The Pastime

Apparently Sen. John Kerry is taking up the crusade against the DirecTV deal.

“I am opposed to anything that deprives people of reasonable choices,” Kerry said in a statement. “In this day and age, consumers should have more choices — not fewer. I’d like to know how this serves the public — a deal that will force fans to subscribe to DirecTV in order to tune in to their favorite players. A Red Sox fan ought to be able to watch their team without having to switch to DirecTV.”

While I’m pleased that the issue is getting some serious attention, I’m not sure Kerry is going about it the right way. He’s emphasizing that it should “serve the public”, which really isn’t the issue. He’s treating the availability of the package as some sort of right that people have. I’m not so sure that’s a smart way, or a correct way, to effect change.

The issue I have with MLB allegedly reaching the exclusive deal with DirecTV is simple. Major League Baseball is functioning as a single entity in negotiating a single, exclusive deal for all clubs. It’s negotiated a deal with a single corporation that will eliminate competition from other service providers and financially benefit both parties. I’m not a lawyer, but that kind of business practice seems to stretch, if not break, the spirit of the law that exempts Major League Baseball from anti-trust regulation.

The massive reduction of outlets from which fans can watch baseball games is a terrible side effect of the deal, but not specifically why the deal is a bad move. Of course, if that’s the reason that the DirecTV deal is eliminated, I’m not going to complain. MLB can just go back to the old arrangement. Teams haven’t seen a penny of that extra $1 million per year yet anyway.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 at 2:21 am and is filed under General Baseball, Rumors, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.