Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Email me at btimmermann@gmail.com
Select a date:
Or maybe I can summarize it in even less time!
John Kerry starts off welcoming the witnesses and throws in two Yogi Berra quotes. And also says:
"I am concerned when fans lose access to their favorite team; or, as we will discover today, they are forced to change their TV service just to see games. That is wrong. That is a sign that the system is not working."
Rob Jacobson of INDemand is up next and apparently can speak only in form of a pdf file. Jacobson paints INDemand as the voice of the poor, oppressed baseball viewer and how his company never wanted an exclusive deal like DirecTV.
Then Stephen Ross, an antitrust law professor from Penn State comes to testify. He's not happy with the deal.
Ross nicely supplied an executive summary of his testimony:
“Strategic” legislation onerous to the industry that would facilitate voluntary compliance.
Next up, Bob DuPuy. He does not start his testimony by making an offering of a goat to Bud Selig, which I think might be in violation of his contract. DuPuy basically states that this is all just a matter of how the out-of-market games are delivered to the viewer, either via satellite or via cable or via internet. And MLB.TV will look really neat this year!
Then, the villain of the piece (because he's got the mustache for it), Chase Carey of DirecTV. He says pretty much the same thing DuPuy does except in a longer form and more business-ish. Carey thinks the bigger problem is that DirecTV isn't allowed to provide internet service, while cable companies can.
Finally, Carl Vogel of EchoStar speaks. Like Jacobson he can only speak in the form of a pdf. And he pretty much says the same thing as Jacobson.
So far just the statements are available online. The exciting give and take isn't anything I've seen so far, but judging from the opening statements, I think I may be more interested in seeing in waiting for Thursday when the Senate Commmitte on Environment and Public Works discussed the construction of a new Federal courthouse in Fresno. They will also discuss a courthouse project in Duluth!
A pox on Bud & Bob DuPuy (or Do Pay)
"Even now, we would enter into a deal for carriage of Extra Innings on the same terms as DIRECTV. If The Baseball Channel launches in 2009, we would give MLB the right to cancel the Extra Innings deal if it cannot reach a satisfactory agreement for carriage of the new channel with our owners. This would put off the issue of The Baseball Channel until it actually launches and ensure that for the next two years at least, all baseball fans will have access to the Extra Innings package. We think this is a fair compromise."
Why would MLB not take this deal unless they are more interested in giving DTV an exclusive?
Because MLB's real interest here is in funneling more consumers to MLB.TV, which of course results in more direct money in MLB's pocket, which increases the value of MLBAM . . . and sweetens the IPO of MLBAM, which is going to happen at some point. The only question is when. I'm no economist, and I have no numbers I can point to, but I'm guessing that MLBAM's IPO will result in huge profit returns for the owners.
In other words, MLB is acting in its own best interests to make more money, which should surprise no one.
Will anyone (did anyone) bring this up during the hearing?
the sports package on DTV has a whole bunch of FSN channels along with NESN and YES and Sun Sports, etc etc.
wouldn't having these pretty much be the same as Extra Innings or do they blackout the games?
That's another issue - why does EI offer only the home team's broadcast? Its not like they can't offer the away team broadcast - sometimes they do, if the home team has the game on a local channel. Why not do it all the time?
Mr. DuPuy did mention in the hearing that people who were losing access to EI could just go with MLB.TV (as if they were the same). Others pointed out that they wanted to watch games on their plasma screens instead of their laptops.
I actually subscribe to both EI (on cable) and MLB.TV. I have to do this to follow the Yankee games that are shown on My9 or are blacked out due to FOX. Even so, there is no solution for me that allows me to watch every Yankee game.
It just seems silly to me that MLB would not want to make their product available to the largest possible audience.
Give me my Dodgers!
That ticks me off too, Bama. I won't pony up for both EI and MLB.TV, but I understand why you do. If they put every last game on EI, I'd probably pay $250/year for it. But they won't.
"It just seems silly to me that MLB would not want to make their product available to the largest possible audience."
Totally agree. Of course, MLB also thought broadcasting on radio and later TV would mean the end of the sport.
My biggest fear was that the "Swiftboat Veterans for DirecTV" were going to disrupt the hearing... ;-)
Let me revise 21 to say:
My biggest fear was that Senator Kerry was going to say that he voted for the DirecTV deal before he voted against it.
Me too. I pay more than that now (EI and MLB.TV combined, not to mention XM radio).
If DirecTV gets exclusive rights for 7 years my guess is that you might be paying that $250/year for the same service that you currently have.
You and Professor Ross are of one mind.
I'll tell you what. Keep your extra innings. I'm a Yankee fan! So -- just let me contract with my provider for the Yes Network. MLB can keep the rest.
Of course -- who am I kidding. They'd never allow that!
HEY MR. SELIG, did you get that. Some people would actually pay more for fewer channels (or even just one channel). Run that one past your accountants and see if that helps your bottom line.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=lukas/070327
Uni Watch isn't usually in the habit of making preseason predictions, but let's just come out and say it: Jose Cruz Jr. for MVP.
...
One other thing about the new caps: Since they're made of synthetic fibers, they don't shrink. That could cause problems for Eric Gagné, who prefers a cap that's slightly too big and then lets it shrink to create a snug fit around his glasses (for full details, check out the "Dirty Laundry" section of this page). That's why his cap has traditionally been all sweat-stained -- once he's got one that's shrunk just right, he doesn't want the hassle of breaking in a new one. No surprise, then, that during spring training he's been wearing one of the old wool caps (note the telltale gray underbrim) instead of the newfangled polyester batting practice caps. Uni Watch is curious to see what he does once the regular season starts -- assuming he doesn't, you know, blow out his arm this weekend.
...
• Lots of small changes for the Dodgers: Player names, which had been missing from jerseys the past two seasons, have been restored (although they could use a refresher course on how to avoid loose threads); the blue piping and white outlining that used to be on the road jersey have been eliminated; the white outlining on the road jersey's uniform numbers is gone, too; the "Dodgers" patch on the road jersey's left sleeve is now an "LA" patch; and the gray outlining on the home jersey's "LA" patch has been eliminated.
Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.