Guest Former Member 207 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Another deal in a series of MLB teams signing multi-billion dollar TV rights contract (most recently, Time Warner Cable and the Los Angeles Dodgers), the Philadelphia Phillies and their longtime cable home, Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, signed a new twenty-year, $2.5 billion deal late last week. The new deal terminates the final year of their current contract, with the new deal taking effect this upcoming baseball season. Also as a result, the Phillies will move their over-the-air telecasts from WPHL to WCAU, with a reduced slate (going from the usual 40 a year on WPHL, to only 10-15 on WCAU). The Phillies-CSN Philly agreement also gives the team a 25-percent ownership in the network. Of course, it's not unlike most recent local/regional TV rights deals where a team gets an ownership stake in their home RSN. The Angels, Rangers, and Padres each have at least a 20-percent stake in the Fox RSNs that carry their games; the Seattle Mariners in their recent TV rights extension with Root Sports Northwest own a stake in that network, and the Houston Astros have an ownership stake in CSN Houston (in which now the Lastros and CSNH are trying to get out of). Off the top of my head, the majority of the MLB teams are either co-owned with a network, or the team has a stake in their home network. San Francisco Giants: 30% of CSN Bay Area Los Angeles Angels: 25% Fox Sports West Los Angeles Dodgers: majority ownership of SportsNet New York Yankees: 30% of YES Network New York Mets: 65% of SportsNet New York Seattle Mariners: 25% of Root Sports Network Chicago Cubs and White Sox: 20% each of CSN Chicago Boston Red Sox: 80% of NESN Baltimore Orioles: 90% of MASN Washington Nationals: 10% of MASN Texas Rangers: 25% of Fox Sports Southwest Toronto Blue Rays: co-owned with (Rogers) Sportsnet San Diego Padres: 20% of Fox Sports San Diego Houston Astros: 46% of CSN Houston Philadelphia Phillies: 25% of CSN Philadelphia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrtraveler01 737 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 This sounds like a pretty similar set up to the deal between the Giants and CSN (having the OTA games on KNTV and having the team own a quarter of the station). Now it's just a matter of time before the Cubs do something similar with CSN Chicago. I'd be shocked if they did anything else besides a deal similar to this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess 1110 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Also, Chris Wheeler and Sarge Matthews are out. The first things that came to mind were "this is the greatest day in the history of our sport". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A3N 996 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Also, Chris Wheeler and Sarge Matthews are out. The first things that came to mind were "this is the greatest day in the history of our sport". Makes sense. When the teams hire the PBP and color analysts for the RSN it can hamstring the RSN from making changes when necessary. That and the RSN's like to hire their own people who conform to their style/vision. Here in San Diego we got stuck with Dick Enberg who is very difficult to watch but nothing can change because he is employed by the Padres. Luckily his contract runs out next year... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess 1110 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Actually this move reportedly came from Comcast, and not the Phillies. The Phillies were responsible for the broadcast crew for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A3N 996 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Actually this move reportedly came from Comcast, and not the Phillies. The Phillies were responsible for the broadcast crew for years. Yeah, the RSN's like to hire their own people so it's make sense that they parted with Wheeler and Sarge. Like I said, when the baseball team hires the broadcast crew, it can hamstring the RSN/Network from making changes when necessary and i'm sure Phillies fans felt this was long overdue. I'm sure that with this new deal between Comcast/Phillies, Comcast will have a bigger say on who and what appears on the RSN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevieboy247 42 Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 At least it's good to hear that the Phillies will continue the over-the-air broadcasts since a number of professional sports teams have been dumping OTA broadcasts in favor of games being televised exclusively on cable TV. As far as what this deal means for the station that has simulcast Phillies games for years, WLYH-TV in Lancaster, Well....I made a phone call to the station's programming director because a friend that I know who watches Phillies games through a digital antenna wanted to know if the station will still carry the broadcasts for the upcoming 2014 season. The programming director told me that CW 15 is in negotiations with Comcast and the Phillies on the 10-15+ games that will be televised by WCAU. If I know anymore within the next month or so, I will post it here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samantha 2876 Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Recently the Phoenix Coyotes actually went the reverse route and (in their new TV deals) ensured for the first time that all Coyotes games would air on TV. Fox Sports Arizona has about 70 games, and the remainder are on KTVK (one was on KASW, probably because this deal happened on really short notice). It's the first time that 3 has aired a pro sports team since the Diamondbacks consolidated with Fox Sports Arizona in 2007 or so; from their inception in 1998 until that point the two each carried half the schedule. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevieboy247 42 Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 I know this thread is 4 months old, but I got an email last week from the programming director of WHP and WLYH and he told me that CW 15 will air a total of 12 Phillies games this season. I was flipping through some channels and noticed that on last week over-the-air broadcast, they were using the Comcast SportsNet branding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WCAUTVNBC10 408 Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 I know this thread is 4 months old, but I got an email last week from the programming director of WHP and WLYH and he told me that CW 15 will air a total of 12 Phillies games this season. I was flipping through some channels and noticed that on last week over-the-air broadcast, they were using the Comcast SportsNet branding. Those games are the games broadcast on WCAU which from what it looks like aren't getting any special graphical treatment so it's gonna look like that for now on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Heller 1 Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 I'm not surprised at all to see Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia move OTA games from PHL 17 to NBC 10 because Comcast also owns NBC, and Comcast SportsNet is part of The NBC Sports Family Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TVNewsLover 727 Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 Oddly, they are on WPHL 17 tonight. It appears that's because CSN has the Sixers, TCN has the Union, and NBC 10 has two of its higher rated shows on tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Heller 1 Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 Oddly, they are on WPHL 17 tonight. It appears that's because CSN has the Sixers, TCN has the Union, and NBC 10 has two of its higher rated shows on tonight. maybe what CSN Philadelphia is doing is splitting up The OTA games between WPHL, and WCAU Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TVNewsLover 727 Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 maybe what CSN Philadelphia is doing is splitting up The OTA games between WPHL, and WCAU No, it was a conflict. The OTA are only on one Philly station, 10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess 1110 Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 The chances of NBC letting their O&O in the fourth-largest market, and the market that contains its ultimate owner, pre-empt prime time programming are exactly negative thirty seven. Quite likely, WPHL worked out a deal that, if there's a weeknight conflict and both CSN and what I still call CN8 are occupied, games air there. It's still the first month of the season, things don't get good until around June and by then we wouldn't have to worry about Flyers and Sixers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A3N 996 Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 I remember reading an article (can't remember where exactly) that mentioned there was going to be a conflict with the Sixers and Phillies and they had no choice but to televise the Phillies game on WPHL.It's just one of those things that happens every so often, especially when an RSN has rights to multiple sports teams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WCAUTVNBC10 408 Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 The chances of NBC letting their O&O in the fourth-largest market, and the market that contains its ultimate owner, pre-empt prime time programming are exactly negative thirty seven. Quite likely, WPHL worked out a deal that, if there's a weeknight conflict and both CSN and what I still call CN8 are occupied, games air there. It's still the first month of the season, things don't get good until around June and by then we wouldn't have to worry about Flyers and Sixers. Right. Most of the games that WCAU are carrying are Friday nights and Saturday afternoons/evenings where there isn't major network programming to interfere with. Like you won't see another game on 10 til after June when the Stanley Finals are wrapped up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A3N 996 Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 The funny thing is that KNTV aired the Giants-Dodgers game on Wednesday night, FWIW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caliwxdude 252 Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 The funny thing is that KNTV aired the Giants-Dodgers game on Wednesday night, FWIW. Eh, KNTV has been the over-the-air home for the Giants since 2008, predating the NBC/Comcast merger by a few years. The 15 or so games a year on KNTV have always had the look and feel of CSN productions (with a lone NBC logo placed where the standard peacock/CSN lockup would go) but with Jon Miller handling play-by-play instead of Duane Kuiper. NBC Bay Area news anchor (former sports anchor) Raj Mathai also usually hangs out in the Giants dugout as the sideline reporter for these games. NBC primetime programming pre-empted by Giants baseball goes over to KICU, oddly enough. KRON has also picked it up in the past as well, which gave the "NBC is going back to KRON" crowd a ton of material to work with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A3N 996 Posted April 19, 2014 Share Posted April 19, 2014 Eh, KNTV has been the over-the-air home for the Giants since 2008, predating the NBC/Comcast merger by a few years. The 15 or so games a year on KNTV have always had the look and feel of CSN productions (with a lone NBC logo placed where the standard peacock/CSN lockup would go) but with Jon Miller handling play-by-play instead of Duane Kuiper. NBC Bay Area news anchor (former sports anchor) Raj Mathai also usually hangs out in the Giants dugout as the sideline reporter for these games. NBC primetime programming pre-empted by Giants baseball goes over to KICU, oddly enough. KRON has also picked it up in the past as well, which gave the "NBC is going back to KRON" crowd a ton of material to work with. I wasn't aware though that NBC programming was moved to another station ( I always thought they aired it on delay). I was also trying to point out that if KNTV can pre-empt NBC programming on a Wednesday night, so can WCAU but they chose not to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caliwxdude 252 Posted April 19, 2014 Share Posted April 19, 2014 I wasn't aware though that NBC programming was moved to another station ( I always thought they aired it on delay). I was also trying to point out that if KNTV can pre-empt NBC programming on a Wednesday night, so can WCAU but they chose not to. I too was surprised that KNTV aired a Wednesday game, but it was a Dodgers game which is about as big of a rivalry matchup as you can get in the big leagues. The regular season schedule is 80 percent Friday and Saturday night games, when I'm sure the Giants will be pulling in way more eyeballs than NBC's primetime lineup. Two world championships have turned SF into a baseball town, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Wednesday Dodgers game got way higher numbers than what NBC's primetime schedule typically gets on Wednesday either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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