It is often said that deadlines spur action. And in the law, there is perhaps no greater deadline than the start of a trial. So it was not particularly surprising to learn that Major League Baseball agreed to settle the Garber lawsuit — the case challenging its television broadcast policies — this morning, just minutes before the trial in the case was scheduled to begin.

Parties have reached an agreement in Garber v MLB broadcast rights antitrust case. No trial. Details not available yet.

— Zach Zagger (@ZachZagger) January 19, 2016

The terms of the settlement still have not been made public, and it may be another day or two before we learn what the agreement entails, as we wait for the attorneys to draft a formal contract. So it’s impossible at present to precisely determine what impact the deal will have on fans.

Realistically, though, one can anticipate that the terms of the settlement will likely be similar to those reached by the same plaintiffs attorneys in an analogous case against the National Hockey League last year. Specifically, in that case the NHL agreed to offer out-of-market fans the ability to purchase single-team packages of the NHL Center Ice service. Notably, however, the NHL’s settlement did not force the league to change its blackout policy, so hockey fans remain unable to view games involving their local teams via the Center Ice service without a cable subscription.

Assuming that MLB settled the Garber case on roughly equivalent grounds, this outcome may be somewhat underwhelming for fans. MLB had already announced last month that it intended to introduce single-team packages on MLB.TV this season, so such a concession in the Garber case would seemingly provide little new benefit to fans. While MLB may have gone a little further to sweeten the pot for a settlement, it is doubtful that the league would have gone so far as to voluntarily modify its blackout policies in any substantial way before trial.

So fans that were hoping that the Garber case would spell an end to blackouts will likely be disappointed once the final settlement terms are announced.

Regardless of the terms of the deal, the settlement will ultimately need to be approved by the presiding judge in the case — Judge Shira Scheindlin — before it becomes official. As part of that process, fans will have the opportunity to provide feedback regarding the sufficiency of the deal. But considering that Judge Scheindlin approved the settlement in the NHL case without lodging any serious objections to it, one can reasonably anticipate that whatever deal MLB reached this morning will eventually be approved as well.