Comments on: Baseball is gonna make a lot of money on its next TV deal

By: jarathen

jarathen — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 13:00:14 +0000

I thought I’d get broadcast TV with an antenna, but after buying two different indoor ones, it became increasingly apparent that I would need to go up on my roof to install an outdoor digital antenna to do so.

But yes, you can get value for your buck, sure.

I just want the ability to PAY to see the Angels play EVERY TIME THEY PLAY. Not only when they’re playing teams outside of the midwest.

By: Kevin S.

Kevin S. — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:55:42 +0000

I have the exact same issue as a New Jersey native going to school on the North Shore. Oh hey look, Yanks are the game of the wee.. oh, no, Cubs have second billing. Boo.

By: chumthumper

chumthumper — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 13:42:03 +0000

Please, do not limit it to just the World Series.

By: randygnyc

randygnyc — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 01:16:30 +0000

Isn’t CBS, NBC and Fox on free tv? No cable required. Funny how these young kids think they’re entitled to everything, for FREE. Torrents? You mean stealing someone else’s intellectual property and labor. Just call it what it is, theft. Cool, man, let’s “occupy” cable. Lmao at you punks.

By: spudatx

spudatx — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 01:09:34 +0000

Does anyone even still watch the Homer Derby?

By: spudatx

spudatx — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 01:07:21 +0000

The Fox deal is outrageously bad for baseball fans. I literally watch LESS baseball because I can’t watch the team I want on Saturday afternoons even though I pay for MLB TV and live far from my favorite team.

By: jlovenotjlo

jlovenotjlo — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 00:56:55 +0000

I lol-ed

By: indyralph

indyralph — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 21:15:05 +0000

If anything, the cable bill comment is irrelevant because it is actually the TV network buying the programming in this case, not the cable company itself.

By: indyralph

indyralph — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 20:57:01 +0000

Sure. They will always charge as much as they can get away with at all times. They will also keep their expenses as low as possible at all times. It stands to reason that to incur an additional expense, they must expect at least an equal increase in revenue plus desired profit margin. They can do this because they expect to add more viewers, or because they expect they can charge their current viewers more for the improved product. Likely, it is some combination of the two. So it’s perfectly reasonable to think that the cable bill will go up. The only way the cable will not go up is if new programming attracts enough new viewers at the current price to pay for the entire expense of adding programming, or other market forces like Ben describes would drive down the price of cable and reduce profits in absence of the new programming.

By: thefalcon123

thefalcon123 — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:52:19 +0000

Yeah, some of us live in Queens and have cable, but never, ever use it and watch everything on our Roku instead, thus wasting a lot of money.

By: stairwayto7

stairwayto7 — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:51:22 +0000

ESPN only shows Yanks and RedSox so give them those 2 teams and the other networks can show the other 28 teams!

By: nategearhart

nategearhart — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:50:46 +0000

They will charge as much as they can get away with at all times. When Ben pays it, that gives them more money to pay for rights to new programs that will bring in even more Bens.

By: thefalcon123

thefalcon123 — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:50:25 +0000

Yep. As a Missouri transplant in New York, I don’t know how many Saturdays I am prevented from watching the Cardinals because they are being broadcast on Fox, but our Fox affiliate is showing the Yankees/Mets/Sox instead.

What is the point of this?

By: indyralph

indyralph — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:39:10 +0000

This is not how economics works. No reasonable person/company is willing to lose money in the future because they made money in the past. They will charge mybrunoblog exactly how much they can to make the most money, with the ceiling being the point when there are too many Bens to charge that much.

By: Loose Changeup

Loose Changeup — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:29:05 +0000

Seriously, this. One of the few advantages of not being anywhere near your favorite team is the fact that you can watch them on MLB.TV without having to deal with the blackout BS, unless your team is playing a team that is less than 8 hours away in a neighboring state, or however they figure those blackout maps.

By: The Dangerous Mabry

The Dangerous Mabry — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:24:43 +0000

Back back back back back back back back back back back back…..

By: jarathen

jarathen — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:24:19 +0000

HBO Go’s greatest feature is that it doesn’t have a check against your actual subscription.

By: nategearhart

nategearhart — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:17:40 +0000

You have your economics backwards. You were already willing to pay so much for your cable, which gives the networks the moolah to pay extravagantly for MLB rights.

By: mybrunoblog

mybrunoblog — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:15:04 +0000

If you threw Joe Buck a $20 you may get more than you asked for in return

By: js20011041

js20011041 — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:13:33 +0000

Whichever network gets the contact, the first thing they need to do is to stop the regionalization of the Saturday “national” game. Pick one game and move the rest of them to another time slot so that we can watch them.

By: Ben

Ben — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:09:57 +0000

Cancel it.
MLB.tv, Hulu, Netflix, Itunes, Amazon Streaming all make it possible. Get someone’s HBO Go password who’s foolish enough to still pay for cable. Torrent if you have to. TheFirstRow is awesome. Cheaper. No ads. Only the content you want. Think of what you could do with 1500 dollars a year other than paying for cable!

By: jarathen

jarathen — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:01:39 +0000

The generational shift lags, sure, but you’ll see mroe and more people realize they pay $70+ a month for TV they don’t watch, or TV they never watched, as the younger demo continues to age into adulthood.

I used to pay $125 for so-called “expanded cable” and internet (this rate included a DVR “rental” and service, but no “premium” channels). Now I pay $20 for internet, which has no taxes or fees. I pay for MLB.tv, Hulu Plus, and Netflix. I also get ESPN 360 for free through my provider. All together, it’s something like $46 a month for services I actually watch. When you take a long look at your budget for things to cut, cable rises right to the top.

By: samu0034

samu0034 — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 18:59:17 +0000

I’d throw $20 into a community fund that would prevent either of Joe Buck and Tim McCarver from being allowed near a World Series broadcast booth again.

By: Ben

Ben — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 18:59:13 +0000

But the whole thing is a pyramid scheme that forces consumers to subsidize content they simply don’t want–that’s how MLB is able to extract such high rents.

By: mybrunoblog

mybrunoblog — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 18:58:22 +0000

This is just great. I really want my cable tv bill to go up. The $145 a month I pay now just isn’t enough.

By: beefytrout

beefytrout — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 18:55:27 +0000

Because there are millions and millions of people who do have cable, dude.

By: Ben

Ben — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 18:46:06 +0000

Heh, I only lived in Brooklyn for 6 months. That was more than enough for me.

By: ss

ss — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 18:43:46 +0000

Not every 20 something lives in Williamsburg.

Some of us live in OTHER parts of Brooklyn, and we have cable.

By: darthicarus

darthicarus — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 18:38:54 +0000

As long as part of any future contract guarantees that Chris Berman is never allowed to call a Home Run Derby again I could care less which stations aired baseball…as long as it’s televised somewhere. Heck, I’m perfectly happy with MLB Network and MLB Tonight to go along with my local Fox Sports and Tigers games.

By: Ben

Ben — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 18:38:04 +0000

So I guess the baseball bubble isn’t going to burst anytime soon, huh?

This young 20-something doesn’t have cable, and never will. Same with every single one of my friends. No one has cable. An entire generation has cut the cable. Hell, my parents are on the verge of replacing cable with Netflix for my Mom and MLB.tv for my Dad. How is this sustainable?