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Mariners broadcaster fears demise of baseball on radio

CTListener said:
Dave Flemming wonders whether radio's advertising death spiral will drive the sport to streaming only.
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It's all up to baseball fans. The advertisers are there. They're just going where the fans are. If fans want baseball on the radio, and are willing to pay for it in some way, either through advertising or in subscription fees, it will always be there. That's the basic reality. That applies to everything. People aren't getting fired from radio jobs because of the companies they work for. They're getting fired because the entire business model has changed. Ultimately, that goes back to users. By users, I mean listeners. The listeners went to other devices. How do you fix that?
 
Oops! I made a huge booboo! Flemming broadcasts Giants games, not Mariners. So not only is the subject line wrong, but I should have posted to the San Francisco board. No idea why I thought he was in Seattle; he's only been in SF since 2003. :confused:
 
The part of this that's instructive is how MLB is dealing with the demise of Diamond. The league itself stepped in and took over. There's money in baseball. If there wasn't, the players wouldn't be getting $100 million contracts. They just have to figure out how to collect it from fans.
 
It is simple economics, can any team :

stream their PBP broadcast and keep all the money themselves,

"Rent a signal" and hope they can sell enough to offset the rent and keep what's what's left

Or sell the radio right to a broadcaster get a check and not have the hassle of the above two.

Remember a Key to professional spots ownership is how to you convince taxpayers to subsidize you stadium. You can threaten to move to city where the elected officials want to commit political suicide and give them a better deal.
 
Is the number of baseball fans who don't have access to streaming media or don't choose to use any due to privacy fears, technophobia, limited means, or any other reason now insignificant enough that MLB teams don't have to worry about listener numbers plummeting if the broadcasts disappear from AM/FM? Or are most of those radio-or-nothing people too old or too poor to matter to the advertisers anymore?
 
CTListener said:
Is the number of baseball fans who don't have access to streaming media or don't choose to use any due to privacy fears, technophobia, limited means, or any other reason now insignificant enough that MLB teams don't have to worry about listener numbers plummeting if the broadcasts disappear from AM/FM? Or are most of those radio-or-nothing people too old or too poor to matter to the advertisers anymore?
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As a kid, I remember bringing a Radio to school so we could listen to playoff baseball games. I doubt that kids today have any interest in LISTENING to a baseball broadcast (either via traditional Radio or streaming). Nobody writes and mails letters anymore either. To answer your question-- Yeah the number of people is likely insignificant to advertisers...
 
secondchoice said:
It is simple economics, can any team :

stream their PBP broadcast and keep all the money themselves,

"Rent a signal" and hope they can sell enough to offset the rent and keep what's what's left
Click to expand...
...which is what the (former Oakland) Athletics have been doing. This will probably continue in Sacramento.
 
CTListener said:
Is the number of baseball fans who don't have access to streaming media or don't choose to use any due to privacy fears, technophobia, limited means, or any other reason now insignificant enough that MLB teams don't have to worry about listener numbers plummeting if the broadcasts disappear from AM/FM? Or are most of those radio-or-nothing people too old or too poor to matter to the advertisers anymore?
Click to expand...
It's my understanding that KRTY was extremely lucky to maintain half its audience when it went online only, and I would expect live sports would be in a similar boat. Then again, live sports on streaming services haven't hurt viewership, so I don't know.
 
TheBigA said:
The part of this that's instructive is how MLB is dealing with the demise of Diamond. The league itself stepped in and took over. There's money in baseball. If there wasn't, the players wouldn't be getting $100 million contracts. They just have to figure out how to collect it from fans.
Click to expand...
There's money in baseball but not what you think. For some, not all, of owners, (Steve Cohen, Steve Ballmer in NBA,) this is simply the grown-up version of one's favorite toy. Yes, these are businessmen and behave as such, but it's often like a yacht or a jet. Some are true fans, wealthy, and would gladly pay a billion for a title. The money is somewhat inconsequential.

And I would guess that 98% of revenue comes from ticket sales & concessions, TV revenue (local and national), in-stadium and TV sponsorships/advertising, merchandise sales, subleasing stadium for other events, etc. Radio can almost serve as a loss-leader to promote the club at this point - at least in most markets.
 
Baseball needs radio -- whether it's OTA, where many of its present fans still listen, or streaming on radio platforms. It's one more promo tool for a sport whose fan base is aging out. What's the point of having an MLB website if your fan base is aging out? They're not going to migrate to your MLB website just because it's there. 'Build it and they will come' made for great cinematic fantasy, but it doesn't usually work that way in real life.

Even baseball attendance is declining. In 2001, there were eight teams with over 3 million attendance at their games. In 2024, there were just 5.
 
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