Baseball, DirecTV Finalize Agreement

BASEBALL, DIRECTV FINALIZE AGREEMENT
[SOURCE: Associated Press]
Major League Baseball announced its $700 million, seven-year agreement with DirecTV on Thursday and said the deal contains a provision that allows its "Extra Innings" package of out-of-market games to remain on cable television if the other incumbent providers agree to match the terms. The president of one of those providers, iN Demand's Robert Jacobson, immediately said those terms were impossible for his company to agree to and called it a "de facto exclusive deal." "Extra Innings" had more than 500,000 television subscribers last year plus about 60 percent more on MLB.com, the sport's Web site. DirecTV president Chase Carey says that there were about 230,000 subscribers to the "Extra Innings" package last year outside of DirecTV and estimated that just approximately 5,000 of that group would not have access DirecTV, a satellite service.
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2007/03/08/daily.8/