see with this is that somehow I don't expect Time Warner is passing on the cost without increasing it's own profits.
In its own feud with Time Warner, NFL has claimed that the $10/month TW charges its customers who purchase the premium tier which includes the NFL Network brings in "500% more" revenue than is paid to the Network. It also claims that the amount it wished to charge for NFLN to be on the basic tier would amount to 70 cents per month for each Comcast subscriber, (or a far more modest $420M per year). Given that the NFL Network's audience is probably larger than the Baseball Channel's (at least initially), I'm highly skeptical of this source's numbers.
Wait wait, let's do the math here. If this source isn't fudging the numbers here, he's saying that MLB is expecting to charge Time Warner $125 million a month for carrying The Baseball Channel, or $1.5 billion per year. The problem I see with this is that somehow I don't expect Time Warner is passing on the cost without increasing it's own profits.
In its own feud with Time Warner, NFL has claimed that the $10/month TW charges its customers who purchase the premium tier which includes the NFL Network brings in "500% more" revenue than is paid to the Network. It also claims that the amount it wished to charge for NFLN to be on the basic tier would amount to 70 cents per month for each Comcast subscriber, (or a far more modest $420M per year). Given that the NFL Network's audience is probably larger than the Baseball Channel's (at least initially), I'm highly skeptical of this source's numbers.
# posted by : 3/11/2007 05:37:00 PM
: 3/11/2007 05:37:00 PM
"You'd be asking 50 million people to pay, say, $2.50 a month so that 200,000 could get Extra Innings," the source said. "That's not going to happen."
This quote is from a "Cable company executive." The Wall Street Journal article on the subject quoted an "industry expert" saying that the real cost would be around 20cents per subscriber.
This quote is from a "Cable company executive." The Wall Street Journal article on the subject quoted an "industry expert" saying that the real cost would be around 20cents per subscriber.
# posted by : 3/12/2007 10:30:00 AM
: 3/12/2007 10:30:00 AMNewer› ‹Older
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