WGN-Ch. 9 is bracing for a deluge of calls from confused and angry viewers Wednesday night, wondering where their Cubs playoff game is.
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 won’t be able to watch the Cubs-Arizona games.
In previous years, when Cubs or White Sox 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.
“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, plan to stay up late: Game 1 Wednesday night and Game 2 Thursday night from Phoenix will start at 9 p.m. Chicago time. Game 3 will start at 5 p.m. from Wrigley Field on Saturday, and if Game 4 is necessary it will start at noon Sunday.
The starting times are a part of MLB’s package with TBS. The network will air tripleheaders on 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.
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
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Left in the dark
15 percent
When the Cubs play the Diamondbacks beginning Wednesday, that’s the amount of Chicagoans who won’t be watching from the comfort of their home because they don’t have cable or a dish.
