Marquee Sports Network

To add to my point about RSNs eyes being bigger than their stomach.

Consider the Extra Innings and MLB.tv offerings. The people that buy those packages... they want to watch baseball. Is there anybody that buys this package and then never watches a baseball game? (Maybe the super rich). But the models on this are more reflective than RSN and ESPN coverage.

If MLB gets 10 billion subscribers to Extra Innings and mlb.tv this year... then they stand a good bet that they'll get 10 billion subscribers again next year.

RSNs and ESPNs and all the other sports channels that get "included" in people's TV offerings - which probably has a lot of people that never watch those channels. If they see 10 billion subscribers this year... that doesn't necessarily mean they'll have 10 billion next year. We're already seeing that, people are cutting the cord and dropping sports because they don't care about them.

Instead of actually focusing on the number of people that watch their content... ESPN and the RSNs just looked at subscriber numbers... because it was larger and larger looks better in an accounting book.

You can also sorta, kinda do this with other content, like movies and TV shows. And this is why I suspect you'll see production companies, studios, and distribution networks focus more on streaming. Take CBS All Access for example - people aren't subscribing to CBS All Access if they don't want to watch the content that is available on that platform. That 1 subscriber to CBS All Access means more than the 1 subscriber on DirecTV that has CBS and may never watch it.
MLB.tv blocks out local market games. So it really defeats the purpose.
 
MLB.tv blocks out local market games. So it really defeats the purpose.
Well, I'm not necessarily directly comparing mlb.tv/extra innings to RSN feeds.

I'm just saying nobody buys mlb.tv or Extra Innings and never watches it.

A lot of people buy (in the sense that it's including in their package) their RSN (and ESPN and FS1 and whatever) and never watch it.

So you can't take the subscriber numbers of mlb.tv and Extra Innings and the subscriber numbers of RSNs and ESPN to mean the same thing. And yes... the "area" that these would fit in are different so you can't necessarily call it an apples to apples comparison.

Now it's hard for teams to really gather exact numbers, because an mlb.tv subscriber is subscribing to watch what team?

BUT... you can look at it from the perspective of MLB.

1000 mlb.tv subscribers means there's at least 1000 MLB fans. Period, end of sentence.

1000 subscribers to Fox Sports North... that doesn't mean that there are 1000 MLB fans, or even 1000 sports fans.

You know those 1000 mlb.tv fans are baseball fans. You're guessing at the 1000 subscribers to Fox Sports North given it's distribution path.
 
MLB is supposedly giving streaming rights back to the teams. So This could help Sinclair with streaming rights.
 
MLB is supposedly giving streaming rights back to the teams. So This could help Sinclair with streaming rights.

I just got a free MLB.Tv subscription from the Detroit tigers included with my season ticket package.

Maybe it was because of what you mentioned, or the Tigers just realized they sucked so much last year they are trying to add more value to my season ticket package to keep me as a customer
 
Why don’t these professional sports teams do what our local art museum did and get a Millage proposal on our local ballot.

I was just looking at our tax bill and the Detroit Institute of Arts (which does absolutely nothing for me) gets like $5 on our taxes.

We already pay for the new stadiums, why not just add it to our taxes and be done with it.

By each team trying to have their own RSN, it amounts to nothing more than a tax for everyone in the area who subscribes to pay Tv.
 
So far anyway, sports is generally not extracting itself from the traditional cable TV bundle and making itself available via standalone streaming services. But just about everything else is. More and more of the non-sports entertainment content that Americans watch is now either exclusively or optionally available in streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, etc. The effect this is having is to increasingly make the cable bundle appealing only to those who really care about sports.
 
This may have been said before. But DirecTV will have Marquee Network on Ch 665 this sat Cubs will be playing Oakland A's 1:05 Arizona time.
 
This may have been said before. But DirecTV will have Marquee Network on Ch 665 this sat Cubs will be playing Oakland A's 1:05 Arizona time.
It’s going to be on channel 664.

But I still find it interesting that a person can subscribe for ~$130 for MLB.TV ($183 for MBLEI) a season and get almost every game of every team yet they have no other option but to subscribe to cable/satellite/streaming to get their local team. Something needs to change in the future.
 
I was going by what DirecTV told me today. They said Ch 665. We see what comes saturday. Looking forward to the game either way.
 
If you talked to customer service they likely just looked at their RSN resource that shows the Cubs still on NBC Sports Chicago, along with all the other teams. Their RSN lookup tool still only shows 665.

The interesting thing will be if Sinclair can pluck another Chicago team (Bulls or Blackhawks) to have content for the other half of the year. That seems key to justifying the monthly cost for the RSN, which for Marquee is somewhere just under $5/mo/sub from what I read. The NBC/Comcast one was closer to $9 or $10 before they lost the Cubs, I'm sure they'll have to take less on renewals (if not already depending on how those contracts work).
 
If you talked to customer service they likely just looked at their RSN resource that shows the Cubs still on NBC Sports Chicago, along with all the other teams. Their RSN lookup tool still only shows 665.

The interesting thing will be if Sinclair can pluck another Chicago team (Bulls or Blackhawks) to have content for the other half of the year. That seems key to justifying the monthly cost for the RSN, which for Marquee is somewhere just under $5/mo/sub from what I read. The NBC/Comcast one was closer to $9 or $10 before they lost the Cubs, I'm sure they'll have to take less on renewals (if not already depending on how those contracts work).
should be been the Blackhawks. And then NBC/Comcast can go back to sports vision
 
664 (Both HD and SD) now showing in the guide. Programming starts at 2pm ET 1pm CT. They had planned to debut with the first spring training game this afternoon but the game was delayed due to weather in AZ, it's an evening game now.
 
664 (Both HD and SD) now showing in the guide. Programming starts at 2pm ET 1pm CT. They had planned to debut with the first spring training game this afternoon but the game was delayed due to weather in AZ, it's an evening game now.
Is it available national or just regional?
 
Is it available national or just regional?

National with Sports Pack, regional without. The live Sping Training games will be available nationwide with the SP, as well as the first week of the MLB season (and any other time EI is in free preview), but most of the time, EI will be needed to watch the games outside the local cable broadcast area of the Cubs. I can see Marquee on my guide on 664 and it is tuneable but there is no programming until 2pm. I have the Sports Pack.

EDIT: Maybe I am wrong. So far, the first program on 664 is showing up as if the channel is unsubscribed, but again I have the Sports Pack. I can watch most things except pro sports on non-loca RSNs (ch 631-698, with exceptions like NHL reairs on FS/MSG channels and live MLB spring training games - those are usually watchable). But Marquee is showing 721 error like I am not subscribed. I will keep checking.
 
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