Cable television companies reached an agreement with Major League Baseball Wednesday evening to continue carrying out-of-market baseball and broadcast the new Baseball Channel starting in 2009.

The deal now means that El Segundo-based DirecTV Group will not be the exclusive provider of MLB’s out-of-market games. That would have been the case had the cable companies not been able to reach a deal with MLB.

The deal was signed with iNDemand, the umbrella group that negotiated the out-of-market and pay-per-view deal for cable firms Time Warner, Comcast Co and Cox Communications. The seven-year deal was reached after MLB and the cable firms received pressure from lawmakers to avoid an exclusive agreement with DirecTV Group, which would non-satellite subscribers out of the viewing action. Inc., which was for seven years and was valued at $700 million.

Baseball signed a deal with DirecTV on March 8, which was for seven years and $700 million, and said at the time it would allow cable companies to offer a like service on similar terms. However, MLB rejected a bid last month by iNDemand saying it didn’t meet league demands.

Shares in DirecTV were up 35 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $23.35 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.