MLB TV network launches Jan. 1

We're just a few days from the New Year's Day launch of the MLB Network, which will become baseball's official TV channel.

If you're familiar with the NFL Network, it's roughly the same blueprint. At launch, the schedule will consist of mostly studio shows from Secaucus, N.J., and old games. The network will show games on Thursday nights throughout the season.

And one very cool program is on the docket already: The Ken Burns "Baseball" miniseries that aired on PBS in 1994 will be airing on Tuesdays. Set your DVR or VCR if you don't have the series on DVD already.

And Major League Baseball has an ambitious timetable for more. It will launch with a capability of 50 million subscribers, and it wants to be a viable contender for bidding on postseason games by 2013.

So will you have it on your television? If you have Comcast, Cox, Direct TV, Time Warner, Charter, Cablevision or Verizon FiOS, you can get it (probably have to be on some kind of sports tier). If you have AT&T or Dish Network or a smaller company, it's not likely that you won't have it at launch.

There will be a a few familiar names. The studio hosts are Matt Vasgersian (formerly the Padres play-by-play announcer) and Victor Rojas. Former players Al Leiter, Joe Magrane and Harold Reynolds will be the analysts.