Many of us often joke about how the baseball media seems to stop the world every single time the Yankees and Red Sox play, no matter what the circumstances. It already seems as though every one of these meetings must, by law, be nationally televised. If ESPN, Fox, or TBS don't have the game, MLB Network takes it and makes it one of their showcase games they produce.
As ESPN thinks that every baseball fan has Tuesday (4/10) on their calendar as being the much anticipated date of the first regular season matchup of these two teams, they have taken this to an even higher level.
This is so unbelievable that it almost bears watching just to see if ESPN is serious about their plan. They issued a Press Release about their pre-game coverage. So help me, they did. For an April weeknight meeting two weeks into the season.
Get this. From 4:00 until 5:00 ET, ESPN2 shows Intentional Talk with Chris Rose and Kevin Millar (in conjunction with MLB Network) and air some of batting practice of the upcoming Yankees vs. Red Sox game. And there is more.....
At 5:00 ET, ESPN2 follows with "Around The Cage". This one hour show will be hosted by Karl Ravech and include John Sciambi, Rick Sutcliffe, and Tim Kurkjian, promising manager and player interviews.
Of course, SportsCenter follows at 6 PM ET. The network assures us in this Press Release that there will be more live updates from Ravech and Kurkjian as the network leads into its live telecast at 7 PM.
After all, fans wouldn't want to miss out on seeing if the grounds crew finishes on time and the starting pitchers really do start warming up in the bullpen.
Seriously. ESPN issued a Press Release and promises hours of pre-game coverage for an early season baseball game. It's amazing that they allow other MLB teams to play their games at any point in that three hour window.
While this goes on, ESPN finally started their new morning show, the one that got delayed for three months, last week. The "Get Up" show came in with ratings down roughly 8% from the same week one year ago. No surprise here. They were so worried about having a new studio and other production issues addressed that they gave viewers and ESPN Radio listeners three months to sample other morning shows before finally starting this one.
Speaking of bizarre, NBC Sports offers a new twist on their expanded coverage of televising every NHL Playoff game again this season. They plan their usual excellent job of scheduling, calling upon sister channels such as CNBC to help with overflow coverage. This post-season, however, they are moving two telecasts to, of all places, The Golf Channel.
On April 18th, The Golf Channel airs the Devils vs. Lightning game, followed by the Ducks vs. Sharks, in what will be the first non-golf live event shown on that network. Since those are both Game 4 of the respective series, these telecasts will definitely occur.
It will be interesting to see how that fares. An interesting way for NBC to call attention to The Golf Channel, even if for one night.
Speaking of calling attention, it's hard to believe that ABC and NBC openly conceded the sports viewing audience to the final round of The Masters on Sunday (7/8). Both the NBA and NHL begin their playoffs this week, while both leagues have battles in the standings for playoff positions still very much in progress.
Yet, ABC did not have a Sunday afternoon telecast of an NBA game at all, while NBC did not air an NHL game. As we point out with baseball and even the NCAA Tournament, networks which televise them need a consistent presence during the regular season. Telling viewers their sport "can't compete with golf" seems absurd, especially with the millions of dollars they spend on rights fees.
At least NBA TV came through with a live quadruple header of games on Sunday, although chances are not enough viewers were aware. This came after ABC had very strong ratings from its Saturday night (4/7) NBA telecast.
SAN DIEGO: Next up on the "bizarre" list is the situation with the Padres and 97.3 The Machine. As of press time, there has still been no word from the Padres about the rumored possibility the team would pull the team broadcasts off this rock station after the social media controversy last week.
So far, no sign of Kevin Klein on the morning show. Now it has been discovered that Entercom, which owns the station, has registered three web sites including "973TheFanSanDiego.com". The station also just added Dan Sileo to its midday lineup, acting as if the controversial host would not necessarily focus on sports.
The only other full time sports station in San Diego is XEPRS The Mighty 1090. This all raises the possibility that the 97.3 could go as far as to remove Klein, and the rock music format, and go all sports in support of its Padres contract.
Since there has been no action (again, as of press time) taken by the Padres about their broadcasts, it would lend credence to this possibility.
SAN FRANCISCO: Now that KGMZ 95.7 The Game has finally developed some traction in the ratings, the station has given a multi-year extension to Damon Bruce, host of afternoon drive. Bruce has been with the station since 2014.
HOUSTON: SportsMap 94.1, among the sports stations struggling for ratings, has added Stephen A Smith from ESPN Radio to its midday schedule, airing after local programming with Charlie Pallilo.
CHICAGO: In an amazing twist, Dan McNeill is off the air after just two weeks since returning to WSCR 670 The Score afternoon drive. McNeill revealed that a medical procedure left him with a paralyzed right vocal cord. There is no set recovery time. The station is currently rotating among its other hosts and anchors to work along side co-host Danny Parkins.
Finally, a sad note. The sports media lost Joe McConnell, most recently the voice of Purdue football prior to his full retirement in 2009, at the age of 79. McConnell is known for having called NFL post-season on Westwood One in the 80's, and play-by-play stints with the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings. He also called baseball for the White Sox radio and TV from 1980-84 after a couple of seasons calling Twins games. Before that, he called the Indiana Pacers on radio in the late 70's.
Personally, I consider McConnell to have been the greatest football announcer I ever heard. He had a genuine enthusiasm for whatever team he was calling. I can't believe he didn't get more opportunities at the national level. However, from knowing him and getting the privilege to work with him (I did statistics for him on most Bears broadcasts during the 1980 season), I had a hunch that he preferred the simple midwest to the spotlight of the national media.
We'll miss you, Joe!
Monday, April 9, 2018
Thursday, April 5, 2018
If You Show The Games, They Will Come
No surprise here that the NCAA Tournament Championship game suffered a 30% drop in the audience compared with last year and more than 10% less than the 2016 game. Just like with its baseball package, Turner Sports keeps forgetting that people don't know to look to them.
After four months of seemingly thousands of college basketball telecasts on numerous local stations along with regional and national networks, Turner Sports does not have any sort of package, even with a weaker conference, but expects millions of casual fans to somehow know that they had the Final Four this season.
While TBS, TNT, and TRU aired regional games, the casual fans could find telecasts on CBS at the same time.
Granted, it's hard to completely fault Turner Sports. You would think that for the many millions of dollars they pay to the NCAA just for the Tournament package they share with CBS that they would be entitled to some degree of a regular season presence.
Speaking being entitled, baseball fans are entitled to have their local teams available via their regular TV outlet for games which Facebook streams around the country each Wednesday afternoon this season. We understand that Facebook spent millions of dollars with MLB for this package, which includes MLB itself producing each telecast and providing the announcers and staff.
However, MLB and Facebook need to understand that most fans are paying more for their respective cable/satellite package every month because of the presence of these regional sports networks which air the games. This past Wednesday (4/4), the complete exclusivity that Facebook has prevented the Mets from airing on SNY and the Phillies from airing on NBC Sports Philadelphia.
That meant two large markets having no direct local telecast. With many of the fans at work and unable to watch a stream, they were deprived of a chance to see their local team. Those NYC and Phillies fans that were able to watch the stream of the game may have preferred something other than a phone or other small screen.
It would have been interesting to be able to compare local team viewership between the regular telecast ratings and how many more picked up the telecast on Facebook given both options.
Instead, it wasn't until the morning of the game before SNY showed alerts that it could not show this game. The NBC Sports Philadelphia web site had a blank spot on their schedule that morning, showing their schedule before 1:00 and nothing until after 4:30 for the afternoon.
Because of the fan backlash, teams which have upcoming Wednesday afternoon Facebook telecasts are now taking the lead and alerting their fans early that the games will not be shown locally. The impact is even larger throughout Canada where many of the Blue Jays games are shown regionally or nationally via SportsNet. The network has put out social media alerts telling fans that the scheduled Blue Jays streams on Facebook on April 18th and May 24th will not be available for telecasts, but will be airing on the SportsNet Radio Network.
Facebook did report rougly 4,300,000 views "of at least three seconds" of the Phillies vs. Mets stream with 1,200,000 "reactions" on the platform. One good thing for those watching is that, at least this time, there were no actual commercials, with between innings filled with game related content. Next Wednesday (4/11) it will be the Brewers vs. Cardinals, with the Blue Jays vs. Royals on April 18th.
Sorry, but we should all click on the "dislike" button unless they keep local team telecasts.
BALTIMORE/WASHINGTON D.C.: Baseball fans throughout the region that can't afford cable/satellite and/or have already cut the cord can forget about seeing either the Orioles or Nationals this entire season. MASN, in separate statements, clarified that MASN and MASN2 will be the "exclusive" channels for each team's games throughout the season. None of their games will appear on a local over the air channel, other than any of the few Saturdays when Fox Sports airs one of the teams on a regional basis.
SAN DIEGO: Still no word as of press time regarding the fate of Padres broadcasts on 97.3 even though the Padres' first home stand of the young season just concluded. Kevin Klein, hired as morning man and taken off the air following his controversial "Jump" social media campaign which completely backfired.
Klein has still not gone on the air (as of press time) for the morning show, yet has yet to be terminated from the station. The possibility still remains that the Padres will attempt to revoke the contract with the rock music station and quickly move to another local radio station.
CHICAGO: Former Cubs outfielder and ESPN analyst Doug Glanville has joined NBC Sports Chicago. Although not an actual part of the network's pre and post-game programming, he is already a part of other Cubs related programming along with providing web site content about the team.
ALBANY: Although the local Mets radio affiliate changed starting this season (as we reported a couple weeks ago), the local Red Sox affiliate stays in tact. Fox Sports 980 has extended its affiliate contract through the 2020 season. The station has aired the games since the start of the 2012 season.
After four months of seemingly thousands of college basketball telecasts on numerous local stations along with regional and national networks, Turner Sports does not have any sort of package, even with a weaker conference, but expects millions of casual fans to somehow know that they had the Final Four this season.
While TBS, TNT, and TRU aired regional games, the casual fans could find telecasts on CBS at the same time.
Granted, it's hard to completely fault Turner Sports. You would think that for the many millions of dollars they pay to the NCAA just for the Tournament package they share with CBS that they would be entitled to some degree of a regular season presence.
Speaking being entitled, baseball fans are entitled to have their local teams available via their regular TV outlet for games which Facebook streams around the country each Wednesday afternoon this season. We understand that Facebook spent millions of dollars with MLB for this package, which includes MLB itself producing each telecast and providing the announcers and staff.
However, MLB and Facebook need to understand that most fans are paying more for their respective cable/satellite package every month because of the presence of these regional sports networks which air the games. This past Wednesday (4/4), the complete exclusivity that Facebook has prevented the Mets from airing on SNY and the Phillies from airing on NBC Sports Philadelphia.
That meant two large markets having no direct local telecast. With many of the fans at work and unable to watch a stream, they were deprived of a chance to see their local team. Those NYC and Phillies fans that were able to watch the stream of the game may have preferred something other than a phone or other small screen.
It would have been interesting to be able to compare local team viewership between the regular telecast ratings and how many more picked up the telecast on Facebook given both options.
Instead, it wasn't until the morning of the game before SNY showed alerts that it could not show this game. The NBC Sports Philadelphia web site had a blank spot on their schedule that morning, showing their schedule before 1:00 and nothing until after 4:30 for the afternoon.
Because of the fan backlash, teams which have upcoming Wednesday afternoon Facebook telecasts are now taking the lead and alerting their fans early that the games will not be shown locally. The impact is even larger throughout Canada where many of the Blue Jays games are shown regionally or nationally via SportsNet. The network has put out social media alerts telling fans that the scheduled Blue Jays streams on Facebook on April 18th and May 24th will not be available for telecasts, but will be airing on the SportsNet Radio Network.
Facebook did report rougly 4,300,000 views "of at least three seconds" of the Phillies vs. Mets stream with 1,200,000 "reactions" on the platform. One good thing for those watching is that, at least this time, there were no actual commercials, with between innings filled with game related content. Next Wednesday (4/11) it will be the Brewers vs. Cardinals, with the Blue Jays vs. Royals on April 18th.
Sorry, but we should all click on the "dislike" button unless they keep local team telecasts.
BALTIMORE/WASHINGTON D.C.: Baseball fans throughout the region that can't afford cable/satellite and/or have already cut the cord can forget about seeing either the Orioles or Nationals this entire season. MASN, in separate statements, clarified that MASN and MASN2 will be the "exclusive" channels for each team's games throughout the season. None of their games will appear on a local over the air channel, other than any of the few Saturdays when Fox Sports airs one of the teams on a regional basis.
SAN DIEGO: Still no word as of press time regarding the fate of Padres broadcasts on 97.3 even though the Padres' first home stand of the young season just concluded. Kevin Klein, hired as morning man and taken off the air following his controversial "Jump" social media campaign which completely backfired.
Klein has still not gone on the air (as of press time) for the morning show, yet has yet to be terminated from the station. The possibility still remains that the Padres will attempt to revoke the contract with the rock music station and quickly move to another local radio station.
CHICAGO: Former Cubs outfielder and ESPN analyst Doug Glanville has joined NBC Sports Chicago. Although not an actual part of the network's pre and post-game programming, he is already a part of other Cubs related programming along with providing web site content about the team.
ALBANY: Although the local Mets radio affiliate changed starting this season (as we reported a couple weeks ago), the local Red Sox affiliate stays in tact. Fox Sports 980 has extended its affiliate contract through the 2020 season. The station has aired the games since the start of the 2012 season.
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