Major League Baseball Extends TV Deadline

DirecTV Rivals Get an Extra Day to Broker a Deal

By Joseph S. Enoch
ConsumerAffairs.com Congressional Correspondent

April 1, 2007

DirecTV • Billing Problems • Installation • Maintenance • Rebates • Sales Practices • Billing for "Adult" Shows • About those "Adult" Bills ... --- News • DirecTV Takes Disputed Fees Out of Customer Accounts, Suit Charges • Major League Baseball, Cable Operators Reach Agreement • Major League Baseball Extends TV Deadline • Senators Object to DirecTV Deal that Shuts Out Baseball Fans • DirecTV Settles Do Not Call Charges • DirecTV Telemarketers To Pay $75,000 Penalty • Fired DirecTV Contractors Say They Refused To Lie To Customers • Outbreak of DirecTV Porn Charges Hits Philadelphia • DirecTV Fined $5 Million for Do-Not-Call Violations • DirecTV Will Reform Ad Practices, Pay Millions in Refunds • DirecTV Abandons Satellite Internet Plans

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.

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