MLB Rights vs NFL Rights

[MarcB]

How come Major League Baseball will allow the affiliate to air 2 games, but the National Football League will not?

Tonight FOX has the Redsox game and the Mets game. Both teams have a following here in Connecticut. Tribune is showing The Redsox Game on FOX 61 and The Mets game on their sister station WCCT-TV 20. (Channel 20 shows most of the free-to-air games that come from sister station PIX-11 out of NYC). This has happened a few times before. The Redsox were one channel and the Yankees were on the other.

Now the vast majority of the Patriots football games air on CBS. WFSB. And the vast majority of the Giants Football games air on FOX. WTIC. At least once a year the Patriots and Giants have a 1PM game on CBS. WFSB will always show the Pats game and us Giants fans get screwed. WFSB has stated that they are only allowed to show one game. The same thing if The Pats game is on FOX at the same time as the Giants game. One team's fans get screwed. WTIC has also stated they are only allowed to show one game.

Side Note: Even if they were allowed to show 2 NFL Games, WFSB does not have a sister station to air the other game. They have 2 sub-channels (ESCAPE and LAFF, but they never used them for pre-empted programming). A few times in past they have farmed out programming to WTNH's sister station WCTX 59.


Now the radio rights are different. WTIC 1080 is the Hartford affiliate for both teams. If there's a conflict the Pats get bounced to WDRC 1360. (I would assume someone must be paying WDRC to carry the games).

 

[CTListener]

Now the radio rights are different. WTIC 1080 is the Hartford affiliate for both teams. If there's a conflict the Pats get bounced to WDRC 1360. (I would assume someone must be paying WDRC to carry the games).

Wasted money, whoever is paying it. WAQY 102.1 Springfield puts a better signal into most of the market than DRC(AM) does.

 

[Megatron]

Teams have home markets you live in a Pats market so you get all the Pats games and Giants fans get screwed out maybe just for 2 games a year isn't going to change what the NFL does.

 

[CTListener]

Teams have home markets you live in a Pats market so you get all the Pats games and Giants fans get screwed out maybe just for 2 games a year isn't going to change what the NFL does.

Hartford is a "home market" for Boston and New York in MLB and the NHL. I subscribe to MLB.TV and am blacked out of Mets, Yankees and Red Sox live games. I used to have an NHL subscription and couldn't watch the Bruins or Rangers live -- although, curiously, live Islanders (pre-NYC move) and Devils games were available. Not sure about the NBA and Celtics/Knicks/Nets. So, are you sure the Patriots are the NFL's only designated home team for Hartford?

 

[KML0224]

Hartford/New Haven isn't considered a secondary market to any NFL team. Providence/New Bedford is a secondary Patriots market, meaning they must air all of their road games. I'm not sure if Albany/Schenectady is considered a secondary Giants or Jets market.

 

[CTListener]

Hartford/New Haven isn't considered a secondary market to any NFL team.

I forgot that New Haven is considered part of the Hartford market for TV purposes; was thinking radio there. With the Giants and Patriots all having strong followings in the market (and the Jets fans constituting a substantial minority), I suppose the NFL's only option was to "punt" and let the affiliates decide which team's games they want to offer in case of conflict. When I came to this state in the early '80s, the New York teams (yes, the Jets too) were consistently getting chosen over the Pats when conflicts arose. It's impossible to imagine a Jets game getting priority over a Patriots game now. Although, if the on-field successes of both teams change sharply in the next few years, who knows?

 

[TheBigA]

Now the vast majority of the Patriots football games air on CBS. WFSB. And the vast majority of the Giants Football games air on FOX. WTIC.

What you're describing is AFC and NFC. Patriots are AFC (CBS), and Giants are NFC (NFC). It's not unusual for Fox to have a local game first followed by a national game. In those situations, you'll have the Giants first, followed by a national game, unless the Giants are also the national game. CBS also does a double-header. However, there may be different rules for every market, particularly where they are nearby. When AFC plays NFC, the home team gets the game.

 

[CTListener]

What you're describing is AFC and NFC. Patriots are AFC (CBS), and Giants are NFC (NFC). It's not unusual for Fox to have a local game first followed by a national game. In those situations, you'll have the Giants first, followed by a national game, unless the Giants are also the national game. CBS also does a double-header. However, there may be different rules for every market, particularly where they are nearby. When AFC plays NFC, the home team gets the game.

But when the Pats and Giants or Pats and Jets are in the early slot on the same network, who gets carried is strictly the affiliate's choice, right? I remember this being an issue on NBC locally during the early part of the Patriots' ascent (the Bill Parcells years). Plenty of complaints when their game was chosen over the Jets', and vice versa.

 

[TheBigA]

But when the Pats and Giants or Pats and Jets are in the early slot on the same network, who gets carried is strictly the affiliate's choice, right?

I believe that's correct. I also believe that there can be no competing game against the home team. So if Pats is local, there can't be another NFL game, even if it's NFC, at the same time.

 

[KML0224]

IF you're in a home NFL market. Say the Giants are home at 1 PM Eastern on FOX. WCBS-TV (CBS) channel 2 can not air a game against it. They (WCBS-TV) will instead take a game at 4:05 PM Eastern. WFSB-TV (CBS) channel 3 of Hartford, since it's not in a home NFL market, CAN air a game against the Giants on FOX.

 

[TheBigA]

Also, for baseball, Fox has two games on Saturday, for blackouts and possible rainouts. Typically both CBS and Fox have NFL double headers on Sunday afternoon. The local stations may not necessarily run both, for various reasons.

But there is only ONE Sunday night game, for both MLB and NFL. No backup, no option.

The way to get around a lot of this is to either buy the full cable package or the league-owned online package. Blackouts may apply.

 

[CTListener]

IF you're in a home NFL market. Say the Giants are home at 1 PM Eastern on FOX. WCBS-TV (CBS) channel 2 can not air a game against it. They (WCBS-TV) will instead take a game at 4:05 PM Eastern. WFSB-TV (CBS) channel 3 of Hartford, since it's not in a home NFL market, CAN air a game against the Giants on FOX.

It still is weird to me that Hartford isn't a secondary market for any NFL team. It's less than 100 miles from both Gillette and MetLife stadiums, and residents are big pro football fans with strong attachments to the three franchises. We're not talking Anchorage or Albuquerque here. Are there any other markets so close to two NFL cities and with populations that follow both cities' teams? If so, does the NFL treat them the way it does Hartford/New Haven?

 

[PTBoardOp94]

How come Major League Baseball will allow the affiliate to air 2 games, but the National Football League will not?

Bottom line: Those are the rules the administrators of those two leagues have agreed upon with their broadcasting networks. The NFL rules were drempt up primarily by Art Rooney (the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers) in the 70s. For baseball, commissioner for 23 years, re-wrote most of the rules for broadcasting baseball in the 90s.

There really isn't a logical explanation, other than what the leagues were able to agree upon decades ago.

 

[ShawnHill1]

One of the benefits that Fox has in owning duopolies, or being affiliated with a station that does have a sister station, is that they can run more than one MLB game at the same time, or else MLB wouldn't schedule two teams from the same market (and it's only four such MLB markets, and Fox owns duopolies in all four) in the same timeslot on Fox. It doesn't happen a whole lot, but they're been numerous times over the years locally that Fox schedules the Angels and Dodgers in separate games on the regional Game of the Week schedule--often times, the Dodgers were on KTTV, and the Angels were on KCOP (especially the latter station was the OTA flagship station of the Angels from '06-'13)

 

[TriangleTriadMediaNews]

I also noticed recently if you subscribe to MLB.tv, you can pick which Saturday night FOX game you want to watch. While the one airing on your local affiliate is blacked out, say you wanted to watch the Nationals and Yankees, but it wasn't available in your area, just log in like you would for any other game and it works, however all ESPN games are treated as home games and are blacked out until 90 minutes after the final out.

 

[NoDakObserver]

But when the Pats and Giants or Pats and Jets are in the early slot on the same network, who gets carried is strictly the affiliate's choice, right? I remember this being an issue on NBC locally during the early part of the Patriots' ascent (the Bill Parcells years). Plenty of complaints when their game was chosen over the Jets', and vice versa.

Actually, the network chooses the game for them, so FOX or CBS decides which game goes into a market. The affiliate can then request a change if they don't like the game that they are assigned, and a change may or may not be granted depending on what they are requesting. If you have a market pretty evenly divided between two teams, that affiliate may get more control than others. For instance, I've heard stories about Shreveport, Louisiana having viewer polls picking between Saints and Cowboys games and the winner being shown. I've also heard about them trying to alternate games and even out the appearances.

 

[KML0224]

WAY, way back in Hartford/New Haven (as in pre-1982), there were times when channel 30 of New Britain/Hartford would show the Patriots game while channel 20 of Waterbury/Hartford would show the Jets game. Of course they were NBC affiliate WATR-TV then. Channel 30 boosted their signal in 1978, making channel 20's secondary NBC coverage for parts of the market redundant. They would become independent WTXX-TV in 1982. As far as I know, this market never had a secondary CBS affiliation in that fashion (back when CBS was home to the NFC).

 

[Megatron]

In 2001 & 2002 Fox17 let the viewers pick the game during doubleheaders but I think in 2003 stop doing it don't know if Fox didn't like what Fox17 was doing or not.

 

[paulsonj72]

What you're describing is AFC and NFC. Patriots are AFC (CBS), and Giants are NFC (NFC). It's not unusual for Fox to have a local game first followed by a national game. In those situations, you'll have the Giants first, followed by a national game, unless the Giants are also the national game. CBS also does a double-header. However, there may be different rules for every market, particularly where they are nearby. When AFC plays NFC, the home team gets the game.

Actually most of the time its the opposite. When an AFC team plays an NFC team the road teams network gets the game. That goes back to the days when ALL home games were blacked out and you only got to see road games. This way you would only tune into one network to see all of your teams games. Of courdse now a days a game can be crossflexed to he other network to strengthen that networks particular lineup of games.

 

[schmave]

I also noticed recently if you subscribe to MLB.tv, you can pick which Saturday night FOX game you want to watch. While the one airing on your local affiliate is blacked out, say you wanted to watch the Nationals and Yankees, but it wasn't available in your area, just log in like you would for any other game and it works, however all ESPN games are treated as home games and are blacked out until 90 minutes after the final out.

This was a great improvement in MLB.TV and Extra Innings a few years ago.
I'm glad Shawn answered the question, but the thing that bothers me is if a place like Hartford can get both games when two of its three "local" teams conflict, then let that happen in every market where conflicts happen. I get it happening in Los Angeles in the old days when for whatever stupid reason Fox would schedule both the Dodgers and Angels on the same day; that's a primary market, to borrow a football term. But a "secondary" market like Hartford should not get that same treatment if somewhere like Columbus, Indianapolis, wherever does not, and being in Columbus we definitely have never received that courtesy when both the Reds and Indians were on Fox games at the same time. It has been years since that's happened, but still.