The changes that occurred in the way MLB games were broadcast on TV made many think the same will happen to radio shortly enough. Today, local TV stations only broadcast 23% of the MLB games.
Also, seven of the top team games are available only on wire, an exclusivity factor that appears to work fine for them. In an interview to WSJ, Edison Media Research's President Larry Rosin announced that "it is inescapable that baseball radio broadcasts will go to a 100% subscription model... It'll occur because there's a lot of cash in it not to do it. " This is a fascinating perspective for the 2 main digital satellite radio suppliers, XM Satellite Radio and Sirius. This potential development sounds wonderful for XM particularly, as they would hold the sole rights to all major-league baseball games.
Naturally, that would be a vital step onward for XM, as the MLB generates large interest in the States, and it might mean that another building block has been added to the development of satellite radio.
MLB Radio and XM Radio MLB also has its own subscription paid online radio channel, and if the same happens to radio as it probably did to television they'd definitely enjoy the situation. Since mavens in the communication field consider that satellite radio is still in its youth, the trend of moving broadcasts of such games to a subscription paid environment would take digital radio broadcasting to the next level of development. The revenues from XM Radio and MLB Radio are split between the thirty MLB groups, but they're divided similarly. This indicates that the MLB team's interests would be high and the cheap and money factors could speed up the method of making MLB games exclusive to satellite radio.
The statistical data we have today tell an engaging story : currently around 23% of XM customers have joined up to get the MLB transmission, so there's a lot of potential for expansion. Terrestrial radio can already begin to feel the risk of loosing MLB broadcasts to satellite radio as this cash driven model is more enticing for the MLB groups. Implications of such a transfer As with anything that reaches such a debatable subject, the viewpoints are shared among mavens and the overall public. A few individuals are persuaded that this complete movement is nothing less than a bubble of soap. Baseball is generally a Television favourite and though there's still a large amount of interest in MLB radio broadcasts, the general public won't feel the move to digital radio as a major change.
Though radio was the original growing medium for baseball, TV is king today, and they say the transfer from earthly radio to satellite radio isn't something which will have a serious impact.
Other viewpoints say that "MLB would loose more audience then it would gain from the exclusive fees". Since the format of the terrestrial radio stations is more flexible it also enables them to broadcast more games than broadcast TV. The same folks say that 'the MLB would divide a large amount of local fans if they took baseball off AM radio".
For others, there's another comparison to be made that between the impact this would have on MLB and the impact it had on NFL, where an identical process has started. The Sirius NFL broadcasts brought the company some new listeners, but the changes weren't intense and since NFL is more predominant than MLB, some expect the same trend to be followed in MLBs case also. Naturally, there are voices that say this change would have a big result on the way baseball is understood. Since watching a game on Television can take away one or two hours, many wish to hear the game on radio while they do something else. This is particularly true during summer months, when many like to spend some time in the yard or on the porch, not within the room in front of a Television set. Naturally, comparisons between the varied major sport types in the USA can be made of many viewpoints, but most will agree that baseball is a game that may be followed on radio. For the moment, al the signs point at a transfer of broadcasts from terrestrial radio towards satellite radio, but this can change dependent on the reply firms and MLB receive from the general public.
