By Joseph S. Enoch
ConsumerAffairs.com Congressional Correspondent
April 1, 2007
Major League Baseball has extended its deadline by one day for DirecTV's rivals to match the satellite telecaster's deal for out-of-market baseball games.
Digital cable providers and Dish Network originally had until yesterday to match the terms of a deal before MLB's Extra Innings package of out-of-market games would become exclusive to DirecTV for the next seven years.
"We continue to talk," Tim Brosnan, MLB's executive vice president for business said in today's New York Times. "We wouldn't have extended the deadline if we didn't think we could bring everybody in."
iN DEMAND, a consortium of digital cable providers, and MLB have been negotiating vigorously since Senators threatened the league at a Senate hearing last week.
Sports Business Daily characterized the negotiations as "extremely serious" and quoted sources close to the negotiations as saying that there is a "50-50" chance the deal will go through.
If negotiations break down and there is no deal, approximately 250,000 fans who subscribed to the package on cable or Dish Network in previous summers will no longer be able to watch out-of-market games.
