Capitalizing on their history of success and baseball’s skyrocketing value as real-time TV, the Cardinals have reached a deal with Fox Sports Midwest that will guarantee the team more than $1 billion and assert for years to come their televised presence in a broad, devoted region.
The team and its exclusive local broadcast partner are expected to announce a new, 15-year agreement Thursday morning, officials on both sides confirmed. The new deal will begin with the 2018 season, continue to feature as many as 150 televised regular-season games, and also provides the Cardinals with a minority stake in the network.
“This does give us a great deal of stability over the next 15 years and does so in a market that has been shifting,” Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said. “It has a nice increase in rights fees as well as the equity component and as a whole it will allow us to remain as competitive as we have been with our payroll, with our spending in the international markets, with our activity in amateur markets and other ways we have invested in development. We have certainty going forward.”
The agreement is new and not an extension of the current deal, which expires after the 2017 season. The value of the 2018-2032 rights package allows the Cardinals to catch up with a trend that has radically shaped baseball in recent years.
The total for the rights fee alone could surpass $1 billion, and that does not include the signing bonus or additional revenue the Cardinals will get from the equity stake.
Jack Donovan, general manager and senior vice president of Fox Sports Midwest, declined to discuss the specifics of the equity arrangement. He said the sides saw benefits to working on a deal now — two years before the Cardinals had to decide on their 2018 option. Discussions intensified over the past year, and the agreement was recently approved by Major League Baseball.
“It was in the best interests to get out in front of it before the current deal expired,” Donovan said. “This provides stability too for the network for years to come.”
The rights-fee gusher in baseball, both with local and national broadcast rights, has allowed teams in midsized markets to become as aggressive as larger-market teams when it comes to spending on players, whether it’s keeping talent or pursuing free agents.
The Cardinals telecasts on Fox Sports Midwest annually gather some of the highest ratings in baseball, and the games are the highest-rated prime time program in St. Louis during the season. They had the highest ratings of any team in 2014, and that was the 15th consecutive year that the Cardinals ranked in Major League Baseball’s top three for local TV ratings. They are No. 2 this year. Those ratings are robust in the St. Louis area, but Fox Sports Midwest also provides Cardinals games to a region that includes part or all of 10 states. Ratings, and the advertising dollars they can command, are only part of the equation when it comes to rising rights fees. Market size is a huge indicator. Teams such as Houston, the Rangers, the Dodgers, and, of course, the Yankees can attract profoundly higher rights fees simply because they play in areas with bigger populations.
A cable network generates income from subscriber fees, and the larger the population the more subscribers. Whether a household watches ESPN or not, if it has a cable bill, it’s paying for ESPN. The Cardinals are the 21st largest market according to Nielsen, behind the Diamondbacks (11th) and Indians (19th) but ahead of the Pirates (22nd) and Padres (28th).
What has made sports programming so valuable to networks is that it’s still appointment viewing. Unlike “Game of Thrones” or “Mad Men,” which can be viewed on demand, or streaming entertainment such as Netflix’s “House of Cards,” sports have remained DVR-proof.
“Sports on television is very powerful (because) people watch it live. They don’t time-shift sports,” Donovan said. “You watch movies and TV shows when you want now. Sports are the only thing where you don’t watch reruns, you don’t watch them two days later. Sports also has shorter commercial breaks. We have to be back live when the ump puts the ball in play. That makes commercials more valuable when they’re in that small pod. Sports is also wholesome content.
“Sports are emerging as the pre-eminent content on TV these days.”
At the end of the new deal, in late 2032, the Cardinals and Fox Sports Midwest will have had a relationship spanning 39 years.
Baseball’s big TV contracts
| Team/mkt size | Date of deal | Network | Length | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas Rangers, #5 | Aug 2010 | Fox Sports SW | 20 years | $3 billion |
| LA Angels, #2 | Dec 2011 | Fox Sports West | 20 years | $3 billion |
| SD Padres, #28 | April 2012 | Fox Sports SD | 20 years | $1.2 billion |
| LA Dodgers, #2 | Jan 2013 | Time Warner Cable | 25 years | $8.35 billion |
| CLE Indians, #19 | Dec 2012 | Fox Sports | 10 years | $400 million |
| Ariz. Dbacks, #11 | Feb 2015 | Fox Sports Arizona | 20 years | $1.5 billion |
| PHI Phillies, #4 | Jan 2014 | Comcast SportsNet | 25 years | $2.5 billion |
| STL Cardinals, #21 | July 2015 | Fox Sports MW | 15 years | $1+ billion |
To read the full article visit STLToday.com where it was originally published
Jason Barrett is the President and Founder of Barrett Media since the company was created in September 2015. Prior to its arrival, JB served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He also spent time programming SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY. Jason also worked on-air and behind the scenes in local radio at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years on the national stage, producing radio shows for ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT. Among them included the Dan Patrick Show, and GameNight.
You can find JB on Twitter @SportsRadioPD. He’s also reachable by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
