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WGN America dropping Chicago sports

S

ShawnHill1

With Tribune Broadcasting already working on its gradual revamp of the WGN America cable channel, according to Crain's Chicago Business website, company CEO Peter Liguori plans on removing Cubs, White Sox, and Bulls telecasts on the soon-to-be-ex-superstation by the end of the calendar year. Liguroi essentially states that new original programming can make more revenue than carrying the Chicago sports teams.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20140530/NEWS01/140539978/wgn-america-to-drop-chicago-sports
 
Well, this is it. The final nail in the coffin for WGN America. The Chicago sports and Chicago newscasts was probably the only things that drew eyes to the network.
 
With out-of-market baseball on TV on ESPN, FS1 or MLB Network just about every day, the primary viewers of Cubs and White Sox games on WGN became Cubs and White Sox fans in other parts of the country who didn't want to pay extra for Extra Innings (cable/satellite) or MLB.TV (internet/mobile). That's not a particularly large -- or attractive to advertisers -- audience to be targeting. The Superstation concept, at least for sports, has been dead for some time. WGN was just late to hear the news.
 
This makes me sad. Next thing you know the noon news will be gone as well. No need to call it WGN America anymore. Just call it "Rerun". Get rid of anything to do with that three letter call. Wish it was still the late 1980s so *everyone* could get local Chicago news, an 8:00/7:00 movie, and wonderful syndicated programming. Those were the days! I have a few movies here and there off of WGN cable between 1988-89 and the Chicago ads were still intact wherever in the US you were.

-crainbebo
 
Makes sense to me. The Sox and Bulls don't have a national following. Perhaps the Cubs still do to some degree, but probably not enough to be profitable to the network.
 
They don't own the Cubs anymore. Too much sports on cable now. Then again, there's really nothing they can do that won't already have lots of competition. Imagine them doing TNT or Lifetime, but it's already being done.
 
Cable TV as we have long known it is dying, especially the sort of rerun-farm-plus-occasional-original-program WGNA wants to be. Had they done this ten years ago it might work, but this is exactly the wrong moment to jump into this field with stuff like Netflix filling much the same purpose. Tribune has long been a weird anachronism that never quite fit into the rest of the American TV landscape anyway, but it seems like this might be the wrong way to go.
 
ansky212 said:
Makes sense to me. The Sox and Bulls don't have a national following. Perhaps the Cubs still do to some degree, but probably not enough to be profitable to the network.
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I'm sure the White Sox and the Bulls have many followers across the United States outside of Chicago, Illinois.
 
Mario500 said:
I'm sure the White Sox and the Bulls have many followers across the United States outside of Chicago, Illinois.
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Maybe they have "many", but they don't have enough to generate profitable ratings across the entire country.
 
Mario500 said:
I'm sure the White Sox and the Bulls have many followers across the United States outside of Chicago, Illinois.
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You could probably say that about any sports team in the country. But clearly they don't have enough national following to be profitable for WGNA to continue showing games.
 
Morgan Wick said:
Cable TV as we have long known it is dying, especially the sort of rerun-farm-plus-occasional-original-program WGNA wants to be. Had they done this ten years ago it might work, but this is exactly the wrong moment to jump into this field with stuff like Netflix filling much the same purpose. Tribune has long been a weird anachronism that never quite fit into the rest of the American TV landscape anyway, but it seems like this might be the wrong way to go.
Click to expand...

Cable TV is dying, you're right and we have many sub-channels that already show reruns and classic movies to begin with, i see WGN America changing into a TBS/TNT-lite format similar to putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound.
 
TVCOOL said:
Cable TV is dying, you're right
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Except that it's not true. Statistically, cable TV is still growing, even thought over 70% of the US uses it. What's driving its continued growth is bundling. People like the bundles of TV, phone, and internet on one monthly bill. It's a hit. Sure some people complain about the cost, and a few have cut the chord. But for the most part, the public is addicted to cable TV.
 
I doubt WGN will try to get a national sport deal as how TBS did when the Braves left they went after a MLB package for Sunday during the day and post season games. As for WGN its hard TNT has NBA so its hard to say what sport they would get.
 
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