When Fox announced the details of their coverage of the 2014 baseball season, something strange happened – well, it was the absence of something that actually happened. No one was complaining about much of anything. Sure, adding the duo of Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci to Joe Buck in the Fox booth isn't an ideal situation, but you couldn't do much worse after seemingly a lifetime of Tim McCarver. And really, this new contract between Fox and MLB benefits everyone, from the networks, to the league, to the teams, and to the fans.
Fox obviously benefits from extending their grip of MLB rights for another eight years. In MLB and NASCAR, Fox now holds the rights to the summer's two most lucrative sports organizations. They won't need to worry about filling programming holes during the dog days of the year, while NBCSN will be left with uh….the Tour de France, IndyCar, and F-1. Talk about the declining ratings of those two properties all you want, but they at least draw consistent eyeballs when they're on.
Fox Sports 1 also comes out ahead because of the addition of another property to their telecasts. Saturday doubleheaders coming to Fox Sports 1 just after the end of the college basketball season is a boon for the network, and will give fans just another reason to tune in. After a low start, Fox Sports 1's ratings have picked up as the calendar has flipped to 2014, and adding live baseball will keep them strong through the summer leading into the college football season.
MLB and its teams win for obvious reasons – they get more money. That infusion of extra cash has allowed teams to spend more on putting a better product on the field (unless you're the Cubs, or the Marlins) and increase fan interest.
But the biggest winners of all with the new deal between the MLB and Fox is the fans. The new contract has brought an end to the reviled Saturday blackouts that caused fans across the country to lose their minds. Every Saturday game (barring local blackouts) can be streamed on MLB.tv this year, and fans aren't going to be forced to watch a team they don't care about each Saturday afternoon or evening.
Furthermore, fans can now stream the Postseason games on Fox Sports Go or MLB.tv. Previously, Americans could only stream the playoffs on MLB.tv by buying an additional subscription to Postseason.tv, which only covered "additional angles" as opposed to the main broadcast. It would be nice if those features were still offered, but just as part of the MLB.tv package instead of an additional subscription.
It's a trade-off of sorts. Fans will still need to tolerate the commentary of Buck and Reynolds, but they won't be locked in to the pair when they want to watch games on Saturdays. Really, this couldn't have worked out better for everyone involved. Fox and MLB could have kept the status quo in the new contract, but they listened to what the fans wanted, and everyone is now better off.
