Baseball owners brought up the TV issue at their meetings Wednesday and Thursday in Milwaukee but put off a more detailed discussion until their next meetings in September. MLB President Bob DuPuy, who was expected to take part, had to undergo leg surgery and missed the meetings.

MLB spokesman Pat Courtney had said the owners might consider imposing a limit on the time franchises would be given to reach TV deals in their territories -- or risk losing exclusive rights to those markets.

In this market, the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals are considered the local teams, but Time Warner Cable and the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) have failed to cut a deal. MASN, which is co-owned by the Orioles and the Nationals and carries their games, is carried by satellite providers DirecTV and Dish Network.

MASN insists on a spot in Time Warner's basic cable lineup of channels. Time Warner has offered to put what it considers MASN's "niche" programming on a digital sports tier, available to subscribers for an extra $3.50 per month.

To reach out to fans, Time Warner said last week that it would replay 12 Durham Bulls games this season on channel 24, in addition to live games on digital channel 251.