It seems like sports programming is now reserved to networks like ESPN, TBS (for baseball), or regional cable networks like Comcast Sports Net. Are there still markets where local sports teams receive coverage on local channels?
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Have we reached the end of sports coverage on local television outlets?
- Thread starter fordranger797
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Preseason football is often produced by broadcast stations, though some just contract with TV networks to produce it for them. There's also Sinclair and a lot of other stations which air high school sports and minor league baseball that they produce. Sure, the major leagues are often under RSN's with a few games given to broadcast stations, but sports still air on them for sure, even if reduced in stature.
Leonard H. "Bones" McCoy replies with "It's dead, Jim. Dead."
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Covering live sporting events on television is expensive. A radio station can broadcast the play-by-play of a local sporting event with nothing more than a cell phone. When you need multiple cameras and other equipment, plus a staff of professionals to operate them, it gets expensive.
KSMO airs high school sports
WLJT PBS 11 in Lexington/Jackson, TN carries tape delayed football and basketball games from West TN area high schools and colleges on Saturday nights. But when it comes to major college and pro sports I'll agree that it's mostly over.
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Just off the top of my head, WWOR, WGN, and I think WPHL and KNTV still air Yankees, Cubs, Phillies, and Giants games respectively. The ACC still syndicates games through Raycom, but they may be the last one doing so on broadcast television. And Sinclair started their American Sports Network this year for lesser conferences.
But sports on local broadcast television sure seems to be slowly dying. That not only reflects the high rate of cable penetration, it may be, at this point, the single biggest reason for it.
But sports on local broadcast television sure seems to be slowly dying. That not only reflects the high rate of cable penetration, it may be, at this point, the single biggest reason for it.
Thanks for the replies! I remember a few years ago, the nearest baseball team to me (the Seattle Mariners) would always be on a local channel. Today, you would never see a Mariners game on any of the Seattle local channels.. they would rather show "Doctor Oz".
The NBA is probably the only big major sport where there's even some sembalance of OTA broadcasts on a local level. From my count, the only remaining teams with some over-the-air coverage are the Bulls, Spurs, and Trail Blazers, with each televising a miminum of 15 OTA games each. The MLS is a little better, with many teams having all of their games on over-the-air, mixed-in with whatever nationally-televised games NBCSN and ESPN2 decide to air.
That was true until sometime this year. Comcast got the rights to the Phillies and shifted the nearly once-a-week-on-the-weekend games to WCAU-TV, the NBC O&O.
The Mariners owning Root Sports Northwest and not about to give their games to a competitor has something to do with it too. But even public access with cable companies blanketly refusing to give them HD channels to upgrade might also be cutting into high school game coverage; my local channel has HD cams and HD control systems, but it still all goes to a channel running 4:3 SD. One other community is still even using a character generator from the early 80s that is slowly dying on-air.
In Charlotte they have actually had Major League Lacrosse on broadcast TV. Seriously?
As of the Baseball Season that just ended The Yankees have 22 or so games on WWOR Channel 9. The vast majority of those are on Tuesday Nights with a few on Friday Nights. They're picked up by WCTX Channel 59 in New Haven. The METS have around 50 games on WPIX Channel 11. Most of them on the weekend. Most are picked up by their sister station WCCT-TV Channel 20 in Hartford (Waterbury) and a couple air on their sister station WTIC-TV Channel 61.
You are assuming it is their choice, Avid Listener's point about production expenses aside. Local teams would much rather put as many games as possible on a cable channel that can collect money from subscriber fees as well as advertising, which means more money for the team, no matter whether they own it directly.
Really? My impression is that it's MLB with the last remaining substantial OTA presence with the teams I mentioned, the Mets on WPIX, and the Rangers on KTXA, especially now that the Lakers aren't on KCAL anymore.
Anymore, the sports left on local broadcast TV are sports too small to make much of a dent in subscriber fees and sports desperate to get any sort of coverage at all, like MLL, the ASN conferences, and to a lesser extent MLS.
Morgan, you're correct with MLB...you got the Giants, the Rangers, both Chicago teams, both New York City teams, both Beltway teams (Baltimore and Washington), and the Phillies. Even so, both the Orioles and Nationals have their over-the-air games (about 20 each on WJZ and WUSA respectively) simulcast from their cable network. Notice that I didn't count one-off circumstances where some teams will farm a game or two over to an over-the-air station. Definitely more substanial than what the NBA currently does.
Mariners went from KSTW, to KIRO, then back to KSTW/Fox Sports NW and now just cable-only on Root Sports. A shame to not see local sports on local stations. Aren't they "supposed to serve the community"?
How many local, terrestrial, DT-1 TV stations, other than KSMO, air high school football on Friday nights?
-crainbebo
How many local, terrestrial, DT-1 TV stations, other than KSMO, air high school football on Friday nights?
-crainbebo
Most Memphis Grizzlies games are on Fox Sports South except for the ones that end up being on ESPN, ABC,
or TNT.
or TNT.
When the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder moved to here from Seattle in 200&, KSBI served as an OTA partner for Thunder games, then in 2010 they went cable exclusive with Fox Sports Oklahoma. I wouldn't be surprised if Griffin Communications would make a push to put sporting events on KSBI (and that would include OKC Thunder games) that, and along with more local news I believe is part of Griffin's plans for KSBI.
A few years ago the My Network station in Charlotte would air a game on Sunday afternoon that had been played on Friday night.
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