OT: so sounds like the yankees are doing the same thing as the cubs tv network wise

anotheridiot

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Well, considering the Yankees were one of the first with their own network, I think they are pretty far a head on what the cubs are doing, since the cubs are copying what the yankees did back then.

But then again, look at how the yankees stopped going nuts with free agents to stay under the threshold, might have been partly because of the network not due to profits from the network. They have 10,000 more seats in their house than the cubs do and could not buy their network back.

Its really not a big deal now, but I guess we will see if the cubs end up selling their network for a profit and then losing control of it too.
 

beckdawg

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Well, considering the Yankees were one of the first with their own network, I think they are pretty far a head on what the cubs are doing, since the cubs are copying what the yankees did back then.

But then again, look at how the yankees stopped going nuts with free agents to stay under the threshold, might have been partly because of the network not due to profits from the network. They have 10,000 more seats in their house than the cubs do and could not buy their network back.

Its really not a big deal now, but I guess we will see if the cubs end up selling their network for a profit and then losing control of it too.

I meant that they were specifically partnering with sinclair and amazon as the cubs appear to be doing. There are a lot of questions around how that's going to work with regard to the cubs since this is all new. But the fact that an established network like YES is doing the same thing likely suggests it's a good thing.
 

anotheridiot

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I meant that they were specifically partnering with sinclair and amazon as the cubs appear to be doing. There are a lot of questions around how that's going to work with regard to the cubs since this is all new. But the fact that an established network like YES is doing the same thing likely suggests it's a good thing.

I must have misunderstood, I though the yankees sold their share in yes to fox and were going alone with their own again since they cant afford to buy back in.
 

beckdawg

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I must have misunderstood, I though the yankees sold their share in yes to fox and were going alone with their own again since they cant afford to buy back in.

I'm no expert in the matter but from what the article said, some years ago they sold a controlling interest to fox. Fox got bought by disney which meant they had to spin off their regional sports networks because of anti trust laws. From my understanding, the way the sale to fox was written it gave the yankees the opportunity to buy it back at basically a price no one else could beat. The yankees then used that clause to get back their controlling interest and going forward they are going to pair with sinclair and amazon a la the cubs approach rather than fox who's now out of the business.

So, I believe it's identical to the cubs situation now where as the cubs spurned CSN and have built their own fully own interest, the yankees bought back their interest and are just doing the same thing where by they partner with sinclair to do all the logistics stuff of putting it on TV and amazon presumably to handle streaming in market and the two clubs themselves are responsible for producing the content on the networks.
 

NCChiFan

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My 1 local station is a Sinclair broadcasting owned station. However, no joy in Mudville as we are so close to Atlanta, it is all Braves all the time. When we moved to NC, WGN Superstation was perfect. Oh how I miss it.
 

CubsFaninMN

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Yep, the days of the superstation are over. And do you know why?

Advertisers.

Advertisers have insisted that their ads not be seen by anyone who is not in a position to use their product or service. So, you can't watch a Seattle CBS station -- via cable or satellite service -- if you're in the Portland Broadcast Area, even if you're physically closer to Seattle than to Portland.

Certain local ads are tolerated on setups like the Extra Innings package you can buy with your cable service, when they are run on a local sports network. For example, if you have the MLB Extra Innings package and watch a Cubs game that runs on NBC Sportsnet Chicago (formerly CSN-C), you can see Binney's ads. But if the same Binney's ad was running on a game being broadcast by WGN or WLS, it's blacked out in the Extra Innings feed. And BTW, MLB's own At-Bat service automatically blocks all ads in the stream, so the two services are somewhat different.

The same regulations that make the whole situation so muddy in terms of these sports packages are what changed the landscape to make superstations illegal. WGN America and WTBS are now cable channels, not superstations. They carry different programming, at different times, from their broadcast cousins. And only carry national commercials.

-Doug
 

anotheridiot

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Yep, the days of the superstation are over. And do you know why?

Advertisers.

Advertisers have insisted that their ads not be seen by anyone who is not in a position to use their product or service. So, you can't watch a Seattle CBS station -- via cable or satellite service -- if you're in the Portland Broadcast Area, even if you're physically closer to Seattle than to Portland.

Certain local ads are tolerated on setups like the Extra Innings package you can buy with your cable service, when they are run on a local sports network. For example, if you have the MLB Extra Innings package and watch a Cubs game that runs on NBC Sportsnet Chicago (formerly CSN-C), you can see Binney's ads. But if the same Binney's ad was running on a game being broadcast by WGN or WLS, it's blacked out in the Extra Innings feed. And BTW, MLB's own At-Bat service automatically blocks all ads in the stream, so the two services are somewhat different.

The same regulations that make the whole situation so muddy in terms of these sports packages are what changed the landscape to make superstations illegal. WGN America and WTBS are now cable channels, not superstations. They carry different programming, at different times, from their broadcast cousins. And only carry national commercials.

-Doug

This is where I see some disconnect. I agree with everything you wrote. Its just looking at the teams thinking all their games are worth a million dollars a broadcast. Some of the first posts on the subject back when they even toyed with having their own station was it was going to add 180-200 million in revenue which is how I came up with a million a broadcast.

Now, I made the argument before that its gonna cost half of that to actually supply the broadcast, with cameras, production trucks etc, but the teams dont seem to think the advertising for the broadcasts are any of their concern now.

I look up cable subscribers and find

Cord cutting continues to take a toll on cable and satellite television. The industry lost 1.2 million video subscribers in the third quarter, for a total of 91 million subscribers, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence's Kagan research group.

I cant find local stuff, but 30 teams 91 million subscribers, averages 3 million a team. I am sure some teams will cross over and double like cubs, sox, mets, yankmees etc. So how much is actually just thinking about subscriptions and not advertising?
 

CSF77

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I personally think THAT MLB Network should expand giving the user power over viewership and having a variable share based off over viewership.

That way if I want To 4 box 4 games at the same time I should be able to.

Not really a fan of the regional control owners have. It kills the national viewership.
 

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