Giving Thanks to Baseball (Network)
Don’t let the title fool you, I’m not going to go on a sappy rant about how much I love the game of baseball. This column is actually inspired by the NFL Network and the fact that I won’t be able to watch Thursday night’s game in the comforts of my own home.
The same could be said for the majority of Wisconsin Badgers football games I wanted to watch this past year, and up to 20 Badger hoops games this coming winter.
This is thanks to exclusive deals the NFL and Big Ten Networks have with satellite providers. Not that local cable companies can’t get a piece of the action, but both networks are demanding that the cable companies not only match their lofty asking prices for those companies to be able to carry these channels, but that they also must make these channels part of their basic cable packages.
The local cable companies are standing pat on their stance that their subscribers should have a choice as to whether or not they want to pay for these additional channels.
Arguments on both sides always go back to citing that people have a choice as to which television package they choose to subscribe to, although I know some people that are vehemently opposed to a satellite dish, and they are also difficult for people that live in apartment complexes to have.
Regardless of the argument, the only people getting the raw end of this deal are the fans, the loyal fans of the NFL and Big Ten sports and other similar networks that are becoming more and more popular in recent years. This to me is a point that is rarely if ever brought up, and to me that is the biggest shame. The NFL never seems to assume any responsibility, simply citing once again that people have a choice while pointing a finger at the local cable companies that choose not to meet the NFL Network’s demands.
Basically, they’re sticking it to their own loyal, paying customers in the process.
In a story posted on MLB.com on May 17th of this past year by Barry M. Bloom, Major League Baseball announced that the owners unanimously approved the launch of the new MLB Network, scheduled to hit the airwaves on January 1st of 2009. In addition to this announcement, it was released that cable and satellite companies alike (Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, Cox and Comcast) would hold a minority ownership of this new venture, meaning that the channel would become a part of the basic cable/satellite package for all of these carriers.
In the story, Tim Brosnan, MLB's Executive Vice President of Business, had this to say about MLB’s efforts to make sure so many people would be able to enjoy the new network when other major sports networks, such as the ones produced by the NFL and NBA, remain under scrutiny for their inability to make their channels as accessible to people across the nation:
“We pursued a strategy for five years. We had a board, we had a president and we had a Commissioner that supported our strategy. We took a lot of risk. We took a lot heat, particularly in the last 3 1/2 months. But we had conviction in our strategy. We got a little bit lucky. We stuck to our guns. And we used the out-of-market package to leverage (the MLB Network's) distribution."
You can read that however you want, but Major League Baseball went out of their way to make their network be available to so many people across the nation.
It wasn’t too long ago that the game was in trouble. Many considered MLB the weakest of the three major sports, thanks in large part to the strike in 1994. I think it is safe to say that while the NFL is clearly a gigantic money-making venture, almost far too arrogant for their own good, MLB has been humbled enough in recent years to not get caught up in the tremendous amount of financial success they have enjoyed the past several years.
So thank you Major League Baseball, not only for deciding to launch your very own network television station, but for going above and beyond to make sure that all fans will be able to enjoy the programming without having to worry about whether or not they own a dish.
And shame on the NFL by preventing millions of fans from across the nation in a week from Thanksgiving Day for not being able to tune into one of the biggest games of the season when the Green Bay Packers visit the Dallas Cowboys.
Oh yeah, I forgot, it’s the fan’s fault for choosing not to go satellite.
The thoughts and opinions listed here do not necessarily reflect those of Perfect Game USA. Patrick Ebert is affiliated with both Perfect Game USA and Brewerfan.net, and can be contacted via email at pebert@brewerfan.net.