Baseball on XM questions

[Scott Greczkowski]

While it is great news for XM announcing the big MLB deal, I am also wondering what the radio stations that broadcast baseball think of this deal?

First will you tune in to lets say the soon to be World Champion Boston Red Sox, will the announcers saying "Your listening to the WEEI / XM Red Sox Radio Network" or will they not mention XM at all?

I can't imagine the radio station owners will want to promote XM, infact I would imagine that many stations would not want their broadcasts to be aired on XM, I wonder if we will have some games not broadcast on XM because of this?

Will they carry both the home and away announcers (meaning 2 channels for each game?) Plus I notice they say they will also be providing Spanish audio of the games as well, this could mean 3 channels for each game in progress.

Lots of questions... Anyone got any answers of comments?

 

[minorthr]

As far as the stations withholding their broadcasts. I would imagine that the stations would really have no choice in the matter kind of like the NFL Sirius deal. They are currently being broadcast on the internet so I would imagine there is some language in the contracts they sign with clubs that say the MLB can take the broadcast and do what ever they want with it.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Thats what I was thinking minorthr, man if I was a station owner tht broadcast the games I would be pissed about this news.

I am also thinking you wont hear XM mentioned on the games unless XM takes out ads during the games.

 

[minorthr]

Well I know locally when I listen to Phillies games they always do the take a break for station identification XM could insert their name there. Also when the station breaks for a commercial xm could insert what ever they want into the commercial breaks.

Maybe there is a kick back to the local broadcasters in the contract and that would help explain the cost.

 

[fredfa]

MLB already rebroadcasts all radio (of both home and away teams) on mlb.com.
As I understand it, MLB owns all internet and satellite rights to the radio broadcasts, and are moving in the same direction with TV broadcasts as the rights come up for negotiation.
It isn't clear if XM will broadcast both the home and away versions of each game or just select one version.
But I would suspect, that at least to start, XM will just pick one broadcast to carry (a la its Pac-10, ACC, and Big Ten football package.)
And I believe the Spanish broadcasts might be more limited: i.e., several games at a given time.

 

[minorthr]

Opie and Anthony had a guy on yesterday morning I think his name was Eric Logan, but don't quote me on that, he is head of programming at XM. When he was talking about it he said if you were a Yankee fan that lived in Kansas you would be able to listen to the Yankee announcers or if your a dodger fan you can listen to their announcers. So it sounds like they will be broadcasting both the home and away announcers.

 

[carload]

I read the extensive story on the MLB site. (http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/n...020&content_id=900712&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp) Some highlights:

Only one feed per game, usually the home team feed or the most "attractive" feed. MLB.com's Gameday Audio will continue to offer both.

The full local broadcast, with commercials, will be used. MLB spins this as supplementing existing terrestrial coverage. ""We don't think it will be competitive; we think it will be incremental to the local broadcasts," said Tim Brosnan, executive vice president of business for MLB.

 

[minorthr]

Well that article pretty much kills all the speculation we had here
They will play one feed which will be decided by XM and MLB and they will play the commercials from that feed.

 

[fredfa]

Some thoughtful reaction to the MLB-XM news from Media Life Magazine:

http://69.20.6.242/news2004/oct04/oct18/4_thurs/news2thursday.html

XM bags Major League Baseball rights
Analysts: A good deal but nothing like Stern
By Marisa Hoheb, Media Life Writer
A mere two weeks after Sirius Satellite Radio agreed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to snatch up shock jock Howard Stern, rival XM Satellite Radio countered yesterday by acquiring the rights to Major League Baseball games.
The reaction to XM’s announcement: a resounding ho-hum.
While airing MLB games should certainly help the growth of nascent satellite radio, analysts see Sirius’ acquisition of Stern as the much bigger deal.
The XM deal, spanning 11 years and valued at $650 million, includes rights to air MLB games beginning next year and through 2012. MLB will then have the option of extending the contract through 2015.
XM’s Major League Baseball Channel will broadcast every game live, including the World Series, and will also feature classic baseball games on off days. The channel will air 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
XM also acquires the rights to use MLB’s batter-in-silhouette logo and all 30 team emblems in its promotional materials.
But as analysts note, the baseball deal lacks the import of the Howard Stern deal of two weeks ago, when in a surprise move the nation's top shock jock agreed to a five-year, $500 million deal to jump to Sirius when his contract with Viacom’s Infinity Broadcasting ends in January 2006.
The Stern-Sirius deal delighted media insiders, who see it as the beginning of satellite’s rise as a true mainstream competitor to broadcast radio. The jump to Sirius will remove Stern, to his great delight, from the purview of the Federal Communications Commission and its various efforts to enforce its indecency regulations on Stern's show.
One reason analysts place more value on the Stern deal is because it is exclusive. Fans wanting to hear Stern will only be able to do so by subscribing to Sirius. By contrast, baseball fans will still be able to catch games on existing media outlets.
Fans who want to hear or see games outside of their local market already have the option of listening to them on MLB.com or purchasing premium cable or satellite TV packages. AM radio listeners can tune into games being broadcast several markets away.
So while baseball games on satellite radio will certainly be of interest to some fans – including those spending a great deal of time in the car and those in smaller markets – XM’s contract with the MLB likely won’t incite quite the rush of new subscriptions that Stern is expected to bring to Sirius.
The rivalry between XM and Sirius has heated up in recent months, with each signing big-name personalities and popular league sports in an effort to trump the other.
XM now has smaller-scale shock jocks Opie and Anthony, former National Public Radio icon Bob Edwards, NASCAR and college football and basketball. Sirius has picked up Stern, the National Football League and the National Hockey League.
XM maintains a significant early lead over its competition, with 2.5 million subscribers to Sirius’ 750,000. But Sirius estimates it will reach or exceed 1 million subscribers by the end of the year.

 

[fredfa]

(A story on the potential fallout from the XM-MLB deal from Mediaweek.com)

XM Scores MLB After ESPN Gives Up Satellite Rights

By Katy Bachman, Mediaweek.com

XM Satellite Radio's $650 million, 11-year deal with Major League Baseball last week marked another turning point for satellite radio and more headaches for commercial broadcasters.

The deal, beginning in 2005, also upped the ante between XM and Sirius Satellite Radio, which are spending significant dollars to acquire premium content to attract new subscribers. Recently, Sirius, which has 700,000 subscribers to XM's 2.5 million, signed a five-year, $500 million deal to carry Howard Stern, beginning January 2006.

Commercial broadcasters, which pay between $5 million and $7 million a year for MLB local broadcast rights, felt cheated. Groups such as Infinity Broadcasting, which has the rights for eight major teams, and Clear Channel are already competing for listeners with MLB.com, which streams games on the Internet as well as TV broadcasts. Adding insult to injury, XM plans to pick up the local station feeds, including the local ads, until XM and MLB work out a revenue-sharing agreement to sell national advertising.

"Broadcasters paid a lot for exclusivity, and now they don't have it," said Mark Krieschen, vp and general manager of WGN-AM, Tribune's Talk station in Chicago which carries the Cubs. That will be the top issue at the upcoming MLB rights-holders meeting in two weeks. "Will some ask for relief? Will there be lawsuits? Maybe," said Krieschen.

ESPN Radio, which broadcasts games to 400 stations, isn't worried about its business. Last week, it signed a contract with MLB through 2010 and gave up its exclusive satellite rights for '05, allowing for the XM-MLB agreement.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I can bet there will be lawsuits. I know a few stations are not happy that they are now producing content for their main competitor, satellite radio.

If your a rado station do you want to promote your compition?

For example will the announcers on lets say the Red Sox network now need to go to break by saying "Your listening to the WEEI - XM Red Sox Radio Network."

And how come they can send local commercials over the statelite but broadcasters are not able to broadcast their commercials over their Internet streams. (If its a copyright issue for Internet streams should be the same for Satellite Radio.)

I would not be surprised to see the start of the XM delayed a year while this is all worked out.

 

[minorthr]

I don't see how this deal is much different then Sirius's NFL deal. They are just replaying the local broadcasts as well. Was there a problem initially when Sirius signed their deal?