Fox Sports and TBS renew with MLB

[MARTINMVP]

Less games on TBS Sunday baseball, more Fox games, and some games going to the Speed Channel, which is expected to be rebranded as a Fox Sports Network (how will they do that when they already have FSN affiliates, recently rebranded with the same Fox Sports logo used on the Fox mothership network?)

Somewhere, Joe Buck in his monotone voice is saying "Yay."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/sp...ball-deal.html

[RKMeibalane]

Wonderful. Why Fox, a network that has done a horrible job covering baseball, continues to have their television contract renewed while NBC remains on the outside looking in is something I don't understand.

[ComiskeyBrewer]

I like TBS coverage for the most part. Brian Anderson did a very good job last post season.

[KRS1]

Great, more awful baseball coverage.

[Viva Medias B's]

Whoever is running NBC Sports needs to be replaced. How they allowed this to happen is beyond me. NBC Sports Network ought to really give the ESPN Evil Empire a run for its money with possibly no NHL hockey and hunting shows.

[thomas35forever]

Yippee. More Joe Buck.

[MUsoxfan]

Joe Buck is fine. He's the classic announcer. Sure he has his faults, but there could be more Berman's in the booth and nobody wants that.

Let's face it...It's really tough to be a PBP guy. As far as they go, Buck is among the best

[cub killer]

I can't understand the terms of the contract unless Scooter explains them to me.

[roylestillman]

If I'm doing the math right, it looks like each team is picking up an additional $26 million from these deals. Scott Boras must be out shopping for private jets.

As far as Buck is concerned, as a voice he's not bad, but his past comments about baseball being boring and his penchant for beating a story line into the ground (bad weather, length of a game, the AJ dropped third strike) drive me nuts.

[SephClone89]

So are we losing a nationally-televised Sunday afternoon game, or is FOX going to carry that on Speed?

Not that it really matters as I rarely watch that TBS game, but anything that appears to be less baseball on television makes me set.

And yeah, a joke that NBC apparently wasn't even a major player in these negotiations. Isn't this what they've been gearing up for since the rebranding of Versus and etc?

[Viva Medias B's]

Originally Posted by SephClone89

So are we losing a nationally-televised Sunday afternoon game, or is FOX going to carry that on Speed?

Not that it really matters as I rarely watch that TBS game, but anything that appears to be less baseball on television makes me set.

And yeah, a joke that NBC apparently wasn't even a major player in these negotiations. Isn't this what they've been gearing up for since the rebranding of Versus and etc?

Supposedly, MLB wanted more money than NBCU was willing to pay. I thought Comcast was going to go all out. They've spent the money to upgrade other things at NBCU.

[MARTINMVP]

Originally Posted by Viva Medias B's

Supposedly, MLB wanted more money than NBCU was willing to pay. I thought Comcast was going to go all out. They've spent the money to upgrade other things at NBCU.

Exactly! Remember about a year ago when the Olympics were up for renewal (I forget when NBC's then existing deal expired), and for a while, it seemed NBCU was on the verge of losing coverage to ABC/ESPN or FOX? That was because NBCU was also reluctant to pay the high price necessary to carry the Olympics.

So far, the NBC Sports Network has been a half-assed attempt, at best. They really should have waited to relaunch Versus until they had more viable programming to counter ESPN.

Fox Sports Net made a huge push by acquiring all the Sports Channel stations in 1996-98, then half assed it with cheap graphics, and low-budget shows and low budget college football and basketball that surrounded the regional games.

Now, we have CBS Sports Network, NBC Sports Network and a possible Fox Sports Network, in addition to all the various regional sports networks? Too many cooks spoil the broth.

[asindc]

Tim McCarver: "Now what this means is that some baseball games will be broadcast on Fox."

[WhiteSox5187]

This is bad news, I hate the way Fox broadcasts baseball.

[Lamp81]

Originally Posted by MARTINMVP

Less games on TBS Sunday baseball, more Fox games, and some games going to the Speed Channel, which is expected to be rebranded as a Fox Sports Network (how will they do that when they already have FSN affiliates, recently rebranded with the same Fox Sports logo used on the Fox mothership network?)

Somewhere, Joe Buck in his monotone voice is saying "Yay."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/sp...ball-deal.html

You can have Fox Sports Net as a national network and then have Fox Sports-City Name (like the old Fox Sports-Chicago).

I thought Comcast Sports Nets were going to be rebranded as NBC Sports-City name (NBC Sports-Chicago would be ours). I thought this was discussed either at the Comcast/NBC merger or the Versus/NBC Sports transition.