While last year’s travails with Comcast wound up with me getting a free season of MLB Extra Innings (since they run on the same channels as NHL Center Ice), I was not pleased when I read a press release last week.  In the release, Major League Baseball announced that their Extra Innings baseball package would only be available on DirecTV beginning next year.  I think this is a mistake for many reasons.

First, the NFL is also in a DirecTV-only contract with their Sunday Ticket package.  Yes, the NFL can do no wrong the past decade when it comes to most decisions they make, I still think it’s a mistake to only have one carrier offer your product.  I’m sure they get more money from DirecTV for having the privilege of exclusivity and DirecTV can use that as a huge selling point, but I still think it limits the amount the league can actually make.

Baseball right now is arguably in a “renaissance” when you talk about attendance and new ballparks and player salaries and advertising revenue.  Of course if you talk about playoff TV ratings or doping scandals or clueless commissioners who think it’s a good idea to allow the All Star Game winner to get home field advantage in the World Series, you could say that baseball isn’t without its problems right now.

With that being said, I don’t think MLB should think it can do what it wants in regards to TV access like the NFL.  The amount of people who will actually drop their current carrier just to subscribe to DirecTV is far less than the amount of previous Extra Innings subscribers from Dish Network and all cable networks who used to be able to offer this package.  MLB.tv subscriptions allow you to see the same amount of games but I am not sold on that technology yet, as I just don’t like watching shows on my computer.

I don’t blame DirecTV for making these deals.  It really is a nice selling point for new subscribers but overall, I think most sports fans lose when “exclusive” deals like these are cut.  The idea isn’t as abominable as pay-per-game/view concept for regular season games (anyone in Chicago remember Hawks Vision?) but it still gives consumers less choice.  Let’s use me as an example.  I love satellite TV but I simply can’t get access because I’m surrounded by trees, thus MLB loses a potential Extra Innings subscriber since I’m stuck with cable.

As for us high definition TV geeks, the NFL is once again 3 steps ahead of the competition.  For an extra fee, you can have all your Sunday Ticket games broadcast in high definition.  I would gladly pay and extra $100 a year for all my NHL Center Ice games in high def and would do the same for the baseball package.