The game starts when? On what channel?

With Games 1 and 2 set for 9:07 p.m. starts on cable's TBS, some fans could be left unable to watch

By Ed Sherman and Jon Yates |Tribune staff reporter

10:54 PM CDT, October 1, 2007

WGN-Ch. 9 is bracing for a deluge of calls from confused and angry viewers Wednesday night. In previous years, when Cubs' or White Sox's postseason games were aired nationally on ESPN, fans also were able to watch the cable telecast free locally on Ch. 9. That won't be the case this season.

Major League Baseball's new deal with TBS gives the cable network exclusive rights to division series games. That means if you don't have cable or a satellite dish in your home, you will have to go elsewhere to watch the Cubs-Arizona games.

"Definitely, we're going to get a ton of calls," WGN's Bob Vorwald conceded. "We understand there will be people who think they can turn us on and still see the game."

And if you do have TBS, you will subject yourself to sleep deprivation if you intend to watch: Game 1 Wednesday night and Game 2 Thursday night from Phoenix will air at 9 p.m. Chicago time. Game 3 will start at a saner 5 p.m. from Wrigley Field on Saturday, and if Game 4 is necessary it will start at noon Sunday.

The late starts are likely to tax parents who will have a tough time putting their children to bed. Those people who have to wake up to get to their jobs early might need some extra coffee, although a couple of Cubs victories should help their dispositions.

The starting times also are a part of MLB's package with TBS. The network will air tripleheaders on both Wednesday and Thursday. According to Tim Brosnan, a MLB executive vice-president, baseball wanted to avoid an early afternoon start when people were working and games taking place at the same time.

With two games slated for the East Coast on those days, that left the Cubs-Arizona games as the only late West Coast alternative.

"Our objective was to figure out a mechanism to allow more people to watch all of the games," Brosnan said.

The majority of area viewers will be able to watch the games. According to Nielsen Media Research, 2,929,700 households in the Chicago area—84.8 percent of the market—have access to TBS either through cable or satellite dishes, although cable penetration within the city proper is considerably lower. Chicago, in fact, has one of the lowest cable-penetration rates among major urban areas.

The area percentage mirrors TBS's distribution nationally: 96.1 million out of a possible 113 million homes (85 percent).

But that leaves an estimated 525,320 area homes in the dark when the first pitch is thrown in Game 1 and throughout the series. Several avid Cubs fans at Monday's Loop rally were surprised to learn they will be blacked out because they don't have cable or a satellite dish.

"They shouldn't do it that way," said Clyde Sims, 56, of Chicago. "It isn't fair to us folks." Lillie Gonzalez, 63, of Chicago said that in the past she would watch cable games at the corner bar. But it closed two years ago, meaning she will have to scramble this week.

"I don't think it's fair," Gonzalez said. "We're just as big a fan as people who have cable. … What's wrong with minorities watching their favorite team on television?"

Brosnan said the TBS deal reflects the growing trend of major sporting events being seen exclusively on cable. The NBA All-Star game is on TNT and the playoff semifinals air exclusively on TNT and ESPN.

"We didn't make this decision," Brosnan said. "The marketplace made this decision. With the way the cable and over-the-air television has evolved, much of the exclusive programming is moving over to cable. We're one of the last holdouts."

TBS executive producer Jeff Behnke said, "Exclusivity was very important to us. "It has become a one television world and the crossover between cable and network television has really blended together," Behnke said. "The lines are as blurred as they ever have been. We think the viewers are going to be very well-served."

As always, the deciding factor is money.

TBS is paying $728 million through 2013 for the rights to all four Division Series, one of the League Championship Series and a Sunday afternoon package of games which begins in 2008.

Postseason exclusivity boosted the price for TBS. If MLB continued to allow local outlets to air their team's games, the rights would have been "significantly diluted," according to Neal Pilson, the former president of CBS Sports who now runs a broadcast consulting company.

"The TBS sales people now can assure advertisers that this is the only place where people can see the games," Pilson said. "It's a judgment baseball had to make. It had to balance the revenue stream, which is formidable, against the loss of a certain number of homes."

Brosnan said the majority of baseball's regular-season games air on cable in local markets, including Chicago, where WGN's share of the broadcast schedule is a fraction of what it used to be for Cubs and White Sox games. Fans, Brosnan said, are accustomed to the set-up.

The postseason, though, has always has been different. These are the biggest games of the year, and they always have been available to all viewers in a team's local market.

According to industry research, many of the television viewers who don't have cable are elderly and/or come from lower economic backgrounds. Others simply don't see it as a necessary expense.

What obligation does MLB have to all of its fans?

"That's a morality question," Pilson said. "Baseball's first obligation is to best serve the fans any way it can. Yet at the same time, it has to maximize revenue opportunities.

"It costs a ton of money to run baseball, and the revenue stream from TV is a major component.

"It's easy to say the league has an obligation to put these games on [free TV]. But you know, it's not in the Constitution."

The Cubs will move on to the NLCS if they beat Arizona. Those homes without cable or satellite dishes will be blacked out again because TBS holds the rights to that series.

esherman@tribune.com

---

My son and I are going to Saturday's Game.  Wooooohooooo!  GO CUBS GO!