That’s what New York Daily News writer Bob Raissmann says in his latest column. You can always find baseball on the radio. Raissman was writing about how Major League Baseball has cut so many TV and streaming deals gouging fans for as much money as they possible can.
Raissman writes that on any given night or day, “Yankees or Mets games could air on YES, SNY, Fox (Ch.5), WPIX-TV (Ch. 11), FS1, ESPN, TBS, MLBN, Amazon, AppleTV+, Peacock, YES app, SNY app. So, baseball fans, already paying through the nose for cable subscriptions, are also being asked to pay more monthly to subscribe to the streaming services. Then, they have to deal with the technology it takes to access those services and pray that it all works.”
In New York, baseball fans can easily find the Mets on WCBS-AM, and the Yankees on WFAN AM/FM.
Raissman goes on to say that radio games are easy to find and free. “You can even listen without a password, night or day. Guess what? It’s always on the same stations. It’s anxiety — and glitch — free. Most of the time, baseball on the radio is a beautiful thing.” He adds that unlike their Mets/Yankees TV broadcast counterparts the baseball fan will always know where to find them.
Raissman forgets that with the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets in the playoffs, WFAN could split its frequencies, with FM airing the Nets and AM the Yanks.
And as far as TV, the Yankees’ deal with WPIX is kaput, with those games being moved to Amazon, which acquired part interest in the team along with Sinclair Media during the offseason. ‘PIX still has partial rights to the Mets.
The TV broadcast people had a word for what is going on with the baseball broadcasts: siphoning. As cable grew and the cable-only networks proliferated, the over-the-air folks feared that all the better programming, including play-by-play sports, would migrate to pay services, leaving regular broadcast TV with the crap. Regarding baseball, that is exactly what has happened. Add streaming services to the mix and it not only gets expensive for the fans, it requires one to hunt for whichever service is carrying that day’s game.
It doesn’t seem too long ago that New Yorkers could watch their Mets on Channel 9 (WOR-TV, now WWOR) and the Yankees on Channel 11 (WPIX). And, as long as they could get those stations directly over the air, it didn’t cost the viewer a dime. The telecasts were replete with commercials, which paid the freight.
Is there any wonder that the fans are pissed? At least the radio broadcasts, totally supported by advertising, are free to the listener–unless, of course, MLB migrates its audio to satellite radio and pay streaming services. Oops…did I say that?
MLB is already on satellite, Sirius XM. All the games have been on there, for years now.
What is the point of this negative piece? To say that MLB is “gouging” fans on the other platforms…Raissman didn’t get the memo about a free marketplace? Don’t all businesses, including radio stations, try to charge as much as market demand allows for?
Also, how does criticizing MLB’s business model, help to persuade anyone to buy advertising on baseball radio broadcasts?
This is a decades old, outdated behavior of some in radio– to attack and find fault with the other mediums. From the customer’s standpoint, you look defensive and you absolutely lose respect, when you negative sell. ….
Example: many consultants and others have attacked digital and foujd fault with it, thru the years. …So digital is “bad”…unless of course it’s a radio station company selling the digital, lol.
Look much more professional and be more persuasive– by selling the strengths of your own product. Selling 101!