Win In Extra Innings: MLB, Cable Reach Deal For Package

One week after U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) cajoled MLB and the cable industry into a final round of meetings over the out-of-market Extra Innings package, the two sides reached an agreement in principle late Wednesday. Some cable systems started rolling out the package last night; most will have it available to their subscribers tonight. The negotiations gained steam this week with the start of ‘07 season. Comcast’s highest-powered execs –- Chair & CEO Brian Roberts, COO Steve Burke and Exec VP/Content Acquisition Matt Bond — completed the deal. As has been the case throughout the months-long negotiating process, the biggest bone of contention dealt with MLB’s planned network, scheduled to launch in ’09. In exchange for launching the channel to around 21 million subscribers on digital basic tiers, cable will wind up with an equity stake in the channel. The stake will be 16%, equal to DirecTV’s stake. Originally, DirecTV agreed to take 20% of the channel, and it had to approve this deal. The deal means that at launch, the channel will have nearly 40 million homes, making it one of the most successful channel launches ever.

DISH PAN? EchoStar still hasn’t reached a deal for the package yet. While sources say a negotiating window for the DBS operator is still open, other sources say a deal is not likely. The main hang up is that baseball is asking Dish to pay 25% percent of the Extra Innings guarantee even though it has only 10% of its subscribers, which is consistent wit the terms DirecTV and cable agreed to (John Ourand & Eric Fisher, THE DAILY).

INDEMAND’S SUPPLY: In N.Y., Richard Sandomir notes MLB will receive an average of $100M per year through 2013 from DirecTV and cable operators, though the size of their payments “will be reduced of Dish negotiates its own deal.” Comcast, Time Warner and Cox are making Extra Innings available as a free preview “through sometime next week, after which it will cost a discounted $159 for a short period.” InDemand President Rob Jacobson said, “We’re very comfortable with the deal. We feel we were treated very fairly related to DirecTV.” The package will be made available today to other operators like Cablevision and Charter, “who must make individual deals,” since they are not part of the InDemand consortium (N.Y. TIMES, 4/5).