As Major League Baseball opens its season, the sport’s broadcasters are learning to deal with a new reality. For a broadcasting generation that grew up idolizing loquacious storytellers such as Vin Scully, the advent of a pitch clock has meant sharper, quicker commentary and an adjustment to a limited view of the game.
The clock’s introduction has brought to a head the issue of local rights, which MLB is pushing to merge under its national umbrella. In the past, teams could count on their local broadcasting contracts to help them sign players. But with many broadcasters’ deals expiring, MLB has the leverage to push for long-term agreements that will put a majority of games under a single network.
One of the first big steps toward a national broadcasting network came in 1965, when ABC and NBC agreed to split live broadcasts of their Saturday afternoon games. ABC also had exclusive televison rights to the World Series, and in that year’s edition of the Fall Classic, the first closeup cameras were used. New York stations WPIX and WOR were among the first to put cameras near each dugout, and the center field camera — a fixture of modern telecasts — was invented in 1951 by a Chicago station that saw a schoolboy scoreboard and thought it would be helpful to have a camera there to show both the hitter and the pitcher.
In the days before television became commonplace, radio was the main source of baseball coverage. But even then, some teams were reluctant to broadcast their games for fear that fans would tune in instead of going to the ballpark. As The Sporting News editorialized in 1925, “Broadcasting a game without the audience is as bad as a succotash party with no corn or beans.”
Local rights are still critical to the business of baseball. They account for about 15% of team revenues, and the 162-game regular season means that local broadcasters can bank on having a live baseball broadcast almost every day. But the changing media landscape is making those pacts more difficult to renew, and the stakes for broadcasters have never been higher.
As the reshaping of the sports media landscape continues, some teams are finding themselves in financial trouble, and they’re having to decide how they can best use their assets to navigate a shifting landscape. San Diego began this season with a payroll that was among the top 10 in the majors, but its local rights deal with Diamond Sports Group is up for negotiation after the Sinclair subsidiary let a deadline pass for a payment it owed to the Padres. That’s a move that could have huge implications for the future of baseball broadcasting. And for fans, too. It may mean that the games will be available more widely and at a lower cost, which could benefit everyone. But more importantly, it may be the first step toward a national baseball network that will have a much clearer picture of what’s happening on the field and in the stands. 메이저리그중계