{"id":2045,"date":"2009-02-15T17:06:26","date_gmt":"2009-02-15T17:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=2045"},"modified":"2009-10-18T15:23:24","modified_gmt":"2009-10-18T14:23:24","slug":"baseball-on-the-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=2045","title":{"rendered":"Baseball on the BBC?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fresh hope for baseball remaining on free-to-air TV has been provided by an intriguing story in the Daily Mail stating that the sport may find a new home at the BBC.\u00c2\u00a0 If the rumours are true, Major League Baseball are playing a key\u00c2\u00a0role in trying to make it happen.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

British baseball fans have been reeling since the news that Five, the home of baseball for eleven years, are reconsidering their commitment to all North American sports.\u00c2\u00a0 It is believed that they may continue showing the sports without the studio element, a move that would dramatically reduce the appeal of the programs.<\/p>\n

Without the presence of presenters explaining the action for a British audience, there is little hope that many newcomers will take to the sport.\u00c2\u00a0 Just as importantly, Johnny Gould and Josh Chetwynd have played a fundamental role in developing a British baseball community, creating a loyal viewership in the process.<\/p>\n

Keeping a quality presence on free-to-air TV is vital if baseball is to grow in Britain and MLB are clearly aware of this fact.\u00c2\u00a0 Five are considering their options now that their two-year contract for MLB coverage has come to an end.\u00c2\u00a0 So far the relationship has worked well, but it seems as though MLB are sounding out other potential broadcasters.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Baseball fan Kevin Coy reported<\/a> the following news on the blog section of his website on 11 February, quoting the Daily Mail report as stated below:<\/p>\n

“Oh, say! can you (BB) see <\/em><\/p>\n

Fresh from screening last weekend’s Super Bowl, the BBC can establish themselves as the terrestrial home of American sport by taking over the rights to Major League Baseball from Five. And they will not have to pay a penny for them, because MLB are so keen to find a new partner after Five ended their 11-year association that all the BBC have to guarantee is a further two years of coverage. <\/em><\/p>\n

British fans will hope the package includes Five front man Jonny Gould, who continued his successful sideline as a charity auctioneer last week by cajoling \u00c2\u00a3150,000 out of guests from football and music at the HMV Extravaganza in aid of Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy”.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Right now, we simply don’t know what the truth of the situation is.\u00c2\u00a0 Five haven’t officially confirmed any developments with their North American sports coverage and we don’t know how much interest the BBC would have in any case.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

The most important part of a possible shift to the BBC is that this would (theoretically) have to include a studio element.\u00c2\u00a0 On Five, they could simply show adverts every half-inning when the main ESPN feed heads to the commercials.\u00c2\u00a0 The BBC could just show adverts for their own programmes, or go with a blank ‘title page’ screen, but you would think that if they added a new sport to their listings they would want someone to explain what is happening.\u00c2\u00a0 Nobody could do that better than Johnny, Josh, Erik and the rest of the team.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether they would be able to do so in the same irreverent style we’ve grown to know and love is another matter though.<\/p>\n

This then poses a couple of questions.\u00c2\u00a0 If MLB are prepared to offer the rights for free to the BBC (and we don’t know for sure that they are), would they do the same for Five?\u00c2\u00a0 If they did, would this free up enough funds to bring back the studio element, or was the previous contract for so little money that it wouldn’t make much difference?<\/p>\n

If the BBC have been offered free rights, a quick glimpse at the BBC Two schedule provides hope that there would be room for baseball.\u00c2\u00a0 Tonight they are showing a comedy drama film, “When Brendan met Trudy”, at 00.40 followed by two hours of simulcasting BBC News24 before a Rugby Super League show at 04.25.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, nothing that couldn’t be shifted for baseball.<\/p>\n

We are only six weeks or so away from the start of the 2009 season and we really don’t know whether there will be any baseball on free-to-air TV, what form it will take if so and which channel will be showing it.<\/p>\n

It’s not exactly a great situation for British baseball fans to be in.<\/p>\n

When news of Five’s\u00c2\u00a0possible shift away from North American sports\u00c2\u00a0first spread,\u00c2\u00a0I thought it unlikely that the BBC would be an alternative home.\u00c2\u00a0 I still have my doubts, but there is some hope at least.\u00c2\u00a0 Frankly, British baseball fans won’t care which buttons they have to press on their TV remote so long as MLB is on free-to-air TV and Johnny and Josh are presenting the coverage.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, we will keep you all informed if we\u00c2\u00a0hear any further news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fresh hope for baseball remaining on free-to-air TV has been provided by an intriguing story in the Daily Mail stating that the sport may find a new home at the BBC.\u00c2\u00a0 If the rumours are true, Major League Baseball are playing a key\u00c2\u00a0role in trying to make it happen.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[24,553],"class_list":["post-2045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball-coverage","tag-five","tag-mlb-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2045"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5168,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2045\/revisions\/5168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}