Nathaniel Grow wrote an article in Fangraphs (http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-impending-battle-over-the-future-of-televised-baseball/) discussing a court case that could change the future of televised baseball and thus have a significant impact on MASN and the Orioles. As he explains in his article, the plaintiffs in this case — Garber v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball —, claim that MLB shouldn’t be allowed to assign its teams exclusive local broadcast territories and that every team should be able to broadcast its games anywhere they please via both the internet and cable in the United States.
The Orioles and Nationals would be significantly hurt if MLB loses this case. Currently, both of these teams are able to broadcast their …show more content…
However, neither the Orioles nor the Nationals have significant national popularity and therefore would struggle to compete with all 28 other teams. The Orioles are ranked 23rd and the Nationals are ranked 29th in MLB in Facebook likes. Regardless of ones feelings about Facebook and whether this data makes up a scientific poll, it is a fact that this data is typically used and given weight in court cases. As there are many games occurring at a given time, it is unclear what significant advantage a cable broadcaster would gain by purchasing the rights for every team and it is impossible to broadcast all games on basic cable due to channel limitations. It is far more likely that broadcasters would be interested primarily in teams with a strong brand like the Yankees, Red Sox and Giants while only being interested in broadcasting a small subset of Orioles and Nationals games and therefore that MASN, the Orioles or the Nationals would earn minimal extra revenues from other markets. The Orioles would likely be a superior position than the Nationals due to the fact that the Yankees and Red Sox are in their division and therefore play the Orioles …show more content…
The Dodgers signed an extremely lucrative TV contract that has turned into a disaster for Time Warner. If this contract was cancelled, then the Dodgers would lose billions of dollars. Likewise, the Mariners control an extensive television territory and would suffer significant losses if it was opened up for competition. In addition, it would be plausible for cable providers to decide that broadcasting games for teams like the Marlins or the Padres isn’t worth the expense even in Miami or San Diego. However, teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, Giants, Cubs, Cardinals, Tigers and Braves would receive significant benefits due to their strong national popularity and due to the fact that many of their rivals would be
The Orioles and Nationals would be significantly hurt if MLB loses this case. Currently, both of these teams are able to broadcast their …show more content…
However, neither the Orioles nor the Nationals have significant national popularity and therefore would struggle to compete with all 28 other teams. The Orioles are ranked 23rd and the Nationals are ranked 29th in MLB in Facebook likes. Regardless of ones feelings about Facebook and whether this data makes up a scientific poll, it is a fact that this data is typically used and given weight in court cases. As there are many games occurring at a given time, it is unclear what significant advantage a cable broadcaster would gain by purchasing the rights for every team and it is impossible to broadcast all games on basic cable due to channel limitations. It is far more likely that broadcasters would be interested primarily in teams with a strong brand like the Yankees, Red Sox and Giants while only being interested in broadcasting a small subset of Orioles and Nationals games and therefore that MASN, the Orioles or the Nationals would earn minimal extra revenues from other markets. The Orioles would likely be a superior position than the Nationals due to the fact that the Yankees and Red Sox are in their division and therefore play the Orioles …show more content…
The Dodgers signed an extremely lucrative TV contract that has turned into a disaster for Time Warner. If this contract was cancelled, then the Dodgers would lose billions of dollars. Likewise, the Mariners control an extensive television territory and would suffer significant losses if it was opened up for competition. In addition, it would be plausible for cable providers to decide that broadcasting games for teams like the Marlins or the Padres isn’t worth the expense even in Miami or San Diego. However, teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, Giants, Cubs, Cardinals, Tigers and Braves would receive significant benefits due to their strong national popularity and due to the fact that many of their rivals would be