WGN America to drop Chicago sports

[Tugg Speedman]

WGN America to drop Chicago sports

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20140530/NEWS01/140539978/wgn-america-to-drop-chicago-sports?r=7666I3085245D7R

Now that Tribune Co. is becoming a big, national broadcast company, airing Chicago sports is a bit small-time.

At least that's Tribune CEO Peter Liguori's thinking. He's in the process of converting the company's national broadcast channel, WGN America, from a superstation into a basic cable channel, which is mainly a technical transition, except that it will require dumping the Cubs, Bulls, Blackhawks, and White Sox game broadcasts. He doesn't mind, because that programming hasn't been paying off anyway, and besides — he's a New York Mets fan.

“If the Cubs continue on this path to virtual irrelevancy, it's really not going to matter,” he said at a recent New York media conference in a tongue-in-cheek preamble to his bottom-line reasoning: “When you look at the Bulls, the White Sox, the Cubs, and the Blackhawks, outside of the greater Chicago (designated market area), they really do lose their attraction.”

Advertising income from that sports programming contributes just $250,000 to income, he told the audience at the MoffettNathanson Media & Communications Summit on May 15. That's less than even one percent of Chicago-based Tribune's $234.3 million in operating profit last year.

That means Americans outside of Chicago who had become diehard Chicago sports team fans are going to have to leave that obsession behind or turn the channel in search of the broadcast elsewhere. Shifting to the Major League Baseball online subscription is also an option.

LOSING THE CUBS LINK

While WGN America's national broadcasts of games that also air locally on sister station WGN-TV/Channel 9 may have helped Chicago's teams develop a national following, the media conglomerate cares less about that now that it sold off the Cubs major league baseball team in 2009.
Tribune will spin off its newspaper group later this year, leaving it with its nationwide broadcast operations.

WGN-TV/Channel 9 and WGN Radio continue to negotiate with the Cubs on a new contract, and the TV outlet reached a new broadcast rights agreement for at least another five seasons with the BlackHawks earlier this month.

Mr. Liguori, who was installed last year as CEO by a group of Tribune investors hungry for returns, says that sports ad revenue is penny ante compared to what WGN America might take in from airing original content like the company's dark and sexy new witch show “Salem,” which began airing last month.

“We will be way, way, way far ahead as a basic cable network without sports, than staying in our current state,” he said at the conference.

A BROAD ROLLOUT

Mr. Liguori estimates that by January he'll be nearly halfway through the two to three year process of converting all of WGN America's approximately 75 million households to a basic cable network as it negotiates new agreements with the cable and satellite distributors that carry WGN America.

A Tribune spokeswoman declined further comment, deferring to Mr. Liguori's comments at the conference.

A spokesman for the Cubs declined to comment. Representatives of the other three teams didn't immediately have a comment.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Isn't this more or less what TBS did.  They eventually dropped the Braves as "America's team".  I remember channel surfing back in the day and seeing the Braves on every night.

[Coleman]

Isn't this more or less what TBS did.  They eventually dropped the Braves as "America's team".  I remember channel surfing back in the day and seeing the Braves on every night.

Yep, the Braves were always on TBS.


This is sort of sad. I was a Bulls fan growing up in Northeast Wisconsin during the Jordan years. I remember every single Bulls game being broadcast on WGN, while the Bucks were rarely ever on TV back then (no Fox Sports Wisconsin back then). I'm sure a lot of people became Cubs fans the same way.

[keefe]

Isn't this more or less what TBS did.  They eventually dropped the Braves as "America's team".  I remember channel surfing back in the day and seeing the Braves on every night.

It was always a treat to see Hanoi Jane doing the Tomahawk Chop...

The best Ted Turner moment was when the Braves signed Andy Messersmith. Turner's broadcast channel was "17" so he had Messersmith wear 17 with the name "Channel." MLB brought it to an end soon enough but it was brilliant while it lasted.



 

[77ncaachamps]

Who would want to pay to see the Cubs lose every year?!

[Brewtown Andy]

I thought all of these big money TV rights deals were being signed because the networks could get the money back in advertising, because sports is the only thing people watch live?

Does that not apply here because national advertisers don't want to pay for advertisements during just one local team's games?

[mugrad2006]

I thought all of these big money TV rights deals were being signed because the networks could get the money back in advertising, because sports is the only thing people watch live?

Does that not apply here because national advertisers don't want to pay for advertisements during just one local team's games?

I don't know specifics, but remember that The Tribune Company owned both WGN and the Cubs before the Ricketts bought the team. This meant the Cubs were making much less in TV revenue (for the team itself) than the Dodgers, Rangers, Yankees, Red Sox, etc who negotiated their own tv deals independently or if they had their own "channel". Ricketts even mentioned shortly after the purchase that the Cubs would likely pursue their own deal outside of WGN.

[🏀]

That is correct, WGN has a sweetheart deal with the Cubs.

The organization is going to have uber amounts of money with the new TV contract, expanded Wrigley advertisements and amenities.

Will probably still suck.

[mr.MUskie]

CHICAGO CUBS NEWS
Cubs Reportedly Signing Deal With WBBM Radio
By Al Yellon  @bleedcubbieblue on May 30 2014, 10:30a 104

This comes as a bit of a surprise -- the radio booth at Wrigley will likely have a new name on it beginning in 2015.

Buried in this Ed Sherman Tribune column, which is mostly about the Blackhawks and TV ratings (and it's also behind a paywall, in case you can't read it) is this Cubs news:

As reported here previously, the Cubs soon will announce their new radio deal with WBBM-AM 780, beginning with the 2015 season. The two sides reportedly are ironing out final details, and WGN is not expected to match WBBM's offer.

We've heard this rumor before, and it's gone back and forth several times, so I'll believe it when I see the official announcement.

Assuming it does happen, it will end 57 consecutive seasons for the Cubs on WGN radio, which carried Cubs games as early as 1924, but only continuously since 1958. That's a long history to give up, but it doesn't carry the emotional connection that WGN-TV's coverage of the Cubs does. It's nearly certain that Pat Hughes and Ron Coomer will continue as the radio voices of the Cubs, and it wouldn't really mean much would change for a Cubs radio listener. (Incidentally, this article says the Cubs began exclusively on WGN in 1959, but I verified by checking radio listings in the Chicago Tribune archive that they switched from WIND to WGN for the 1958 season.)

If you live in the Chicago area, it simply means moving your radio dial from 720 to 780, or pushing one different button in your car. If you're listening to Cubs radio broadcasts on your computer or via the MLB At Bat app, not a thing will change, except the station identification and possibly some of the ads and station promos you'll hear. So while it's a change, the basic act of listening to a Cubs game via radio won't feel very much different at all when this contract takes effect next year.

[🏀]

Al Yellon is the absolute worst.