Cable alienates generation of Reds fans
Reds fans kind not wanted by network TV
BY TIM SULLIVAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It is all about demographics. Eyeballs and earning power. Television targets young viewers with disposable income — panders to them, really — because this is the audience that attracts advertising.
Because this is not the audience baseball delivers — not enough of it, anyway — the Cincinnati Reds likely will be seen exclusively on cable next season. John Allen is not taking the home team off the air to secure a sweeter deal for broadcast rights. He simply ran out of interested stations.
“It's not that the Reds don't want over-the-air,” Allen said Friday. “Over-the-air doesn't want the Reds. We'd love to be on. But the way it was explained to me, to pre-empt regular programming to show baseball has gotten too expensive for the (network) affiliates.”
Baseball long ago lost the battle for sports air supremacy to the National Football League, but now it is hard-pressed to compete with summer reruns in many markets. During the 1997 World Series, which was not decided until the 11th inning of the seventh game, NBC's Don Ohlmeyer said his ideal scenario was a four-game sweep.
“The faster it's over with,” he said, “the better it is.”
Ohlmeyer was not venting a grudge against the Grand Old Game, or expressing dismay with the market size of the contending teams. He was merely stating TV truth — that the Marlins and the Indians could not impact the Nielsen ratings like a new episode of Seinfeld.
No disposable income
Baseball does not translate particularly well on the tube, and the appeal of its timelessness and tradition is largely lost on a generation that demands instant gratification.
Its audience increasingly consists of old friends — those who grew up glued to NBC's Game of the Week,fans old enough to remember when Washington was first in war, first in peace and last in the American League.
The national networks and their local affiliates aren't much interested in these people. They don't spend enough money on beer, and they tend to regard the automobile as a means of conveyance rather than a chick magnet. Their money is in mortgages and mutual funds, or evaporating on a fixed income.
These are the people most likely to watch baseball on television and least likely to have a cable box in their homes. With cable penetration in Greater Cincinnati estimated at 65-70 percent, according to Fox Sports Ohio, thousands of devoted Reds fans will probably be left with no recourse but radio in 1999.
“There's always Marty (Brennaman) and Joe (Nuxhall),” Allen said. “I don't know what the percentage is of people who don't have cable, but we were kind of weaned into this after the 1995 season, after WLWT chose not to renew with us.”
Fox Sports Ohio, in its original deal with the Reds, agreed to distribute a portion of its games to local stations for three years. But that commitment has expired, Fox Sports claims losses, and no new bidder has emerged.
“We are the only entity in that market that is willing to enter an agreement with the Reds right now,” said Steve Liverani, general manager of Fox Sports Ohio. “The deals are not done yet, but if there are only cable games in Cincinnati next year, it's because we're the only ones who came forward.”
More choices, bad ratings
As broadcast audiences are Balkanized by an ever-expanding array of choices, the costs of producing live local sports events grow more difficult to justify. The costs of producing Reds games for a rapidly diminishing over-the-air audience has lately grown prohibitive.
“It's not just a matter of an affiliate losing out on network revenues,” Liverani said. “they're also looking at some pretty stiff penalties if they pre-empt more than a certain amount.”
Still, Fox Sports Ohio expects 75 Indians games to be shown on free TV in Cleveland next season. The Reds, meanwhile, are believed to be the only team in baseball without an over-the-air outlet.
Why the discrepancy? The short answer is “Ratings.” The long answer is also “Ratings.”
E-mail: tsullivan@enquirer.com.
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