MLB Postseason

[sandiegoinexile]

Re: MLB on NBC

Clearly, Fox cares little about the Saturday afternoon games,

I'm lost...what makes you say this? Fox has baseball on every Saturday from the opening weekend to the last, even putting games in prime time this year.

The contract requires them to carry weekly Saturday games. FOX killed the pregame studio show. There is no post-game. Lead broadcaster Joe Buck does 10 games instead of 25. They rarely show in-game highlights. They know ratings are going to be spotty at best, so they meet the contract requirements.

 

[KTU_Fan]

Ah Ok, I see where you're going. As for the contract I know they have to carry weekly games, but the point I was trying to make was that they actually upped the amount of games last year to what we have now, I dont know if that was because of a new contract or not.

As for my opinion on the rest of the stuff, at first I was upset with the lack of a pregame, but now I see pregames for all sports (football is the worst) really dont add anything to the table. All the pregame info on all the games you may need can be found on the MLB network, same for post game shows. If I'm watching a local team, then yes I do expect pre and post game shows, but not for national games. Same goes for ingame highlights, if I'm watching a game I dont really care about any others going on unless its something big happening.

And while I do like Joe Buck, many do not so I'm sure they're happy hes calling less games. Heck Doc Emrick is the lead announcer for VS and he calls even less games....and again he hated by many so I'm sure many are happy.

 

[DToTheJ]

Joe Buck calls 25 games a year... don't forget the postseason games in addition to the ten thsat he calls during the regular season... And remember that football takes precedence over baseball in September, which is why you'll hear the likes of Thom Brenneman alongside Tim McCarver during then. I believe it is in Joe Buck's contract that he only calls NFL games with at least one NFC East team involved. I believe this is why a lot of teams in this division are getting a lot of Sunday and Monday nighters in addition to CBS games in an attempt to work around Joe's demands... :

 

[imhomerjay]

If they're all that disinterested, they can opt out in 2013 when the deal expires. (Besides, what would be drawing better Saturday afternoon numbers for those 26 weeks...COPS reruns?)

 

[radiolives]

Re: MLB on NBC

I predict NBC-Comcast-Versus will go full-throttle to get baseball. Versus needs content and respect. What better than swiping away Sunday Night Baseball from ESPN? Clearly, Fox cares little about the Saturday afternoon games, so maybe those will be forced on NBC as part of a Sunday Night and weeknight cable deal with Versus.

The impending Comcast-NBC deal is going to significantly change TV as we now know it. Comcast can move Versus to primo channel locations on its cable systems and promote it to death. I can even see NBC-Comcast behemoth taking over the MLB Network and Extra Innings.

ESPN already (over)covers NFL and College Football-Basketball 24/7/365. Baseball isn't the afterthought that hockey has become to ABC-ESPN, but aside from a few weeks out of the year, it is clearly not the lead stories on SportsCenter.

ESPN knows the eyeballs will be there for anything football. It will be interesting to see what happens when the NFL lockout-strike-stoppage hits in 10 months.

Would ESPN lose Sunday Night Baseball that easy, no. They have aired Sunday Night Baseball since 1990. ESPN is avaiable in more houses then VS is.

 

[sandiegoinexile]

Re: MLB on NBC

I predict NBC-Comcast-Versus will go full-throttle to get baseball. Versus needs content and respect. What better than swiping away Sunday Night Baseball from ESPN? Clearly, Fox cares little about the Saturday afternoon games, so maybe those will be forced on NBC as part of a Sunday Night and weeknight cable deal with Versus.

The impending Comcast-NBC deal is going to significantly change TV as we now know it. Comcast can move Versus to primo channel locations on its cable systems and promote it to death. I can even see NBC-Comcast behemoth taking over the MLB Network and Extra Innings.

ESPN already (over)covers NFL and College Football-Basketball 24/7/365. Baseball isn't the afterthought that hockey has become to ABC-ESPN, but aside from a few weeks out of the year, it is clearly not the lead stories on SportsCenter.

ESPN knows the eyeballs will be there for anything football. It will be interesting to see what happens when the NFL lockout-strike-stoppage hits in 10 months.

Would ESPN lose Sunday Night Baseball that easy, no. They have aired Sunday Night Baseball since 1990. ESPN is avaiable in more houses then VS is.

I never said it would be easy. But if Comcast-NBC puts a boatload of $$$$ on the table, anything is possible. No one ever thought the NFL would go on Fox. No one ever thought MLB would go to Fox. But dollars talk.

Would Disney-ABC-ESPN fight tooth and nail to keep at least something, sure. But they already have shown MLB that they will always be in second-place, as they shuffle MLB off to ESPN2 when they have NFL PRE-SEASON games (and yes, I know ESPN2 has the same level of carriage as the mother ship).

The current contracts are in place through the 2013 season, so nothing is going to change anytime soon.