MLB.com

By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com

This year, the two cable networks will broadcast a minimum of nine games and a maximum of 14, with three of those games carried in prime time. In the succeeding years of the agreement, the minimum will be eight games and the maximum 13 with two of those games in prime. This year will mark the first time ESPN is broadcasting postseason baseball games in prime time.

FOX will continue to carry some Division Series games, both League Championship Series and the World Series. There can be a minimum of 12 games and a maximum of 20 if the four Division Series played out to the limit.

"We're delighted," Selig said. "There's been some criticism in the past of our Division Series television, which, frankly, now should change. This is an agreement that really deals with those issues. Our games now all will be on ESPN or FOX. And so, there will not be the same problems that existed before."

In recent years, FOX, an over-the-air network, has farmed out non-prime time Division Series games to cable networks like F\X, FOX Family and ABC Family. Those networks aren't carried by many cable providers in the U.S., meaning the games were effectively blacked out in much of the nation.

"ESPN, FOX and Turner are appointment channels for baseball. There's no searching for it anymore," Tim Brosnan, MLB's executive vice president of business.

ESPN and ESPN2 are available on virtually all U.S. cable systems, giving the entire nation blanket coverage of the postseason since the Division Series format was implemented in 1995.

"I really felt badly because that's a wonderful week for baseball," Selig said. "In some ways it's the most exciting. We get besieged in our offices with, 'We can't find the games.' Now we're on ESPN and FOX where people watch our games all year long. So we've eliminated the confusion."

Barry M. Bloom is a national reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.