Tony Petitti is leaving CBS Sports to head the new cable channel being set up by Major League Baseball, a CBS Sports spokeswoman confirmed.
Mr. Petitti has been executive VP and executive producer at CBS Sports. He reported to CBS News and Sports President Sean McManus, leaving him little career upside.
Major League Baseball plans to launch its channel next year. It originally was going to be launched by DirecTV as part of a deal giving the satellite carrier exclusive rights to baseball’s out-of-market games package. But after a series of protests and political wrangling, major cable operators also got to offer the package and acquired stakes in the channel, which they will carry as well.
That means the channel will avoid the challenge of getting distribution that has stunted the growth of the NFL Network and NBA-TV.
The announcement was first reported by Sports Business Daily.