New York - Major League Baseball (MLB) announced on Thursday that it has signed a deal with cable TV video-on-demand firm In Demand to carry its all-access Extra Innings subscription package, following a similar deal with satellite TV provider DirecTV.

Extra Innings will now be available to the 40 million cable subscribers of In Demand owners Comcast, Cox and Time Warner Cable.

As part of the deal, the cable firms will also be required to offer the 24-hour MLB Channel, which is slated to launch in January 2009.

"Our chief goal throughout the process was to ensure that fans would have access to as many baseball games and as much baseball coverage as possible," said MLB president and COO Bob DuPuy.

MLB's deal with DirecTV had threatened to keep the baseball games offered on Extra Innings privy to DirecTV subscribers, a move that concerned lawmakers and was recently addressed in a Senate committee hearing.

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http://www.indemand.com/sports/mlb/index.jsp