oblong Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 1 hour ago, Biff Mayhem said: I am in the minority but I didn't mind Hawk too much. He announced for a team of black sheep who were the fourth favorite sports franchise in Chicagoland and created a common bond with the fans by being that totally devoted homer. It was fan inclusive because it was "we" and "the good guys". He did a great job with that. Plus he was complimentary of players from other teams more often than he got credit for. ETA: it did take me awhile to warm up to this idea but I finally was able to appreciate what he brought and eventually learned to love Ozzie and AJ Pierzynski. Me too. It had a Mark Champion feel to it, which I prefer as a fan. With Champion as soon as you put the Lions game on you could tell who was winning. His audience were Sox fans. They had a chip on their shoulder. He played into that. I always thought if I were born in Chicago I would be a Sox fan. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oblong Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 My cable bill has a $10 "Regional Sports Fee". I wonder who that goes to and whether I can opt out. I might try their chat bot to find out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toddwert Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 5 minutes ago, chasfh said: I don't think that's likely, either. I mean, they can try it, and someone might, but I think it will cost them once viewers realize the broadcasters are just talking from the studio. It will seem very inauthentic. I could see them trying a Mannings-type thing as a secondary feed, but not as the main feed. This isn't Twitch we're talking about. I dont know.... I think baseball nerds like us would care but your average viewer probably didnt realize they were broadcasting road games from the studio in 2021 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRamage Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 17 hours ago, chasfh said: Are you thinking they will lower the price of your cable or streaming package if MLB takes over local broadcasts? Well, in a perfect world... Bally, er I mean Diamond Sports Group, had huge debt and only two income sources, which means they needed to pay all their staff, all their broadcast rights, and all their interests on debt based only on ad revenue and subscribers. I would hope that MLB isn't as dependent on subscriber income. Add in that they should get more 3rd party money from the gambling crap shown on screen and I would HOPE that they would be able to charge less than Bally was doing. But of course, that's a just my hope. The reality might be very, very different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRamage Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 55 minutes ago, chasfh said: I don’t think they are going to reduce local game broadcasts to only the home feed because viewership from the visiting team market would crater. People want to hear the game called from their team’s perspective, and they also want continuity of personalities they listen to from game to game—not, Tigers are in Kansas City, who’s calling the game now? If Baseball seriously wants to grow its base, limiting broadcasts to only the local team would be one of the worst things they could do. They could "split the difference" I would think... just have a production crew at each stadium and only fly the talking heads around. I suspect the broadcasts would be better with a dedicated crew for each team, but this would probably save a decent chunk of money while still given teams they home town announcers. Honestly I think I would hate having a "national" broadcast for each game. It's one of the things I hate about NFL games is that announcers don't know a ton about the team and they end up telling the same stories every week because they don't know that the crew last week covered the exact same thing. Whenever the Dodgers were making a playoff run the announcers had to at least twice talk about Stafford and Kershaw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasfh Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 30 minutes ago, RedRamage said: Well, in a perfect world... Bally, er I mean Diamond Sports Group, had huge debt and only two income sources, which means they needed to pay all their staff, all their broadcast rights, and all their interests on debt based only on ad revenue and subscribers. I would hope that MLB isn't as dependent on subscriber income. Add in that they should get more 3rd party money from the gambling crap shown on screen and I would HOPE that they would be able to charge less than Bally was doing. But of course, that's a just my hope. The reality might be very, very different. Given that cost of a product is the result of demand far more than it is the result of the cost of the materials, I don't expect any change in price until they actually start losing subscribers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasfh Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 17 minutes ago, RedRamage said: They could "split the difference" I would think... just have a production crew at each stadium and only fly the talking heads around. I suspect the broadcasts would be better with a dedicated crew for each team, but this would probably save a decent chunk of money while still given teams they home town announcers. This is a good idea. Do the teams fly production crew around now? I honestly don't know. I would think they might fly a truck director and maybe a high-level technician or two, but I would think they use local camera operators. What I think they would have to do (or maybe keep doing) is use separate local crews for each feed, so the visiting team truck director can direct camera shots that focus on their team, rather than accepting whatever the home team crew feeds their monitors. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasfh Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 59 minutes ago, Toddwert said: I dont know.... I think baseball nerds like us would care but your average viewer probably didnt realize they were broadcasting road games from the studio in 2021 I think practically everyone realizes that 2021 (and 2020) were special case seasons requiring an exceptional approach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMRivdogs Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 26 minutes ago, RedRamage said: They could "split the difference" I would think... just have a production crew at each stadium and only fly the talking heads around. I suspect the broadcasts would be better with a dedicated crew for each team, but this would probably save a decent chunk of money while still given teams they home town announcers. I would assume all stadiums already have technical crews in place with the exception of the announcing crew and possibly a producer for TV games. Since both teams take the same camera feed, usually. It makes no sense shipping technical equipment and trucks cross country all the time. The NFL has been doing that for years. Meanwhile some of us out of market fans are waiting anxiously to see if TMobile is offering us free MLB again this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digitalpigsmuggler Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 MLb Tv is still way better than anything the NFL is throwing out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMRivdogs Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 To me the whole Bally/Sinclair/??? issue is # who has the broadcast rights if the current holder is unable to deliver on the contract. I would assume they would revert back to the Tigers or any other team who may be affected. It's then the team's prerogative to assign or sell the rights to another entity. (With the consent of MLB). It would also probably be up to MLB or the team to strike a deal with cable operators in the region (along with satellite providers) to carry the broadcasts. The fact that Sinclair pulled this move as late as they did makes me believe something is fishy Hunt Valley, MD. (Home base for Sinclair) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasfh Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 14 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said: I would assume all stadiums already have technical crews in place with the exception of the announcing crew and possibly a producer for TV games. Since both teams take the same camera feed, usually. It makes no sense shipping technical equipment and trucks cross country all the time. The NFL has been doing that for years. Meanwhile some of us out of market fans are waiting anxiously to see if TMobile is offering us free MLB again this year. I don't think both teams use the exact same feed. I think most if not all stadiums have multiple CF cameras, right next to each other, specifically for each team to have its own feed. They probably use single cameras at most other points in the stadium (except maybe the camera wells right next to the dugouts), but I believe each truck has access to the single cameras in case, for instance, the visiting director wants to show a closeup on a particular visiting player they are talking about, or want to show a fan in the stands wearing visiting team gear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMRivdogs Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 1 minute ago, digitalpigsmuggler said: MLb Tv is still way better than anything the NFL is throwing out there. I'm just to cheap to spend $25 a month for something that I'd watch a couple times a week on top of the other streaming services. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobrob2004 Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 3 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said: To me the whole Bally/Sinclair/??? issue is # who has the broadcast rights if the current holder is unable to deliver on the contract. I would assume they would revert back to the Tigers or any other team who may be affected. It's then the team's prerogative to assign or sell the rights to another entity. (With the consent of MLB). It would also probably be up to MLB or the team to strike a deal with cable operators in the region (along with satellite providers) to carry the broadcasts. The fact that Sinclair pulled this move as late as they did makes me believe something is fishy Hunt Valley, MD. (Home base for Sinclair) This is my thought as well. If Bally fails to pay the Tigers for the broadcasting rights, then couldn't the Tigers terminate the contract and go to another network? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRamage Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 2 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said: To me the whole Bally/Sinclair/??? issue is # who has the broadcast rights if the current holder is unable to deliver on the contract. I would assume they would revert back to the Tigers or any other team who may be affected. It's then the team's prerogative to assign or sell the rights to another entity. (With the consent of MLB). It would also probably be up to MLB or the team to strike a deal with cable operators in the region (along with satellite providers) to carry the broadcasts. The fact that Sinclair pulled this move as late as they did makes me believe something is fishy Hunt Valley, MD. (Home base for Sinclair) I thought I read a blurb about this somewhere but can't find the article now. There was something about teams have x-number of days to pull back their rights. I'm just guessing here but I would assume that they have the option to pull back their rights prior to bankruptcy and if they did then the rights debt that DSG owes would go away as well. If they didn't, then the rights would go as an asset under bankruptcy. I suspect a team would prefer to have their right back, but if they did this then DSG is under no requirement to air the games and the teams would need to scramble with only a month to go before opening day to get broadcasts lined up. If it goes under bankruptcy then there's probably incentive for DSG to still air the game to get the revenue, but the teams may not see all (or any?) of their rights payments come through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMRivdogs Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 1 minute ago, bobrob2004 said: This is my thought as well. If Bally fails to pay the Tigers for the broadcasting rights, then couldn't the Tigers terminate the contract and go to another network? It would be feasible IF there was another option. As it stands now, unless I'm wrong, Bally's is the only sports network in the region. You could assume the Tigers/Wings and possibly Pistons could attempt to set up their own enterprise. That would be costly and not possible to create over night. The other option could possibly do it the old fashion way and set up a network of local stations across the region. I think that would be a near impossible sell unless you put it on one of the major stations sub channel and make deals with local Cale companies. That's not going to happen before opening day. I also can't imagine the technical cost to do that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobrob2004 Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 3 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said: It would be feasible IF there was another option. As it stands now, unless I'm wrong, Bally's is the only sports network in the region. You could assume the Tigers/Wings and possibly Pistons could attempt to set up their own enterprise. That would be costly and not possible to create over night. The other option could possibly do it the old fashion way and set up a network of local stations across the region. I think that would be a near impossible sell unless you put it on one of the major stations sub channel and make deals with local Cale companies. That's not going to happen before opening day. I also can't imagine the technical cost to do that Yeah, I guess the old fashion way of a local channel like ABC or NBC airing the games isn't attractive or lucrative anymore (and they probably already have their summer programs lined up). I wonder if it'll be feasible for YouTube, Peacock, or AppleTV to stream local games? Or would this interfere with MLB.tv? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMRivdogs Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 The streamers already have their national contract. YouTube and MLB are currently arguing over a contract and is not carrying the network at the moment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobrob2004 Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 1 minute ago, CMRivdogs said: The streamers already have their national contract. YouTube and MLB are currently arguing over a contract and is not carrying the network at the moment I'm not talking about national contract. I'm talking about the Tigers making an agreement with one of them to stream in only the local market. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMRivdogs Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 2 minutes ago, bobrob2004 said: I'm not talking about national contract. I'm talking about the Tigers making an agreement with one of them to stream in only the local market. I have a feeling from a cost and technical standpoint it would not be feasible for streamers to even entertain such an idea at this time. But then I'm spitballing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasfh Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 28 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said: It would be feasible IF there was another option. As it stands now, unless I'm wrong, Bally's is the only sports network in the region. You could assume the Tigers/Wings and possibly Pistons could attempt to set up their own enterprise. That would be costly and not possible to create over night. The other option could possibly do it the old fashion way and set up a network of local stations across the region. I think that would be a near impossible sell unless you put it on one of the major stations sub channel and make deals with local Cale companies. That's not going to happen before opening day. I also can't imagine the technical cost to do that The other problem with digital subchannels is that hardly anyone watches them, and also, DirecTV doesn't even feature them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gehringer_2 Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 (edited) 34 minutes ago, RedRamage said: There was something about teams have x-number of days to pull back their rights. this is correct. As per what I have read, according to the existing contracts, in case of bankruptcy, rights are going to go back to the teams, the current Bally share holders will be wiped out and the Bally creditors (primarily the teams who have not been paid) are literally going to 'inherit' the company. Of course that was the plan - I suppose once a Bankruptcy is filed the Judge will may decide on something else! Edited March 7, 2023 by gehringer_2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasfh Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 17 minutes ago, bobrob2004 said: I'm not talking about national contract. I'm talking about the Tigers making an agreement with one of them to stream in only the local market. No team would want to go to 100% streaming for their regional broadcasts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobrob2004 Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 5 minutes ago, chasfh said: No team would want to go to 100% streaming for their regional broadcasts. Why not? Currently they are 100% on cable, but every year more and more people are cutting the cord and are going to streaming. Pretty soon there will be more people without cable than with cable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRamage Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 1 minute ago, bobrob2004 said: Why not? Currently they are 100% on cable, but every year more and more people are cutting the cord and are going to streaming. Pretty soon there will be more people without cable than with cable. I suspect MLB's audience is still skewed away from the streaming trend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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