ABSTRACT
The complications of timing for British broadcasters become most acute at the very peak of the Major League season, with its pennant play-offs and the World Series. Here is a pre-eminent sporting event of international interest and yet, until almost the eve of the games themselves, it is often impossible to say who will be playing, where, and at what time. In a country where television programme journals are printed some three weeks in advance, programme planners are in a quandary. How far dare they risk changing programmes for what at first is bound to be a minority viewing audience? They do not even know how many games there are going to be - in both 1987 and 1988 Channel 4 reserved three-hour slots for live cover of game seven of the World Series, only to find it wrapped up before then. The difficulties make the game a prime candidate for surrender to new satellite channels.
