Baseball, In Demand Heading to the Hill

BASEBALL, IN DEMAND HEADING TO THE HILL
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: R. Thomas Umstead]
In Demand and Major League Baseball will take their battle over carriage of the “MLB Extra Innings” out-of-market package to the nation's capital this week, as executives from both sides pitch Congress on what to do about baseball's controversial $700 million exclusive deal with satellite service DirecTV. Meanwhile, the clock ticks down toward baseball's March 31 deadline for cable to secure rights to the Extra Innings subscription package. If In Demand doesn't reach a deal with baseball by the deadline, DirecTV will gain exclusive rights to Extra Innings for seven years. Representatives from baseball and In Demand will take questions from the Senate Commerce Committee during a March 27 hearing to examine the viewer implications of the MLB/DirecTV Extra Innings deal, which would exclude cable operators from offering the $179 out-of-market game package to its subscribers. The hearing was called after several lawmakers -- including Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) -- questioned whether baseball's exclusive deal with DirecTV was anti-consumer, particularly since cable has offered the package since 2001. The industry generated around 200,000 buys from the package last year.
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