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WGN-TV Says Goodbye to Wrigley Field After 71 Years Cubs moving to Marquee Channel

I see it will be 'devoted entirely to Cubs baseball.' So what do they show in the off season or after/before a Cubs game/pregame? Hours worth of Ring of Honor Wrestling? (Sinclair of course).
 
crainbebo said:
I see it will be 'devoted entirely to Cubs baseball.' So what do they show in the off season or after/before a Cubs game/pregame? Hours worth of Ring of Honor Wrestling? (Sinclair of course).
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Old Cubs games, interview shows, biographies of Cub greats, infomercials. Maybe some who-cares-conference college sports if they're not totally serious about that word "entirely."
 
Somehow The Yankees have been able to fill the Yes Network with all Yankee stuff even in the off season. They've been doing it for many years.

I suggest that anything the Yankees can do, the Cubs can do. What do you think?

BTW Sinclair is now a partner in YES, so I imagine they've already thought of it.
 
TheBigA said:
Somehow The Yankees have been able to fill the Yes Network with all Yankee stuff even in the off season. They've been doing it for many years.

I suggest that anything the Yankees can do, the Cubs can do. What do you think?

BTW Sinclair is now a partner in YES, so I imagine they've already thought of it.
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As of now, Marquee has nobody signed up. And time is running short.

Why would Comcast, to whom the Cubs gave the middle finger and still has the other teams under contract, bother with them without some kind of deep discount? They, more than the satellites, are in the drivers seat. From what I've read, Marquee wants $4 per subscriber per month, down from close to $6. The Cubs are counting on their share of that fee to pay players. The Cubs are in deep doodoo if they don't work out something before the first of the year.

Then there's the satellites. If Dish is true to their word, they won't bother with them since they say they're done with RSNs. DirecTV will probably sign them, but would they do so for $4?

This sounds to me like a disaster waiting to happen, and I hope so. This is Tom Ricketts getting greedy in 2019 just like Jerry Reinsdorf and Dollar Bill Wirtz got greedy in 1982 with Sportsvision. The only difference is that it's not possible to bootleg the broadcasts like it was in the '80s.

Also, the Dodgers partnered with the main cable company in LA, and still doesn't cover the entire market. The Cubs are partnering with Sinclair, who has no presence whatsoever in Chicago. Like Spectrum Sports in LA, they may have to make a deal with an OTA broadcaster for a few games just for the exposure. This isn't 2016, and the Cubs are on a downward slope.

I have a feeling that the Cubs, and possibly the other teams as well, will be back on OTA channels within a few years. Chicago isn't LA, which doesn't have a broadcast-sports tradition. If not on WGN-TV, then on one of the other stations.
 
TheBigA said:
Somehow The Yankees have been able to fill the Yes Network with all Yankee stuff even in the off season.
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YES has the rights to another NYC pro sports franchise -- the Brooklyn Nets of the NBA. It also has New York City FC of Major League Soccer and the New York Liberty of the WNBA, miscellaneous college football and basketball, even tape-delayed Manchester United games, so it's hardly "all Yankee stuff," especially in the off-season. Why would Marquee try to do 100 percent Cubs, especially since Sinclair holds a significant minority stake in YES and is quite familiar with the New York-based network's programming strategy?
 
KeithE4 said:
The Cubs are partnering with Sinclair, who has no presence whatsoever in Chicago.
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Doesn't matter. Sinclair will bundle Marquee with all of its other national properties, including the just-acquired Fox Sports RSNs to get their carriage. Whether they will be able to do so before the start of next baseball season may be a different story.

I do think it is possible the RSNs collapse under their own weight if market trends persist. I think losing Dish Network is a pretty big blow to Sinclair's Fox Sports RSNs.
 
The Yankees never left OTA TV, so their presence on WPIX doesn't qualify as returning. Did the Dodgers ever abandon OTA entirely or were the KTLA games added at least a full season after the current cable deal was struck?

And really, 10 or 20 OTA games are mere crumbs fed to fans who either don't have cable or whose cable systems are involved in a dispute with the home team's network. If I read KeithE correctly, he's predicting the Cubs ditching Marquee and putting all their games back on WGN or some other OTA Chicago station. I can see no circumstance under which that would ever happen.
 
crainbebo said:
I see it will be 'devoted entirely to Cubs baseball.' So what do they show in the off season or after/before a Cubs game/pregame? Hours worth of Ring of Honor Wrestling? (Sinclair of course).
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MASN & MASN 2 (the networks the Orioles and Nationals air on) air the most random stuff in the off season. They have classic O's and Nats games which is expected, but you can also run into random old UFC fights, an ESPN News simulcast, poker tournaments, day old college sports events, and Graham Bensinger's show. In the early years of MASN, they also used to air a TV simulcast of the Anita Marks show, she was the afternoon drive host on WJZ-FM (105.7 the Fan) in Baltimore.
 
CTListener said:
The Yankees never left OTA TV, so their presence on WPIX doesn't qualify as returning.
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The sale to Nextar was just completed last week. So until the new season begins, we don't know that the Cubs have in fact officially left OTA-TV yet. There are a few other things still in play.
 
TheBigA said:
The sale to Nextar was just completed last week.
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I'm not sure how the sale to Nexstar is relevant. This was the Cubs' decision to leave OTA TV, not any of the Cubs' existing media partners opting to end their agreements with the Cubs.
 
I bet Harry Caray would never imagined this Cubs leaving WGN TV, but it is not just the Cubs sports in general as well. Chicago White Sox, Chicago Bulls, and Chicago Blackhawks will all air on NBC Sports Chicago, so Friday night will mark the Cubs last ever game on WGN TV, White Sox last game is Saturday. But for decade it was the Cubs and WGN TV, even when they would even air on the Superstation where Cubs fans around the country could tune in and watch the game, even if they weren't in the Chicago area. The only time Cubs will only be seen on free tv if they are scheduled to be on Fox's main channel. And that might not be with the Cubs own Len Kasper on the call, as he sometimes will fill in and call the game on FOX along with a FOX aylanist, and not the guy who works with him
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
Doesn't matter. Sinclair will bundle Marquee with all of its other national properties, including the just-acquired Fox Sports RSNs to get their carriage. Whether they will be able to do so before the start of next baseball season may be a different story.
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Comcast's partnership with the teams put Fox Sports Chicago (the successor to Sportsvision/SportsChannel Chicago) out of business years ago. Sinclair has no leverage in Chicago.
 
CTListener said:
And really, 10 or 20 OTA games are mere crumbs fed to fans who either don't have cable or whose cable systems are involved in a dispute with the home team's network. If I read KeithE correctly, he's predicting the Cubs ditching Marquee and putting all their games back on WGN or some other OTA Chicago station. I can see no circumstance under which that would ever happen.
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Not immediately, but I do think some games will be put back on one OTA station in time. I wouldn't be shocked if Fox tries to get them for Channel 32 or 50, or ABC on 7 again.

But not next season or the season after, unless they just don't get the coverage they expected. The Cubs are in decline (they were eliminated about an hour ago), will probably have a new manager next year, and won't be as good if they don't have the revenue to sign/keep players. Ricketts isn't Wrigley (who usually lost money on the Cubs), and he won't continue to lose money on this venture if it doesn't take off.
 
KeithE4 said:
Ricketts isn't Wrigley (who usually lost money on the Cubs), and he won't continue to lose money on this venture if it doesn't take off.
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I'm anticipating a lot of changes in this team during the off season, and that could lead to a rethinking of this situation.
 
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