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March 05, 2007
DirecTV & MLB: Fair?
I'd like to take a moment to stray from the "baseball as a sport" conversation and discuss the "baseball as a business" topic. In the past few days, it was announced that DirecTV made a deal with Major League Baseball which would give DirecTV exclusive rights to the MLB's out-of-market games. This means that fans will only be able to enjoy the games of their local teams. The only way fans will be able to watch any games of out-of-town teams will be to buy the package from DirecTV.
What's amusing to me is that DirecTV claims that this deal will "benefit the consumers" because there will be "more content and more features". How will the consumers benefit when DirecTV is able to abuse their newly-strengthened market power and charge an arm and a leg for their package? Previously, out-of-market games were available to anyone through non-exclusive deals with cable, satellite, or telephone companies. Now, Major League Baseball is catering to those who are wealthy enough to afford an extravagant package.
Since when has baseball been a luxury? To me, baseball is America's National Pastime, a sport that all Americans can enjoy together, regardless of socioeconomic status. The MLB is allowing DirecTV to abuse their power, and I'm truly disappointed.
Posted by bryblum at March 5, 2007 05:29 PM