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MLB WINTER MEETINGS

December 8, 2008

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

MATT BOURNE: Hi, everyone. I'm Matt Bourne, vice president of Major League Baseball's business public relations department, and we wanted to use this opportunity to give you a sneak peek of MLB Network, which will be starting January 1st, and we have here assembled a group of folks who will do that for you.
A couple quick housekeeping things. We're going to be starting group tours of the Secaucus facility next week. If you're interested in participating in that, please contact me or Jeff Hackleman (phonetic) in our public relations group. If not, when you're in town as your club or you're covering a game with the Yankees and Mets, please feel free to contact us and we'd be happy to take you through the facility at any point during the year.
Images are also available on the easels here of the studios, so please contact us if you need any of those.
I'd like to introduce our participants, Tony Petitti, president and CEO of MLB Network. Matt Vasgersian, Harold Reynolds, one of our analysts, Trenni Kusnierek, one of our reporters, and Hazel Mae, another reporter. To start us, Tony Petitti.
TONY PETITTI: Thanks, Matt. I thought it would be helpful to show you a video we put together so it shows you a combination tour of the facility and also a look at some of the programming you'll see come January 1st, so we can play that.
(Video shown.)
Just a couple things to sort of add on to what Harold took you through on the tape, distribution number, the 50 million homes is really the first and primary number. It's a remarkable achievement that baseball has managed to launch this network in 50 million homes, the largest launch in cable history. That also makes the number viable in terms of reach.
We'll be on digital basic tier available on all basic systems and DirecTV, as well, and that number continues to grow as we add systems over the next few weeks and months.
In terms of programming 24/7, there will be a combination of programming, most importantly MLB Tonight, our studio show, hosted by Matt. That will be on from 6:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m. from the conclusion of the last West Coast game. The show will really be unique. It will be a great way for baseball fans to complement the way they watch their local teams. They'll be able to do live look-ins, updated highlights, bouncing back and forth, analysis, everything you'll need to get caught up in all the action around the league on a daily basis.
In the off-season that show will become a hot scopes show one hour a night, five days a week. We've got 26 regular season games which will be broadcast on Thursday nights. We've added 16 World Baseball Classic games, as well, so the live component we think is pretty strong, Caribbean World Series, youth baseball, all different avenues where baseball is played. We expect to develop our programming schedule over the course of the next couple years, as well.
On the tape side, take advantage of the great archives of baseball and how important and crucial the game is. We've got classic games, original productions that are in the works right now. We'll be adding to that over time.
In terms of our opening night, start off on January 1 with a hot scopes show for an hour and then go into the rebroadcast of Larson's perfect game, original telecast with original commercials that was taken from a collector. We'll have Yogi Berra and Don Larson participating in the studio, Studio 42, so we're excited about their participation, and we think it's a pretty strong way to start the first night.
On the talent side you've seen the folks that we have here. In addition, we mentioned Al Leiter, Joe Magrane, Dan Plesac, and probably six to eight more announcements to come over the next couple weeks as we continue to add more staff. The depth that we'll need to cover an eight-hour studio show every day, we'll obviously have rotating talent throughout the course of an evening and throughout the week as well.
Our studios will be built in Secaucus. Will be completely HD right from the start, upgrade capacity and produced television. We've got two very unique and different studios, Studio 3, which will be the main home for MLB Tonight, more of a tech studio, a lot of technology, video, all kinds of different sources that we can host our show there. It's built in the round so we can have as many different looks in one night as possible so that over the course of six to eight hours the show stays fresh.
Studio 42 is really something that's unique and really special for the game of baseball. We have almost a 10,000-square-foot studio in Studio 42. We decided to build a replica of a ballpark there. It'll be able guys like Harold and Al and Joe and Dan to get out and move around and do demonstrations, but also we can host tape shows there. The Yogi and Don Larson interview will take place in Studio 42. We have the capacity to put about 175 people in the stands as well with bleachers. We think it will really add to our presentation of the game.
With that, I'll turn it over to some of my colleagues to give you their impression of what's going on. We'll start with Matt.
MATT VASGERSIAN: I have yet to report to Secaucus, New Jersey. What are we renaming the street?
TONY PETITTI: MLB Network Way.
MATT VASGERSIAN: So I might not be the best guy to kick this off. I never really fashioned myself a scores and highlights guy. Kind of always enjoyed my role being at the ballgame. But I think it speaks to what they're doing at MLB Network for somebody like me to be as eager to get out there as I am leaving San Diego, California, and relocating to the great state of New Jersey.
I'm really looking forward to this. I mean, obviously we're all very excited for this. But I think what we're not used to, and what we don't know in terms of the presentation, is probably the most exciting part of this. We don't know what it's going to be like to be on the air for eight hours a night live. You're not going to see Hazel and Trenni and Harold and I for all eight hours, of course, but it's a very aggressive, very ambitious thing that we're all really looking forward to taking a big bite out of.
I'm over Harold killing my fantasy league team in 1994 as an Angel and looking forward to working with him and Al, who isn't here, who I always enjoyed watching pitch because he was the sweatiest, gruntiest left-hander of his generation, and I kind of fashioned him in the same way as an analyst kind of sweating and grunting his way through a highlight package.
Like everybody up here, I'm very much looking forward to starting in January.
TONY PETITTI: One of the great things about Matt, obviously for the type of show we're doing live, having someone who has a deep play-by-play experience that Matt brings and also hosting experience is obviously a great combination, so we pretty much set our sights on trying to convince him to come. He obviously had a pretty good role at Fox contributing to NBC's Olympics, as well, so we view that as a major accomplishment. He has the ability, and what we're going to be doing on a nightly basis, really important to add someone with his caliber, the fact that he knows the game.
When you look across this table, you have basically up here alone over of 60 years of covering baseball and over of 60 years of playing experience, and those numbers will grow as we get more talent, as well.
Harold Reynolds we added early on, as well. He's been a great addition for us. If you're all familiar with his work, you've seen what he can bring, great knowledge, great ambassador for the game, understands it, and has also turned himself into one of the finest commentators in television in terms of his on-air skills. That was a huge addition for us, as well. He's brought a lot of enthusiasm. If you look at a lot of guys out there in the game reaching out to Harold just helped us in building the network as quickly as we have.
HAROLD REYNOLDS: For me, I'm just excited. I think for any baseball fan or anybody in the media, the first thing is we're fans of the game, even the players. For a place to have 24 hours, if you're a baseball junkie like most of us to be able to go to and watch baseball all year-round doesn't get any better than this.
I think with the format of the show, being able to have an eight-hour studio show, you're going to know what time it comes on and it's going to be on all night, to be able to check in on game, look in on games, to be able to follow your teams across the whole league, I think it's going to be very important and it's going to be great.
As far as the colleagues and different analysts and everybody working on the show, I think Tony hit the nail on the head when he talked about versatility. Everybody has the ability to be a reporter or host or even do analysis, so I think that's very important. We'll involve the writers and everybody in the game is going to get a chance to really showcase their abilities, and I think it's a network that's a home for baseball.
I'm very excited. I think it's going to be fun. You're going to be blown away by the abilities I think everybody has. We're going to bring a great show, and I'm looking forward to doing that. You'll be very proud of what Major League Baseball brings this network forward. We're going to make them proud, and we're excited about that.
TONY PETITTI: Hazel Mae we've been fortunate to add from NESN and acquired not only great skill on following and the awareness of the game, has shown she knows the game and can find a lot of different roles whether it's on a highlight desk, doing reporting on the field, any kind of studio work. Versatility is really important to us.
She's also one of our first stars. I think the first talent we hired back in June or July when she came through. I think there was three people in the whole building, so took a leap of faith with us, but we're really excited to have her on the team.
HAZEL MAE: Good afternoon. Obviously, like Harold and Matt, this is an absolute thrill and an honor to be part of the inaugural on-air team. It took a special opportunity and a special network to get me to leave a passionate baseball region like New England. I was lucky enough to cover both the '04 and '07 World Series.
I can't tell you how much pride I have being part of this team. For me it was this natural progression, having worked with the Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox, to try my hand on the national stage here in the U.S., so I'm thrilled.
I'd like to probably thank both the Blue Jays and the Red Sox organizations for their support. And it was an absolute pleasure to be working with those two ball clubs the last seven years. So thank you.
TONY PETITTI: Trenni Kusnierek we added from Milwaukee, and that experience, again, just a great baseball person with knowledge of the game. One of the great things about the last couple days walking around here is seeing the interaction with the staff we have here. These people know a lot of people in the game, which is a comfort to us, and she's able to bring great depth to it. I was fortunate to work with her briefly at CBS, we did some assignments, so we were aware of her work and we're really excited to have her on the team.
TRENNI KUSNIEREK: Thank you, Tony. I think it goes without saying that we're thrilled to be in on the ground level of the MLB Network. I just arrived in New York about a week ago and had a chance to meet my colleagues. It goes without saying that I think we have the cream of the crop from top to bottom, whether it's talent, office staff, production assistants, associate producers. We were all on the train back to Manhattan late last week and one of our producers said, I feel like I'm part of an All-Star team of television talent.
That's the way I feel. Everybody is the best, everyone is excited, hard-working. I don't think anyone thinks there's a limited number of hours or dedication they could put into the network which I think says a lot about how successful it will be.

Q. This is for Harold. You've done a lot of studio stuff in your career, but is this a situation where you're thinking I wish we could have done that? Do you see things that are going to set you apart because you've got some competition out there?
HAROLD REYNOLDS: I think the biggest thing a network brings is time. There's no real short time crunch where you feel like I wish we could expand on that longer. We've got eight hours basically to bring a point home and to be able to bring things alive. So I think that is a huge advantage, and I think it's great to be able to bring that point alive clearly.

Q. Matt, can you speak to the idea of how a club broadcaster's limits in terms of what he can say and what he should say is different in the role you're about to embark on?
MATT VASGERSIAN: You know, as a club broadcaster, your daily accountability is probably the most powerful inhibitor over what you would like to say that -- you do that self-edit. I've never been a guy who reveled in positioning myself as the hoop disturber and ruffled feathers in the clubhouse and then go down there and have to answer for it. But there is a fine line between being an extension of the PR department and reporting accurately.
My plan for this network is to completely insulate myself inside of a bubble, never have contact with another human, and rip everybody in the industry that's misbehaving (laughter), and then let Harold pay the price because he's friends with everybody.
That's a horrible answer to your question.
But on a serious level, that was something we were all concerned with coming over here, is since it's a league-owned channel, we are in the league, MLB Network, how self-policing can we be. And that was a question I asked Tony in our initial conversation. The answer I thought was great: We have to retain our credibility. We can't just be up there flipping softballs every night when things are going wrong. But you can't go on the personal attack, either.
So I don't think the reins on us will be any different from the reins that are put on any other rightsholder within a professional sport.

Q. Tony, just a couple questions. First one, and I know you've been asked this under different settings, what do you consider the symbiosis is going to be between the network and MLB.com, and how are you going to use personnel, writers, content, all kinds of different things?
TONY PETITTI: In a number of different ways. One, I really view them as complementary businesses, so I think working together should be easy. We're both -- I think we're separate operations in the way we cover the game, which is important. We can come together promotionally, driving baseball fans back to both places. That's an easy one and an obvious one.
On the content side, I think we're a 24/7 production company. I think MLB.com will be able to take advantage of our production staff to generate content. The same goes the other way. The great content that comes into MLB.com that we can use throughout the day as well. The amount of information that's collected and written out there that we can use on a daily basis, so we're pretty excited about the content sharing, as well.
And then the last piece is more on the business side. I think clients out there in today's environment expect some sort of a cross-platform selling approach in terms of being able to sell new digital media and also television media, as well, so we'll be working together on sales, so all those things will come together.
We built our facility so we have full connectivity to MLB.com in Chelsea.

Q. Secondly, on your game package, have you decided is it going to be a specific game day of the week? Are you going to shuffle the day around, and do you have a tentative schedule?
TONY PETITTI: We are going to, with almost all certainty, be on Thursday nights starting with the beginning of the season. We like that night for a lot of reasons. We think with the way the game of baseball is set up, it can give us sort of a national appeal on that night.
In terms of game selection, we expect to do that on around a ten-day basis so we make sure we're picking the right games. We also want to make sure we're covering all teams. So I expect us to spread our game coverage around across all teams.

Q. And when will you have a schedule?
TONY PETITTI: We're working on the first few weeks now and then we'll go into a ten-day selection process.

End of FastScripts

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