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Giants Experimenting With Their Fans
You won’t be able to find SF Giants games on cable TV this weekend
https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/06/...-this-weekend/
NBC Sports is going to do a bit of an experiment. And baseball fans are the subjects.
This upcoming weekend, don’t go looking for the Giants’ games against the Phillies on your Bay Area cable TV package.
NBCUniversal, which broadcasts both the Giants and Phillies games on their regional sports networks in the Bay Area and Philadelphia, is going to skip the local outlets and put all three games of the teams’ series on the company’s streaming service, Peacock, for national broadcast.
Yes, that means if you want to watch the Giants this Fathers’ Day in the Bay, you’ll have to stream it on Peacock.
The bigger question is if the dollars will flow to the app. Regional sports network fees have risen dramatically in recent years. You pay roughly $10 a month for NBC Sports Bay Area (and I guess NBC Sports California, too) if you have access to it on your television provider — satellite, cable, or over-the-top TV service.
Comcast — NBCUniversal’s corporate overlord — is wondering how many loyal baseball fans will follow their teams to an app.
At the same time, those increasing fees have led some providers, like Dish Network, to drop the network from their available channels.
Not only are the Phillies Comcast’s local team — they’re also a ratings bonanza in Philadelphia. Last year, they pulled nearly 200,000 viewers per game — the third-best number in baseball.
Giants ratings slipped amid the rebuild, but there was a solid rebound in viewership last season and there’s every reason to believe this team is pushing over 100,000 viewers per game this season with their success.
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Originally Posted by stevek173
