MLB executives have too much time on their collective hands.
While the fan base shrinks, MLB is trying to "juice" up the product with a reality show concept for the playoffs.
First, reality shows suck. Second, if your business model is based off of CHEATERS then just film the Astros 24/7. Third, MLB continues to offend their loyal followers with stupid ideas. Just stop.
The idea of adding four more wild cards to the playoffs is NOT for the benefit of the fans. No, it is merely a new source of revenue to the owners. It does not enhance the fan experience if you expect playoff fans to sit through snow delays in mid-November.
The dilution of the sacred 162 game schedule is at stake. The record book is hollow ground. The best baseball teams are the ones who grind out the most victories. They should be rewarded for their efforts. They should not have to sit around for a week while additional .500 wild card teams play a best of whatever game series.
The stupid idea that higher wild card seeds can "pick" their opponent in a televised circus should be DOA. Who is going to watch that half-hour train wreck when every GM will pick the opponent with the worst record. Why have fan wrath or job insecurity if you "pick" the best opponent.
Also, in the current division system, three division champs automatically make the playoffs. That means teams with "better" records could miss out of the playoffs. Fans want to see the "best" teams in the playoffs. Either realignment or a smaller playoff system would be a better answer to the current proposal.
Divisions may be used only for scheduling purposes. The top four winning records in each league will be seeded for a best of 7 series opener to a best of 7 series pennant championship. The sudden death wild card round still puts less emphasis on "team" accomplishment for the entire season. Would you rather see two 100 win teams duke it out for 7 games instead of a couple of dogs trying to best 2 wins out of three series?
One major criticism is that the season is too long. Well, it can be shortened by mandating that every Sunday contest be a family doubleheader. Not one of those "split" contests, but an old fashion day at the park. Owners hate the idea of losing a full "gate" but with the outrageous concession prices they can easily make up the difference. But the other problem is that teams have out priced their target market: young families and children. It is too expensive to go to a game. That should be addressed before ownership tries to force feed another round of unneeded playoffs.
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
February 13, 2020
November 16, 2018
A SURPRISING NEW DEAL
I am more surprised than the average fan.
MLBTR reports that MLB signed a huge deal with Fox.
MLB reached a new seven-year, multiplatform agreement with FOX Sports spanning the 2022-28 seasons. Eric Fisher of Sports Business Journal reports that the contract’s rough value is a staggering $5.1 billion — a near-50 percent increase over the total value of the existing agreement between MLB and FOX. Bloomberg reports a similar total figure and notes that on an annual basis, the agreement represents a 36 percent increase over the prior contract.
Major League Baseball owners approved a three-year, $300MM streaming rights deal with DAZN, wherein DAZN will offer a weeknight show whose coverage bounces from game to game throughout the league — “similar to NFL RedZone.”
Under the terms of the television agreement, FOX Sports and FOX Deportes will retain exclusive rights to airing the World Series, one of the two annual League Championship Series and two of the four annual Division Series and the All-Star Game. FOX will also continue to air a pair of games each Saturday, with today’s release indicating that the number of regular season and postseason games aired on FOX will begin to increase in 2022. FOX also secures expanded streaming, social media and highlight rights, per the announcement.
It’s an enormous windfall for the league and one that further places a spotlight on the ever-increasing revenue available to Major League teams in today’s game — even as league-wide attendance dips and World Series ratings fell dramatically. The financial specifics of each team (or of any team) remain unknown as such information (including revenue sharing figures) is not made publicly available.
But in a general sense, each team will benefit by $170 million or around $24 million/team/year starting in 2022.
From a media standpoint, this is not based on the traditional Nielsen TV ratings book. The rights purchase includes multiplatforms, which would include mobile, streaming, on demand, or the next viewing technology platform (such as the next Facebook). Fox is trying to capture those distribution channels, but it is unclear if this Fox deal hampers the growth of MLB's own internet game applications and subscription based streams.
One thing is certain: the news of this huge extension will be on the minds of the superstar free agents who will not take any idea that the owners are poor or hitting a rough revenue patch.
MLBTR reports that MLB signed a huge deal with Fox.
MLB reached a new seven-year, multiplatform agreement with FOX Sports spanning the 2022-28 seasons. Eric Fisher of Sports Business Journal reports that the contract’s rough value is a staggering $5.1 billion — a near-50 percent increase over the total value of the existing agreement between MLB and FOX. Bloomberg reports a similar total figure and notes that on an annual basis, the agreement represents a 36 percent increase over the prior contract.
Major League Baseball owners approved a three-year, $300MM streaming rights deal with DAZN, wherein DAZN will offer a weeknight show whose coverage bounces from game to game throughout the league — “similar to NFL RedZone.”
Under the terms of the television agreement, FOX Sports and FOX Deportes will retain exclusive rights to airing the World Series, one of the two annual League Championship Series and two of the four annual Division Series and the All-Star Game. FOX will also continue to air a pair of games each Saturday, with today’s release indicating that the number of regular season and postseason games aired on FOX will begin to increase in 2022. FOX also secures expanded streaming, social media and highlight rights, per the announcement.
It’s an enormous windfall for the league and one that further places a spotlight on the ever-increasing revenue available to Major League teams in today’s game — even as league-wide attendance dips and World Series ratings fell dramatically. The financial specifics of each team (or of any team) remain unknown as such information (including revenue sharing figures) is not made publicly available.
But in a general sense, each team will benefit by $170 million or around $24 million/team/year starting in 2022.
From a media standpoint, this is not based on the traditional Nielsen TV ratings book. The rights purchase includes multiplatforms, which would include mobile, streaming, on demand, or the next viewing technology platform (such as the next Facebook). Fox is trying to capture those distribution channels, but it is unclear if this Fox deal hampers the growth of MLB's own internet game applications and subscription based streams.
One thing is certain: the news of this huge extension will be on the minds of the superstar free agents who will not take any idea that the owners are poor or hitting a rough revenue patch.
December 1, 2015
YES NETWORK TOLD NO
Over the holiday weekend, Comcast just dropped the YES network.
Putting together the pieces, the cable operator said it was too expensive to carry the network. From reports: Comcast dropped YES Network, the television home of the New York Yankees, Brooklyn Nets and other programming, in Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania at midnight Wednesday.
The Yankees have a 20 percent stake in YES, while 21st Century Fox owns the remaining 80 percent. Comcast claims Fox's demand for a 33 percent increase in subscriber fees is too high for the network, which leans heavily on its Yankees programming for viewers. The two parties' previous agreement expired earlier this year during the Yankees' season. Comcast and Fox agreed to temporary deals to keep broadcasting during the Yankees' playoff hunt.
However, now that the season is over and the Nets are one of the worst teams in the NBA, Comcast has hardened its line and Fox won't budge. The final midnight deadline passed, and YES Network was blacked out.
Comcast said in a statement:
YES Network carried approximately 130 baseball games this past season and well over 90 percent of our 900,000 plus customers who receive YES Network didn’t watch the equivalent of even one quarter of those games during the season, even while the Yankees were in the hunt for a playoff berth. Viewership of the network in the baseball offseason is even lower. FOX and the Yankees are asking all of our customers to pay them hundreds of millions of dollars over the next several years to continue receiving the channel. The price FOX and the Yankees are requiring from our customers is not acceptable given the Network’s minimal viewership, which is why we have decided we can no longer justify continuing to carry the Network. YES simply does not present an appropriate price-value proposition for our customers.
A Comcast spokesman declined to comment on whether negotiations would continue.
Comcast has 900,000 YES subscribers in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Jersey — the latter two states will be most affected by the loss of hometown sports broadcasts. Comcast is not currently franchised in New York, where YES will continue to broadcast. With the Yankees season over and the Brooklyn Nets off to a less-than-stellar start, losing nine of the last 10 games, the YES Network may not have much leverage on its side at the moment. Moreover, the network is the most costly regional sports network, according to SNL Kagan, raking in $4.89 a month on average per cable TV customer. YES Network is carried in more than nine million homes in the New York market.
>>>> Two key points from the reports: 1. YES Network was extremely expensive to pass on to cable viewers, which shows in that only 10% of Comcast customers carried the channel. 2. The YES network received about $53 million per year from Comcast, which is a huge revenue source.
This also bodes ill for the Cubs planned 2020 launch of the Cubs Network. New York-New Jersey-Philadelphia market is about double the Chicago television market. The YES Network wanted a 33% increase in its carriage fees. Now, cable operators have been losing subscribers for years, mostly from the high cost of sports channels that many do not want to have on their bills. Comcast made a business decision that puts approximately 225,000 Yankee-Nets fans in the dark.
If you try to tie down the projected Cubs numbers off the YES model, with a 10 percent saturation rate, the Cubs cable base would be around 450,000 paid viewers, at only $13.5 million in annual revenue. This is a far cry from the billion dollar Dodger network deal, which now seems like a total disaster for Time Warner cable, the Dodgers' partner.
ESPN has been the kingpin in cable channels, but its luck has turned for the worse.
A steep drop in subscribers over the last two years has resulted in a $900 million annual hit to ESPN's bottom line.Analyst reports and SEC filings indicate that between 2013 to 2015, ESPN lost about 7 million total subscribers, with the flagship channels ESPN and ESPN 2 each dropping 4 percent from a high of 99 million to 95 million subs today. Dropping most dramatically was ESPN Classic, which is down 16.1 percent to 26 million subscribers.
The launch last year of the SEC Network, which has around 63 million subs, has helped "mask" a huge drop in affiliate revenue from ESPN's other networks. Based on an average per-subscriber carriage fee of $6.61 for ESPN, $0.83 for ESPN2, $0.63 for the SEC Network and $0.22 for ESPNU, the national sports conglomerate is taking in around $650 million less each year in affiliate fees compared to two years ago.
Meanwhile, he estimates the resulting loss of advertiser reach has shaved off another $200 million to $300 million from ESPN's bottom line.
So the gold standard of cable sports channels is getting hammered by lower subscriber base and declining cable advertising revenues. If ESPN and YES have major problems with their sports networks, how can anyone in the Cubs business office think they can do better on a more limited product in a smaller market?
Putting together the pieces, the cable operator said it was too expensive to carry the network. From reports: Comcast dropped YES Network, the television home of the New York Yankees, Brooklyn Nets and other programming, in Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania at midnight Wednesday.
The Yankees have a 20 percent stake in YES, while 21st Century Fox owns the remaining 80 percent. Comcast claims Fox's demand for a 33 percent increase in subscriber fees is too high for the network, which leans heavily on its Yankees programming for viewers. The two parties' previous agreement expired earlier this year during the Yankees' season. Comcast and Fox agreed to temporary deals to keep broadcasting during the Yankees' playoff hunt.
However, now that the season is over and the Nets are one of the worst teams in the NBA, Comcast has hardened its line and Fox won't budge. The final midnight deadline passed, and YES Network was blacked out.
Comcast said in a statement:
YES Network carried approximately 130 baseball games this past season and well over 90 percent of our 900,000 plus customers who receive YES Network didn’t watch the equivalent of even one quarter of those games during the season, even while the Yankees were in the hunt for a playoff berth. Viewership of the network in the baseball offseason is even lower. FOX and the Yankees are asking all of our customers to pay them hundreds of millions of dollars over the next several years to continue receiving the channel. The price FOX and the Yankees are requiring from our customers is not acceptable given the Network’s minimal viewership, which is why we have decided we can no longer justify continuing to carry the Network. YES simply does not present an appropriate price-value proposition for our customers.
A Comcast spokesman declined to comment on whether negotiations would continue.
Comcast has 900,000 YES subscribers in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Jersey — the latter two states will be most affected by the loss of hometown sports broadcasts. Comcast is not currently franchised in New York, where YES will continue to broadcast. With the Yankees season over and the Brooklyn Nets off to a less-than-stellar start, losing nine of the last 10 games, the YES Network may not have much leverage on its side at the moment. Moreover, the network is the most costly regional sports network, according to SNL Kagan, raking in $4.89 a month on average per cable TV customer. YES Network is carried in more than nine million homes in the New York market.
>>>> Two key points from the reports: 1. YES Network was extremely expensive to pass on to cable viewers, which shows in that only 10% of Comcast customers carried the channel. 2. The YES network received about $53 million per year from Comcast, which is a huge revenue source.
This also bodes ill for the Cubs planned 2020 launch of the Cubs Network. New York-New Jersey-Philadelphia market is about double the Chicago television market. The YES Network wanted a 33% increase in its carriage fees. Now, cable operators have been losing subscribers for years, mostly from the high cost of sports channels that many do not want to have on their bills. Comcast made a business decision that puts approximately 225,000 Yankee-Nets fans in the dark.
If you try to tie down the projected Cubs numbers off the YES model, with a 10 percent saturation rate, the Cubs cable base would be around 450,000 paid viewers, at only $13.5 million in annual revenue. This is a far cry from the billion dollar Dodger network deal, which now seems like a total disaster for Time Warner cable, the Dodgers' partner.
ESPN has been the kingpin in cable channels, but its luck has turned for the worse.
A steep drop in subscribers over the last two years has resulted in a $900 million annual hit to ESPN's bottom line.Analyst reports and SEC filings indicate that between 2013 to 2015, ESPN lost about 7 million total subscribers, with the flagship channels ESPN and ESPN 2 each dropping 4 percent from a high of 99 million to 95 million subs today. Dropping most dramatically was ESPN Classic, which is down 16.1 percent to 26 million subscribers.
The launch last year of the SEC Network, which has around 63 million subs, has helped "mask" a huge drop in affiliate revenue from ESPN's other networks. Based on an average per-subscriber carriage fee of $6.61 for ESPN, $0.83 for ESPN2, $0.63 for the SEC Network and $0.22 for ESPNU, the national sports conglomerate is taking in around $650 million less each year in affiliate fees compared to two years ago.
Meanwhile, he estimates the resulting loss of advertiser reach has shaved off another $200 million to $300 million from ESPN's bottom line.
So the gold standard of cable sports channels is getting hammered by lower subscriber base and declining cable advertising revenues. If ESPN and YES have major problems with their sports networks, how can anyone in the Cubs business office think they can do better on a more limited product in a smaller market?
May 14, 2015
HARVEY & PRO PITCHING
Matt Harvey is a good pitcher . . . . very good. Jason Hammel is a good pitcher . . . pretty good.
It was one of those classic pitcher duels on a cold Chicago evening.
It was also nice to get a fresh broadcast perspective on the Cubs. ESPN's crew did a good, balanced job on their coverage. For all the side nonsense and controversy, Curt Schilling does know about pitching. (Poor Doug Glanville, he was exiled to Siberia in CF for most of the game.)
The game and the commentary should be a documentary for young pitchers on how to become quality major league starters. Location, command and pitch efficiency were all on display last night.
As Schilling eluded, a top pitcher can control a game from the mound, but an ace pitcher can get himself out of jams even when he makes "mistakes" such as a breaking ball that backs up into the zone (in a few occasions, it backed up inside jamming the hitter into lining out.) It was a clinic on cold weather pitching, the grip, the strategy to attack pitchers and fielders in such conditions.
This is the hardest transition for pro pitchers. It is not about getting strikeouts, it is about getting outs. It is about how to set up a hitter to a) swing and miss; b) take a strike; c) or induce preferred contact such as a ground ball to start a double play. Most young pitchers who have dominant fastball rely too much on it to get the big leagues. However, the problem is that every major league hitter can gauge a fastball, adjust and crush it.
Both starters were excellent last night:
Harvey threw 7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 9K, 2 BB. He threw 100 pitches, 70 for strikes (70%).
Hammel threw 8 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 6 K, 1 BB. He threw 97 pitches, 68 for strikes (70.1%).
Cub manager Joe Maddon is becoming a risk taker. In the 9th after Anthony Rizzo got a single, Maddon replaced his best hitter with a pinch runner, Matt Sczcur. In a tie game that could go to extra innings, this seemed to be an odd move. Then Starlin Castro got a single, with Sczcur getting to third base. This put additional pressure on the Mets bullpen. An intentional walk, then a strike out to Jorge Soler, Mets closer Jeurys Familia walked Coghlan to give the Cubs the win.
It was the bullpen that cost the Mets the game. As discussed, the game of baseball is now constructed to rely more on a solid bullpen than on five solid starting pitchers. Teams are carrying 11 or 12 pitchers now just to bolster the bullpen which is now expected to take the game from the 7th inning to the end game after game. It is rare to get a box score where both starting pitchers throw past the 7th inning.
During the cable pregame, there was some discussion on how good and young the Mets pitching staff is - - - that it could contain five aces. The staff is jelling to comparisons of the great Atlanta Braves staffs of the 1990s. So there is a natural thought pattern that the Cubs and Mets would be ideal trade partners since the Cubs have a surplus of young hitters.
A few people believe that the Mets would be foolish to trade any of their young starters. Finding an ace pitcher is very hard. Finding more than one is rare. Having three or more on a staff is unheard of. One commentator believed that he would never trade a HOF caliber starter for a HOF caliber hitter.
The example would be trading Harvey for Kris Bryant.
Bryant is expected to play 155 games in the field, bat .275, hit 30 HR, 85 RBI.
Harvey is expected to start 33 games, have 16 wins, 2.37 ERA, 1.000 WHIP and 5.0 WAR.
Yes, Bryant will play in more games, but his production and impact is the 4 times he is at the plate. Harvey directly impacts 20 percent of the Mets starts, and controls the ball for at least 25 batters a game.
It is often said that great pitching will temper great hitting. So who is more valuable?
A professional pitcher like Harvey may be more valuable as a central foundation piece for a franchise. Quality starts create stability in the pitching staff. Quality starts give teams the ability to win series. Winning series consistently means a winning record and playoff berth. A professional pitcher will share his knowledge of the game with his teammates, thus increasing the coaching efficiency of the team. (Greg Maddux was credited with the same mentoring in Atlanta and Chicago).
The Mets rebuilt their franchise through young starting pitching. The Cubs have rebuilt their franchise on young power hitters. It will be interesting to see which club has the better run, short and long term.
It was one of those classic pitcher duels on a cold Chicago evening.
It was also nice to get a fresh broadcast perspective on the Cubs. ESPN's crew did a good, balanced job on their coverage. For all the side nonsense and controversy, Curt Schilling does know about pitching. (Poor Doug Glanville, he was exiled to Siberia in CF for most of the game.)
The game and the commentary should be a documentary for young pitchers on how to become quality major league starters. Location, command and pitch efficiency were all on display last night.
As Schilling eluded, a top pitcher can control a game from the mound, but an ace pitcher can get himself out of jams even when he makes "mistakes" such as a breaking ball that backs up into the zone (in a few occasions, it backed up inside jamming the hitter into lining out.) It was a clinic on cold weather pitching, the grip, the strategy to attack pitchers and fielders in such conditions.
This is the hardest transition for pro pitchers. It is not about getting strikeouts, it is about getting outs. It is about how to set up a hitter to a) swing and miss; b) take a strike; c) or induce preferred contact such as a ground ball to start a double play. Most young pitchers who have dominant fastball rely too much on it to get the big leagues. However, the problem is that every major league hitter can gauge a fastball, adjust and crush it.
Both starters were excellent last night:
Harvey threw 7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 9K, 2 BB. He threw 100 pitches, 70 for strikes (70%).
Hammel threw 8 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 6 K, 1 BB. He threw 97 pitches, 68 for strikes (70.1%).
Cub manager Joe Maddon is becoming a risk taker. In the 9th after Anthony Rizzo got a single, Maddon replaced his best hitter with a pinch runner, Matt Sczcur. In a tie game that could go to extra innings, this seemed to be an odd move. Then Starlin Castro got a single, with Sczcur getting to third base. This put additional pressure on the Mets bullpen. An intentional walk, then a strike out to Jorge Soler, Mets closer Jeurys Familia walked Coghlan to give the Cubs the win.
It was the bullpen that cost the Mets the game. As discussed, the game of baseball is now constructed to rely more on a solid bullpen than on five solid starting pitchers. Teams are carrying 11 or 12 pitchers now just to bolster the bullpen which is now expected to take the game from the 7th inning to the end game after game. It is rare to get a box score where both starting pitchers throw past the 7th inning.
During the cable pregame, there was some discussion on how good and young the Mets pitching staff is - - - that it could contain five aces. The staff is jelling to comparisons of the great Atlanta Braves staffs of the 1990s. So there is a natural thought pattern that the Cubs and Mets would be ideal trade partners since the Cubs have a surplus of young hitters.
A few people believe that the Mets would be foolish to trade any of their young starters. Finding an ace pitcher is very hard. Finding more than one is rare. Having three or more on a staff is unheard of. One commentator believed that he would never trade a HOF caliber starter for a HOF caliber hitter.
The example would be trading Harvey for Kris Bryant.
Bryant is expected to play 155 games in the field, bat .275, hit 30 HR, 85 RBI.
Harvey is expected to start 33 games, have 16 wins, 2.37 ERA, 1.000 WHIP and 5.0 WAR.
Yes, Bryant will play in more games, but his production and impact is the 4 times he is at the plate. Harvey directly impacts 20 percent of the Mets starts, and controls the ball for at least 25 batters a game.
It is often said that great pitching will temper great hitting. So who is more valuable?
A professional pitcher like Harvey may be more valuable as a central foundation piece for a franchise. Quality starts create stability in the pitching staff. Quality starts give teams the ability to win series. Winning series consistently means a winning record and playoff berth. A professional pitcher will share his knowledge of the game with his teammates, thus increasing the coaching efficiency of the team. (Greg Maddux was credited with the same mentoring in Atlanta and Chicago).
The Mets rebuilt their franchise through young starting pitching. The Cubs have rebuilt their franchise on young power hitters. It will be interesting to see which club has the better run, short and long term.
April 13, 2015
TAKING A TUMBLE
The Los Angeles Times reported late last week that the Dodgers local TV ratings have tumbled.
Badly.
The new TW-Dodger Channel is still not available in 70% of the LA market due to carrier fee disputes.
The Dodgers new owners signed a multi-billion dollar cable channel deal with TW which now seems to be a money pit disaster.
The Dodgers kicked off the 2015 season with two stadium sellouts and falling TV ratings.
Monday afternoon's opening day telecast on the team-owned cable channel, SportsNet LA, generated a .79 household rating and an estimated 58,146 viewers. That's slightly more than turned out at Dodger Stadium for the sold-out game that culminated with a win over the San Diego Padres.
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, which were on the road Monday against the Seattle Mariners, generated a 1.35 household TV rating in Southern California and 88,415 viewers. The Fox Sports West cable channel carries the Angels' games.
The Dodgers and Angels both grew their TV audiences on rain-soaked Tuesday night -- the teams' first prime-time telecasts of the season. The Dodgers captured a 1.04 household rating and 81,670 viewers. The Angels notched a 1.65 household rating and 132,500 viewers.
Fox Sports West is carried by all of the major pay-TV distributors -- making it available in nearly 4.5 million homes in the region.
But because of a bitter fee dispute, Time Warner Cable, which distributes SportsNet LA, is the only major pay-TV provider that offers that channel in Southern California. Other providers have balked at the price that Time Warner Cable has been demanding to carry the channel, leaving more than 70% of the region without regular TV access to Dodger games.
The Dodgers' TV audience took a tumble on Wednesday. The game mustered a .58 household rating and just 35,000 viewers -- far fewer than showed up at Dodger Stadium for the sold-out game.
This is the new reality: that viewers will not pay "extra" for a team channel. Too many cable operators have been burned by these new deals, including Houston. If the Cubs are banking on a huge Cubs channel windfall in 2020, they are probably delusional since the entertainment distribution landscape is shifting dramatically.
Badly.
The new TW-Dodger Channel is still not available in 70% of the LA market due to carrier fee disputes.
The Dodgers new owners signed a multi-billion dollar cable channel deal with TW which now seems to be a money pit disaster.
The Dodgers kicked off the 2015 season with two stadium sellouts and falling TV ratings.
Monday afternoon's opening day telecast on the team-owned cable channel, SportsNet LA, generated a .79 household rating and an estimated 58,146 viewers. That's slightly more than turned out at Dodger Stadium for the sold-out game that culminated with a win over the San Diego Padres.
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, which were on the road Monday against the Seattle Mariners, generated a 1.35 household TV rating in Southern California and 88,415 viewers. The Fox Sports West cable channel carries the Angels' games.
The Dodgers and Angels both grew their TV audiences on rain-soaked Tuesday night -- the teams' first prime-time telecasts of the season. The Dodgers captured a 1.04 household rating and 81,670 viewers. The Angels notched a 1.65 household rating and 132,500 viewers.
Fox Sports West is carried by all of the major pay-TV distributors -- making it available in nearly 4.5 million homes in the region.
But because of a bitter fee dispute, Time Warner Cable, which distributes SportsNet LA, is the only major pay-TV provider that offers that channel in Southern California. Other providers have balked at the price that Time Warner Cable has been demanding to carry the channel, leaving more than 70% of the region without regular TV access to Dodger games.
The Dodgers' TV audience took a tumble on Wednesday. The game mustered a .58 household rating and just 35,000 viewers -- far fewer than showed up at Dodger Stadium for the sold-out game.
This is the new reality: that viewers will not pay "extra" for a team channel. Too many cable operators have been burned by these new deals, including Houston. If the Cubs are banking on a huge Cubs channel windfall in 2020, they are probably delusional since the entertainment distribution landscape is shifting dramatically.
November 29, 2014
A RAY OF SUNSHINE
FoxSports reports that the Tampa Bay Rays are slowly getting local permission to start to look for alternative sites in the Tampa area for a new facility. Since the lease with the municipality prohibits actual discussions about a relocation to other areas, the report states the Rays have been approached by at least one other potential relocation spot: Montreal.
Montreal had a franchise, the Expos, who are now the Nationals.
Montreal had a long history as a minor league baseball town before the expansion Expos. But the Expos played in a terrible venue, the old Olympic Stadium. Crowds were sparse and the teams were poor (and the strike season killed the team's best chance for a World Series).
Montreal is also French speaking Quebec, and more traditional to Canadian culture than say a more culturally diverse city like Toronto or Vancouver which are fairly Americanized.
MLB claims that Montreal is a major league viable city. Montreal businessmen have approached the Rays ownership about stakes if the team relocates to Montreal. The powerful local backers would include Bell Media.
Tampa's local TV deal expires after 2018, so a new stadium deal needs to be in place or ownership would be pressed to leverage an out with MLB, which has found that Florida does not support teams well.
And the Rays are going to fall into the small market trap very soon. Despite its very good records for the past several years, the franchise is in transition. The farm system is not as good as it once was; GM Andrew Friedman and manager Joe Maddon have abandoned ship. There are rough seas ahead.
Bell Media’s interest in a Montreal baseball franchise may be the single most significant change in that market since the Expos left in 2004. A year ago, the NHL entered into a 12-year, $5.2-billion television contract with rival Rogers Communications — leaving Bell (a then-incumbent rights holder) without national packages on its English (TSN) and French (RDS) networks. Bell has yet to secure long-term rights to a sports television property as visible as the NHL (or MLB) with similar programming hours in English and French.
And, presumably, Bell is pondering what to do with the $5 billion or so it reportedly had financed in a failed effort to renew their NHL rights package. According to Forbes, the Rays’ current franchise value is $485 million, so a cash purchase is an option (considering the league office mistake in allowing the Cubs to be acquired with a huge debt load).
Montreal had a franchise, the Expos, who are now the Nationals.
Montreal had a long history as a minor league baseball town before the expansion Expos. But the Expos played in a terrible venue, the old Olympic Stadium. Crowds were sparse and the teams were poor (and the strike season killed the team's best chance for a World Series).
Montreal is also French speaking Quebec, and more traditional to Canadian culture than say a more culturally diverse city like Toronto or Vancouver which are fairly Americanized.
MLB claims that Montreal is a major league viable city. Montreal businessmen have approached the Rays ownership about stakes if the team relocates to Montreal. The powerful local backers would include Bell Media.
Tampa's local TV deal expires after 2018, so a new stadium deal needs to be in place or ownership would be pressed to leverage an out with MLB, which has found that Florida does not support teams well.
And the Rays are going to fall into the small market trap very soon. Despite its very good records for the past several years, the franchise is in transition. The farm system is not as good as it once was; GM Andrew Friedman and manager Joe Maddon have abandoned ship. There are rough seas ahead.
Bell Media’s interest in a Montreal baseball franchise may be the single most significant change in that market since the Expos left in 2004. A year ago, the NHL entered into a 12-year, $5.2-billion television contract with rival Rogers Communications — leaving Bell (a then-incumbent rights holder) without national packages on its English (TSN) and French (RDS) networks. Bell has yet to secure long-term rights to a sports television property as visible as the NHL (or MLB) with similar programming hours in English and French.
And, presumably, Bell is pondering what to do with the $5 billion or so it reportedly had financed in a failed effort to renew their NHL rights package. According to Forbes, the Rays’ current franchise value is $485 million, so a cash purchase is an option (considering the league office mistake in allowing the Cubs to be acquired with a huge debt load).
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