MLB and TBS Thursday announced that the net will air the two new single-elimination Wild Card games created as part of the league's expanded postseason format. TBS will air the new playoff games this season and next, concurrent with its larger MLB rights contract for the League Division Series and one League Championship Series. The additional games carried an extra, undisclosed rights fee payment from Turner to MLB. The two sides also agreed to shift two, as-yet-undecided LDS games from TBS to MLB Network. The two Wild Card games are tentatively set for Friday, Oct. 5, two days after the end of the regular season, with half the LDS round to begin the following day, and the other half on Sunday, Oct. 7. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said, "There was enormous interest in these games." TBS President of Sales, Distribution & Sports David Levy added, "We believe these games will build upon the popularity of the sport." TBS will continue to air all regular-season tiebreaker games as part of its existing rights deal. The two LDS games set to air on MLB Network represent the first live postseason games for the league's three-year-old net (Eric Fisher, SportsBusiness Journal).
DISTRIBUTION CHALLENGE: USA TODAY's Michael Hiestand notes MLB Net's playoff games "will have a key difference" from regular-season games which air on NFL Network. The NFL insists that its cable games on NFL Net and ESPN "also air on TV in the home markets of teams in the games." MLB "won't allow that." Hiestand writes, "Talk about alienating some fans. Consider that about 60% of U.S. households get MLBN -- 69 million of the USA's 114 million TV households -- so imagine what's going to happen when, say, 40% of local fans won't see their home team." That would mean "nearly 3 million TV households would be shut out" in N.Y. alone. Hiestand: "No doubt they'll take it quietly." MLB Exec VP/Business Tim Brosnan said that the net has "added 13 million households in the past year 'and we think we have an opportunity to pick up more homes before the postseason -- that's our goal.'" Hiestand notes given MLB's playoffs "can have as many as 43 games, consigning some to MLBN isn't a huge deal." But for now, the league "can't blame some evil TV network when viewers can't see their teams." MLB "put a target on its own back" (USA TODAY, 5/18).
