Last week, it was annnounced that two Division Series games would be moved from TBS to MLB Network, both in 2012 and 2013. You probably know about that; I wrote about it here at Baseball Nation.
You Could Be Shut Out Of A Playoff Telecast Involving Your Team
You’re excited! Your team is in the playoffs. But its game is on MLB Network and you don’t get that channel. MLB says in that case, you’re out of luck.
What you might have missed was this report about those MLB Network telecasts, in which Michael Hiestand writes that MLB is probably going to really, really upset some fans of the teams playing in those games:
MLBN won’t be the first league-owned channel to carry postseason action (NBA TV has broadcast playoff games since 2003), NFL Network has aired regular-season games since 2006. The NFL turned down what might have been $400 million annually in network rights fees to instead keep games for its own channel to boost the channel’s visibility.
But MLBN’s playoff games will have a key difference. The NFL insists its cable games on NFLN and ESPN also air on TV in the home markets of teams in the games. MLB won’t allow that.
Imagine this scenario: the Yankees or the Dodgers or the Red Sox are in a tight division series. And they might have a chance to win the series in a game carried by MLB Network. But you are one of the fans who lives in New York or Los Angeles or Boston who either can't afford cable or satellite, or whose cable or satellite system doesn't carry MLB Network.
You’re out of luck, or you have to go to a bar to watch the game.
On what planet is this a good idea? As noted above, the NFL has been farming out its cable games to local channels in the home market of the teams involved for many years. This provides the game telecast to everyone who’s a fan of the local team, whether they can afford cable or not. Hiestand explains why MLB Network is likely doing this:
MLB wants viewers to complain about not being able to see their home teams and then somehow scramble to get access to MLBN.
It’s an old tactic. In February 1994, ESPN put the matchup of then-top-ranked college basketball teams Duke and North Carolina on its fledgling ESPN2, which was in just 13 million households. Viewers called to complain, and ESPN, happily, suggested they call their cable operators to demand they get ESPN2.In 1994, this tactic worked. In 2012, the broadcast/cable/satellite landscape is quite different. MLBN is currently in about 60% of homes nationwide; TBS, the cable network carrying most of the other Division Series games and some League Championship Series games, is in about 99% of the USA -- that’s why you don’t hear complaints about it. Most people have access to TBS. It doesn’t seem likely that withholding these games from broadcast stations would push fans today to call as they did in 1994, or that cable systems would suddenly decide to add MLBN; instead, you’d just have a lot of angry fans shut out from seeing their team in the playoffs.
Allowing local broadcast channels in the markets to carry these games could be a money-maker for MLB; they could charge a small rights fee and get the national advertising seen by more eyeballs. Usually, local cable operators are permitted a few local ad inserts into games like this; the local stations could easily make up the rights fees with some local advertising inserts.
We’re not talking about protecting territories or the other lame reasons for regular-season blackouts here, either, simply making sure that everyone in the local market of a team involved in the playoffs can see a national telecast. It’s really a no-brainer to farm these cable games to a broadcast channel.
Unless, of course, you are MLB, the league that regularly shuts its fans out from watching its product on television.
See More:
