Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- A visualization true size of countries and continents.

- Reason magazine gives Bernie Sanders an economics lesson. The long and short of it - we live in a time of abundance in the US.

- Heh Heh

- Interesting - is the NFL's Sunday Ticket on DirecTV illegal under anti-trust law?

- A message from Hong Kong

- Boris Johnson and the UK getting behind Gen IV nuclear power in a big way. Good for them!

- The power of incentives.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- From the mouths of babes.

- How much does your local sports bar pay for NFL Sunday Ticket?

- This is awesome! Guy at Foo Fighters blows Dave Grohl away with his Tom Sawyer

- Heh heh - Donald Trump through the Ages

- Interesting - should anyone be given a blood transfusion?

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

The Patriots cheerleaders wearing Devon Still's jersey last night was a classy and touching move on the part of the franchise. Robert Kraft is also donating $25,000 to the Cincinnati Children's Medical Center in Leah Still's name. Well done Kraft family... The unanswered question from all of those Rob Lowe DirectTV commercials is the question of whether it was cable TV Rob Lowe or DirectTV Rob Lowe who filmed himself having sex with an underage girl... How many rednecks have "sticking my penis into a Golden Coral chocolate fountain" on their bucket lists? Asking for a friend... I can't believe Bill Belichick never said "On to Buffalo" in last nights post game press conference... There are kids in New England who will be turning one this Fall who have never had a Red Sox World Championship in their lifetime... I think in real life you would have to feed a Ticket Oak newborn infants on the eve of a full moon in order for the magic to work...

Norman Chad Says New DirectTV / MLB Deal - No Big Deal

And I have to agree with him. People can always purchase MLB.com's package and watch their teams over the web if they want. MLB has maximized profits for their Extra-Innings offering and their Internet offering. Its good business.

What would be troubling to me is if the DirectTV deal was somehow related to a quid pro quo purchase of the Atlanta Braves. Otherwise Norman Chad is correct (as usual) in his appraisal of the situation.

MLB TV Rights and the Sale of the Braves

Two more thoughts on baseball broadcast rights and the sale of the Atlanta Braves.

1. Do you think there would have been much more scrutiny of the MLB Extra Innings package going exclusively to DirectTV if the order of things were reversed i.e. if Liberty Media first bought the Braves and then got the MLB Extra Innings package (Liberty Media owns at least 38.5% of DirectTV and is by far the largest shareholder)? Can you imagine the hue and cry if MLB sold their TV rights to say George Steinbrenner of the Yankees or John Henry of the Red Sox? Just saying - there's a story here that ain't getting the attention it deserves.

2. Speaking of the DirectTV Extra Innings package - BaseballMusings had an interesting post on how maybe this DirectTV deal is calculated to maximize the value of the on-line MLB.TV product. While I agree with this assessment - I think there is another consequence of the deal. If cable operators can't offer MLB Extra Innings but they still want baseball - why not add a YES channel (Yankees) or NESN (Red Sox) or the channel of some other team like the Dodgers or Mets to a pay sports tier? If they did this then the revenue would go right to the individual team owners. For instance - say a cable operator in Florida added both YES and NESN - then the money from that deal would go right into the pockets of George Steinbrenner and John Henry. I'm not aware of this happening anywhere but I won't be surprised when it does.