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St. Louis Post-Dispatch Dan Caesar column / Dish Update
Oct 15, 2010 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The Cardinals couldn't beat the Boston Red Sox even once in the 2004 World Series, but this season they finally unseated them as Major League Baseball's television ratings king for games shown on teams' local cable/satellite packages.
The 130 Cards contests televised by Fox Sports Midwest were seen in an average of 9.5 percent of the homes in the market, according to The Nielsen Co., well ahead of second-place finisher Minnesota, which had an 8.8 rating in the Twin Cities. Next were Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Tampa.
Boston, which had led the way for six consecutive seasons, had a disappointing, injury-marred season and in turn the rating there tumbled by 38 percent, to 5.9.
Despite the Cardinals falling from serious contention by mid-September, FSM had its best-rated year in the 15 seasons the Redbirds have had a widely available cable/satellite TV package, surpassing the pervious mark of 9.2 that was set in 2005.
Even with the lofty performance on FSM, the hard numbers show that many more people watched, on average, the portion of the team's television package carried on over-the-air, or so-called "free TV." The 18 games on KSDK (Channel 5) averaged a 12.3 rating -- about 30 percent better than FSM, which is similar to the margin over the last decade.
But despite much higher over-the-air viewership, the club eliminates that element next season as its entire TV package goes to FSM, which can use subscriber fees to pay more for rights than an over-air station that doesn't have that revenue source. So while the Cardinals have appeased many of their fans who are outside the reach of their radio network by going back to the powerhouse signal of KMOX (1120 AM) next season, they are making the exact opposite move with their TV package by eliminating the portion that served those who don't have cable/satellite service.
The impact in St. Louis has been documented in this space before, and the elimination of the Cards' TV network probably will be even more profound in outlying markets in which the number of people who buy cable/satellite is much less than the 89 percent of homes that subscribe here.
One of those locations is Joplin, Mo., where Redbirds games have aired for 23 years on KGCS.
"Needless to say, viewers who watch that way are not happy," said Judy Stiles, a native St. Louisan and University of Missouri graduate who runs that station. "This region has a large number of households who are broadcast-only viewers.
"They're losing a little of the fan base," she said of the Cards. "You try to explain to people it's not our decision, it's the team's." RATING THE REDBIRDS Year-by-year ratings for Cardinals telecasts since 1990, the first full season in which ratings in the St. Louis market were tabulated on a daily basis: OVER-THE-AIR Year Rating Outlet 1990 11.8 KPLR 1991 11.2 KPLR 1992 9.8 KPLR 1993 9.5 KPLR 1994 8.0 KPLR 1995 6.7 KPLR 1996 10.2 KPLR 1997 11.8 KPLR 1998 14.8 KPLR 1999 11.7 KPLR 2000 12.8 KPLR 2001 11.0 KPLR 2002 10.9 KPLR 2003 10.3 KPLR 2004 12.5 KPLR 2005 12.9 KPLR 2006 13.4 KPLR 2007 13.8 KSDK 2008 12.8 KSDK 2009 11.8 KSDK 2010 12.3 KSDK CABLE/SATELLITE This package became widely available throughout the area in 1996.
Year Rating Outlet 1996 3.0 Prime 1997 4.7 FSM 1998 7.0 FSM 1999 6.4 FSM 2000 8.6 FSM 2001 7.4 FSM 2002 7.7 FSM 2003 7.6 FSM 2004 8.8 FSN 2005 9.2 FSN 2006 8.6 FSN 2007 7.5 FSN 2008 7.9 FSN 2009 8.0 FSM 2010 9.5 FSM NOTE: FSM, Fox Sports Midwest, was known as FSN, Fox Sports Net, from 2004-08.
SOURCE: The Nielsen Co.
DISH UPDATE No progress is reported on the squabble that has led Dish Network customers to lose Fox Sports Net's regional sports outlets (FSM locally) as well as the FX and National Geographic channels.
"The two sides are not actively negotiating and remain at an impasse," FSM spokesman Geoff Goldman said Thursday.
The spat is between Dish and Fox Networks Group. Fox wants more money for the programming than Dish wants to pay. The issue probably will come to a head at the end of the month, when many Fox over-the-air stations -- including KTVI (Channel 2) locally -- also could be gone from Dish in another contract issue. Sporting events affected then would include Games 5-7 of the World Series as well as the NFL stretch run. Fox also has the Super Bowl this season.
GETTING AN ANGLE Charter cable customers who purchase the digital package are being offered four additional perspectives to the main FSM feed for Blues home games that network carries this season in a manner similar to what Charter provided for Cards home telecasts on FSM in the latter stages of this baseball season. The rundown for the Blues: -- Channel 160: Robotic camera mounted on glass at center ice.
-- Channel 161: Follows the puck carrier up the ice -- Channel 162: Camera behind the net shows plays develop.
-- Channel 163: Concentrates on a key player's shift.
RAMS ON CBS A RARITY CBS has the telecast Sunday of the Rams game, against San Diego, just one of two Rams games this season not scheduled to air on Fox.
CBS gets the call this time because it carries Sunday afternoon games in which AFC teams such as the Chargers are on the road. The only other time that happens this year with the Rams is on Dec. 19, when Kansas City comes to town. Fox has rights to games in which NFC teams, such as the Rams, are on the road.
Don Criqui has the play-by-play assignment Sunday, with Steve Beuerlein doing analysis on the telecast that will air locally at noon on KMOV (Channel 4).
And because of NFL television policy, only two games will be carried on St. Louis this Sunday afternoon. Fox has a doubleheader in most of the nation, but league regulations prohibit a game being shown opposite the local team when it is at home and on TV. Therefore, local Fox affiliate KTVI can only show a late-afternoon game -- in this case Dallas at Minnesota.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK Week 6 is upon us in the NFL campaign, more than a third of the way through the season, and for the first time a New York team won't be featured in prime time.
Either the Jets or Giants have played on a Sunday or Monday night each week, but those who scream of a "New York bias" in programming won't have to wait long to rev up the vocal cords -- the Giants are on "Monday Night Football" next week, at Dallas.
Then after a three-week New York drought, the Giants are penciled in to be back in Week 11 for a Sunday night affair. That's the start of NBC's "flexible scheduling," in which it can switch from the original plan to a more attractive game for the stretch run.
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