Business Is About to Pick Up - IN Demand says it will match DirecTV's baseball offer

Well, hold up...

There's a new player in rights-to-show-baseball-on-TV-to-the-masses-game.

From the AP:

"IN Demand said today it will offer to match the terms of DirecTV's $700 million, seven-year deal with Major League Baseball on behalf of its owners, who are affiliates of the companies that own Time Warner, Comcast and Cox cable systems.

As part of the offer, iN Demand also said it would carry The Baseball Channel when it launches in 2009 to at least the same number of subscribers who will get the channel on DirecTV.

"As the current home for 'Extra Innings' for more than 200,000 cable subscribers, we have extended ourselves to do our best to be able to continue to provide this package to baseball fans and our customers," iN Demand president Robert Jacobson said. "This offer meets all the conditions set forth by MLB last week. "

Interesting. Can we say bidding war together in unison?

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baseball/bal-baseballtv,0,97951.story?coll=bal-sports-baseball