http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2012/06/04/Leagues-and-Governing-Bodies/MLBTV.aspx

Negotiations for the next big sports media deal will begin in earnest this week as Major League Baseball officially takes its national TV rights to the open market (http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/6/5/3065220/mlb-tv-contract-bidding-fox-espn-tbs-nbc-end-blackouts).

League executives have been negotiating with network partners ESPN, Fox Sports and Turner for the past several months (http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=292393). But those exclusive negotiating windows have ended without deals. The final window, with ESPN, ends in the middle of this week, sources said, allowing MLB to start negotiations with other networks, like NBC Universal, which has made no secret of its desire to pick up a package of rights for its NBC Sports Network cable channel. NBC has not held MLB rights since 2000 and is eager to bid on them this summer, sources said.

“We think it’s a great property, and given the opportunity, we’d welcome the discussion,” said Greg Hughes, NBC Sports Group senior vice president of communications.

MLB’s current set of national media deals, signed in July 2006, end after next season. But several sources expect new deals to be finalized as soon as this summer. Currently, ESPN pays an average of $306 million per year for its package that includes “Sunday Night Baseball;” Fox pays an average of $257.1 million per year for its package led by the All-Star Game and World Series; and Turner pays an average of $148.6 million per year, with its rights fronted by the Division Series, half of the League Championship Series, and most recently the two new single-game elimination Wild Card playoff games.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks at (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/03/sports/baseball/major-league-baseball-wants-more-money-from-tv-contracts.html?_r=1) the on-going MLB TV rights negotiations.

From Adweek, Anthony Crupi writes that NBC and Turner Sports appear to be fighting (http://www.adweek.com/news/television/baseballs-long-hot-summer-141725) for the main cable rights to MLB.

Jordan Kobritz of the Prescott (AZ) Daily Courier looks at (http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=2&ArticleID=108581) the MLB TV rights negotiations.

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2012/09/which-tv-networks-will-win-baseballs-version-of-musical-chairs/

While ESPN has already locked up a piece of baseball TV rights for eight additional years, the most intriguing negotiations are yet to come.

Rights to the Major League Baseball Division Series, League Championship Series, and World Series — to say nothing of the MLB All-Star Game and the Saturday “Game of the Week” — remain up for grabs, with some combination of Fox Sports, NBC Sports, or Turner Sports/CBS expected to bid.

Currently, rights to those marquee events are divvied up between Fox Sports and Turner Sports. FOX, paying $257 million/year through the end of next season, holds the rights to the the World Series, one half of the League Championship Series, the regular season “Game of the Week,” and the MLB All-Star Game.

Turner Sports, paying $149 million/year, holds the rights to the entire Division Series and the other half of the League Championship Series.

According to a report in Sports Business Journal Monday, the Fox and Turner Sports deals could be combined into one massive television package. Both FOX and CBS/Turner Sports have reportedly proposed deals that would have them acquire the consolidated package.

Presented is an overview of the networks involved in MLB rights negotiations:

John Ourand of Sports Business Journal talks about (http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2012/09/03/Media/MLB-ESPN.aspx#.UEYNKM0lhPQ.twitter) the fierce bidding between Fox and Turner (http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2012-articles/september/cbs-making-a-play-for-mlb-rights.html) for the MLB TV contract.

Here's an intriguing proposition that somebody on Awful Announcing (http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2012-articles/september/cbs-making-a-play-for-mlb-rights.html) wrote in response to CBS apparently only wanting to cover just the marquee events (and not the regular season) in a potential future baseball TV contract:
*Let NBC take over the PGA Tour package on Saturdays (which in essence they have done already by extension with the Golf Channel) so that CBS could air MLB games on Saturday afternoons.
**In theory, all of these golf tournaments that would potentially run over on Sundays (and cut into CBS' prime time schedule on the East Coast) wouldn't really hurt if NBC was allowed to get the golf tournaments instead.

*If CBS and Turner Sports were sharing resources for Saturday games, then it could potentially mean less travel expense since you would be having the same broadcast team(s) call games on both days. More to the point, CBS and Turner could use TBS, TNT, and TruTV (similar to their NCCA basketball tournament coverage) to air three separate games, regionally on Sundays. These would be the same three series games that CBS would broadcast regionally on Saturday.

Fox is holding on to the World Series till 2021 (http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Closing-Bell/2012/09/19/MLB-TV.aspx). "That's almost a decade," Tim McCarver says.

http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2012-articles/september/turner-and-fox-to-retain-mlb-rights.html

Well, it looks like all of our optimism earlier this month was for naught. A report released yesterday from Sports Business Daily indicates that Fox and Turner will be retaining the MLB weekend and playoff rights through the 2021 season. Fox will be paying $4 billion over the eight year deal (or $500 million a season) and Turner will be paying $2.8 billion (or $350 million per season) over their eight year pact.

With ESPN paying $700 million per season, that's $1.55 billion that MLB is bringing in just with TV rights, or around $50 million per team. That's a pretty good chunk of change for the lower payroll clubs, with total salaries ranging from $55 to $70 million for some of the lower budget teams. Once the local TV deals comes into play, some teams could completely fund their lineups with nothing but TV money... everything else is just gravy.

Now, from the fan's standpoint of things, what is each network getting? The status quo will essentially remain, but there are some changes. Fox will continue to brodcast the World Series, and Fox and TBS will both share both the League Championship Series and League Divisional Series. Previously, the two networks shared just the LCS, with TBS airing all of the LDS games. As for weekend packages, the status quo will again remain. TBS will air the Sunday afternoon game, and Fox will keep possession of the Saturday game... however, some broadcasts will be moved to Fox's reported all-sports channel Fox Sports One (which apparently will be replacing Speed).

Many fans are probably going to be dissatisfied with this, but this might not be all that bad. With Fox planning to throw some of their exclusive Saturday games on a cable channel (much like TBS), I'm getting a feeling that we might see weekend blackouts lifted (which would be an absolute dream come true for fans nationally). I highly doubt MLB would allow a blackout of a quarter of the games on a weekend day because of games airing on... cable. As for the games that will air on the network TV I can give you four words to sum up the games on there: Baseball Night in America. The promotion has been a smash over the last two years for Fox, and I predicted back in July that it would continue on for the 2013 season.

Two more storylines coming out of these deals: the lack of involvement of CBS and NBC. It was reported a couple of weeks ago that CBS might partner with Turner in an attempt to get something done, but there's no mention of them in the SBD report. As for NBC, we all expected them to get involved... and yet, nothing. Either their brass wants nothing to do with paying billions for a major sport to headline NBC Sports Network, or they have something else up their sleeve. Given the NHL lockout has just begun, NBC is going to need *something* to prop up their sports division this fall, because non-BCS conference football isn't going to do the job.

At the end of the day, it's another decade of Joe Buck & Tim McCarver calling the World Series. They aren't going anywhere, which at the very least should mean AA's doors will remain open too. At least we have that to be thankful for.

I do hope my NBC Affiliate WKYC gets the rights to show Indians Baseball, even though they suck ass!

I'm surprised they're not billion dollar deals like the NFL and NBA have.

But I can see why baseball ratings have fallen in the past 30 to 40 years. It's boring as hell!

Ball....strike...foul...ball....foul.....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

Edmund Lee of Bloomberg analyzes the new MLB TV deals (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-02/mlb-said-to-get-6-8-billion-from-fox-turner-to-renew-tv-rights.html) with Fox and Turner.

Joe Flint from the Los Angeles Times says MLB hit a home run (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-baseball-fox-tbs-20121002,0,3675669.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+entertainment%2Fbusiness+%28Company+Town%29) by more than doubling its rights fees from Fox and Turner.

USA Today’s Michael Hiestand analyzes the new MLB TV deals (http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2012/10/02/michael-hiestand-mlb-playoff-tv-coverage/1608435/) with Fox and Turner.

Alex Ben Block of the Reporter goes over the MLB contracts (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/mlb-fox-turner-deal-375739) with Fox and Turner.

John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable writes that the American Cable Association is railing against (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/489687-ACA_Pans_MLB_Rights_Deal.php) the MLB TV deals.

Ed Sherman from The Sherman Report anticipates Fox’s next move (http://www.shermanreport.com/coming-soon-new-fox-sports-cable-network-mlb-games/) to create an all-sports cable channel.

Mike Reynolds from Multichannel News also delves into (http://www.multichannel.com/news-article/mlb-finalizes-rights-deals-fox-turner/139573) the new MLB deals.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times looks at (http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/tv-deals-for-2014-set/?ref=richardsandomir) the new MLB TV deals.

Jim Williams of the Washington Examiner writes about (http://washingtonexaminer.com/jim-williams-mlb-agrees-to-eight-year-tv-deal-with-fox-turner/article/2509656) the new MLB TV deals.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News says the new TV deals with Fox and Turner gives MLB plenty of stability (http://www.insidesocal.com/tomhoffarth/archives/2012/10/mlb-extensions.html) into the next decade.

Edmund Lee of Bloomberg analyzes the new MLB TV deals (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-02/mlb-said-to-get-6-8-billion-from-fox-turner-to-renew-tv-rights.html) with Fox and Turner.

Joe Flint from the Los Angeles Times says MLB hit a home run (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-baseball-fox-tbs-20121002,0,3675669.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+entertainment%2Fbusiness+%28Company+Town%29) by more than doubling its rights fees from Fox and Turner.

I wish baseball would have a lockout like the NHL! :lol: