Who pays for me to hear "fly away!"

July 25, 2006 1:45 PM

Who pays the for the local broadcast (TV and radio) of a major league baseball team?

I'll use the Seattle Mariners as the example in my question.

Dave Neihaus and Rick Rizz (among others) do the radio broadcast and Fox Sports (FSN) broadcast for the games. For non-FSN games, they also do the primary play by play. Does the team pay them and bill the cost to the respective media outlet? What about the associated technical staffs and periphial reporters?

FSN has Brad Adam and other feild reporters, team or FSN? Local non-FSN broadcasts? And how about cameramen? Same cameras for both FSN and non-FSN local broadcasts. Does the team assume all costs and then bill the media outlet?

posted by karmaville to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (7 answers total)

As far as I know, FSN pays for the rights to broadcast the Mariner's games, and whatever station broadcasts the games that aren't on FSN pays for those games.

FSN signs a contact for X games in a season and the rest of the games are doled out to other stations--this is at least how it works with most franchises--and they pay the costs associated with broadcasting those games, and of course the advertising revenue goes to whatever station is broadcasting that game.

It is my guess that the announcers you mentioned have a contract with the Mariners specifically saying that they are the announcers for all games regardless of broadcasting station.
posted by jckll at 2:25 PM on July 25, 2006

You pay for it.

Basically, there's advertising on those broadcasts (ultimately paid for by you, via your purchase of those products and services). Usually the team sells broadcasting rights to one or more organizations. Those rights are sold up front so the team gets paid, win or lose. The outfit(s) buying rights pay the announcers, camera operators, etc. They sell ads and hopefully make a buck. This page is not specific about Mariners' broadcast arrangements but details what kind of money some of the other teams get for broadcast rights. Note that for Seattle it lists some other lucrative deals such as signage, logos on drinking cups, etc. Its says FSN has a $500 million, 10-year deal to broadcast Anaheim's games.
posted by beagle at 2:27 PM on July 25, 2006

Advertising, escentially, pays for all "free'/broadcasted content.
posted by drkrdglo at 2:55 PM on July 25, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks, I didn't mean who "ultimately" pays, i.e. the advertisers, but how the breakdown of who wrote the check that directly paid the cameraguy, the radio soundboard operator, and announcers worked.

Thanks for the answers so far though!
posted by karmaville at 3:09 PM on July 25, 2006

Other teams (the Yankees and Red Sox, off the top of my head) basically own their own stations (NESN and YES, respectively) so there is no paying of the team for broadcast rights (unless they pay on paper for accounting reasons, I guess). The broadcasters/techs are basically employees of the team.
posted by Rock Steady at 3:19 PM on July 25, 2006

Announcers vary from city to city and team to team -- sometimes the announcers are employed by the teams; sometimes they're employed by the station airing the games. The camera guys and such are almost always employees of the station, though. (And sometimes, like with the Red Sox, the team essentially owns the station, which is what Rock Steady is talking about.)
posted by raf at 3:36 PM on July 25, 2006

The Blue Jays are owned by the guy that also owns the TV and radio network upon which the vast majority of their games are broadcast. FWIW.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 10:20 PM on July 25, 2006