Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Major League Baseball’s television network goes on the air tomorrow in more homes than its National Football League counterpart reached in five years.

After giving Comcast Corp., DirecTV Group Inc. and other pay-TV providers an equity stake in the channel, MLB Network gained access to about 50 million homes at no extra charge to viewers. By contrast, the NFL Network is available to 42 million, and Comcast customers must pay extra if they want the channel.

“They have definitely had a wonderful alignment of the stars, which enabled them to get the kind of distribution that the others have not been able to obtain,” said Steve Solomon, a sports media consultant and former ABC Sports executive.

Wider distribution can lead to higher revenue from advertising and the fees that networks collect from pay-TV providers. MLB network may generate sales of as much as $201 million in its first year based on an estimated $151 million in subscriber fees and $50 million in ads, according to Derek Baine, an analyst at research firm SNL Kagan in Monterey, California.

On New Year’s Day at 6 p.m. New York time, MLB Network will begin broadcasting with a live one-hour program on the free-agent and trade market, followed by New York Yankee Don Larsen’s perfect game from the 1956 World Series.

The cornerstone of the network during the season will be a live, seven-hour studio show six nights a week presenting highlights, analysis and live look-ins of games. The network will show live games on 26 Thursday nights and fill the rest of the schedule with “classic” games, list shows and taped features.

“There’s a band of channels you are surfing to get your sports news,” MLB Network chief Tony Petitti said during an interview at his office in Secaucus, New Jersey, in November. “We want to be a part of that.”

‘Unwanted Scrutiny’

Comcast, the largest U.S. cable operator, offers NFL Network on a sports tier that costs about $7 extra a month, according to NFL filings with the Federal Communications Commission. No. 2 Time Warner Cable Inc. doesn’t offer it at all. Because the network isn’t widely available, many fans can’t see its eight exclusive Thursday night games.

“A successful launch by MLB will bring unwanted scrutiny on the NFL Network’s cable strategy,” said Craig Moffett, a Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst. “There’s plenty of unhappy viewers all over the country that don’t like the fact that they can’t see a Thursday night game.”

Most NFL games air on Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN, News Corp.’s Fox Network, CBS Corp.’s CBS and General Electric Co.’s NBC. Some Major League Baseball games air nationally on Fox, ESPN or Time Warner’s TBS, while most run on regional cable channels or local broadcast stations. Baseball also has more than 10 times the number of regular-season contests as the NFL, the most-watched U.S. sports league on TV.

Extra Cost

Cable companies pay less to carry the MLB Network. SNL Kagan estimates MLB will get 24 cents a cable subscriber per month. NFL Network charges 88 cents a subscriber, according to SNL Kagan.

Comcast says it put the NFL on its premium sports tier to avoid passing those costs to customers who don’t watch football. About 2.1 million of Philadelphia-based Comcast’s 24 million subscribers paid extra for the sports tier that includes NFL Network, according to an NFL filing with the FCC in May.

The FCC is considering a dispute between the NFL and Comcast over channel placement. The league says that by limiting the NFL Network’s distribution, Comcast is impeding the NFL’s ability to boost revenue.

Time Warner Stand

Time Warner Cable made a similar calculation.

“They demand millions of dollars a year for a network that airs only eight live games a year,” Robyn Watson, a spokeswoman for New York-based Time Warner Cable, said in an interview. “It’s simply not worth it for our customers.”

By limiting access to the Thursday games, the NFL has drawn criticism. Thirteen U.S. senators wrote Commissioner Roger Goodell in October to protest the league’s move to pay television.

Major League Baseball caused an uproar in January 2007 when it made an exclusive seven-year, $700 million deal for its Extra Innings subscription service, which offers out-of-market games, with El Segundo, California-based DirecTV, the biggest U.S. satellite-TV operator.

After cable companies and lawmakers protested, MLB gave Extra Innings deals to cable and offered them a stake in the new network. Comcast, Time Warner, Cox Communications Inc. and DirecTV now share a third of the channel, with the league owning the rest.

‘Paid Off’

Goodell has indicated his New York-based league would be open to working with partners to increase distribution, including offering equity. NFL Enterprises LLC, an affiliate of the league, owns the network, according to an FCC filing. No cable or satellite provider has a stake.

In May, the NFL asked the FCC to order Comcast to carry its network “on equitable terms.” Comcast moved the channel as retaliation after its own network failed to obtain rights to the eight Thursday games, the NFL claimed. Comcast denied the allegation. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said on Dec. 30 that he couldn’t predict when the agency might rule.

The cable companies “favor their own,” Dennis Johnson, an NFL Network spokesman, said in an e-mail Dec. 22.

“The biggest difference between the NFL Network and MLB is the amount of money that they are asking,” Sanford C. Bernstein’s Moffett said.