I know Dishnetwork posted they will not carry MLB Network this year but I hope that was a barganing ploy. Has anyone heard if they are still at the barganing table and will Dish ever get MLB network?
Any updates on MLB Network
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I was hoping that wasn't the case. Oh well. With a two year contract signed last fall I think I'm stuck for another 16 months unless there is a way to avoid the $$$ when cancelling.
MLBNet carriage is tied to the carriage of EI. Any provider who wants to carry MLBNet must also carry EI. The only way Dish can get MLBNet is if they also decided to carry EI.
They used to carry it. Dish decided to drop it probably because it was not profitable for them. From what I understand, they decided to drop it after Direct drove up the price by trying to purchase it exclusively.
Even if they do decide to carry it now, there is no way they can offer the same number of games in HD as other providers, especially DirecTV.
They had MLB Extra Innings, however not enough people purchased the package and they were losing money on it so they got rid of it. (It is because the Extra Innings Package didn't include games from popular teams such as the The New York Yankees?)
That's right, Dish does not carry YES so they will never have a YES feed of a Yankee game. Since they also did not do many duel feeds, fewer Yankee games were shown than they were on other providers.
Also because they didn't have YES the Yankees games were blocked out here in the local yankees area.
That's true too. Yankee fans in NY could not see the Yankees on the other team's feed due to MLB blackout rules. A large portion of the Dish EI sub base AND non-EI sub base lost out on seeing their favorite team play.
And we can't get the mlb.tv package either, because the yankees, mets, indians and pirates all claim western new york as their territory and their games are blacked on the online version. But get this; Toronto which is only 80 minutes over the river to me, does not get to claim this area. I even emailed MLB about this problem, and of course never got a answer back.
So it really sounds like YES created the problem. If YES contracted with Dish, then EI would be profitable for Dish and they would have picked up MLB Network.
Is there any way out of the DISH contract without penalties?
Actually we are thinking of buying a new home so if we move I believe we could drop Dish without any penalties, correct.
Well, the deal DirecTV and the cable companies signed up for was (1) pay a MUCH higher fee for MLB EI starting in 2007, and (2) you'll get a partial stake in the MLB Network. Dish passed on this deal.
BTW, in every single thread on this issue somebody states this incorrect info:
This is backwards. MLB required anyone who wanted MLB EI to commit to carrying the upcoming MLB Network, inorder to make the launch of the MLB Network to be successful. Charlie could pick up the MLB Network if he wished, but he saved his $$$ since he (probably) figures that the baseball fans interested in this channel have long since left for DirecTV.
