March 13, 2007
End Around
BBTF's Newsblog links to a story about how iN Demand might get around the DirecTV deal:
To compete, iN Demand may take an interesting side route to keep from losing customers to DirecTV: offer free or deeply discounted access to MLB.TV, the MLBAM controlled online version of Extra Innings.
Customers would still need to watch on their computers, which is a complaint I've heard often in these posts. But broadband to the house to getting faster. I recently upgraded my home to a 3MB line, and videos now stream without interruption. Not a bad strategy, although MLB may not let them carry it out.
Baseball Musings is holding a pledge drive in March. There's one copy of The Baseball Economist left.
Posted by David Pinto at
08:37 AM
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So I don't get it. If I have digital cable w/ Time Warner, can I get the Extra Innings package or no?
It just blows my mind how stupid MLB is about this whole thing. All this is doing is pissing people off.
As of this morning, 3/13/2007, MLB's Business honcho, Tim Brosnan told me that "There is an offer out to the cable operators right now." And then he says the expected, to call your cable operators and tell them that you want EI to remain on cable. Yesterday, a spokesperson from In Demand told me to: "hang in there ... we are still trying to find a way to make this work." From my experience with Comcast, local customer service reps are not up to speed on any new developments, and when one tries to express interest in their retaining EI, they act as if it's already been decided. But it still appears that there's some slim hope. As to if you can , or should, bombard your cable operator with requests that keep EI on, well, it probably can't hurt, at least up until MLB's deadline of March 31st.
I don't care how fast broadband is, the issue is the screen. People pay insane amounts of money for 50 and 60 inch plasma displays to watch sports, and I'm supposed to believe that critical mass is going to sit around watching baseball games on their laptop? Come on.
This is a great move by the cable guys to show that they are creative and won't be pushed around. I hope it gets the okay from MLB. I want to see if the model works as planned and it takes away subscribers from DirecTV.
As long as MLB gets the standard rate from the cable folks, I'm sure they say more power to 'em. Heck, that might lead to more subscribers and more cash than MLB had dreamed of. It's not like cable can charge $5 and give MLB $4, I'm sure there's a minimum. I'm sure the demand curve is off the charts for $20 MLB.TV.
Of course, many folks who don't understand it's a business would wonder why MLB doesn't offer it for $20.
