Then, imagine that the Orioles are hosting the retirement ceremony for Adam Jones, one of the most popular players in recent franchise history, all coming before a sellout Camden Yards crowd. 

That, of course, is the scenario for Friday’s meeting with Tampa Bay, a seemingly made-for-television moment for long suffering Baltimore baseball fans. 

Yet, the contest and all the pageantry, pomp and circumstance will be lost to most usual Orioles viewers, as the game will air exclusively on Apple TV Plus, a subscription and streaming service. 

That means unless you have the Apple TV Plus app on your phone, tablet or laptop or on a smart TV which carries the app, you’ll have to rely on the radio, rather than the usual MASN, a fact that is bound to stir the ire of local fans accustomed to watching the Birds in the usual place. 

The move from familiar television broadcasts to subscription-based viewing also shows how quickly sports audiences have adapted to watching games on personal devices. A phone or tablet can make it possible to follow a game almost anywhere, but that convenience often means relying on different internet connections throughout the day.

Privacy becomes worth considering when moving between home networks, public Wi-Fi, and mobile data, particularly when signing into accounts or handling other personal information. An iPhone VPN app may be useful in those situations by routing the device’s internet traffic through a private connection, giving users more control over how they connect while watching or browsing.

As digital access becomes a larger part of following live sports, the experience increasingly depends not only on where a game is being shown but also on having a reliable and appropriately protected way to connect to it.

Friday’s game joins earlier contests which were carried exclusively on Apple TV Plus and Comcast-owned Peacock. Those games, against Minnesota, Atlanta, Kansas City and the Chicago White Sox, were part of national deals struck by Major League Baseball. 

That the Orioles are an appealing product to a national audience, what with their meteoric rise to the top of the American League standings this year, is not surprising. Add that to the compelling nature of the Rays’ series – a de facto showdown for the division title – and you have the makings of great television that will inevitably be delivered to a dramatically smaller audience. 

The MLB deals with Apple and Comcast, now in their second year, have touched off complaints all over the baseball landscape from fans who are accustomed to watching their teams in familiar places and in familiar ways, meaning not via streaming. 

For viewers in Canada, the shifting broadcast landscape has created its own layer of confusion. Games that once lived comfortably on cable are now scattered, requiring a bit more planning before first pitch. Traditional listings still offer some guidance, but they no longer tell the full story, leaving fans to double-check schedules across multiple sources to avoid missing key matchups. It’s a far cry from the days when turning on the television at game time was all it took.

Those trying to keep up would be wise to treat their viewing routine with a bit more intention. A quick glance at a reliable live TV guide can save plenty of frustration—Check this out before settling in, and you might actually catch the game where you expect it. As baseball continues to stretch across new viewing habits, the experience of following a team has become less about habit and more about navigation, something long-time fans are still adjusting to whether they like it or not.

Of course, following the action isn’t just about finding the right channel anymore; it also depends on having the technology in place to avoid interruptions once the game begins. As more entertainment and live events become tied to digital delivery, reliability has taken on greater importance in both homes and businesses, prompting increased attention to backup power solutions such as the eaton 9px ups. While most viewers may only notice these systems when something goes wrong, they play a quiet role in keeping modern viewing experiences consistent at a time when even brief disruptions can mean missing a pivotal moment.

There is, of course, a simple solution to this issue. Baseball should require that Apple TV Plus and Peacock make their signals available to the local carrier, as the NFL does when games appear on Amazon Prime, the NFL Network or ESPN. The streamers will still get the large audience they crave and the local carrier — in this case, MASN – can give the home viewers what they’re used to. 

The post Orioles and Apple TV appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

In the midst of what might be the best Orioles season in a generation, word emerges that MASN announcer Kevin Brown has landed in the doghouse with team management for saying something critical on the air. 

If the past is any guide, the franchise – in the middle of a pennant chase, no less – is imposing a loyalty test on a talented broadcaster, thus placing his credibility and that of the broadcast up for grabs,  

As the site Awful Announcing first reported Monday, Brown, who last appeared on television at the end of the Tampa Bay series July 23, has been off the screen since then, though he did switch over to radio broadcasts for the ensuing Philadelphia series. He has not been seen or heard from since. 

Allegedly, Brown’s recounting of the Orioles’ previously horrid record at Tropicana Field was the offending act that got him grounded for the last two-plus weeks.  

Though the Baltimore Banner is quoting a “senior Orioles official” as saying Brown will be back soon, The Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand reports that Brown is not scheduled to work the Houston series this week, nor is he on the list to broadcast the team’s upcoming West Coast swing of games through Seattle, San Diego and Oakland.  

The objection to Brown’s reciting of factual material is even more puzzling considering that there was a graphic to support what he said. That means that this topic came up in a production meeting and some unnamed (and perhaps unpunished) producer thought, correctly, that including that information was worth it. 

It’s possible that Brown may be taking some planned time off. Legendary radio announcer Jon Miller and Gary Thorne, the former lead television play-by-play, would routinely take extended vacations following the All-Star break. 

However, history suggests that like Miller, Brown has run afoul of someone’s sensibilities perhaps because he didn’t bleed enough “black and orange.” 

That’s a phrase that Orioles owner Peter Angelos said to me 27 years ago when I wrote a sports media column for the Baltimore Sun. 

To recap, Miller, who received the Ford C. Frick Award from the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010 and is on any short list of the best announcers in the game’s history, was coming to the end of his contract here and was receiving pushback from Angelos. 

Angelos’ concern was that Miller was not sufficiently pro-Orioles on the air.  

“You have the detached observer, but that’s the role of the journalist,” Angelos told me then. “I don’t think that’s the status of a team broadcaster. They should be an advocate for the team. They’ve got to bleed a little bit for the Orioles.”  

Let’s get one thing straight: Anyone who tunes into any team broadcast, be it Orioles, Ravens, Maryland or a high school game, expecting the person doing game to be unbiased is on a fool’s errand.  

Most team broadcasters travel with the teams and rely on access to coaches, managers and players to provide information to their audience.  

That access, in many cases, is contingent on keeping the negative off the air, unless it is so blatant that it can’t be ignored. Also, the employment of many of those announcers is approved by the club, who also, in many instances, pay their salaries. 

Considering that Brown is an employee of MASN, which is mostly owned by the Orioles, it would behoove him or anyone else not to be as much of a Bird-backer as possible. 

That’s not to say that Brown doesn’t do a good job. To the contrary, Brown is as good as the Orioles have had in a while, and, at 33, could be in the booth at Camden Yards (or wherever the Birds end up if current CEO John Angelos doesn’t sign a lease extension) for decades. 

But the specter of Peter Angelos’ declaration about Miller hung over the Orioles’ broadcast booth – radio and television – for years. A lot of very talented and dedicated people – in front of and behind the cameras and microphones — were tainted by the broad brush the elder Angelos painted them with.  

Peter Angelos and apparently his son, believe that the viewers and listeners – you – don’t care who talks about the team so long as who says it bends over backwards to say it in as friendly a way towards the team as possible, perception and reputations be damned.  

Miller, who understandably found the owner’s demands untenable, bolted for San Francisco. If this nonsense drives Kevin Brown out of Baltimore, it may take a change in ownership before the franchise gets someone of quality and integrity in the booth again. 

The post Kevin Brown’s Suspension appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

In fact, it’s almost become a cliche to hate on the Angelos family, but lately, John Angelos, chair and managing partner of the Orioles, has really taken things to a new and almost impressively asinine level.

By this point, I’m sure you’re aware of the news that broke recently saying Orioles announcer Kevin Brown was suspended (or at least, hasn’t been on air) ever since he ruffled some feathers during an Orioles game in July.

If you’re not familiar, here’s the quick rundown, as first reported by Awful Announcing and later confirmed by The Athletic: On July 23, Brown made the factual statement that the Orioles had won more games at Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay in 2023 than they had in the last three years combined.

This statement was in the game notes (presumably put there by a team of people, including a graphics team and a producer, not just Kevin Brown doing some free-form stats improv), and that statement made “ownership,” i.e. Angelos, unhappy because they believed “it made them sound cheap,” Brittany Ghiroli reported for The Athletic.

Putting aside the fact the Orioles rank 29th in MLB payroll which, one could argue, objectively makes them kind of cheap, this seems to be a pretty foolish and capricious decision for the Orioles to make given Brown has been a very popular fixture in the Orioles’ broadcast booth during the best and most exciting season the Orioles have had in years.

As an aside – the fact that Brown (and Ben McDonald as well) has made listening to the Orioles so much fun after the team cut half their broadcasting team, including Gary Thorne (one of the best to ever do it), Jim Hunter, and basically the entire pregame show gang, has really been a boon for the team.

Anyways, what’s more, Ghiroli reports that ownership “has enacted a new policy mandating that their broadcasters wear only team gear when on-air” and that broadcasters “have also been reprimanded previously for mentioning past Orioles players who are no longer with the team.”

Which is so very strange. I’m not even sure what that last part really means in practice. Is Jim Palmer getting in trouble because of some random story he tells about the time he and Tippy Martinez ate too many gummy bears and threw up? (Disclaimer: this is not a real story)

I have no idea. But to me, what this points to is another example of John Angelos being a fragile child with an ego you could crack with a strong breeze. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this from him either.

Let’s not forget back in January when Dan Connolly took a moment to ask Angelos during a very rare press conference where the Orioles were announcing a $5 million commitment to the CollegeBoard Foundation about the very real concerns people have/had about the Angelos family’s commitment to the Orioles.

For some background, at the time there was an unresolved (and since resolved) lawsuit among members of the Angelos family over the Orioles, and there still hasn’t been a new lease at Camden Yards negotiated between the Orioles and the Maryland Stadium Authority.

So it makes sense that Connolly would ask such a question. And in response, Angelos berated Connolly for having the audacity to ask such a question during a press conference on Martin Luther King Jr. Day:

“It’s really not important at all in the grand scheme of things to people that are clear-thinking and who mean well and have a perspective to, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, while we’re talking about putting kids that don’t have a shot in hell of anything, because of where they were born, through college, to be talking about those kinds of things,” Angelos said in response. “So, I’m going to object to that question today, in this forum, before the mayor of Baltimore and all these people. Do we understand each other? Do you understand my complaint?”

Angelos, who is worth over $2 billion it should be noted, then had the incredible lack of cognitive dissonance to say Connolly’s question “is completely out of touch and has no perspective whatsoever on what real-world people face.”

And even more, he then asked Connolly if he was even “from here,” which I mean, if your family has owned the Orioles for 30 years, I’d hope you’d be more aware of your local beat writers, but okay.

Do you know what Angelos could have said if he really didn’t want to answer that question?

“I’m not here to talk about that right now, but I appreciate your question.”

That’s all.

But the man’s fragile ego couldn’t do that. He just couldn’t. Just as he couldn’t handle Kevin Brown stating the objective fact that, hey, the Orioles have sort of kind of been pretty bad the past few years. Or as he (presumably, but perhaps someone else in the organization) couldn’t handle Orioles PA announcer Ryan Wagner having pretty innocuous thoughts on his personal Twitter account.

Basically, it comes down to this: If you want to own a baseball team, own the baseball team. Own the process you’re going through to make the baseball team better. Enjoy the successes, own the failure, be honest and transparent.

Unfortunately so far, it seems like that might be too much to ask from John Angelos.

The post John Angelos is a Fragile Child appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

MASN announced Friday that former Orioles Brad Brach and Mike Devereaux will join the booth as game analysts, joining Jim Palmer and Ben McDonald to form occasional three-man booths. 

Devereaux was an outfield mainstay for Baltimore teams of the 1990s. He spent seven seasons with the Birds, the best of which was 1992, when he hit .276 with 24 home runs and 107 RBI. He was voted into the team’s Hall of Fame two years ago. 

Brach, meanwhile, spent parts of five seasons with the Orioles in the mid- 2010s, working out of the bullpen. He was named to the American League All Star team in 2016, when he was 10-4 with a 2.05 ERA. The following year, Brach posted 18 saves. 

MASN also announced that Jason La Canfora, a former NFL insider on CBS’ football coverage, will join the network as a pre- and post-game contributor. La Canfora, who hosts a show on 105.7 FM, also wrote for the Washington Post. 

MASN’s additions come in stark contrast to the bloodbath at ESPN, where a number of on-air personalities were laid off in perhaps the biggest talent purges in the more than 40-year history of the company. 

Though virtually all corners of the Worldwide Leader’s roster were affected, most notable among the firings was Jeff Van Gundy, who had been with ESPN for 16 years, joining play-by-play man Mike Breen and co-analyst Mark Jackson on the main NBA team, calling the Finals. 

Van Gundy, who coached the New York Knicks and Houston Rockets before coming to ESPN, brought a droll, but entertaining style to the telecasts. The channel could go with internal candidates like Doris Burke or J.J. Redick, among others. Or it could grab former Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers from the ranks of the unemployed. No matter where they go, Van Gundy will not be easily replaced. 

One name that won’t be replacing Van Gundy is pre-game show host Jalen Rose, who was also shown the door, in a surprising move. Rose, a longtime NBA veteran, was one of the few likable pieces of ESPN’s pre- and post-game coverage.  

“Monday Night Countdown” host Suzy Kolber, a 27-year ESPN veteran was also laid off as well as Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young. Two-thirds of ESPN’s disastrous radio morning show, Max Kellerman and former wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson, were also cut loose.  NFL Draft Analyst Todd McShay was also let go.

The layoffs, which were cowardly announced at the beginning of a long, holiday weekend, come as ESPN ponders what to do in the wake of industry developments that are seeing many cutting the cord and abandoning traditional cable and satellite subscriptions. 

At the same time, the company has taken on significant rights costs in new deals with the NFL and the Southeastern Conference, as it also prepares to welcome podcaster Pat McAfee to a five-year, $85 million contract.  

The post Thoughts On The MASN And ESPN Additions And Subtractions appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

Because of the timing of these decisions, and how much more they rely on local media rights agreements rather than national ones, MLB teams and fans are sweating.

However, not all RSNs are created equal. Some teams and their fans should be very nervous. Others shouldn’t even bat an eye. So, which teams fall into the former category, which fall into the latter, and which are somewhere in between? Let’s break it down.

Not at all nervous: Blue Jays, Cubs, Dodgers, Red Sox, Mariners, Mets, Yankees

This one is easy. These seven teams own, or their ownership groups own, the RSNs their games air on. The Cubs and Sinclair split the ownership of Marquee Sports Network. The Blue Jays are owned by Rogers Communications, which also owns Sportsnet. Mets owner Steve Cohen doesn’t own SNY, but former owner Fred Wilpon and his Sterling Enterprises joint venture does. Guggenheim, the ownership group of the Dodgers, owns half of SportsNet LA. Fenway Sports Group, the Red Sox ownership group, owns 80% of NESN. The Yankees’ ownership group owns the largest share of YES Network. The Mariners own 60% of Root Sports Northwest, with the other 40% held by Warner Bros. Discovery (for now, at least).

In short, these teams are fine. Their RSNs aren’t going under unless the teams want them to go under (for whatever reason). NESN, Sportsnet, and YES also have launched direct to consumer (DTC) services through their RSNs, potentially protecting them from future subscriber churn or carriage disputes.

Only a tiny bit nervous: Athletics, Giants, Phillies, White Sox

Grouping the A’s in with these three teams is weird, but that’s the power of being on an NBC RSN. The company has shown no signs of pulling out of the RSN business, and while the RSNs aren’t available on DTC service Peacock quite yet, the service has been live for years and wouldn’t need time to get off the ground.

The Giants, Phillies, and White Sox all also have minority stakes in their RSNs.

It all depends on the courts: Nationals, Orioles

As BSL readers are quite aware, MASN, the RSN airing the Nationals, Orioles, and little else of value, is a complete mess. The Orioles are the majority owner of the network, with the Nationals as the minority owner, and the two teams have been embroiled in a legal dispute that has lasted years regarding rights fees owed to the Nationals. An unfavorable ruling in the case could cause the network to completely collapse, leaving both teams up a creek without a paddle. If there’s a favorable ruling, maybe things will get better in the future.

Fans of these two teams will have to do what they’ve done for years – just keep on waiting.

Nervous, but calm: Brewers, Marlins, Rays, Royals, Tigers

These are the first five Bally Sports teams on our list, and what separates them from their brethren is something that pisses MLB off – these five teams renewed their rights deals with the Diamond Sports Group in recent years, and also sold their streaming rights to the company. This means that Diamond can make their games available on the Bally Sports+ DTC package, a key negotiating point going forward for Bally.

Because those streaming rights were included, Diamond has another way to monetize these teams’ games. With cord cutting and carriage disputes giving Diamond body blow after body blow, availability on the DTC service is a must-have going forward.

Nervous due to silence, but still moving forward: Angels, Braves, Cardinals, Twins

These four teams are in no man’s land in Diamond’s bankruptcy for the sole reason that they’ve never been mentioned as either safe or on the chopping block. All four teams kept their streaming rights, meaning their games can’t be monetized through Bally Sports+, but their contracts aren’t so onerous and unprofitable that they could be cut loose. It’s admittedly not the best position to be in, but at least they’re not getting talked about as being dumped any day now.

The Twins stand out in this group because their media rights deal expires after this season. Will the organization jump up a level by selling their streaming rights to Diamond in a new deal? Or will they attempt to launch their own RSN as they did 20 years ago? Given that Victory Sports One shut down just a month into its first and only Twins season, maybe the franchise won’t want to repeat that mistake and will stick with their Bally Sports affiliate.

Pretty damn nervous: Diamondbacks, Guardians, Padres, Rangers, Reds

Four teams have consistently been mentioned as being on the chopping block for Diamond Sports: the Diamondbacks, Guardians, Padres, and Reds. The Rangers have not, though the franchise has done some saber rattling regarding leaving Bally (despite making nine figures a year), so I figured I’d throw them into this category too.

Of these five, the Padres are probably the safest, given that Diamond Sports made a payment to the team this week after missing a deadline and entering a grace period. If that payment wasn’t made, the Padres likely would have been cut loose sooner rather than later.

The Diamondbacks weren’t so lucky in either regard. Diamond missed a payment to them, and also didn’t make that payment before the end of the grace period. However, that original missed payment came before Diamond’s bankruptcy, meaning reclaiming the team’s rights would have been a more complicated proposition for MLB.

Attention now turns to the Guardians and Reds, who have payments due in the near future. If those payments are missed, both teams are thrown into a questionable situation for the rest of this season and beyond.

As for the Rangers, they’d normally be in the category before this along with the Angels, Braves, Cardinals, and Twins. If they are able to get out of their long-term deal with Diamond, it’s still quite unclear as to where they’ll end up.

Sweating, but they’ve been here before: Astros

Ten years ago, the Astros and Rockets launched an RSN called CSN Houston in partnership with Comcast. It was a complete disaster, leading to the RSN’s collapse, a bankruptcy filing, and its purchase by AT&T and DirecTV. Numerous carriage deals were struck, the RSN was rebranded as Root Sports Southwest (and later AT&T SportsNet Southwest), and everything was fine.

Until last month, of course, when Warner Bros. Discovery decided to get out of local sports. That put the Astros and Rockets (along with all of the other AT&T SportsNet teams) on course for disaster. However, the two teams are negotiating to take over the RSN, bringing back memories of the CSN Houston days. But because of the long-term deals already in place, the Houston teams will be in a better position now assuming the deal to acquire the RSN is closed.

Drenched: Pirates, Rockies

The lack of chatter surrounding these two teams following Warner Bros. Discovery’s exit announcement seems ominous. The Rockies have another RSN in town in the Kroenke-owned Altitude, which has its own issues, possibly allowing for a soft landing. Altitude’s primary live rights are the Avalanche and Nuggets, leaving a wide-open summer for the Rockies. Adding live Rockies games could also ail Altitude’s carriage woes in both the near and long-term future.

As for the Pirates, there are far fewer positives. AT&T SportsNet’s primary teams are the Penguins and Pirates, and since the Pens are majority-owned by the Fenway Sports Group, NESN could give them a somewhat logical landing point. The Pirates have no such option. The team’s frugality makes a takeover of the RSN seem unlikely. The closest other RSNs are over the border in Ohio, and I already discussed how Diamond Sports could cut bait on both the Guardians and Reds.

Pittsburgh seems like an opportunity for Scripps to jump in and strike a local deal, given their ownership of the city’s ION affiliate. Cincinnati and Cleveland could follow the same path if the Reds and Guardians are dropped by Bally, but the situations in those two cities seems far less pressing than the one in Pittsburgh.

The post Which MLB Teams Should Feel Best and Worst About Their RSN Situations  appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

The way you’re likely to take in the NFL on television has completely changed since last February’s Super Bowl telecast, from where you see the games to who’s broadcasting them.

For Ravens fans, things will remain basically the same, in that most Baltimore Sunday afternoon games will air on WJZ-13, the CBS affiliate in town.

And CBS’ booth of Jim Nantz and Tony Romo was the only one of the major NFL carriers that didn’t change in the unprecedented upheaval that took place in the offseason, the first in a new 10-year deal across platforms.

Grab a sandwich and your remote and have a seat as we guide you through the wholesale differences you’re going to notice as you get ready for some football.

NBC: You’ll see the first big change as early as Thursday as has become the norm, NBC kickoffs the season with a telecast of the home opener of the reigning Super Bowl champs, in this case, the Los Angeles Rams, as they host the Buffalo Bills.

Right off the bat, you’ll notice the presence of Maria Taylor as the main host of “Football Night in America.” Taylor, who came over to NBC from ESPN during last year’s Olympics, becomes the first Black woman to lead an NFL telecast, after filling in for Mike Tirico, when he sat in for Al Michaels in the booth on his weeks off.

As Tirico takes over full-time for Michaels (more on that later), Taylor will serve as traffic cop for the pre-game show that leads into television’s most watched program, “Sunday Night Football.” She’ll be joined by former Dallas coach Jason Garrett, who replaces former New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees.

Melissa Stark, who previously was sideline reporter for “Monday Night Football” on ABC, will patrol the sidelines for NBC.  

NBC will use its Peacock platform to livestream games, but it will hardly be the only streaming service, as Amazon Prime and Paramount+, a service of CBS, will also carry games.

ESPN: The self-proclaimed “Worldwide Leader in Sports” has struggled in recent years to maintain a consistent presence in its Monday night booth, since Tirico left the channel for NBC.

That should no longer be the case, as ESPN raided Fox, first grabbing analyst Troy Aikman, then getting his longtime booth partner Joe Buck to man Monday nights.

The latter move was stunning in that Buck jumped from the only network he had only known professionally, passing up the World Series, which he had called since 1996, and the Super Bowl, which he and Aikman worked together six times.

In the end, contracts reportedly valued at more than a combined nearly $170 million between them over five years were enough to pry Aikman and Buck away from their longtime home, though they will likely be in the fold when ESPN produces its first Super Bowl telecast in 2027.

Fox: With Aikman and Buck absconding for ESPN, Fox was left without an A-broadcast crew for the first time in 20 years.

The network responded by bumping Kevin Burkhardt from its No.2 team to the lead crew, and just in time for Fox’s turn in the Super Bowl rotation this year.

Burkhardt will call games this year, teamed with former tight end Greg Olson. Olson will be renting the No.1 analyst slot, not buying.

That’s because, at some point uncertain, Burkhardt, or some other golden throated guy, will work with Tom Brady, whom Fox locked up for future duty to 10 years and $375 million when he hangs up his cleats.

Brady’s deal is breathtaking in its size and scope, which is remarkable considering that no one knows whether he’ll be any good at calling football games.

Amazon: The league’s most startling television play comes in awarding its Thursday night package, which has bounced from network to network, to Amazon Prime.

For $1 billion annually, the giant retailer purchased a slate of exclusive nationally aired games that will be available to Amazon Prime and Prime Video account holders.

Just as with Monday night games on ESPN, the streaming cast will be offered to local TV stations in the home markets of the competing teams each week. That means Ravens fans will see the Oct. 27 game with Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers on a local station.

To lend familiarity and authenticity, Amazon pried Michaels, arguably the dean of NFL announcing, from NBC to call games, with Kirk Herbstreit, on loan from ESPN’s college football coverage, to join him as analyst. The service also plans to offer a non-football-centric treatment.

Viewers will also be able to start, watch or record the action from the beginning, as well as see real-time stats. If you have a Fire TV, you’ll be able to ask your set to show you specific things by speaking into your remote.

That kind of next level technology is at the core of a bidding skirmish between Amazon, Apple and Google for the rights to Sunday Ticket, which are expected to be relinquished by DirecTV after this season.  

The post 2022 NFL Broadcast Guide appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

The media rights for four other conferences will now move into the spotlight: the Big 12, Pac-12, Mountain West, and football-free Big East.

The Big 12 and Pac-12 are the more significant deals, as each conference’s rights are currently split between ESPN and Fox. Will the two companies continue to work together after their split on the Big Ten? ESPN has saved money by not retaining the Big Ten’s rights and could conceivably funnel some of that money to the Big 12 and Pac-12, potentially for a larger package of games to gain an advantage over Fox. The value of both conference’s rights has been damaged due to the defections of Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC and UCLA and USC to the Big Ten

When it comes to the Big 12, I’d fully expect the conference to stick with one or both of its current partners. There haven’t been many rumblings about other potential bidders, and CBS and NBC hooking up with the Big Ten probably takes both out of potential Big 12 bidding. Each was looking to fill one window on its daily schedule, which both did with their Big Ten rights deals. Adding the Big 12 wouldn’t fit with that strategy.

As for the Pac-12, even with the loss of the two LA schools, there has been interest in the conference from tech companies. Fox’s interest seemed to be dissipating even before the announcement of the Big Ten’s deal, opening the door for ESPN to potentially split the rights with a company like Amazon or Apple and absorbing much of the Pac-12 Networks’ Olympic sports content into ESPN+.

The Mountain West is another interesting one, with its rights split between CBS and Fox. This package is attractive because it’s relatively cheap (currently, $45 million per year on a six-year deal), and provides live content from the Mountain and Pacific time zones, much like the Pac-12. The Mountain West is also an anchor of CBS Sports Network’s live game content, and if CBS wants to keep the network around going forward, retaining the Mountain West’s rights would be key to that. If Fox loses out on, or declines to keep, their chunk of Pac-12 rights, the Mountain West would be a great way to keep later time slots filled.

The Big East doesn’t get talked about often in these conversations since the conference doesn’t sponsor football, but it has plenty of value. Fox is nearing the end of a 12-year, $500 million rights deal with the conference should be popular for several reasons: the low price point, the large markets in the northeast and midwest who have members in the conference, and the on-court success of its schools. Could ESPN look into prying the Big East away from Fox to fill holes in its basketball schedule caused by the Big Ten’s departure?

And then there’s Notre Dame. I feel like the Fighting Irish are in a great position now that NBC has brought in the Big Ten because the whole purpose of that move was to create doubleheaders with Notre Dame games. If NBC wants to pay up, I’m sure Notre Dame would be glad to stay. If not, I’m sure the school would look into joining a conference (likely either the Big Ten or ACC) and getting a similar windfall. For NBC, losing access to those Notre Dame games would be brutal, given how much of their college football strategy over the years has been built around the Irish. If Notre Dame joins the ACC, their NBC appearances would be limited to non-conference games against Big Ten opponents that weren’t plucked up by another network. If they joined the Big Ten, they’d still probably show up on NBC, but not as part of a doubleheader, and not every time they’re at home. It would truly defeat the purpose of NBC partnering with the Big Ten, and that’s why I think the two parties will continue their relationship.

One area that could give some companies an edge in this bidding is streaming. While they’re not the main element of any deal, the Olympic sports included in media rights deals have to live somewhere, and that place is almost always a streaming platform. Fox’s lack of a dedicated subscription-based streaming platform means that the company will likely have to partner with another company in rights deals, as it did in the Big Ten deal, which included many of those Olympic sports going to Peacock.

But with NBC likely done with bidding for rights aside from Notre Dame and CBS seemingly not keen on going in on another major conference, that leaves ESPN and ESPN+ in a pretty good position to at least get some more content going forward. Sure, Amazon and Apple have plenty of experience in the streaming world, but would either company be all that interested in adding hundreds of Big 12 or Pac-12 Olympic sports to their services? It’s an interesting question, and if not, perhaps ESPN could use it to get a more favorable chunk of the pie.

The post After the Big Ten’s media rights deals, what’s next? appeared first on Baltimore Sports and Life.

A total of six different outlets will broadcast Big Ten sporting events: Fox (their primary rights holder), CBS, NBC, Fox Sports 1 (FS1), Big Ten Network (BTN) and Peacock (the Big Ten’s first exclusive relationship with a streaming service). Notably missing from the list of broadcasters is ESPN, who announced they backed out of the bidding a week ago. It will be the first time since 1982 that ESPN has not held any rights to Big Ten sports.

For those wondering where and when they will see Big Ten football and men’s basketball once the new deal begins, here are the details as they have been announced so far. Keep in mind that the increase in the number of broadcasts after the first season is because of the additional inventory of games available once USC and UCLA join for the 2024 season.

Football

• Three over-the-air broadcast networks, Fox, CBS and NBC, will each have an exclusive window in which they will air Big Ten football games, consuming nearly 11 hours of Big Ten football on a major network. This closely mirrors the NFL’s weekly Sunday lineup. It is estimated that CBS and NBC are each paying $350 million per season for their package of games.

• Fox will air 10-14 games primarily in its favored noon ET window, immediately after its Big Noon Kickoff pregame show.

• CBS will air 7 games in 2023, then up to 15 games per season beginning in 2024, at 3:30pm ET. The reason for fewer games in ’23 is due to their pre-existing contract to air SEC games at 3:30 that ends with the 2023 season.

• NBC will air 14-16 games per season, most at 7:30pm ET, to be billed as Big Ten Saturday Night. Many weeks this game will follow NBC’s broadcast of Notre Dame home games.

• The three networks will spilt the Big Ten Championship Game, with Fox airing it in 2023, 2025, 2027 and 2029, CBS in 2024 and 2028, and NBC in 2026.

• It is expected Fox will run a “draft” where the networks select all of the available inventory. As the primary rights-holder, Fox likely gets top pick each year, so expect Michigan vs Ohio State will always be on Fox at noon ET. That also means there will be weeks where CBS and NBC come away with the best game. There also could be weeks where broadcast windows are swapped. For instance, in 2023 and (presumably) 2024 Fox will probably want the Red River Rivalry game between Oklahoma and Texas, which it currently shares rights to with ESPN through ’24, in its prime noon window. To compensate, CBS could end up taking a Big Ten game in that noon spot, especially in 2023 when they would have an SEC game to show at 3:30. For NBC, they usually like to have one or two Notre Dame games in the prime time window, so they may switch windows with CBS occasionally as well.

• Fox Sports 1 will continue to air at least one game each week. What time slot is not yet known, though I think it unlikely they want to overlap with CBS and NBC’s windows, given what the conference was able to extract from them in money. I would wager most FS1 games will be in the noon ET window, but once USC and UCLA join FS1 could have several games a season in the late night window (10:30pm ET) as well.

• BTN will have 38-41 games per season in Year 1, and up to 50 games per season in the remaining years. They will likely continue to air their games in several windows throughout the day.

• Peacock will have 8 exclusive games per season, meaning they will not be available for viewing anywhere else. Peacock will also simulcast all games shown on NBC. Likewise all games on CBS will be simulcast on its streaming subsidiary, Paramount+.

• I have not yet seen confirmed reporting on Friday night games. I have good reason to believe that the Friday night games will at least continue as currently scheduled: one on each of the first six weeks of the season, and the Iowa-Nebraska afternoon game on Black Friday. I would not be at all surprised if there are 1-2 more games on Black Friday. That’s an opportunity for exclusivity that the Big Ten would probably like to jump on, even with Amazon having an NFL game on Prime that day. (EDIT: per The Athletic, there will be two games on Black Friday; an afternoon game on CBS and a prime time game on NBC)

Basketball

• Fox and FS1 will combine to broadcast 45-47 men’s basketball games in the 2023-24 season, and at least that many in subsequent seasons (again, there will be more games to show with USC/UCLA added). However, neither will be airing any Big Ten Tournament games, likely due to conflict with the Big East tournament which they hold rights to.

• BTN will have a minimum of 126 men’s basketball games annually, including eight Big Ten tournament games prior to the semifinals and championship.

• Peacock will show 32 men’s basketball games in 2023–24 (20 of them conference matchups) and 47 per season thereafter (32 conference games). They will also have an opening-night doubleheader of Big Ten tournament games.

• Both BTN and Peacock will have a heavy slate of women’s basketball games and Olympic sports.

• CBS will continue its long-standing relationship with Big Ten Basketball, showing 9–11 games in ’23–’24, increasing to 15 per season thereafter. Thirteen of those games from ’24 to ’30 will be conference games. CBS will also get the semifinals and championship game of the Big Ten tournament, as well as the women’s tournament title game.

In summary, this is a groundbreaking deal for a college conference. For all the criticism Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren has received since taking over – some justified, some not – he hit a home run with this deal. I mentioned above how this deal resembles the NFL’s broadcast structure, and it is no coincidence Warren came to the Big Ten after 21 years in the NFL.

The money will eclipse the SEC’s deal with ESPN that is set to begin in 2024, and the Big Ten will be able to go back to the market to renew their deal four years before the SEC’s next deal expires. It was estimated that the SEC’s new deal would distribute $40 million per year in TV revenue to each member; though that was before it was announced Oklahoma and Texas would join, so that number will certainly tick a little higher once they join in 2025, though nothing has been announced money-wise with regard to that. Meanwhile, the Big Ten will distribute an average of about $75 million in TV money to its member schools, which includes USC and UCLA once they join.

If you are a fan of a Big Ten school, today was a great day for the financial well-being of your school’s athletic programs.

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Scully joined the Dodgers broadcast booth at the age of 22, became the team’s primary play by play voice at 26, and held that role until his 2016 retirement at the age of 88. 67 years with one organization is absolutely wild. Joe Davis, Scully’s successor as the voice of the Dodgers, needs another 59 years to equal that feat. He’d be 94 in that 67^th season, by the way.

But Scully wasn’t just a Dodgers broadcaster. Nationally, he called the NFL for CBS, and the final game he called featured Dwight Clark’s iconic catch against the Cowboys in the 1982 NFC Championship. At CBS, he also called golf and tennis, along with baseball on CBS Radio.

Following his departure from CBS, Scully’s national work moved to NBC. At NBC, he called three of the most iconic plays in baseball history – Ozzie Smith’s walk off homer in Game 5 of the 1985 NLCS, Bill Buckner’s error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, and Kirk Gibson’s walk off homer in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.

He left NBC after the 1989 season, and his last national baseball gig came with CBS Radio, with Scully on the call of the World Series from 1990-1997. In that gig, he called Kirby Puckett’s Game 6 walk off homer in 1991, Gene Larkin’s series winning single a night later, Joe Carter’s series winning homer in 1993, and Edgar Renteria’s series winning single in 1997. Again, you’ve got all these iconic moments, and who’s on the call? Vin Scully.

Scully was behind the mic for 21 no-hitters, including ones thrown by Clayton Kershaw, Hideo Nomo, Fernando Valenzuela. He called all four of Sandy Koufax’s no-hitters, including his 1965 perfect game. That was one of three perfect games Scully called, along with Don Larsen’s in 1995 and Dennis Martinez’s in 1990.

But it wasn’t just the moments Scully called that made him so special. It was the way he called those moments, and all of the other games throughout his career. When big moments happened, Scully let the crowd’s noise do all the talking. He let the moment breathe and let the fans’ elation or despair tell the story. Instead of constantly talking to fill air, as many broadcasters do today, he knew when to back off. His style was refreshing, especially in an era of constant on-screen stimulation.

Scully also didn’t rely on stats, and while I appreciate a good stat as much as the next guy, some announcers can lean on them far too much. That wasn’t Scully. Instead, he’d tell stories about the players and the game, vividly filling in the lines created by the game on the field. The change of pace was relaxing and different, especially if you were an east coast viewer tuning in late at night.

Speaking of the west coast, more fans were exposed to Scully’s work with the Dodgers during the later years of his career thanks to MLB.TV. No matter the market, fans could watch a Dodgers game. listen to Scully, and be transported to a different time. I keep coming back to this word, but it was just so *refreshing* to experience a Vin Scully game after indulging in a modern broadcast.

It’s hard to imagine a broadcaster in 2022 becoming as universally beloved as Scully. His style is tough to emulate in today’s environment, and I can’t see an announcer ever matching his lengthy resume. Even someone like Joe Buck, a national voice for MLB and the NFL for decades, falls short. And if an accomplished, experienced announcer like Buck can’t compare, who really can?

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With Tuesday’s All-Star Game reaching a record-low audience, I began to think about what’s happened over the last 30 years that has turned the highlight of the summer into just another overhyped, underwatched event, and if there was any way to reverse this 30-year trend of viewership declines.

If you wanted to point to the exact season where the All-Star Game began to decline, it probably came in 1997 with the introduction of interleague play. That let fans see players from the other league, though it was just for one series for each team from the corresponding division each year. Instead of playing the same teams every year, five new teams were thrown into the fray for each team.

In 2002, interleague play became even more of a factor. Instead of playing the same division in interleague every year, the divisional opponents got rotated. Just in case you were bored of seeing the same five teams in interleague every year, here’s another five! And a year later, five new ones! Suddenly, fans were getting the opportunity to see all of the teams from the other league over a three-year period. If I was watching the All-Star Game just to see a Bonds, Griffey, McGwire, or Thomas, I now had another opportunity to see those guys.

This was around the time that MLB.tv and MLB Extra Innings started to pick up steam. Extra Innings launched in 1996 on DirecTV and expanded to cable providers in 2001, while MLB.tv launched in 2003. Both services allowed fans to watch out-of-market games. Subscribers no longer needed to wait until a nationally televised game popped up on the schedule to watch baseball’s biggest stars. With a couple of clicks, there they are, live on your screen. If I could watch Ken Griffey Jr play five times a week, why would I need to watch the All-Star Game to see Ken Griffey Jr and other that I can watch with the same ease?

Another body blow for the All-Star Game relates to interleague play, and the Houston Astros’ move to the American League in 2013. That gave each league 15 teams, and turned interleague play into a year-round, every week affair. No long was interleague confined to a chunk of time in the season – there would be at least one interleague game on almost every day of the season. Interleague wasn’t special anymore, and neither was seeing the stars from the other league.

The advent of smartphones and the MLB At Bat app was probably the death blow for the All-Star Game. For an event built so much around “moments” rather than the actual game itself, the ability for fans to click a couple icons on their phone to watch a moment mere minutes after it happened turned the ritual of watching the All-Star Game to not miss moments into a relic of the past. If something awesome happened in the pre-digital age and I missed it, I’d have to hang around until the post-game or SportsCenter to see it again. If an awesome thing happens now and you miss it, you can just open an app or go to a website and see it over and over again.

Can any of this be fixed? I really don’t think so, at the very least until MLB adds two more teams, because it would require undoing so much of the good work MLB has done growing the game and in the digital space over the years. There’s no real way to put the genie back into the bottle when it comes to digital highlights, access to out of market games, streaming, and so on. It would be a suicide mission, sabotaging the sport among younger viewers while also making the game less accessible. That’s counter to the mission the sport has embarked on in recent years, with a mandate to grow the game and expand its younger fanbase.

Tweaking interleague play could have an effect, but at this point in time, I think that’s far lower down the list of items affecting the All-Star Game’s appeal. By adding two more teams, MLB would have 16 in each league, thus eliminating the need for consistent interleague play. But before that happens, baseball is going in the opposite direction starting with the 2023 season, and is actually adding interleague games at the expense of divisional games. That’s probably the smarter, fairer move for the game.

Can anything really be done to improve the All-Star Game’s reputation and viewership? In my mind, the only thing that may pique some interest is a series of rules tweaks to the game, but given how riled up baseball purists get over even minor changes (the outcry over uniforms this year, for example), that could end up hurting the All-Star Game more than helping it.

I think, more than anything else, we should take the All-Star Game down from its pedestal. Instead of treating it as a sacred cow, we should treat it more like the NBA, NFL, and NHL treat their All-Star Games. Instead of focusing so much on the past and the game itself, we should focus on the future and the moments that have made All-Star Games of the past so memorable. The All-Star Game has been slow to change with the times (unlike the Home Run Derby), and I think that’s why its decline has been so damning and sad.

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