But hey, in the ever-splintering media world, anybody who can still deliver big batches of (mostly male) eyeballs will do OK when it comes to selling themselves to TV networks.

MLB showed that Tuesday in finalizing seven-year TV deals — starting next year — with Fox and TBS. Fox stays the lead dog, retaining the World Series and one league championship series — down from showing both LCS in its current six-year deal. TBS gets a TV monopoly of all first-round playoff games, which have been aired in current deals by Fox and various cable TV channels, including ESPN. The fallout for viewers:

•Cable only. First-round playoff games will only be on TBS. TBS is in about 90 million of the USA's more than 110 million TV homes. Tim Brosnan, MLB executive vice president, says the number of homes without cable TV "shrinks daily" but if MLB "heard enormous backlash" about games being unavailable on free TV, then "we'd go back and adjust."

The idea of postseason sports only on cable used to be a big deal but is becoming a fact of life. But for cable channels, it's a big deal as well to stand out amid hundreds of channels. Turner Sports President David Levy says TBS getting exclusive first-round playoff games "was one of the key ingredients in the deal for us."

•More regular-season Fox ball. Fox will expand its Saturday afternoon regionalized coverage from its current 18 Saturdays to as many as 26. And it will get more favorable start times, as games probably will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET — compared with 1 p.m. ET for most games now.

•Bye bye, Braves. TBS, starting in 2008, will also have 26 weekly Sunday national games. But it will also give up a staple it's had since the 1970s — lots of Atlanta Braves action.

TBS parent Time Warner is trying to sell the ballclub that Ted Turner famously used as pioneering cable TV programming. After showing 70 Braves games next season, TBS won't show them nationally anymore — although the Braves could still show up on TBS' new Sunday games. What will be different then: The Braves will, presumably, play on TBS if they're actually good — now they get on by showing up.

Turner's Levy says the TBS change isn't related to parent Time Warner trying to unload the team: "It was a programming decision."

•Still up for grabs. With Fox showing just one LCS annually in the new deal — it will alternate between the leagues each year — one LCS is still up for grabs. ESPN and TBS are interested, and Fox Sports President Ed Goren says Fox would "be willing to split it in some fashion with another broadcaster."

The complication: LCS games, all in prime time, come in October when overall prime-time TV competition is fierce. And even if they deliver good ratings — although ratings can vary widely based on whether marquee teams are involved — the length of best-of-seven series is impossible to predict, so they can play havoc with scheduling prime-time shows that are trying to survive long after baseball is over.

• MLB's Brosnan won't disclose financial terms. But he says the TBS and Fox deals — along with a new regular-season MLB deal that ESPN made last September — will send MLB's national TV revenue up 19%. Meaning, after ESPN's rights fees went up 50% to $296 million annually in its deal, the new Fox deal will generate something under $300 million a year while TBS should generate more than $70 million.

Given ratings swings — the Boston Red Sox's 2004 World Series sweep drew 15.8% of TV households, while the Chicago White Sox's sweep last year averaged just 11.1% — it's hard to say if networks will score with these deals. But Nielsen is about to begin measuring how many viewers watch TV ads as well as the programming itself. Since sports, Goren notes, is usually watched live — not on digital video recorders — that means "for advertisers their commercials will be seen live."

There's the sales pitch. But Goren adds a more personal note: "After all my years at CBS when I saw what happens when you lose contracts (including football and baseball), I never wanted to live through that again."

Who's news:

Analyst Nick Faldo moves next year from ABC/ESPN, which will reduce golf coverage, to The Golf Channel, which will expand its event coverage. ... The NFL Network adds Fran Charles, who's been a host of the USA Network's golf and HBO's boxing, as an anchor for shows such as the Sunday NFLScoreboard.