Next Broadcast Battle For Baseball: Slingbox?

Major League Baseball may have lost its months-long fight to put its out-of-market baseball package exclusively on DirecTV, but that hasn’t kept the sport from trying to continue controlling where its games can be viewed.

Now, baseball’s top lawyer has made noises about going after Sling Media, makers of the Slingbox device, for allowing fans to watch out-of-town games, the Web site Ars Technica, citing Hollywood Reporter Esq., reported Wednesday.

The Slingbox, launched in early 2006, is a “place-shifting” TV-streaming device that allows users to watch their own television from anywhere in the world, via an internet connection. Therefore, a baseball fan from Chicago, traveling in New York, could use the Slingbox to watch a local Chicago broadcast of a Cubs game, streamed from his home. At issue, for baseball, is that that fan would in their view be circumventing both baseball’s national cable and satellite contracts, as well as the Cubs’ local broadcast deal. MLB general counsel Michael Mellis said as much to the Hollywood Reporter.

“Of course, what they are doing is not legal,” Mellis said. “We and other leagues have formed a group to study the issue and plan our response. A lot depends on ongoing discussions.” Mellis did not state which other leagues he was referring to.

Baseball has national television contracts with Fox, ESPN, and Turner Broadcasting to televise postseason and occasional regular season games, while each team negotiates its own local TV deals for the majority of regular season games. For cable and satellite, the “MLB Extra Innings” package enables fans living in other cities to watch out-of-town games for their favorite teams. Baseball attempted to take the package exclusively to DirecTV in a $700 million deal earlier this year, but scrutiny from both fans and Congress led baseball to compromise and allow the package to remain on InDemand cable.

The consumer technology lobby quickly condemned baseball for considering action against Sling Media. “This is a classic instance of copyright owners trying to suppress innovation purely because it empowers consumers,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, in a statement. “There is no infringement or piracy here – consumers are simply watching content they lawfully purchase (or receive free over-the-air) in a different physical location.”

Sling Media has clearly marketed itself towards sports fans, purchasing significant advertising for the Slingbox on several national sports radio shows.