MLB has completed a seven-year, $700M deal with DirecTV. A deal that was so bad for the fan, it caught the eye of Senator John Kerry. “Extra Innings” had more than 500,000 television subscribers last year and only 5,000 would be frozen out by the new deal because they can’t get satellite service.
However, everyone had been in an uproar because anyone who doesn’t have DirecTV would have to switch from their cable providers. DirecTV and MLB tried to address those concerns by allowing cable providers the same package if it could match the terms of the deal with DirecTV. Unfortunately, that probably won’t happen. IN Demand’s president said the terms were impossible and called it a “defacto exclusive deal”.
While we feel for MLB fans and we think there should be more choices and not less, what about NFL fans? DirecTV and the NFL have been holding us hostage for years. Where was the senatorial media posturing when that deal was struck? Anyway, back to Extra Innings. May we suggest that you completely screw DirecTV and switch to the web based version. Sure the quality isn’t as good but you get to watch the day games at work.
Links:
[Boston Herald]: DirecTV strikes MLB deal
