DIRECTV Now Offering Regional Baseball in HD

DIRECTV announced today that it will now be offering Major League Baseball games in HD courtesy of the regional sports networks that broadcast them. From the release:

"DIRECTV is now broadcasting all MLB games produced in HD from the following RSNs: FSN Prime Ticket (Los Angeles Dodgers), FSN West (Los Angeles Angels), FSN Bay Area (San Francisco Giants, Oakland A's), FSN South (Atlanta Braves), FSN Houston (Astros), FSN Detroit (Tigers), FSN Florida (Marlins, Devil Rays), SportsTime Ohio (Cleveland Indians), FSN North (Minnesota Twins), FSN Northwest (Seattle Mariners), FSN Arizona (Diamondbacks), FSN Rocky Mountain (Colorado Rockies) and Turner South (Atlanta Braves).

"On July 18, HD MLB games from YES Network (Yankees) and FSN Southwest (Rangers HD games will be seen only in the Dallas DMA) will be available, as well as a continuous 24/7 HD feed from NESN HD (Red Sox). In August DIRECTV will deliver HD MLB games from SportsNet New York (Mets), as well as continuous 24/7 HD feeds from Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic HD (Orioles) and Comcast SportsNet Chicago HDTV (Cubs, White Sox)."

Notably absent from this carriage deal are my San Diego Padres...

However, lest you get too excited, here's a caveat: "The RSNs' HD games will be broadcast by DIRECTV via a local market spot beam, and as a result, the RSN programming will be available only to those customers who live within the local DMA (designated market area) spot beam and the RSN team territory. The games will be available at no extra charge."

So you'll be able to watch your home team's games in HD but not any of the others around the country. For that, you'd have to subscribe to the MLB Extra Innings package, but it's unclear exactly how many baseball games in HD you would receive. Another caveat is that you'll need DIRECTV's new MPEG4 receiver with the five-line LNB dish to get these HD channels.

In addition to the MLB games, DIRECTV will also carry NHL and NBA games that are televised on the RSNs when their seasons start in the fall.

This announcement is a big deal because the cable companies often use the fact that they offer the regional sports networks in HD as justification for choosing cable over satellite. Many analysts, myself included, have confirmed that rationale. But as with local broadcast networks, which are becoming more and more available in high-def over satellite around the country every week after having been available only via cable or an antenna for a couple of years, the regional sports networks will no longer be the exclusive provence of the cable providers. For fans of baseball and competition in the marketplace, that can only be seen as a home run.