MSN will discontinue its Internet access client for Mac OS X users and has ended its broadcast agreement with Major League Baseball a year earlier than expected. In addition, MSN partner Verizon has signed a deal to bundle MSN competitor Yahoo's services with broadband access, ending an MSN exclusive.

Mac client. On May 31, 2005, Microsoft will discontinue support for the Mac OS X for MSN client software, which includes an integrated e-mail program, Web browser, parental controls, and other features. The client is currently employed by Mac users who subscribe to MSN Premium, Plus, or dial-up Internet access. After May 31, these users will have to use Apple's Safari or another Web browser to access their e-mail (via the MSN Hotmail site) and other features, such as content on MSN Encarta. They will no longer be able to use parental controls or the dashboard feature, which provides a snapshot of information from MSN on the customer's desktop. Dial-up users will have to configure the Mac OS X Internet Connect client to connect to MSN. (Instructions for MSN for Mac OS X users are at www.microsoft.com/mac/products/msnformacosx/msnformacosx.aspx.)

The change will reduce Microsoft's support costs for Mac users, while having a negligible effect on revenues, as Microsoft says it has only a "small" number of Mac OS X clients.

Baseball. At the end of February, MSN and Major League Baseball (MLB) mutually ended an agreement that provided live game broadcasts to MSN Premium subscribers, allowed MSN to resell MLB video packages through its Web sites, and let MSN broadcast certain content (such as highlights and bloopers) for free via the MSN Video service. The contract was originally signed in early 2004 and was supposed to run for two years. The organizations gave no reason for ending the deal early. However, when RealNetworks failed to renew its similar contract with MLB in 2004, it said that the deal was not profitable, and MSN might have found itself in the same position.

Verizon and Yahoo. In Jan. 2005, Verizon and Yahoo announced plans for a co-branded broadband Internet service available in the United States this summer. The service is very similar to MSN Premium, offering customers a personalized home page, e-mail through Yahoo Mail, parental controls, and other features. Verizon will continue to offer MSN Premium as an option.

Yahoo already offers a similar deal through SBC, which has helped Yahoo grow its paying subscriber base from 4.9 million at the end of 2003 to 8.4 million a year later. Over the same time period, MSN's subscriber base increased from 8.0 million to 9.3 million, but the company lost 1.7 million dial-up subscribers, so its other services (including MSN Premium) netted about 3 million new subscribers. The loss of the exclusive Verizon deal could make it harder for MSN to keep up with Yahoo's subscriber growth.