TMC1982@gmail.com
10-04-2008, 05:35 AM
A Network to Satisfy the Appetite of Baseball-Hungry Fans
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
Major League Baseball does not believe there is enough baseball on
television.
Not on local and regional TV. Not on Fox, ESPN, TBS or MLB.com.
It wants ubiquity, a 24/7 home, so it is building its own cable
channel, the MLB Network, in Secaucus, N.J., with opening day
scheduled for Jan. 1. The idea behind a league-owned network is not
new. The N.F.L., the N.B.A. and the N.H.L. preceded baseball, but all
share a goal: to feed a rabid fan base and to relentlessly promote
their sport.
We want to be the authentic home of baseball, said Tony Petitti, the
president of the new network and the former No. 2 executive at CBS
Sports behind Sean McManus. Petitti has never worked professionally
in
baseball, but he was a catcher at Haverford College (class of 1983).
His coach, Greg Kannerstein, who is now the college s dean, said
Friday that Petitti was a good catcher with a rifle arm who, if he
had hit a little better, he d have played major league baseball
instead of televising it.
Unsuccessful talks between CBS and baseball two years ago led Petitti
to the MLB Network. He was incredibly thoughtful and honest in our
discussions, said Tim Brosnan, baseball s executive vice president
for business. He s uniquely qualified.
The shift to running a baseball network, rather than overseeing
production of all of CBS s sports, means focusing on a sport whose
fans have local appetites.
They follow their teams on local outlets or on Fox, ESPN or TBS.
We want to be the next choice for baseball fans, Petitti said. We
want them to know that we re here, and we can get you caught up. We
re
another tool to enjoy the game.
Petitti spoke during a tour of the network s building in an
industrial
park, the former MSNBC studio where Keith Olbermann fulminated and
tossed crumpled paper. Baseball had expected to make Secaucus a
temporary stop until a proposed building in Harlem was ready. But the
real estate deal in Harlem is dormant, if not altogether dead.
And baseball s conversion of what MSNBC left behind into an
all-high-definition facility augurs for a lengthy stay. The project
is
costing about $54 million, an investment that led New Jersey last
month to approve an $8 million employment incentive grant. This is
likely to be our permanent place, Petitti said.
The architectural plans for the facility look lavish, with two
enormous studios (one is designed to look like a ballpark). But the
network will be judged by its programming, including the centerpiece
MLB Tonight studio program, which during the season will offer
updates, live game look-ins and wrap-ups from 7 p.m. until at least 1
a.m. Eastern.
The network will install two robotic cameras at each stadium to
enhance its studio programming. There s enough interest in what we ll
do, Petitti said. We re selling the accumulation of everything. It s
not about access to one club; it s about access to all 30.
One live regular-season game will be seen on the network on either
Thursday or Saturday night. But it will be a simulcasted version of a
game produced in one of the teams local markets, and the MLB Network
feed will be seen only outside that area.
There will also be archival, hot stove, reality, youth and spring
training programming, as well as World Baseball Classic, minor league
and Caribbean World Series games.
The roster of commentators is expected to include Harold Reynolds and
Al Leiter, but one of Petitti s tasks will be to hire someone to be
the undisputed voice of the network.
If the MLB Network wants to be the fan s second choice, as Petitti
said, then must it convert devotees of ESPN s Baseball Tonight or
regional networks to its side?
Petitti said the MLB channel s all-baseball format would rope in
enough viewers to make the venture succeed. Len DeLuca, an ESPN
senior
vice president, said, We feel the MLB Network will draw more fans to
the set, which can only benefit our franchises, Baseball Tonight and
Sunday night and Monday and Wednesday night baseball.
Still, Tom Werner, a Red Sox owner, said: If you create a channel for
baseball, you re competing with ESPN because ESPN is the place where
you d find information about baseball. Hopefully, we ll be the source
if you want to know what s going on.
Thanks to negotiations, some bizarre and some fractious, the MLB
Network will begin with an endowment of more than 50 million
subscribers, which will provide the channel with a level of cash that
Werner said would make it break even immediately.
Baseball is swapping one-third ownership of its channel with DirecTV,
Comcast, Time Warner and Cox for wide distribution, thus avoiding the
kind of ongoing distribution turf war that the NFL Network is having
with Big Cable.
Anybody with 50 million or more in distribution has a salable,
working business model, said Neal Pilson, an industry consultant.
Tony s challenge will be to have provocative, interesting and
stimulating programming.
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
Major League Baseball does not believe there is enough baseball on
television.
Not on local and regional TV. Not on Fox, ESPN, TBS or MLB.com.
It wants ubiquity, a 24/7 home, so it is building its own cable
channel, the MLB Network, in Secaucus, N.J., with opening day
scheduled for Jan. 1. The idea behind a league-owned network is not
new. The N.F.L., the N.B.A. and the N.H.L. preceded baseball, but all
share a goal: to feed a rabid fan base and to relentlessly promote
their sport.
We want to be the authentic home of baseball, said Tony Petitti, the
president of the new network and the former No. 2 executive at CBS
Sports behind Sean McManus. Petitti has never worked professionally
in
baseball, but he was a catcher at Haverford College (class of 1983).
His coach, Greg Kannerstein, who is now the college s dean, said
Friday that Petitti was a good catcher with a rifle arm who, if he
had hit a little better, he d have played major league baseball
instead of televising it.
Unsuccessful talks between CBS and baseball two years ago led Petitti
to the MLB Network. He was incredibly thoughtful and honest in our
discussions, said Tim Brosnan, baseball s executive vice president
for business. He s uniquely qualified.
The shift to running a baseball network, rather than overseeing
production of all of CBS s sports, means focusing on a sport whose
fans have local appetites.
They follow their teams on local outlets or on Fox, ESPN or TBS.
We want to be the next choice for baseball fans, Petitti said. We
want them to know that we re here, and we can get you caught up. We
re
another tool to enjoy the game.
Petitti spoke during a tour of the network s building in an
industrial
park, the former MSNBC studio where Keith Olbermann fulminated and
tossed crumpled paper. Baseball had expected to make Secaucus a
temporary stop until a proposed building in Harlem was ready. But the
real estate deal in Harlem is dormant, if not altogether dead.
And baseball s conversion of what MSNBC left behind into an
all-high-definition facility augurs for a lengthy stay. The project
is
costing about $54 million, an investment that led New Jersey last
month to approve an $8 million employment incentive grant. This is
likely to be our permanent place, Petitti said.
The architectural plans for the facility look lavish, with two
enormous studios (one is designed to look like a ballpark). But the
network will be judged by its programming, including the centerpiece
MLB Tonight studio program, which during the season will offer
updates, live game look-ins and wrap-ups from 7 p.m. until at least 1
a.m. Eastern.
The network will install two robotic cameras at each stadium to
enhance its studio programming. There s enough interest in what we ll
do, Petitti said. We re selling the accumulation of everything. It s
not about access to one club; it s about access to all 30.
One live regular-season game will be seen on the network on either
Thursday or Saturday night. But it will be a simulcasted version of a
game produced in one of the teams local markets, and the MLB Network
feed will be seen only outside that area.
There will also be archival, hot stove, reality, youth and spring
training programming, as well as World Baseball Classic, minor league
and Caribbean World Series games.
The roster of commentators is expected to include Harold Reynolds and
Al Leiter, but one of Petitti s tasks will be to hire someone to be
the undisputed voice of the network.
If the MLB Network wants to be the fan s second choice, as Petitti
said, then must it convert devotees of ESPN s Baseball Tonight or
regional networks to its side?
Petitti said the MLB channel s all-baseball format would rope in
enough viewers to make the venture succeed. Len DeLuca, an ESPN
senior
vice president, said, We feel the MLB Network will draw more fans to
the set, which can only benefit our franchises, Baseball Tonight and
Sunday night and Monday and Wednesday night baseball.
Still, Tom Werner, a Red Sox owner, said: If you create a channel for
baseball, you re competing with ESPN because ESPN is the place where
you d find information about baseball. Hopefully, we ll be the source
if you want to know what s going on.
Thanks to negotiations, some bizarre and some fractious, the MLB
Network will begin with an endowment of more than 50 million
subscribers, which will provide the channel with a level of cash that
Werner said would make it break even immediately.
Baseball is swapping one-third ownership of its channel with DirecTV,
Comcast, Time Warner and Cox for wide distribution, thus avoiding the
kind of ongoing distribution turf war that the NFL Network is having
with Big Cable.
Anybody with 50 million or more in distribution has a salable,
working business model, said Neal Pilson, an industry consultant.
Tony s challenge will be to have provocative, interesting and
stimulating programming.