Baseball and cable money

[craiger122003]

We all know the players make way too much but with the infusion of cable money
this has gotten out of hand. Well over 1 billion dollars of cable money has powered the last 3 offseasons.
(Pujols,Cano,Hamilton, etc ) Do the fans dollars really even mean that much anymore?

 

[Hallsgator]

the fans are driving the dollars, but its the fans watching on TV. its great for baseball to have this much money flowing because it means people are still watching, either on TV or in the stadium. if people werent watching, tv contracts wouldnt be as high because advertisers wouldnt pay as much to have spots during games.


many teams are experiencing for the first time that TV revenues are higher than ticket revenue in a year, so you are correct on that point.

 

[ASTROBURN]

And hence our cable bills are through the roof...

 

[rsmath]

And hence our cable bills are through the roof...

and that's why you can thank goodness for mlb.tv -- most MLB games live (except regional teams and Sunday Night Baseball/Playoff games in the archives shortly after the game ends) while not having to have cable or satellite and paying quite a bit less for it than you would for Extra Innings if you did have cable or satellite.

as for tv money, it's much more of a factor this year than the last few years because all the teams benefit with the new national tv rights deals going into effect. In recent years, only certain teams benefited because they inked new pricey local rights contracts.

 

[Benson]

the fans are driving the dollars, but its the fans watching on TV. its great for baseball to have this much money flowing because it means people are still watching, either on TV or in the stadium. if people werent watching, tv contracts wouldnt be as high because advertisers wouldnt pay as much to have spots during games.


many teams are experiencing for the first time that TV revenues are higher than ticket revenue in a year, so you are correct on that point.

One small correction, it's not fans watching on TV, it's every person that subscribes to cable that has a sports network. I going on what someone told me, but here in the Baltimore area Comcast Sports Net Mid-Atlantic (Capitals & Wizards) gets about $2 a month for every subscriber and MASN (O's and Nats) gets $4 a month. That's where the big money is, not advertising where maybe a hundred thousand people are watching a game. The ad time during games is merely icing on the cake.

 

[sheetskout]

And hence our cable bills are through the roof...

People should remember this the next time they spout off about the size of government and free markets. There's evidence in just about every market that the directive to appease shareholder equity (in this case the cable companies) is what's really ruining society. (Not pointed directly at you Astroburn)

 

[craiger122003]

The bad part about all of this is that they will make decisions
that are based on making the cable companies happy. The days
of doing what is fan friendly or good for the game are over.