DirecTV acknowledges proposed deal for exclusive Extra Innings rights

Re: DirecTV wants Extra Innings package to itself

I don't know. There's a lot of sand in Iowa.

 

Re: DirecTV wants Extra Innings package to itself

It makes good business sense and would likely be one more nail in the coffin of dish network. Unless, of course, DirecTV is doing this because it fears it will lose rights to the NFL.

 

Re: DirecTV wants Extra Innings package to itself

I've got Center Ice and had Extra Innings last season. Center Ice is a much better product in so many ways.

* You get extras such as Hockey Night in Canada, Hockey Night After Hours and world juniors games. For the upcoming Hockey Day in Canada, you'll get programming all day and night.
* If the team in your region has a game that is televised, but not televised on a regular channel that you receive, you get it on a Center Ice channel.
* You get EVERY available English-language North American feed from each game. That means that sometimes for games involving U.S. teams, you get the feeds from both teams plus either the TSN or CBC feeds from Canada. On occasion, the only available feed for a Montreal game is a French-language broadcast. (The feature of getting every available feed comes on Dish Network, but I understand you only get the home-team feed on DirecTV.)

 

Re: DirecTV wants Extra Innings package to itself

This would be a terrible move for MLB.

Give a few years and nobody will want DirecTV or Cable. Both are coming close to tapping out on the amount of channels that they are able to provide. More channels are constantly being created and there just isn't room for them.

The replacement: FIoS. The current test bands provide a larger amount of HD channels than either satellite or cable and it is using less than a quarter of its allocated bandwidth.

 

Re: DirecTV wants Extra Innings package to itself

Good map.

What has always pissed me off about the blackout map is this -- the blackout of the Nationals in areas where Baltimore is in between. Believe me, if I'm driving 90 minutes to see the Orioles, the possibility of driving 2 1/2 hours to see the Nationals in person isn't really a consideration.

Likewise, if you're in southern North Carolina, the idea of driving through D.C. to hit Camden Yards is a little ludicrous.

 

Re: DirecTV wants Extra Innings package to itself

I pray this doesn't happen. I've had to drop DirecTV because I live in the woods and can't get a HD signal for my brand new Panasonic 42-incher. I'm switching to the Verizon Fios TV-phone-high-speed intranet combo, which offers Extra Innings (for now?). Yes, it'll pain me to lose the Sunday Ticket, but, hey ......

 

Re: DirecTV wants Extra Innings package to itself

Actually, Fios has never had Extra Innings. I believe the cable version was/is controlled by Comcast, Cox and a couple other cable companies who compete with Fios. Googling doesn't seem to provide much of an answer about Fios planning to add it or not.

 

Re: DirecTV wants Extra Innings package to itself

I would think that MLB would be interested in making the product available to as many people as possible. Limiting themselves wouldn't make sense from an MLB business standpoint, unless they raised the price of the package substantially when they're already charging enough.

 

Re: DirecTV wants Extra Innings package to itself

Passan has been pounding on that particular angle on Yahoo in a couple of columns during the season. The territorial rights issue is archaic and outdated, but that's what is controlling this process.

 

Re: DirecTV wants Extra Innings package to itself

I'm sure DirecTV and Dish knows that they won't have the best technology forever, which is why it makes sense to gain excluisive rights to as many of these services as possible. DirecTV knows there are very few differences between them and, say, Dish network, but they have their meal ticket in Sunday Ticket. If they gain as many meal tickets as possible, it strengthens their positioning in the marketplace.

No matter how much better Fios is or will be, they will get the same response from many would-be subscribers who care about baseball or football . . . Subscriber: "Do you have a football package or baseball package? Verizon: "Well, no, but we do offer ma..." Subscriber: "Call me back when you do. Click."
That's the point of gaining and overpatying for the rights to all the exclusive premium services.

 

Re: DirecTV wants Extra Innings package to itself

I don't know about Fios, but one advantage I see in Dish (and probably DirecTV) over cable is that you can get the Center Ice and Extra Innings type packages even with the lowest tier of programming. With cable, you must get digital cable in order to buy the sports packages. By getting a lower tier of programming, what you save pays for the package.