MLB and InDemand Reach Agreement on MLB Extra Innings
It was announced today that Major League Baseball and In Demand have, finally, reached an agreement over MLB’s Extra Innings package. This is great news to the millions of baseball fans around the country who could have been shut out from watching their favorite teams play.
Thanks to pressure from John Kerry, the two sides got down to business and hammered out a seven year deal. At the heart of the matter was MLB’s insistence that cable companies carry the MLB channel when it debuts in 2009.
Robert Jacobson, president and CEO of In Demand Networks, the consortium owned by Comcast, Cox and Time Warner Cable that negotiated the cable carriage on behalf of its owners and can extend to other cable operators, said in a statement this evening: “We couldn’t be happier that we have reached an agreement with Major League Baseball and are able to make these games available to baseball fans as we have for the past five years.”
Dish Network is still trying to work out an agreement, which requires any carrier to also carry the MLB channel. Several cable companies, as well as Verizon FIOS, also need to negotiate agreements. For the millions of cable customers with Comcast, Cox, and Time Warner, they will immediately be able to view games.
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