• by David Goetzl , June 8, 2009

With cable operators eager to adopt an authentication system to ensure that a person can only view select online video if they have a cable subscription, Cablevision has signed a deal that will effectively implement the policy.

The cable operator will soon make available New York Yankees games carried by the YES network live online to customers who pay for both its broadband and cable services, according to a report in Sports Business Journal.

Executives at the likes of Comcast and Time Warner Cable have maintained that an authentication process is easy to execute technologically. Cablevision would apparently use a customer's Internet Protocol, or IP, address as the gateway to the games.

Cable operators want to restrict free online access to shows -- and other cable networks' content -- to those who also subscribe to a video offering.

In that vein, in order to access the Yankees games online, Cablevision customers must subscribe to a tier that offers the YES network. The arrangement will also apparently have those customers paying an extra fee to watch the streamed games, according to Sports Business Journal. Cable operators have not necessarily lobbied for that for rights to access, say, TNT's "The Closer" or Bravo's "The Fashion Show" on the Web.

SBJ said the deal is a breakthrough, marking the first time that a Major League Baseball team's games will be available online to people living in a team's home market. (Cablevision operates in the New York area.)

Until now, MLB games have been available on the Web to out-of-market customers through an MLB.tv package.

Cablevision declined to confirm the deal to SBJ.