Thread: No baseball on Sirius, who is actually to blame?

Who is actually to blame for no MLB on Sirius? Is it MLB for wanting more money or is it Sirius XM for still running the merged company like two seperate units?

I believe that MLB would not allow Sirius to carry it because the contract was negotiated with XM based on potential listener volume and the merger greatly increased that. So MLB wanted more money much the same way the NCAA won't allow XM to carry the NCAA tourney. Both contracts were consummated well before the merger and were written with exclusivities in them that were for XM and Sirius respectively. So even though the companies have merged, the services are still separate (neither service carry 100% identical programming) so the contracts are still in place until they come up for renewel or are renegotiated.

Just because the two are merged, they are still two separate entities with different contracts, different rates, different billing (you cannot combine one Sirius account with one XM account), and different programming (although most music stations are now the same). Why are we focusing only on MLB? Sirius has sports packages, such as the NFL, that XM does not have.

Baseball wanted an increased rights fee to carry the games ona second system. XM/Sirius refused to pay. Blame whoever you wish to blame.

Thanks for the answers, only focusing on baseball because it is right around the corner thats all. Justs seems like a funny merger to me, everything is still seperate with "agreements" allowing one or the other to carry portions of the others programming.

I believe some contracts were renegotiated (NFL, NASCAR on Sirius and NBA and Golf on XM) to allow their content to be cross broadcasted in the "best of" packages. Since the "best of" packages were primarily comprised of sports and premium programming, I assumed that the package cost was to help offset increased rights fees. Many of the individual NCAA school contracts Ohio State, Michigan, UCLA, etc.) were allowed to as well though I don't know if there was any negotiations or just a simple approval by the schools that allow them to do it.

It's a lot more complicated than just MLB. Uncle Mel says they want to renegotiate many of the external programming packages to contain costs and I'm sure to help move Sirius/XM to becoming more complete entity.

Originally Posted by DodgerKing

Just because the two are merged, they are still two separate entities with different contracts, different rates, different billing (you cannot combine one Sirius account with one XM account), and different programming (although most music stations are now the same). Why are we focusing only on MLB? Sirius has sports packages, such as the NFL, that XM does not have.

Uh, NFL games were available on XM, at least the home team broadcasts. SEC football was available on both services, also.

Sorry, Bud.

Originally Posted by Hart5150

Uh, NFL games were available on XM, at least the home team broadcasts. SEC football was available on both services, also.

Sorry, Bud.

Through the best of Sirius. Aren't baseball games available on Sirius through the best of XM?

No