No baseball on Sirius, who is actually to blame?

jcoppola

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Feb 12, 2006
233
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Charleston, SC
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.
 
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.
 
Don't believe they do, never heard a game on MLB home plate, only talk.

Its no big deal not trying to keep a thread going forever. Its just frustrating, this so called merger was to benefit all the sat radio subscibers and what did we get? Higher prices, no free internet streaming anymore, still seperate services, still seperate programming, still sepearate radios. Its just a joke!

Sorry for the rant, don't post that often and I'm ussually not negative. Thanks for all the responses to my original question.
 
Its no big deal not trying to keep a thread going forever. Its just frustrating, this so called merger was to benefit all the sat radio subscibers and what did we get? Higher prices, no free internet streaming anymore, still seperate services, still seperate programming, still sepearate radios. Its just a joke!

Sorry for the rant, don't post that often and I'm ussually not negative. Thanks for all the responses to my original question.

It is frustrating and I can see your point.
 
I think SIRIUS broadcasts a talk show replay on that channel during the game on XM Home Plate.
If that is the case, then why play a game to begin with? The same game being broadcast on Homeplate is also being broadcast on one of the MLB Play by Play channels. The only reason I would see to even put a game on Homeplate is to offer a broadcast for those that cannot get the MLB play by play channels.
 
If that is the case, then why play a game to begin with? The same game being broadcast on Homeplate is also being broadcast on one of the MLB Play by Play channels. The only reason I would see to even put a game on Homeplate is to offer a broadcast for those that cannot get the MLB play by play channels.

The only reason they do it is to cut costs. No host to pay. (from what I have read)
 
"They can always replay shows that were broadcast earlier or do classic games"

While I would rather have MLB currnet games I would say a replay of some classic games while on a long drive would be better than the talk.
 
I would think now is the best time for Sirius/XM to come to MLB with their price for carriage. It's not as if there is another satellite radio company bidding against them anymore. All of these contracts should now be negotiated down because they aren't bidding against someone else. Increased listener count could only help MLB and its advertisers. Something seems backwards about all of this.
 
The bottom line here is that Sirius can stick the best of Xm until they give Sirius subs something during the summer that is worth the extra cash. I ahve a feeling this issue will not be resolved until the current deal with XM is over.
 
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