caulfield12 Posted June 13, 2023 Author Share Posted June 13, 2023 https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/diamond-appears-ready-cut-more-171157005.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThirdGen Posted June 13, 2023 Share Posted June 13, 2023 On 6/2/2023 at 6:55 PM, The Grinder said: Wasn't the issue with the ill-conceived sports vision was that most Chicagoland was not hooked up with cable then? So the White Sox basically disappeared The original version of SportsVision was broadcast over the air (on 60 or 66 I think). It was a scrambled broadcast and you needed a converter box to view it. OnTV was a movie channel that operated the same way on 44 (and also carried some Sox games for a while). It was just way too expensive for one or two channels and the Cubs were still free. It moved to cable as the area become wired for it. It did provide way more Sox, Hawks and Bulls than any free over the air channels were willing to air but wasn't even remotely cost effective. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted June 13, 2023 Author Share Posted June 13, 2023 6 hours ago, ThirdGen said: The original version of SportsVision was broadcast over the air (on 60 or 66 I think). It was a scrambled broadcast and you needed a converter box to view it. OnTV was a movie channel that operated the same way on 44 (and also carried some Sox games for a while). It was just way too expensive for one or two channels and the Cubs were still free. It moved to cable as the area become wired for it. It did provide way more Sox, Hawks and Bulls than any free over the air channels were willing to air but wasn't even remotely cost effective. WFLD... right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThirdGen Posted June 13, 2023 Share Posted June 13, 2023 51 minutes ago, caulfield12 said: WFLD... right? WFLD 32 wasn't interested in sports at the time, they dumped the Sox around 1973 which forced them to WSNS 44. WFLD 32 was doing well with syndicated programming. Veeck talked about it a lot his last year or two of owning the team, and ended up signing a deal with Cablevision to take all home games and some road games, with the remaining games on WGN 9 when they didn't conflict with the Cubs. No way Veeck would move games off free TV if 32 was interested. And actually no way they would ever have been on 44 if 32 still wanted them, 44 paid next to nothing for rights. Einhorn was able to void that contract somehow after they bought the team and tried the scrambled OTA channel thinking at least more people would have access. But the cost was stupid high. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lip Man 1 Posted June 13, 2023 Share Posted June 13, 2023 2 minutes ago, ThirdGen said: WFLD 32 wasn't interested in sports at the time, they dumped the Sox around 1973 which forced them to WSNS 44. WFLD 32 was doing well with syndicated programming. Veeck talked about it a lot his last year or two of owning the team, and ended up signing a deal with Cablevision to take all home games and some road games, with the remaining games on WGN 9 when they didn't conflict with the Cubs. No way Veeck would move games off free TV if 32 was interested. And actually no way they would ever have been on 44 if 32 still wanted them, 44 paid next to nothing for rights. Einhorn was able to void that contract somehow after they bought the team and tried the scrambled OTA channel thinking at least more people would have access. But the cost was stupid high. An excerpt from my history of SportsVision which will be included in Dr. Fletcher's next book on the franchise which comes out next year, focusing on the 1990 team and the new stadium. "Einhorn was appalled when he got a look at the White Sox TV deal. In 1980, then Sox owner Bill Veeck signed a deal with Charles Dolan of Cablevision, an East Coast company that was getting into the cable TV market. The two-year deal gave the Sox $6,000 per game, WGN-TV also got the rights to show 60 Sox road games a season. The total worth of the deal to the Sox was only $840,000 a year. Dolan was a very sharp operator who took Veeck to the cleaners. Veeck, like most old-time owners, felt that television was nice to have, but the real way to make money in baseball was at the gate. Einhorn overturned the deal and came up with the idea for SportsVision which became a reality in May 1982. The idea was to get Chicago sports fans to sign up for the service which would provide a steady diet of White Sox games, primarily home games, along with the Chicago Bulls, Chicago Blackhawks and Chicago Sting. The channel would be provided by local and area cable services as a premium service. At the time of launching, it cost most fans $50 just to get it installed as it required a special descrambler, not counting the monthly fee which varied from system to system. The idea proved to be a failure as the original target of 50,000 subscribers was never met. Even during the playoff season of 1983 the subscriber base was far short of the original goal. The Sox claimed to have 30,000 subscribers but Bob Logan in his book, "Miracle On 35th Street: Winnin’ Ugly with the 1983 Chicago White Sox" wrote the actual total was closer to 20,000. Einhorn then wanted to change the service to a true pay-per-view option and charge three dollars per game to watch, but that never became a reality. Eventually SportsVision was sold off to Dolan and Cablevision and changed into SportsChannel-Chicago, part of a group of regional sports channels which then was absorbed by Rupert Murdoch and his Fox Broadcasting Company and changed into Fox Sports Chicago, which was part of the nationwide blanket of Fox regional sports affiliates. Eventually that regional network became Comcast Sports Chicago and now today having been bought by the NBC Company, NBC Sports Chicago." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted June 13, 2023 Author Share Posted June 13, 2023 (edited) 2 hours ago, Lip Man 1 said: An excerpt from my history of SportsVision which will be included in Dr. Fletcher's next book on the franchise which comes out next year, focusing on the 1990 team and the new stadium. "Einhorn was appalled when he got a look at the White Sox TV deal. In 1980, then Sox owner Bill Veeck signed a deal with Charles Dolan of Cablevision, an East Coast company that was getting into the cable TV market. The two-year deal gave the Sox $6,000 per game, WGN-TV also got the rights to show 60 Sox road games a season. The total worth of the deal to the Sox was only $840,000 a year. Dolan was a very sharp operator who took Veeck to the cleaners. Veeck, like most old-time owners, felt that television was nice to have, but the real way to make money in baseball was at the gate. Einhorn overturned the deal and came up with the idea for SportsVision which became a reality in May 1982. The idea was to get Chicago sports fans to sign up for the service which would provide a steady diet of White Sox games, primarily home games, along with the Chicago Bulls, Chicago Blackhawks and Chicago Sting. The channel would be provided by local and area cable services as a premium service. At the time of launching, it cost most fans $50 just to get it installed as it required a special descrambler, not counting the monthly fee which varied from system to system. The idea proved to be a failure as the original target of 50,000 subscribers was never met. Even during the playoff season of 1983 the subscriber base was far short of the original goal. The Sox claimed to have 30,000 subscribers but Bob Logan in his book, "Miracle On 35th Street: Winnin’ Ugly with the 1983 Chicago White Sox" wrote the actual total was closer to 20,000. Einhorn then wanted to change the service to a true pay-per-view option and charge three dollars per game to watch, but that never became a reality. Eventually SportsVision was sold off to Dolan and Cablevision and changed into SportsChannel-Chicago, part of a group of regional sports channels which then was absorbed by Rupert Murdoch and his Fox Broadcasting Company and changed into Fox Sports Chicago, which was part of the nationwide blanket of Fox regional sports affiliates. Eventually that regional network became Comcast Sports Chicago and now today having been bought by the NBC Company, NBC Sports Chicago." Is that Dolan related to the Guardians' ownership group? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Dolan Edited June 13, 2023 by caulfield12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lip Man 1 Posted June 13, 2023 Share Posted June 13, 2023 2 minutes ago, caulfield12 said: Is that Dolan related to the Guardians' ownership group? They are brothers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted June 14, 2023 Author Share Posted June 14, 2023 1 hour ago, Lip Man 1 said: They are brothers. One thing you NEVER hear is how Dolan is affecting their scouting/talent evaluation/international departments...at age 92, not in the way Reindsdorf is pilloried around here. Granted, they've gone through something like 4 full rebuilds in the two decades since those great mid to late 90's team that was selling out all those consecutive games at Jacobs..eventually made it to two more World Series, and their fans are actually starting to get out in big/ger numbers just like in Cincy. The most impressive thing is that they hadn't been more than 7 games under .500 dating all the way back to the 2016 WS team that lost to the Cubs. That's some consistency for such a small market club. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThirdGen Posted June 14, 2023 Share Posted June 14, 2023 15 hours ago, Lip Man 1 said: They are brothers. Dolan was also one of the bidders for the Sox before Debartolo was selected by Veeck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted June 23, 2023 Author Share Posted June 23, 2023 https://www.yahoo.com/sports/diamond-sports-files-motion-cut-184910890.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted July 20, 2023 Author Share Posted July 20, 2023 https://www.yahoo.com/sports/bally-sports-broadcaster-just-lost-185013711.html Brewers next to go 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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