Yahoo on Thursday said it has signed a 3-year contract to carry out-of-market Major League Baseball games and to share ad revenue.

Under the agreement, Yahoo Sports will show more than 2,400 out-of-market MLB games each year through the 2010 season. In addition, Yahoo will exclusively manage advertising sales for the league's online games in the 2009 and 2010 seasons. MLB.TV is a paid subscription service in which customers can watch on their computers up to six live games simultaneously.

Todd Teresi, senior VP of Yahoo Publisher Channel, said in a statement that the portal is providing MLB.com "an opportunity to extend its reach to the largest possible audience, while at the same time maximizing monetization of its video subscription product."

Yahoo plans to offer MLB games to fans in 11 countries, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Philippines, and Germany. The games will be shown through a co-branded player on Yahoo Sports and MLB.com. Besides out-of-market games, Yahoo will also show highlights of the previous day's games.

In the first year, Yahoo and MLB Advanced Media, the league's Internet company, will jointly sell ads. For the remaining two years, Yahoo will handle all video advertising sales for MLB.TV.

Premium subscriptions for TV-quality out-of-market games through MLB.TV cost $119.95 a year, or $19.95 a month. People willing to sacrifice picture quality for price can pay $89.95 a year, or $14.95 a month.

The latest ad deal comes as Yahoo battles a takeover bid from Microsoft. The latter company has given the portal's board until April 26 to accept its offer, currently valued at $42.2 billion, or face a hostile takeover attempt.