Don't look for an announcement this week from MLB regarding placing MLB Extra Innings exclusively on DirecTV this week.

While John Kerry made some rumblings in statements to the FCC last week regarding the proposed plan to put Extra Innings exclusively on satcaster, the real reason for the delay in the announcement may be more benign: several of the MLB brass are not in New York this week, which would impact the ability to hold a press conference, should that be the preferred route by MLB.

Some news of interest...

• As we reported last night, Extra Innings will be made available in Canada on cable, regardless of whether the DirecTV deal takes place or not. This makes sense as DirecTV is not available in Canada, and would therefore blackout the entire country for out-of-market games.
• One aspect of the deal that has not been reported much involves DirecTV's intention to expand HDTV programming in the second half of the year. With that, the satcaster has been looking for programming to fill that need, and Extra Innings provides that.

As mentioned, don't look for the deal to be announced this week. As for next week...

OTHER EXTRA INNINGS ONLY ON DIRECTV ARTICLES ON BIZ OF BASEBALL (from oldest to newest)

• How a DirecTV-only Deal Could Impact Extra Innings
  
• DirecTV Only Deal for Extra Innings Nearly Here
• Exclusive DirecTV Deal for EI Starts to Get More Coverage
• "Talkin' Baseball (business)" - USA Today
• DirecTV Deal Tied to New 24-Hour MLB Channel
• John Kerry Enters the Fray on Pending DirecTV/EI Deal
• Hearing Testimony Hits on MLB, DirecTV Deal
• Canadians to Get MLB Extra Innings on Cable
• More MLB Extra Innings and DirecTV deal

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