Extra Innings Off Cable!

Sometimes, MLB just really pisses me off. The New York Times is reporting that MLB and DirectTV are about to enter an exclusive partnership for showing MLB Extra Innings. Now, a lot of people have been using MLB.tv and I agree, it's good, but MLB should not be restricting the number of people that can see games.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/20/sports/baseball/20base.html?em&ex=1169528400&en=25d4c0d927 362129&ei=5087%0A

Lede: Major League Baseball is close to announcing a deal that will place its Extra Innings package of out-of-market games exclusively on DirecTV, which will also become the only carrier of a long-planned 24-hour baseball channel.

Extra Innings has been available to 75 million cable households and the two satellite services, DirecTV and the Dish Network. But the new agreement will take it off cable and Dish because DirecTV has agreed to pay $700 million over seven years, according to three executives briefed on the details of the contract but not authorized to speak about them publicly.

InDemand, which has distributed Extra Innings to the cable television industry since 2002, made an estimated $70 million bid to renew its rights, more than triple what it has been paying. Part of its offer included the right to carry the new baseball channel, but not exclusively.

The baseball channel is scheduled to start in 2009.