Baseball Owners Approve New TV Deal

Major league owners went into the advertising and sales business Friday, when they gave overwhelming approval to the six-year partnership with NBC and ABC.

The National League approved it, 13-1, with the New York Mets opposing. The American League voted 12-1, with the Boston Red Sox opposing and the New York Yankees abstaining.

The deal specifically excludes pay-per-view of baseball’s premier events, calls for regional telecasts of the league championship series, contains no rights fee and initially, at least, reduces the national TV revenue by about 50%.

Baseball will receive $401 million from CBS and ESPN in this final year of those contracts. A new cable contract is still being negotiated, but the new package will produce about $200 million in the first year, estimated Bill Giles, president of the Philadelphia Phillies and a member of the TV committee.

“We’ll take a tremendous hit in the short term,” Giles said, “but the potential in this creative approach is far greater than any conventional deal we might have negotiated.”