In- Demand 2008 Renewals

[mitchell801]

I have Comcast cable in the SF Bay Area.

How many of you plan to renew the Extra Innings package with In Demand.

I paid $ 149 last year, will it be the same ?

Will we get some HD games this year? I know they broadcast a few a week, byt Comcast does not carry them.

[Rennie Stennett]

Direct TV

I have Comcast cable in the SF Bay Area.

How many of you plan to renew the Extra Innings package with In Demand.

I paid $ 149 last year, will it be the same ?

Will we get some HD games this year? I know they broadcast a few a week, byt Comcast does not carry them.

Direct TV has the MLB package locked up. The cable companies are crying in their oatmeal and so am I after I learned of this.

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.

M.L.B., DirecTV and InDemand officials declined to comment.

DirecTV is also the exclusive outlet for the N.F.L.’s Sunday Ticket package, for which it pays $700 million annually. Sunday Ticket has about 2 million subscribers; Extra Innings about 750,000, according to The Sports Business Journal.

Extra Innings lets subscribers, for a fee, watch about 60 games a week from other local markets except their own.

The only other way that fans without DirecTV will be able to see Extra Innings will be on MLB.com’s mlb.tv service, but they must have high-speed broadband service. About 28 million homes have high-speed service, less than half the number of cable homes in the country. The picture quality of streamed games is not as good as what is available on cable or satellite.

DirecTV is available to about 15 million subscribers.

Last month, Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, who was then the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, cited DirecTV’s exclusivity with Sunday Ticket as a reason to strip the N.F.L. of an antitrust exemption to negotiate all TV contracts for its teams. Comcast, which has complained that it cannot carry Sunday Ticket, is a Philadelphia-based company."

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

direct tv:

http://www.directv.com

I posted the above in the current events area. I was not sure where to put it. I'm sure many will find this news in the coming month. It's 179.00 for the year or four payments of 40 bucks.

[old9in]

Direct TV has the MLB package locked up. The cable companies are crying in their oatmeal and so am I after I learned of this.



By RICHARD SANDOMIR

direct tv:

http://www.directv.com

I posted the above in the current events area. I was not sure where to put it. I'm sure many will find this news in the coming month. It's 179.00 for the year or four payments of 40 bucks.

Not sure where you got this info, or how old this is, its like info from about a year ago
In Demand did settle this last year and will carry games this year as well as the Baseball Channel in 2009

[Rennie Stennett]

You are correct sir !

Not sure where you got this info, or how old this is, its like info from about a year ago
In Demand did settle this last year and will carry games this year as well as the Baseball Channel in 2009

I was getting scared. I have the comcast cable, but I didn't see any advertising for the baseball package. At first, I thought, they were just trying to sell the hockey and NBA packages, what with the playoffs approaching. Then I call up the cable and talk to this gal and she knows nothing about it and here it is early March ! So I google it and I find that piece quoted above. Thank goodness for your post. I call the cable back up and another girl knows nothing of it again, but with much prodding by me, she found it. sheesh, what training ? Two weeks before opening day and their sales people don't even know about it ? WOW !

[old9in]

You are right on this! last year after In Demand settle this, I called up my cabel provider, ComCast and they had no clue what was going on! It took me 3 or 4 phone calls to find someone that new what was happening