Cubs TV Deal Stuff

[Sammy Sofa]

Yaaaaaaaay to more money! Booooooooooo to anything that helps the Score! Yaaaaaaaaaaaay to more terrible Score shows getting preempted by the Cubs!

[Guest]

That's cool about the Score...here's something about TV

 

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[Irrelevant Dude]

The Score may not have bid on the Sox. The CBS group owns both 780 and 670 and this might have been their plan all along--using 780 as a 1 year bridge for the Cubs until the Sox deal expired so they could eventually get the Cubs on the Score.

The Score was reported as having bid on the Sox rights, but my guess is that it was a token low offer, knowing they had the Cubs deal in their back pocket. Cubs broadcasts seem a little out of place on 780, as it always feels like they are rushing to get back to news coverage and reassuring people that the news will continue on 105.9 during Cubs games.

[sontensei]

Considering the Cubs are on the rise for the foreseeable future and the sox are pretty much bad, i wouldn't mind seeing the cubs on the score from next year. actually, i listen to the score in my car while i commute so it would be really convenient.

[Andy]

Considering the Cubs are on the rise for the foreseeable future and the sox are pretty much bad, i wouldn't mind seeing the cubs on the score from next year. actually, i listen to the score in my car while i commute so it would be really convenient.

It does take a really long time to set a second preset on a radio dial

[Sammy Sofa]

Considering the Cubs are on the rise for the foreseeable future and the sox are pretty much bad, i wouldn't mind seeing the cubs on the score from next year. actually, i listen to the score in my car while i commute so it would be really convenient.

It does take a really long time to set a second preset on a radio dial

 

Nice.

[Derwood]

Considering the Cubs are on the rise for the foreseeable future and the sox are pretty much bad, i wouldn't mind seeing the cubs on the score from next year. actually, i listen to the score in my car while i commute so it would be really convenient.

It does take a really long time to set a second preset on a radio dial

 

One time in 1984, The Score had a promo that said "Tune into the Score, AND RIP THE KNOB OFF"

 

And so he did

 

And he drives that car to this day.

 

It's a Renault Alliance

[Guest]

jokes on you

 

the score didn't exist in 1984

[Derwood]

jokes on you

 

the score didn't exist in 1984

 

jokes on YOU

 

sontensaisaidiaadi is clearly 14 years old, so he wasn't even BORN in 1984

[Banedon]

Not about the Cubs or a TV Deal, so this thread seems perfect! But this is finally official....

 

Chicago White Sox baseball will air on WLS AM 890 under a six-year deal starting in April 2016.

[sontensei]

Not about the Cubs or a TV Deal, so this thread seems perfect! But this is finally official....

 

Chicago White Sox baseball will air on WLS AM 890 under a six-year deal starting in April 2016.

 

uh huh cubbies on the score! nice.

 

and my age lol you guys prolly cant guess but its not over 40 or under 21.

[Guest]

Not about the Cubs or a TV Deal, so this thread seems perfect! But this is finally official....

 

Chicago White Sox baseball will air on WLS AM 890 under a six-year deal starting in April 2016.

 

uh huh cubbies on the score! nice.

 

and my age lol you guys prolly cant guess but its not over 40 or under 21.

 

somewhere between 36 and 39.

 

i'm gonna go with 38.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

And I couldn't possibly care less.

[Guest]

http://www.bleachernation.com/2015/07/15/chicago-cubs-blowing-out-local-tv-ratings-at-the-most-important-time/

 

here's something more appropriate to the thread

 

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To give that number a little context, last year on CSN, the Cubs averaged a mere 1.5 rating, in the bottom five of baseball. Last September, even when the ratings were spiking, the Cubs reached only about 3.2.

 

Moreover, Danny Ecker reports that the average rating for the Cubs on CSN this year is 3.0, representing a double from last year. The household figure is more than 100,000 per game, which would put the Cubs within the top five in all of baseball.

 

In other words, the Cubs are blowing away their ratings from recent years, and are currently among the most locally-watched teams in all of baseball.

 

The climb, it seems, is real.

 

So, against that backdrop, it figures to be a pretty good time – or at least a much better time than it was a couple years ago – to be negotiating a long-term, mega-bucks TV contract. Because these deals are franchise-altering, because they are so long-term, and because the technology landscape is changing so rapidly, getting this deal right is literally the single biggest story in the Cubs’ world right now, even as it is usually lurking below the surface of that day’s game or the latest rumor.

[Felix Leiter]

The Sox have friends of Reinsdorf doing the broadcasts and they are terrible. Does anyone think Ed Farmer could get a job anywhere else in the booth? And Hawk is beyond the pale. They have no Harry Caray selling the stadium, selling the team and making the broadcasts interesting. When Harry and Jimmy Piersall did the Sox games, at least they were entertaining. They praised the Sox when they needed it and criticized them when they screwed up. Reinsdorf buys the team and fires Harry. Bad decision.

 

The Sox on WLS caters to an older demo and the ratings will continue to tank. My God, LS has sure gone down the crapper from the heights of good old Uncle Lar andJohn Landecker.

[UMFan83]

The Sox have friends of Reinsdorf doing the broadcasts and they are terrible. Does anyone think Ed Farmer could get a job anywhere else in the booth? And Hawk is beyond the pale. They have no Harry Caray selling the stadium, selling the team and making the broadcasts interesting. When Harry and Jimmy Piersall did the Sox games, at least they were entertaining. They praised the Sox when they needed it and criticized them when they screwed up. Reinsdorf buys the team and fires Harry. Bad decision.

 

The Sox on WLS caters to an older demo and the ratings will continue to tank. My God, LS has sure gone down the crapper from the heights of good old Uncle Lar andJohn Landecker.

 

When I first heard Ed Farmer, I thought someone must have bet him he couldn't spend an entire game speaking monotone...either he is just the most unexcitable person ever or this is one long running bet.

[Guest]

http://sabrmedia.org/2015/07/22/if-youre-a-baseball-tv-ratings-geek-you-will-really-enjoy-this-story/

 

After the Royals, the Cubs are riding a similar surge in record and exciting young players to a similar increase in ratings: +112% over last year, up to 3.1 from 1.5. The Padres (+52%), Cardinals (+35%) and Nationals (+29%) have the top five gains. On the flip side, the White Sox are disappointing on TV as well as on the field, losing viewers at a -42% clip over 2014. The Indians (-36%), Braves (-32%), Brewers (-27%) and Reds (-25%) have had similarly horrifying ratings losses, and yet, the other four teams are still the #1 ratings grabbers in their markets.

[Guest]

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[Sammy Sofa]

Sweet! More money!

[Guest]

Am I crazy to hope that this year could trigger that bridge type deal that we were hoping for (i.e. where someone like Fox or ABC pays big for the non CSN games until 2019 and broadcasts them on an OTA station and then sets up an RSN for the Cubs after CSN part is up)?

 

That is assuming there are opt outs for the new WGN and ABC contracts (which was speculated about but I'm not sure if ever confirmed).

[Guest]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/ct-cubs-ratings-sherman-media-spt-0828-20150827-column.html

 

This year's good timing award goes to ABC-7 and WBBM-AM 780.

 

In December, ABC-7 signed on for a five-year package of Cubs games despite the team's TV ratings sinking to historic lows in 2014. John Idler, the station's president and general manager, figured the ratings would rise dramatically at some point. He didn't, however, expect to hit the jackpot this year.

 

"The timeline has been accelerated," Idler said. "The (2015) ratings definitely have exceeded our expectations."

 

The Cubs turnaround has confirmed what everyone thought: They were a sleeping giant on the ratings front.

 

Through Wednesday, Comcast SportsNet was averaging a 3.2 rating for Cubs games, up dramatically from 1.50 in 2014; 1 local ratings point is worth an estimated 35,000 homes. WGN-9 is averaging a 4.7 for its Cubs telecasts, more than double from last year. ABC-7 is doing a 4.5 rating for the 22 Cubs games it has aired.

 

Those numbers don't even tell the whole story. The ratings have exploded with the Cubs' surge since the All-Star break.

 

ABC-7 averaged a 7.9 rating between 7-8:15 p.m. for the Cubs-Tigers game on Aug. 18 before a long rain delay halted play. WGN-9 peaked with a 7.3 rating for the Cubs-Brewers game on Aug. 12. CSN posted its highest-rated Cubs game in six years with a 5.1 rating for the game against the Brewers on Aug. 11.

 

CSN, WGN-9, and ABC-7 are gearing up for even bigger ratings with the Cubs actually playing meaningful games in September. Knowing the team's history, Bedella felt a bit sheepish in talking about a recent staff meeting about coverage plans if the Cubs clinch a playoff berth.

 

"We don't want to jinx anything, but it's something we have to do," Bedella said. "We said, 'When was the last time we had any discussions about the Cubs and the playoffs?' It's been a long time. It feels great to have that kind of conversation."

[davell]

Did the numbers ever get released on the WGN deal? For some reason, I'm not remembering it, if they were. I remember they were balking at their original 250k per game, saying they were losing most of that.

 

At any rate, even an uptick here could mean good things for the immediate payroll. But that article kind of seems like they got a bargain out of it.

[Guest]

I really hope they built some form of opt outs into those desperation TV deals they signed last offseason, as was rumored might be the case.

[Guest]

http://www.csnchicago.com/article/cubs-set-massive-year-year-tv-ratings-increases-csn

[davell]

Those opt outs are important as [expletive] now.