More Videos
- Will TCU See The "Flutie Effect?"
- NBA D-League On The Rise
- Weis' Deal Likely Won't Change Big Money Contracts
- Time Lapse World Series Is A Great Play
- Boise State Stock Plan: An Early Success
- Dollar Signs Seen In Young "Buck" Jennings
- Iverson Wasn't A Popular "Answer"
- My Top 10 Marketing Ideas For Winless Nets
- Airlines Add 'Super Bowl' Tax
- Chicken Wing Finder Makes Debut
RSS FEED
MOST SHARED
- The Executive Job Search
- Where Do Pardoned Turkeys Go?
- Activision Prepares to Double Dip on ‘Modern Warfare 2’
- Salvation Army's Kettles Now Credit Card-Ready
- Chinese Overcapacity is Worsening, EU Chamber Warns
- US Mint to Suspend American Eagle Gold 1-Ounce Coins
- S&P Stocks Trading at New 52-Week Highs
- Topless Business Is Taking Off
- Judge Erases Couple's $525,000 Mortgage Payment
- 4 Thanksgiving Week Buys For Your Portfolio: Market Pros
- There's a 'Great Chance' For a Double-Dip Recession: Strategist
- Revenge of the Gangsta Nerds
- Will TCU See The "Flutie Effect?"
- Retail Earnings and Sales to Improve in Q4: Analyst
- Consumers Catching the Holiday Spirit
- It's Beginning To Look A Lot More Riskless
- Crescenzi: Claims Level Suggests End to Job Losses
- Hedge Funds Take Early Lead in Warren Buffett's 'Big Bet'
- Black Friday to Avoid Red Ink; Greenback Gets the Blues
- Bankruptcies Jump, Hitting Highest Level in Four Years
- AIG, Ex-CEO Greenberg Reach Pact to Settle Disputes
- Bank of America CEO Search May Extend Into 2010
- Steepest Black Friday Discounts, Revealed
- Fed to Counsel Moviegoers on How to Use Credit Cards
- 'Cancer of Fraud' Permeates Health Care System: Critics
- Where Do Pardoned Turkeys Go?
- US Mint to Suspend American Eagle Gold 1-Ounce Coins
Sports Biz
Text Size 
On Jan. 1, when the MLB Network launches, it will be the largest cable launch in history. This morning, we talked to Tony Petitti, president and CEO of the MLB Network from the network's amazing new studios in Secaucus, N.J.
Darren: It’s the largest cable launch in history at 50 million homes. Unlike other leagues, your strategy was to cut deals with the cable carriers, loop them in on the revenue right away. Talk to us about that strategy.
Petitti: It was a great idea to bring the cable networks in, Direct TV in. To be able to launch in 50 million homes changes the whole game. I don’t think we’re standing in this facility they way its been built out without that 50 million homes. So from day one we have the reach, people are going to be able to find us, we’ll be on and we’ll be everywhere.
Darren: How are you going to get people to make the MLB Network a priority? What do you have that says we have to go here?
Petitti: That’s obviously the biggest challenge. What we’ve developed is our studio show “MLB tonight” that will come on at 6 pm and the thing about that show that’s going to be really unique is we’ll be able to bounce around from game to game. We’ll show people look-ins, we’ll have updates, we have highlights. Fans are going to watch their local team we know that, but we want to be the second choice. We feel it's pretty good to be number two for baseball fans so we hope that while they’re watching their local team, they’ll use us as a resource, we’ll be on all night. You can come to us at anytime and get caught up on the all the action around the league and we’ll cover all 30 teams in-depth every night.
Rovell: It seems like the strategy for some of these leagues, especially the NFL Network was all about getting games. They gave $400 million worth of games to themselves. You have 26 games, on Thursday night. How important is getting games on the network?
Petitti: The games are important but the studio is probably the priority this year for us. Baseball is a little different in that the local coverage is so extensive on a nightly basis that we need something to make us unique. I didn’t think that games were going to make us unique. You need the games to have an anchor to touch the games, to be able to show fans that you cover the games on a regular basis but really the studio is what makes us unique. We want the games to complement what we’re doing so 26 is a good start for us.
Rovell: We reported last night that baseball will have a salary freeze and a hiring freeze because of the tough economic times, what’s the challenge in launching a network in this economic environment and how does the fact you’re already at 50 million help?
Petitti: We’re doing this for the long term. So the resources that we were given were really what we needed to build this thing out as aggressively as we need to do. The challenge that we have is obviously the ad sales marketplace is a lot different than what it had been last year if we had launched. That’ll be more challenging but we feel pretty confident with the product we’re going to offer, the amount of live hours we’re going to have and that we’ll be an attractive place for advertisers.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes