MLB DirecTV

Rumor has it that Major League Baseball and DirecTV are close to a deal that will make DirecTV the exclusive provider of the MLB Season Pass. See http://thesportsbizblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/mlb-joining-nfl-exclusively-on-direct.html
for additional details.

This is not great news for baseball fans. It means that if you want to follow your team live and don't happen to live in its home market, you'll have to get DirecTV or use the subscribe on MLB.com for streaming internet coverage.

The reasons for the deal are clear. MLB is cashing in on this package now, possibly sacrificing total viewers for the cash now. It's hard to argue their business case one way or the other until the figures are in, but it's not hard to see that they're putting money ahead of the fans.

The other party to the deal, DirecTV is placing another bet on content in its race for subscribers with the Dish Network. Each company's valuation has fluctuated with it's ability to sign up new subscribers (not unlike the satellite radio duel). The question is, will the money lost on the rights fees (minus the revenues from selling the package) be offset by these new subscribers. Well that remains to be seen. MLB's online subscription is actually quite good, offering a ton of features like custom highlights and express games (full game in 20 minutes) if you're willing to watch on your computer.

Comcast and the other cable providers are the clear losers if this deal comes off as they lost a potentially valuable add-on sale to their digital cable packages. Maybe at least DirecTV will actually offer every game unlike the Comcast package that liked to randomly omit games.