So thanks to Diane, I got all my MLB/Direct TV info in one place! And she inspired me to contact Bud Selig, John Kerry and, today, InDemand and Comcast. Of all the places I’ve emailed to complain about this deal, thus far the only response I’ve received was from Comcast a little earlier tonight. A long, detailed message that ended with, pretty much, a commercial for their services. No biggie, right? Well, except two things.
Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. Bud and Direct TV had a conference call today where the deal was announced. From the link Kay provided, Jeff Passan’s story at Yahoo Sports:
Major League Baseball will allow the In Demand cable provider and
the Dish Network satellite service a chance to match an agreed-upon
deal with DirecTV to sell MLB’s Extra Innings package, temporarily
quelling fears that thousands of fans would barred from receiving
out-of-market games.
MLB Executive Vice President Tim Brosnan said In Demand and
Dish have until March 31 to accept a deal that allows them Extra
Innings so long as they place the MLB Channel, which expects a 2009
launch, on the same basic subscription tier as DirecTV agreed to in its
contract.
"The incentive to them is so they can participate and so their
fans can obtain the product," Brosnan said. "There certainly was an
incentive for DirecTV, and we can assume the incentive is the same for
the cable company."
Bud Selig is an evil genius. This way the onus is on Cable (and Dish) to pick up the service to satisfy their customers. And if they don’t, Cable (or Dish) looks like the ‘bad guy’, not Selig. Well played, Bud, you evil bastid.
Here is where it gets interesting, or confusing. Here is an excerpt from the email Comcast sent me:
The cable industry did offer to continue carrying the Extra Innings
package which would have given all baseball fans access to games,
however the offer was not accepted.
Are you kidding me with this? Am I to understand that after this conference call was reported on all across the internet that Comcast wasn’t made aware of this?
Oh and in this same email, Comcast slams Direct TV (because I wrote that I was considering switching from Comcast for the Extra Innings plan) AND reminds me that, since I live in a region where there was a baseball team, I’d still be able to watch my home team. Because we all know that you only root for the team in the City where you live and the rest of baseball doesn’t exist.
As I’ve written way too many times already, I
like watching ALL of MLB. When the Sox aren’t on or their game is
over, I like watching more baseball (especially National League). What
Mr. Selig is pretty much doing is taking away a big part of what feeds
my love for baseball. So instead of being MORE interested in ALL
aspects of baseball, not being able to watch the games where it is
convenient for me makes me LESS interested. Thanks for that, Bud.
Brilliant marketing move.