Blue Jays Discussion: The "So, How About Them Blue Jays?" Edition. [1.5 Games ahead of Yankees]

[Suntouchable13]

They just pick up the national feed I believe.

Why would they not produce playoff games that involve the team that they OWN?

 

[Leafsdude7]

Barry Davis just tweeted that all MLB playoffs games will be on Sportsnet, regardless who's playing. It's still to be determined if it's Buck and Pat calling the games.

Wonder what happens to HNIC if the Jays play a Wednesday/Saturday night game. Do they give One, CBC and City all the games, or do they keep the Jays only on SNE and Ontario and leave HNIC on Atlantic, Central and Pacific?

Obviously a great problem to have for SportsNet, but interesting considering that it's likely most hockey fans in this country would rather watch HNIC than baseball, playoffs or not.

 

[RayzorIsDull]

I made a spreadsheet of the Jays commitments through 2021 with all the new pieces and we're actually in fantastic shape next year with Buehrle, Romero and Izturis off the books and Reyes' deadweight converted into a valuable one.

What do you have Donaldson making next year?

 

[Suntouchable13]

Wonder what happens to HNIC if the Jays play a Wednesday/Saturday night game. Do they give CBC and City all the games, or do they keep the Jays only on SNE and Ontario and leave HNIC on Atlantic, Central and Pacific?

Obviously a great problem to have for SportsNet, but interesting considering that it's likely most hockey fans in this country would rather watch HNIC than baseball, playoffs or not.

If you're not a baseball fan, then sure. I will be watching the Jays over October Leafs regular season games.

 

[Leafsdude7]

If you're not a baseball fan, then sure. I will be watching the Jays over October Leafs regular season games.

Actually, that was my point. I'd bet most hockey fans in Canada either don't care at all for baseball, or at least are such casual fans that they'd only watch baseball if nothing else is on.

 

[Mach85]

Actually, that was my point. I'd bet most hockey fans in Canada either don't care at all for baseball, or at least are such casual fans that they'd only watch baseball if nothing else is on.

Winning is contagious. Especially with the Leafs' fortunes in the sewer, the Jays won't have trouble attracting viewers.

 

[rojac]

Wonder what happens to HNIC if the Jays play a Wednesday/Saturday night game. Do they give One, CBC and City all the games, or do they keep the Jays only on SNE and Ontario and leave HNIC on Atlantic, Central and Pacific?

Obviously a great problem to have for SportsNet, but interesting considering that it's likely most hockey fans in this country would rather watch HNIC than baseball, playoffs or not.

I guess you weren't paying attention last October when MLB postseason games aired on the Four Sportsnet regionals and NHL national games aired on SN1 and SN360. I think there may have been some baseball games that aired on SN1 and SN360 because of regional Uockey broadcasts.

 

[EpochLink]

If you're not a baseball fan, then sure. I will be watching the Jays over October Leafs regular season games.

I think the Jays are beloved across the country, I've been a die hard fan since I was a kid and lived through the past 22 years of ineptitude.

 

[SpeakerForTheDead]

Don't know if you guys have been following this story but a guy has been biking to every stadium in the league to raise money for Big Brothers Big Sisters. He has just made it to the 25th ballpark, the Skydome and he will be at the game tomorrow.

http://www.bikingforbaseball.org/

 

[Leafsdude7]

Winning is contagious. Especially with the Leafs' fortunes in the sewer, the Jays won't have trouble attracting viewers.

Actually, my point is supposed to be that, if they do put the Jays on network-wide, many are going to ***** that SportsNet is catering to a fringe sport (in their eyes, anyway) in place of Canada's National Pastime. Of course, hardcore baseball fans who hate hockey with a passion (of which there's probably just as many as the opposite) will be *****ing as well, but I think the complaints about hockey getting put on the back burner for a month would be louder and more wide-spread.

That said, if the question was simply attracting viewers, I'd imagine HNIC would always outperform anything else, even in October against playoff baseball involving the Jays. The reason why the Jays would get higher billing I think has to do with being both a playoff run, which could result in better brand promotion (ie: getting young fans hooked or turning casual fans into hardcore fans) considering that hockey is already an unbeatable brand that probably can't be increased much more, and a Rogers-owned team.

Oh, and one other thing I just remembered is that all ad profits on CBC goes to Rogers, so giving CBC games that would normally be on SportsNet wouldn't be a big deal for Rogers.

 

[rojac]

Why would they not produce playoff games that involve the team that they OWN?

There is no local TV for MLB postseason games for any team. Just like the NHL, where there is no local TV coverage of NHL playoff games at all in Canada and no local TV in the U.S. after round 1.

 

[Discoverer]

I think the Jays gave up way too many prospects to just make the playoffs. I may be wrong, but I feel there's a good chance Price & Buehrle leave in the off season. Given the cost of Price - anything short of a World Series will haunt this franchise.

There's always a good chance pending free agents leave. But the prospects given up in the Price and Lowe deals were the only "win-now" moves. In those moves, they gave up Norris, Boyd, Labourt, Brentz, Wells and Rasmussen. That's one impact prospect and a few wild cards of varying degrees. Given the makeup of this team, that's a very reasonable price to pay in order to try to win now.

 

[Leafsdude7]

I guess you weren't paying attention last October when MLB postseason games aired on the Four Sportsnet regionals and NHL national games aired on SN1 and SN360. I think there may have been some baseball games that aired on SN1 and SN360 because of regional Uockey broadcasts.

On Wednesdays and Saturdays, too?

Obviously, they'll broadcast the playoff games ahead of, say, Edmonton vs Rangers or something like that, but ahead of, say, Winnipeg vs Calgary, or Montreal vs Toronto?

 

[SpeakerForTheDead]

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/e...t--hnic-survives-without-leafs-155541777.html

Overall, Rogers drew a solid 2.2 million viewers for its Saturday prime-time lineup, with the Montreal Canadiens' game against San Jose drawing 922,000 of that. The Leafs-Senators game drew 875,000 to Sportsnet while 414,000 tuned in to the Washington-Winnipeg contest on City.

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/eh-game/the-great-canadian-ratings-report--183038229.html

They were at it again on the weekend, breaking the 2-million mark on Friday night and topping the million threshold on Saturday and Sunday. The latter two, by the way, are usually considered precious time slots for Canadians and are usually spent at cottages and beaches -- not in front of a television set.

So HNIC is still higher but thats comparing it to an August baseball game. I can definitely see a playoff Jays game bringing in more than the 2-million viewers they had. With the Jays winning, the ratings aren't that different anymore.

 

[Leafsdude7]

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/e...t--hnic-survives-without-leafs-155541777.html



https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/eh-game/the-great-canadian-ratings-report--183038229.html



So HNIC is still higher but thats comparing it to an August baseball game. I can definitely see a playoff Jays game bringing in more than the 2-million viewers they had. With the Jays winning, the ratings aren't that different anymore.

In fairness, those 2-million viewers were only for the Yankees, a team that usually gets higher ticket sales out of town (and, by extension, I'd imagine also viewership ratings as well), and the 3 games actually averaged about 1.4M. Is there a complete list of viewer ratings for the past, lets say, 2 weeks? I'd be shocked if they averaged the same (though they probably were well over 1M).

As well, even though it's highly expected that the Leafs are going to be horrible this year again, I'd still bet that October numbers will be higher than last March for them, if only because of Babcock and the team's new direction.

 

[Just Rude]

Why would they not produce playoff games that involve the team that they OWN?

Because broadcast agreements do not work that way.

A network is not going to pay billions of dollars for rights only to allow a local network full production rights to post-season games, owners of the team or not.

It's the same every October. Sportsnet does their in-house production then throws to the host broadcaster for play and post-game celebrations and interviews. Because the Jays may be in the playoffs this year means nothing to FOX.

They can produce pre and post, and in between innings, but without question feeds for the ALCS and World Series will come from FOX ( I believe that exclusivity is a little more flexible for the LDS or wild card).

 

[Suntouchable13]

On Wednesdays and Saturdays, too?

Obviously, they'll broadcast the playoff games ahead of, say, Edmonton vs Rangers or something like that, but ahead of, say, Winnipeg vs Calgary, or Montreal vs Toronto?

Why not? MLB playoffs are only for one month. They will have 8 months after that to broadcast the NHL. They can't sacrifice a few October regular season games to show MLB playoffs?

 

[Woodman19]

What do you have Donaldson making next year?

The highest a Super 2 has made in Arb year 2 from my searching back 8 years was Hunter Pence' $6.9 million. I guestimated Donaldson will get ~8-12 million and just plugged in $12 to be safe.

 

[SpeakerForTheDead]

In fairness, those 2-million viewers were only for the Yankees, a team that usually gets higher ticket sales out of town (and, by extension, I'd imagine also viewership ratings as well), and the 3 games actually averaged about 1.4M. Is there a complete list of viewer ratings for the past, lets say, 2 weeks? I'd be shocked if they averaged the same (though they probably were well over 1M).

As well, even though it's highly expected that the Leafs are going to be horrible this year again, I'd still bet that October numbers will be higher than last March for them, if only because of Babcock and the team's new direction.

I can only find numbers for weekend games since the trades but all of the games have been over 1M but that Yankees Friday game is the only one that topped 2M.

 

[Suntouchable13]

Because broadcast agreements do not work that way.

A network is not going to pay billions of dollars for rights only to allow a local network full production rights to post-season games, owners of the team or not.

It's the same every October. Sportsnet does their in-house production then throws to the host broadcaster for play and post-game celebrations and interviews. Because the Jays may be in the playoffs this year means nothing to FOX.

They can produce pre and post, and in between innings, but without question feeds for the ALCS and World Series will come from FOX ( I believe that exclusivity is a little more flexible for the LDS or wild card).

Well, believe me, I'd rather listen to those American national broadcasters than to Buck and Pat. I just thought it would make sense for Sportsnet to produce their own Jays playoff games. I guess that's not how it works. Thanks for explaining.

 

[rojac]

Actually, my point is supposed to be that, if they do put the Jays on network-wide, many are going to ***** that SportsNet is catering to a fringe sport (in their eyes, anyway) in place of Canada's National Pastime. Of course, hardcore baseball fans who hate hockey with a passion (of which there's probably just as many as the opposite) will be *****ing as well, but I think the complaints about hockey getting put on the back burner for a month would be louder and more wide-spread.

That said, if the question was simply attracting viewers, I'd imagine HNIC would always outperform anything else, even in October against playoff baseball involving the Jays. The reason why the Jays would get higher billing I think has to do with being both a playoff run, which could result in better brand promotion (ie: getting young fans hooked or turning casual fans into hardcore fans) considering that hockey is already an unbeatable brand that probably can't be increased much more, and a Rogers-owned team.

Oh, and one other thing I just remembered is that all ad profits on CBC goes to Rogers, so giving CBC games that would normally be on SportsNet wouldn't be a big deal for Rogers.

As I stated above, they already dealt with it last year. There were Saturdays and Wednesdays in 2014 where the Sportsnet regionals carried MLB playoffs while the NHL aired on SN1 and SN360.

 

[Leafsdude7]

Why not? MLB playoffs are only for one month. They will have 8 months after that to broadcast the NHL. They can't sacrifice a few October regular season games to show MLB playoffs?

Viewership.

I'd still imagine a Toronto-Montreal game in October or a Calgary-Vancouver matchup would still outperform a Jays playoff game country-wide.

Of course, I'm sure the Jays would outperform a Leafs-Habs game in Ontario, but I doubt they'd beat a national broadcast.

As I stated above, they already dealt with it last year. There were Saturdays and Wednesdays in 2014 where the Sportsnet regionals carried MLB playoffs while the NHL aired on SN1 and SN360.

Interesting. I honestly don't remember that being the case. I suppose they'll do that, then.

 

[Smash88]

I willing to bet a Jays playoff game would blow a October Leafs game out of the water in terms of viewers.

It's been so long for Jays fans, they will get massive ratings.

 

[Just Rude]

If you're not a baseball fan, then sure. I will be watching the Jays over October Leafs regular season games.

This.

Very few people remember on the night Joe Carter hit his famous home run, the Leafs won their ninth in a row to start the season (they eventually set an NHL record, going 10-0 out of the gate).

Why? Because it was second page news.

If the Jays make the World Series, they are boss in this town until the Series is over, just as it was 22 years ago (when, I might add, the Leafs were a contender).

 

[Divine]

If the Jays make the world series, does anyone know if the pitcher has to bat or not?

Is it just whatever rules the home team has? So when in Toronto, it's a DH - when in NL, it's the pitcher batting?