MLB on Fox

MLB on FOX is Fox's de facto brand name for their coverage of Major League Baseball. It has aired since 1996.

The phrase "MLB on FOX" is never heard or seen on broadcasts but is implied by the use of the MLB silhouette logo alongside the words "on FOX". Often "Fox Saturday Baseball" or "World Series on Fox" (and similar) are heard instead, depending on the game being broadcast.

History

Major League Baseball made a deal with Fox and NBC on November 7, 1995. Fox paid a fraction less of the amount of money that CBS paid for the Major League Baseball television rights for the 1990-1993 seasons. Unlike the previous television deal, The Baseball Network, Fox reverted to the format of televising regular season games (aproximately 16 weekly telecasts that normally began on Memorial Day weekend) on Saturday afternoons. Fox did however, continue a format that The Baseball Network started by offering games based purely on a viewer's region. Fox's approach has usually been to offer four regionalized telecasts, with exclusivity from 1-4 p.m. in each time zone. When FOX first got into baseball, it used the motto "Same game, new attitude."

Like its predecessor NBC, Fox determines its Saturday schedule by who is playing a team from one of the 3 largest television markets: New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago. If there is a game which combines 2 of these 3 markets, it will be aired. In Fox's first season of Major League Baseball coverage in 1996, they averaged a 2.7 rating for its Saturday Game of the Week. That was down 23% from CBS' 3.4 in 1993 despite the network's infamy for its rather haphazard Game of the Week schedule.

Exclusivity

In September 2000, Major League Baseball concluded a six year, $2.5 billion contract with Fox to show Saturday baseball, the All-Star Game, selected Division Series games and exclusive coverage of the League Championship Series and World Series. 90% of the contract’s value to Fox, who is paying Major League Baseball $417 million per year, comes from the postseason, which not only attracts large audiences, but also provides an opportunity for the network to showcase its fall schedule.

The contract protects Major League Baseball in the event of a labor dispute: if some of the games are cancelled by a strike or lockout, MLB still gets all its money, but must compensate Fox with additional telecasts. On the other hand, a repeat of the 1994 baseball strike could cost Fox well over $1 billion.

Under the previous five year deal with NBC (1996-2000), Fox paid $115 million while NBC only paid $80 million per year. Fox paid about $575 million overall while NBC paid about $400 million overall. The difference between the Fox and the NBC contracts implicitly values Fox's Saturday Game of the Week at less than $90 million for five years. Before NBC officially decided to part ways with Major League Baseball (for the second time in about 12 years) on September 26, 2000, FOX's payment would've been $345 million while NBC would've paid $240 million. Before 1990, NBC had carried Major League Baseball since 1947.

"We have notified Major League Baseball that we have passed on their offer and we wish them well going forward." - NBC Sports president Ken Schanzer

Under the new deal, Fox would now pay out an average of $417 million a year, which was about a 45 percent increase from the previous deal (worth $290 million a year) that Fox, NBC, and ESPN contributed together. CBS and ABC reportedly were not interested in buying the rights at the prices Major League Baseball was offering.

When asked about the new deal with Fox, Commissioner Bud Selig said, "We at Major League Baseball could not be happier with the result. They have been a good partner and an innovative producer of our games."

Neal Pilson, who was the president of CBS Sports when the network had the exclusive television rights for Major League Baseball said of Fox's $2.5 billion deal:

"It is a lot of baseball. It will force Fox to delay the start of its entertainment season every fall in order to cover the playoffs and the World Series, but I am sure they have taken that into account. FOX probably believes it has driven a good deal financially. It has kept its cost escalation at a very modest number. I'm sure Fox believes if it is the only national carrier, it can sell its commercial (slots) without having to face underpricing from a competitor."

Some observers believed that gaining the relative ratings boost from the League Championship Series and World Series meant more to Fox than the other broadcast networks. That was because FOX had the biggest prime time ratings decline of the four major networks during the 1999-2000 season. Its average prime time audience of 8.97 million was down 17 percent from the year before, according to Nielsen Media Research.

In the first year of the exclusive contract, Fox did a split-telecast (not seen of since the days of the ill-fated Baseball Network) for the League Championship Series. This meant that one game would be aired on the Fox Brodcasting Company while the other would be aired on Fox Sports Net. The rationale behind the split-telcast was that because of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the whole postseason schedule was pushed back a week. Because of this, two Sunday LCS games came in conflict with a NFL on FOX doubleheader. The fans were naturally very frustrated with the situation as Bud Selig vowed it was a one-time deal necessitated by circumstance. Fox thought otherwise though and there has been at least one night of split League Championship Series coverage every year since.

In October 2005, reports surfaced that Fox may give up its rights to televise any of Major League Baseball's American and National League Divisional Series playoff games under a new agreement. In return, those games could move to ESPN, and maybe a few to ABC. Sources said Fox may want to give up the entire Divisional Series because it would give the network some relief for all of the advertising inventory it has to sell. One source close to the situation said, "first round playoff [ad] inventory is harder to sell, you don't get a lot for it, and production costs are high." Fox could be hoping that by dropping the Divisional Series games, it could shave off tens of millions off its new broadcast deal, and since MLB is already in business extensively with ESPN, it would be amenable to selling it the rights. ESPN officials wouldn't comment, but according to sources close to the network, ESPN would be interested in getting TV rights for the entire Divisional Series rights if they became available. "It's valuable programming but not cheap," one insider said.

Fox's contract with Major League Baseball expires after the 2006 World Series. Fox has an exclusive negotiating period with the MLB until January 1, 2006. Some say that NBC will try to make a play for the broadcast rights after that time.

Commentators & Studio Personalities

27 year old Joe Buck, son of legendary St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Jack Buck, was named Fox's #1 play-by-play man. Ironically, Joe Buck was teamed with Tim McCarver, who was considered the main reason behind the firing of Jack Buck (who was booted after two years mainly due to poor on-air chemistry with McCarver) from CBS five years earlier. Unlike Tim McCarver and Jack Buck, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver fused. "The play-by-play man [should] explain what and where and analyst answer why and how. He does both" McCarver said.

Other commentators for Fox have included:

Kenny Albert
Bret Boone
Bob Brenly
Thom Brennaman
George Brett
Chip Caray (studio host from 1996-1998; play-by-play announcer from 1999-2000)
Ray Fosse
Mark Grace
Rex Hudler
Eric Karros
Kevin Kennedy (studio analyst from 2001-present)
Duane Kuiper
John Kruk
Mike Krukow
Al Leiter
Josh Lewin
Steve Lyons (studio analyst from 1996-2000; game analyst from 2001-present)
Rick Manning
Jose Mota
Keith Olbermann (studio host from 1999-2000)
Patrick O'Neal (substitute studio host in August 2005; regular host Jeanne Zelasko was on maternity leave)
Jim Palmer
Lou Piniella
Mel Proctor
Jerry Remy
Frank Robinson
John Rooney (play by play announcer from 1996-1998)
Jeff Torborg
Dick Stockton
Daron Sutton
Matt Vasgersian
Chris Welch
Dave Winfield (studio analyst in 1996)
Jeanne Zelasko (studio host from 2001-present)

Prior to the 2000 World Series, Bob Brenly, who normally did West Coast games with Thom Brennaman, regularly joined Joe Buck and Tim McCarver in the booth for events such as the World Series and All-Star Game. But during the 2000 World Series, Brenly was relegated to simply being a field reporter. Brenly was on the verge of becoming the manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who would win the World Series under Brenly just a year later. After Brenly was dismissed by the Diamondbacks following a disappointing start to the 2004 regular season, Brenly returned to Fox.

In 2001, Jeanne Zelasko [1] became the first woman in more than a decade to regularly host Major League Baseball for a network, except for Hannah Storm, who only hosted selected ball games during NBC's sporatic phase in the 1990s or CBS' Andrea Joyce in 1993, then Zelasko succeeded Gayle Gardner, who hosted for NBC in 1989.

In 2004, Fox's Game of the Week telecasts only appeared three times after August 28. One unidentified ex-FOX broadcaster complained by saying "FOX is MIA on the pennant race, and Joe [Buck] doesn't even do [September 18's] Red Sox-Yankees. What kind of sport would tolerate that?" By this point, Joe Buck was unavailable to call baseball games, since he Fox's #1 NFL announcer (a job he has held since 2002).

Innovations

On July 8, 1997, FOX televised its first ever All-Star Game (out of Jacobs Field in Cleveland). For this particular game, Fox introduced "Catcher-Cam" in which a camera was affixed to the catchers' masks in order to provide unique perspectives of the action around home plate. Catcher-Cam soon would become a regular fixture in FOX's baseball broadcasts.

In addition to Catcher-Cam, other so-called "innovations" that Fox has provided for baseball telecasts have been:

Sennheiser MKE-2 microphones and SK-250 transmitters in the bases.

Between 12 and 16 microphones throughout the outfield, ranging from Sennheiser MKH-416 shotgun microphones to DPA 4061s with Crystal Partners Big Ear parabolic microphones to Crown Audio PCC160 plate microphones.

The continuous "Fox Box" graphic, which contained the score, clock and other information in an upper corner of the TV screen. In recent years, the Fox Box has morphed into a strip across the top of the screen.

Audio accompanying graphics and sandwiched replays between "whooshes."

"Mega Slo-Mo" technology.

Scooter, a 3-D animated talking baseball (voiced by Tom Kenny) that occasionally appears to explain pitching mechanics, purportedly for younger viewers -- approminately the 10- to 12-year-olds --.[2]

Ball Tracer, a stroboscopic comet tail showing the path of a pitch to the catcher's glove.

Strike Zone, which shows pitch sequences with strikes in yellow and balls in white. It can put a simulated pane of glass that shatters when a ball goes through the zone (a la the computerized scoring graphics used for bowling).

The "high home" camera from high behind home plate. Its purpose is that it can trace the arc of a home run and measure the distance the ball traveled. The "high home" camera can also measure a runner's lead off first base while showing in different colors (green, yellow, red) and how far off the base and into pickoff danger a runner is venturing.

Ratings

When Fox covered its first ever World Series in 1996, Fox announced a 17.4 Niesen rating. In response to that, Fox Sports head David Hill said "Three times our nightly norm. That's why we got into baseball [for $120 million a year]." When Fox covered Mark McGwire's 62 home run game in prime time in September 1998, Fox got a 14.5 rating despite the fact the game was blacked out in Chicago.

During the 2000 World Series that was televised by Fox, 61% of the televisions in New York watched Game 5. The next 30 largest television markets, during that same exact viewing period, registered double digit percentage losses compared to the market in New York City. The 12.4 rating for the 2000 World Series wound up being the worst in World Series history[3]. On the subject of the poor ratings, Fox Sports president Ed Goren commented, "There's no question the viewership never built. Normally, through a Series, it builds from Game 1 to a Game 2, from a Game 2 to a Game 3. We would have liked to have seen higher numbers, but they are respectable in today's world."

In 2003, the national ratings for Fox's Saturday baseball coverage jumped by 8% when compared to 2002. The games earned an average national rating of 2.7 with an 8 share over 18 weeks of coverage. That's up from the 2.5 rating and 8 share in 2002. It was the highest since Fox posted a 2.9 rating in 1999. Observers credited the ratings boost to Fox's decision to shift two of its broadcasts from September to May so it would not have to go against college football.

Also in 2003, Fox's coverage of Game 7 of the American League Championship Series between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox averaged nearly 18.6 million households. An average of 27.5 million viewers watched Game 7, the largest average viewership for any LCS game since 1991. The game also ranked as the fourth highest-rated MLB telecast ever on Fox at the time, behind only three World Series telecasts. The game achieved a 34.4/49 in New York and a 52.9/73 in Boston. In addition, coverage of Game 4 of the 2003 ALCS gave Major League Baseball its first-ever LCS ratings win (11.6) vs. Monday Night Football (8.4), out-rating ABC's prime time football telecast by 38%. Meanwhile, Game 7 of the National League Championship Series between the Florida Marlins and Chicago Cubs (16.9) also helped Fox produce the two highest-rated nights (October 15 and 16) of prime time programming on any network during the 2003-2004 network television season at that particular period.

In a year-to-year comparison, the overall average household rating for the 2003 League Championship Series on Fox was 65% higher than the average rating for the 2002 LCS, representing the greatest year-to-year percent increase in LCS history, and the biggest year-to-year jump for any sports event in recent history. The 2003 LCS also increased by 82% in adults 18-49 versus 2002. Overall, the 2003 League Championship Series was the most-watched LCS since 1995, and the most-viewed ever on FOX. The 11.8 prime time household rating average for League Championship Series games was also 53% higher than the household average for NBC, ABC, and CBS (7.7).

Friday, April 16, 2004, Fox tried to capitalize off of the momentum of the intense 2003 ALCS between heated rivals the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. The game between two teams aired nationally from Fenway Park in Boston at 8 p.m. ET. In the case of important games, the network has the rights to negotiate with Major League Baseball for prime time coverage. Another such occasion occurred on September 8, 1998 when Fox covered Mark McGwire's record breaking 62nd regular season home run.

Despite a four game World Series in 2004, Fox drew the highest World Series ratings in a decade, and its League Championship Series ratings rose sharply over the last two years, largely from the big-market New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox grudge matches.

In 2005, The opening game of the Chicago White Sox-Houston Astros World Series didn't even crack Nielsen Media Research's top 10 from the previous week. To add insult to injury, Game 2 was eclipsed by ABC's Sunday lineup. The first two games were seen by 15 million and 17.2 million respectively, compared to 23.2 million and 25.5 million for the opening games of the Boston-St. Louis series in 2004, Nielsen said. Fox also prospered in 2004 with the Red Sox-Yankees American League Championship Series, making the difference between the two years even more stunning. Fox's prime time average viewership for the same week in 2004 was 22 million — double its closest rival — while in 2005, Fox barely made second place with 10.6 million viewers.

The 2005 World Series averaged an 11.1 household rating/19 share and 17.2 million viewers. Fox had expected to take a hit compared with the 2004 World Series. The 2005 World Series was down 30% from 2004's 15.8/26 and 25.4 million viewer average, a four-game Series sweep by the Red Sox. In adults 18-49, 2005's rating was a 5.6 compared with 2004's 8.8. The 2005 World Series also had the lowest viewership ever for a World Series. It was lower than 2002's 19.3 million (Anaheim Angels-San Francisco Giants) and 2000's 18.1 million (New York Yankees-New York Mets).

An hour before the start of Game 4 of the 2005 World Series, Ed Goren said "I think just to look at ratings compared to past years, there's a lot more to the story." Goren added by saying "There's no question that we're facing in television the most competitive primetime season in recent memory. You have to look at how the World Series has held up versus a very strong primetime lineup across the board on any given night."

In Houston, the 2005 World Series scored a 41.2/58 while in Chicago, it nabbed a 38.6/58. For the title-clinching Game 4, Chicago received a 42.5/62. Fox Sports said viewership levels in Houston and Chicago were higher than 2004's levels in Boston and St. Louis: Chicago's Fox affiliate averaged 1.32 million homes compared with the 1.22 million in Boston during the 2004 Series; 800,000 Houston homes tuned in compared with 540,000 in St. Louis in the previous year.

External links

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