KFDM COOP Posted October 20, 2006 Report Posted October 20, 2006 TBS, MLB reach 7-year TV deal for LCS coverage NEW YORK (AP) -- TBS will alternate showing the NL and AL championship series for seven years starting next season under a television deal with Major League Baseball announced Tuesday. Turner Broadcasting System paid about $310 million for the package. The network will televise the NLCS in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013, and the ALCS in the 2008, 2010 and 2012. "It makes sense," commissioner Bud Selig said. "They have the division series. The economics were what we wanted." The World Series, the LCS, first-round playoff games and the All-Star game will be on either Fox or TBS for the next seven years. Fox will show Saturday regular-season games through 2013 and TBS will televise 26 regular-season Sunday games in 2008. Overall, Fox and TBS will pay a total of more than $3 billion for the package. TBS will show all first-round playoff games. Turner Sports president David Levy said he hoped Baseball could avoid overlapping games in the division series -- if that occurred, they could be shown on TBS and TNT. "I kind of hate when we put two games on at the same time," Selig said. Tim Brosnan, executive vice president for business for MLB, said Baseball was attracted to Turner Sports' pregame and postgame production. Levy said no decisions had been made on which announcers it would employ, adding the network has been "getting numerous calls." TV ratings for this year's LCS games have been down from past years, and a shift from over-the-air telecasts to cable would diminish the number of potential viewers. Baseball, however, said it was not worried about the move. "We're not ready to concede lower ratings," MLB chief operating officer Bob DuPuy said.
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