Adding America's pastime to its lineup of high-definition sports coverage, programming pioneer HDNet will bring 80 Major League Baseball games to its DirecTV viewers this season on Channel 199.
The agreement with MLB follows a dozen games broadcast in 1080i HD at the end of the 2001 season.
"We are continually striving to take advantage of new broadcasting technologies in order to provide our fans with the most exciting Major League Baseball coverage," said Tim Brosnan, MLB executive VP of business.
HDNet produces its MLB game broadcasts in conjunction with certain Fox Sports Net regional outlets, sharing audio and graphics with FSN's standard definition production units.
"Watching an MLB game in high definition is the next best thing to being in the ballpark," said Mark Cuban, cofounder of HDNet.
HDNet's sports, entertainment and news programming has included National Hockey League games, lacrosse, NBC's HDTV coverage of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, and the first-ever HDTV war-zone reports, featuring longtime war correspondent Peter Arnett.
HDNet is available at no extra charge to all DirecTV customers with an HDTV set, receiver, and elliptical dish.
