MLB Extra Innings

[Derwood]

Baseball should be offering this to any dish/cable provider that wants it and selling it for as cheap as possible to get as many sucscribers as possible.

 

It is amazing to me that marketers haven't figured out by now that the more people you get to watch games the more the interest grows and ticket sales and merchandise sales increase.

 

Seems like MLB is getting their broadcasting advice from Bill "don't show any home games on TV so I don't give away my product" Wirtz. It's worked out pretty well for him, huh? That UC is really rocking for Blackhawk games.

 

Nice post. That's exactly what should be happening, but I doubt anyone ever accuses Bud Selig of being a rocket scientist.

 

Clearly Selig/MLB would not enter into this contract if they weren't going to profit from it. I'm not sure all you amateur economists know all the facts here

So are we to assume you are a professional economist with access to all the facts?

The way I see it, for one million per team, they are cutting the audience for the EI package by 2/3 to 3/4 of the previous year. Dollarwise a win, exposure wise a huge loss.

I guess I'll spend the $160 on something else this year.

 

I was not inferring that I was an expert. But I think that a business as successful as MLB doesn't just randomly commit to one TV provider for their sports package if they don't think it will result in the greatest profitability. Perhaps they know something we don't as far as the future of DirecTV. As I said many, many pages back, there are rumors circulating that DirecTV is trying to negotiate exclusive rights to many channels' HD broadcasts. If that happens, expect DirecTV subscriptions to soar as people with HDTV's won't have any other options

[CubinNY]

Baseball should be offering this to any dish/cable provider that wants it and selling it for as cheap as possible to get as many sucscribers as possible.

 

It is amazing to me that marketers haven't figured out by now that the more people you get to watch games the more the interest grows and ticket sales and merchandise sales increase.

 

Seems like MLB is getting their broadcasting advice from Bill "don't show any home games on TV so I don't give away my product" Wirtz. It's worked out pretty well for him, huh? That UC is really rocking for Blackhawk games.

 

Nice post. That's exactly what should be happening, but I doubt anyone ever accuses Bud Selig of being a rocket scientist.

 

Clearly Selig/MLB would not enter into this contract if they weren't going to profit from it. I'm not sure all you amateur economists know all the facts here

So are we to assume you are a professional economist with access to all the facts?

The way I see it, for one million per team, they are cutting the audience for the EI package by 2/3 to 3/4 of the previous year. Dollarwise a win, exposure wise a huge loss.

I guess I'll spend the $160 on something else this year.

 

I was not inferring that I was an expert. But I think that a business as successful as MLB doesn't just randomly commit to one TV provider for their sports package if they don't think it will result in the greatest profitability. Perhaps they know something we don't as far as the future of DirecTV. As I said many, many pages back, there are rumors circulating that DirecTV is trying to negotiate exclusive rights to many channels' HD broadcasts. If that happens, expect DirecTV subscriptions to soar as people with HDTV's won't have any other options

 

Or expect Direct TV to go belly up. They've committed a lot of money and baseball ratings aren't exactly football ratings.

 

I really couldn't care less, but I am glad I grew up before the days of cable and dishes. Some of my fondest memories as a child are watching the Cubs with my dad. There is no way in hell he'd pay the money to watch 30 teams he doesn't care about for the 1 team he does.

[macuser2]

Some of my fondest memories as a child are watching the Cubs with my dad. There is no way in hell he'd pay the money to watch 30 teams he doesn't care about for the 1 team he does.

 

In my case, it was my grandfather who was my inspiration. I would go to visit him in Milwaukee, and he would take me to see the a team called the Braves play at a park called County Stadium. Those were the days.

 

I guess I should have relaized that that baseball began to change when the Braves left Milwaukee, and baseball began to evolve more into a business.

 

So what's a fan to do now? Well I suppose that the streaming broadcasts from mlb.com are one way.

 

But there are a lot of people such as myself who became Cubs fans by watching the games on WGN on basic cable. The same is true for WTBS and the Braves. But everything is different now, and I am not too sure I like how it is going.

[oldcubsfan]

Baseball should be offering this to any dish/cable provider that wants it and selling it for as cheap as possible to get as many sucscribers as possible.

 

It is amazing to me that marketers haven't figured out by now that the more people you get to watch games the more the interest grows and ticket sales and merchandise sales increase.

 

Seems like MLB is getting their broadcasting advice from Bill "don't show any home games on TV so I don't give away my product" Wirtz. It's worked out pretty well for him, huh? That UC is really rocking for Blackhawk games.

 

Nice post. That's exactly what should be happening, but I doubt anyone ever accuses Bud Selig of being a rocket scientist.

 

Clearly Selig/MLB would not enter into this contract if they weren't going to profit from it. I'm not sure all you amateur economists know all the facts here

So are we to assume you are a professional economist with access to all the facts?

The way I see it, for one million per team, they are cutting the audience for the EI package by 2/3 to 3/4 of the previous year. Dollarwise a win, exposure wise a huge loss.

I guess I'll spend the $160 on something else this year.

 

I was not inferring that I was an expert. But I think that a business as successful as MLB doesn't just randomly commit to one TV provider for their sports package if they don't think it will result in the greatest profitability. Perhaps they know something we don't as far as the future of DirecTV. As I said many, many pages back, there are rumors circulating that DirecTV is trying to negotiate exclusive rights to many channels' HD broadcasts. If that happens, expect DirecTV subscriptions to soar as people with HDTV's won't have any other options

Seeing that Congress has mandated all TV bradcasting to be in HD in the future, it seems impossible that these rumors you speak of have any validity at all.

Unless you think Congress will mandate that there will only one distributor of television and that would be Directv. Sorry, don't buy that or the so called rumors.

[BigbadB]

Seeing that Congress has mandated all TV bradcasting to be in HD in the future, it seems impossible that these rumors you speak of have any validity at all.

Unless you think Congress will mandate that there will only one distributor of television and that would be Directv. Sorry, don't buy that or the so called rumors.

 

Exactly. Everything is supposed to be HD sooner or later.

 

And to touch on a point in your first post in this topic, MLB stood to make 70m this year from JUST the cable companies. That would not include the offers ponied up by Dish and DirecTV and any other service to continue providing the service as they have in the past. The combined totals might have surpassed the 100m they stand to make by going exclusive with DirecTV.

 

Seems like a poor decision to me. Amateur economist or not.

[Banedon]

Seeing that Congress has mandated all TV bradcasting to be in HD in the future, it seems impossible that these rumors you speak of have any validity at all.

Unless you think Congress will mandate that there will only one distributor of television and that would be Directv. Sorry, don't buy that or the so called rumors.

 

Exactly. Everything is supposed to be HD sooner or later.

 

And to touch on a point in your first post in this topic, MLB stood to make 70m this year from JUST the cable companies. That would not include the offers ponied up by Dish and DirecTV and any other service to continue providing the service as they have in the past. The combined totals might have surpassed the 100m they stand to make by going exclusive with DirecTV.

 

Seems like a poor decision to me. Amateur economist or not.

 

I'm not sure that you guys are actually correct on the mandate that all programming is to be in HD...I'm pretty sure that it's that all programming must be digital rather than analog.

[J.R.]

I'm not sure that you guys are actually correct on the mandate that all programming is to be in HD...I'm pretty sure that it's that all programming must be digital rather than analog.

 

You win.

[oldcubsfan]

Seeing that Congress has mandated all TV bradcasting to be in HD in the future, it seems impossible that these rumors you speak of have any validity at all.

Unless you think Congress will mandate that there will only one distributor of television and that would be Directv. Sorry, don't buy that or the so called rumors.

 

Exactly. Everything is supposed to be HD sooner or later.

 

And to touch on a point in your first post in this topic, MLB stood to make 70m this year from JUST the cable companies. That would not include the offers ponied up by Dish and DirecTV and any other service to continue providing the service as they have in the past. The combined totals might have surpassed the 100m they stand to make by going exclusive with DirecTV.

 

Seems like a poor decision to me. Amateur economist or not.

 

I'm not sure that you guys are actually correct on the mandate that all programming is to be in HD...I'm pretty sure that it's that all programming must be digital rather than analog.

 

You are correct. My mistake, however, the fact that most sets being produced(at least the high end ones) are HD. People paying for these sets will not be happy if they can't get HD signals from a variety of providers and they will let congress know. Exclusivity of HD signals to one distributor just won't happen.

[radarluv1]

is bud's salary tied to MLB's profits? it seems obvious that MLB is taking a quick payout that would likely have detrimental long-term effect.

[BigbadB]

is bud's salary tied to MLB's profits? it seems obvious that MLB is taking a quick payout that would likely have detrimental long-term effect.

 

All he has to do is buy up a lot of MLB.TV stock once people find out they can't get their MLB EI anymore, and he'll be as rich as he wants to be.

 

He's already told the world he's retiring. Now he's just got to get his retirement fund started. His kid's kid's kid's kids have got to eat.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

MLB isn't worried about limiting the market for EI. In their view, the fans that choose not to switch in order to recieve the package either will switch to MLBTV or just watch the in-market team. With the regional sports networks, most areas are covered with an in-market team. In fact, it's been said that MLB prefers fans be fans of the "market" team as that increases revenue for those teams.

[BigbadB]

Why stop at DirecTV? Maybe DirecTV could go exclusive with a particular brand of television. And maybe the tv brand can go exclusive with a particular piece of furniture. And maybe the furniture brand can go exclusive with a certain kind of refrigerator. And maybe the refrigerator brand can go exclusive with a certain kind of beer.

 

In the not too distant future, or possibly sooner, to get MLB EI, only those people with an Amana refrigerator filled with Budweiser, La-Z-Boy strato-lounger with a Sony HD TV and DirecTV can have MLB EI.

[Soul]

is bud's salary tied to MLB's profits? it seems obvious that MLB is taking a quick payout that would likely have detrimental long-term effect.

 

All he has to do is buy up a lot of MLB.TV stock once people find out they can't get their MLB EI anymore, and he'll be as rich as he wants to be.

 

He's already told the world he's retiring. Now he's just got to get his retirement fund started. His kid's kid's kid's kids have got to eat.

 

If this is going to have a detrimental effect on MLB, then explain how Sunday Ticket has hurt the NFL.

[Garwilly]

Why stop at DirecTV? Maybe DirecTV could go exclusive with a particular brand of television. And maybe the tv brand can go exclusive with a particular piece of furniture. And maybe the furniture brand can go exclusive with a certain kind of refrigerator. And maybe the refrigerator brand can go exclusive with a certain kind of beer.

 

In the not too distant future, or possibly sooner, to get MLB EI, only those people with an Amana refrigerator filled with Budweiser, La-Z-Boy strato-lounger with a Sony HD TV and DirecTV can have MLB EI.

 

I would love to have an Amana full of Bud while I sit in a la-z-boy, watching HD baseball

[Abe Frohman]

FWIW, I called Dish Network tonight and inquired about this rumor. The operator said they still plan on carrying the MLB EI package. I guess I will call DirecTV and get their side too.

[dalgreen]

If this is going to have a detrimental effect on MLB, then explain how Sunday Ticket has hurt the NFL.

 

To me, a better question would be," With baseball trying to become more popular how is this going to help?"

[ryno2355]

I have read through most of this, is it a for sure thing that only Direct TV is going to have EI??? Or is there still hope that cable will provide it??sorry if that was already said but i wanted to be positive! I sure dont want to go back to Direct TV...

[BigbadB]

I haven't heard yet. I'll be calling my cable company on February 15th to put my order in, and see what they tell me then.

[kylescubs23]

Article by Ed Sherman in the Tribune about this today. I wrote him about starting an on-line petition against this.

 

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/cs-070208sherman,1,5117825.column?coll=cs-cubs-utility

[BigbadB]

Even worse is the fact that we are less than 7 days away from the start of early bird sign ups, and there still hasn't been an official announcement.

 

I'm going to sign up on the 15th. I want my cable company to have to go to the trouble of refunding my money.

[Abe Frohman]

Bud Selig is a criminal. It won't surprise me if he does this, then throws his hands up in the air when the whole world is pissed at him.

[Rob]

Much as I had to admit it, it's a pretty good business move by MLB.

 

Really, the people who don't get to watch the extra innings package now are the die-hard fans... the sort who might get mlb.tv anyways. Those few that miss out are still going to be baseball fans, though... and the very few they do lose will be more than made up by the huge paycheck from DirecTV coming their way.

 

With even decent investment of a portion of what they make with this deal, it'll more than pay for itself short and long term.

[Soul]

MLB won't lose a single fan over this. Blustering and bellyaching to the Moon and back, yes. But not a single fan lost.

[J.R.]

Article by Ed Sherman in the Tribune about this today.

 

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/cs-070208sherman,1,5117825.column?coll=cs-cubs-utility

 

More blithering.

 

Bud Selig is a criminal.

 

Oh.

[Laura]

R. Thomas Umstead / MultiChannel News[/url]"] Executives close to several multiple-system operators said the cable industry late last week made a last-minute pitch to significantly increase the industry’s subscriber commitment to the league’s proposed channel, set to launch in 2009 — the major curveball in negotiations to secure the league’s out-of-market package of live games.

 

But other executives close to the negotiations said MLB could announce an exclusive Extra Innings distribution deal with DirecTV as early as this week.

 

The developments came as baseball commissioner Bud Selig said last week that whatever deal is cut would only adversely affect a “small” number of fans.

 

Executives close to the MSOs said cable has “significantly” increased its subscriber commitment to the launch of baseball’s planned 24-hour dedicated channel, although it’s unclear how big of a base has been promised.

 

Executives close to the negotiations said the commitment is for more households than the 15 million DirecTV subscribers that would put the planned service on the “Total Choice Plus” tier, part of DirecTV’s proposed $700 million, seven-year offer for exclusive rights to Extra Innings, which retails for $179 per season.

 

Initially the cable industry, through video-on-demand and pay-per-view content provider In Demand, said it would only distribute the channel via premium sports tiers, which on average reach less than 20% of all digital subscriber homes.

 

In Demand executives would not comment on the matter.

 

 

Phillip Swann / TVPredictions.com[/url]"]

Concerned that Congress could re-open legislative probes of the league's steroid policies and other sticky issues, MLB officials decided earlier this month to give the 'Extra Innings' package another look before making any announcements. The league has since searched for a plan that would satisfy both congressional critics and maintain DIRECTV's exclusivity over most games in a pay package.

 

In addition, according to sources, cable TV operators have freshened up their bids to keep the pay package which has been available to both cable and satellite operators for several years. The operators are also leaning on congressional supporters such as Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), whose state is the home of Comcast's corporate headquarters, to keep the pressure on the league.

 

The flurry of activity -- and scores of critical commentaries in the press -- is why the DIRECTV deal has been on hold for nearly a month.

 

In addition to what cable and DIRECTV are willing to pay for Extra Innings, another negotiation point is Major League Baseball's planned 2009 launch of a new channel devoted to baseball. The league believes DIRECTV would offer it to most, if not all, of its subscribers as a lure to sign up for the Extra Innings package.