MLB Owners Approve Plans For Extra Innings, MLB Network

By Eric Fisher, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal

MLB owners Thursday approved the league’s contracts with DirecTV and 35 other MSOs for the distribution of the Extra Innings out-of-market package and launch of the MLB Network. The channel, now carrying that name, has a planned start of January 1, 2009, with early plans to carry 26 live, non-exclusive MLB games on Saturday nights. The network, jump-started by this year’s often fractious negotiations with cable’s InDemand consortium and others, will launch in at least 46.9 million homes. That would make it by far the most successful channel start in cable TV history, surpassing MSNBC, which launched in ’96 in 28 million homes. Furthermore, the carriage does not involve placement on dedicated sports tiers, marking a decided shift from the distribution challenges faced by operations such as NFL Network. “It’s happened really fast, but it’s been an amazing story,” said MLB Exec VP/Business Tim Brosnan. “This network will not rise and fall on the live games, but the creativity of the non-game programming.” The channel is two-thirds owned by MLB, with 16.67% of the equity held by DirecTV and the remaining amount split proportionally between InDemand partners Comcast, Time Warner and Cox.