Marquee Updates, What to Expect for the 2021 Season

“Believe me, you won’t be booing about that in a year. You guys won’t be booing about the Marquee Network in one year,” Tom Ricketts audaciously told thousands of Chicago Cubs fans that gathered at the Chicago Sheridan before the 2020 season. He tossed this snippet out there in defense of the Marquee Sports Network, which caused the entire room to boo, loudly.

The idea of a single network was welcomed by Cubs fans years back when this idea was first rumored. But, fans didn’t exactly understand the restrictions that Marquee would have, that the old WGN didn’t. Equally, Ricketts and Crane Kenney didn’t fully understand the shift in carrier thoughts, which was changing the TV business model.

See, after the mega-deals that teams like the LA Dodgers were able to land, even with blacking out most of their fanbase (something that changed last season), worth an estimated $8.4 billion, carriers moved hard away from Regional Sports Networks (RSNs). See, with most local TV stations being priced out of sports (your NBCs, ABCs, CBSs, and the like) RSNs became all the flavor. The Cubs, after WGN began to ween them off their network, started broadcasting games on CSN or Comcast Sports Chicago or NBC Sports Chicago.

This move was because the cost to carry sports locally is expensive, and WGN would rather broadcast things like “Everybody Loves Raymond” reruns. Even if WGN didn’t get the viewers that they would with a Cubs game, the margins were better so they made the business decision to move on. So, the natural landing place was on a cable network on a channel which only paying subscribers would receive and not anyone with an aerial antenna.

The choice of programming wasn’t the only issue however, there were some other problems that ruffled feathers with other MLB teams and WGN would get pressured to change how they broadcasted games. WGN Superstation/America was able to broadcast Cubs games across the country. So people in Arizona, or Florida, or Iowa, or wherever else the ‘Superstation’ was broadcasted to, would see the Cubs (and not so coincidently) become a fan of the team.

When WGN became a charter affiliate of The WB, contractual issues arose. This further limited the network’s ability to broadcast games and made the investment in being the single-source of Cubs games financially unfulfilling. So, Cubs fans in Random Town, Alabama were no longer able to view games, but they were able to catch learn how Clark Kent’s adolescent years were in Smallville.

When Ricketts purchased the team, it was at the height of the “TV deal” in baseball. The Cubs, and Ricketts, knew what product they had. It was perhaps the most popular team in baseball, which a lot of that had to do with WGN. So when the A’s were getting $1 billion TV deals and the Yankees and Dodgers were getting $6 to $8.5 billion, the Cubs were certain to get at least $5 billion in their TV deal.

But, there was a giant shift in how carriers ran their business in the following years. While the Cubs were playing out their string playing games on like eight different networks, carriers like Dish Network made the business decision to move away from high-priced RSNs.

When WGN stopped broadcasting Cubs games nationally, Cubs fans across the country began to get excited about the idea of a new superstation. This time that superstation would be all Cubs, all the time. There was a general thought that Marquee would have the ability to broadcast games to Tulsa, Ok., or Nashville, Tn., or Cooperstown, NY.

But, any new station needed to adhere to MLBs broadcast rules. This was especially prudent with their own app, MLB.TV becoming a more viable place to watch out-of-town games. While, yes, having another “superstation” would be ideal for the fan in Anywhere, USA., it isn’t such the case for MLB and their source for game streams.

Outside of MLB.TV, or Extra Innings (and of course nationally televised games), you cannot watch out-of-market MLB games. That’s just the way it is (right now). But that doesn’t change the fact that Cubs fans (neither rightly or wrongly) assumed they would be able to. Which was part of the animosity towards Marquee even before it started.

Carriage deals

The other reason fans were cold towards Marquee was the blundered launch. While it was difficult to find which channel was broadcasting a game on any given day, fans could still find the game (ok, sometimes). When the Cubs launched Marquee, it was done so with a number of blotched moves.

First, the way a lot of people spoke about the network is that it would cost them additional money per month. Fans got the idea that they would be forking out $10 to $20 a month just to watch the Cubs, even if they lived across the street. While it isn’t exactly true (there is a surcharge, and in 2021 most carriers have increased their RSN costs to customers) that was the initial idea.

Then there was the genuine fear that you just wouldn’t get the channel.

AT&T and DirecTV were early adopters and jumped on the Marquee bandwagon from day one. But the team hadn’t announced any deals with Comcast/Xfinity or Dish Network through the end of the 2019 calendar. To add to this frustration, as more and more people moved to stream services like YouTube TV, Hulu Live TV, Sling TV, and others – but Marquee wasn’t on any of those either.

It wasn’t until after the calendar turned that there was a deal with Hulu and even that confused subscribers. This would only be on their Hulu + Live TV service, which ran $55 a month. This was a big leap from the $6 a lot of people were spending. Then, as mentioned before, many fans thought that they would be able to get Cubs games wherever they lived. They became disappointed to learn, once spring training came around, that while some could watch regular programming on Marquee, once the game began it was blacked out.

YouTube and Sinclair broke off their negotiations, then started them back up, to stop again. Eventually, they made a small agreement that left Marquee (and other Sinclair RSNs) out.

The lips were still tied on Xfinity. While both sides would say they were working on it, the news was that they really weren’t close. With most of Chicago having Comcast/Xfinity services, most of Chicago (and most Cubs fans) were going to be left in the dark. The deal did finally work itself out, of course after the break and when the two sides had four more months of negotiations.

But what about Dish!? Well, there’s hope

Also frustrating was the stalemate with Dish Network. While they too “were optimistic something would get done,” their board was very adamant that their time working with RSNs was over. This stalemate started in July 2019, and ever since all Sinclair RSNs were left off their airwaves. They would say publicly that the high cost was spread out to all of their customers, and a vast majority of their subscribers didn’t watch regional sports networks.

Now, there is more optimism than ever that Dish will work something out with Sinclair. In 2021, it is believed that the Sinclair/Dish agreement for over 100 local Sinclair affiliate networks will end. When negotiations start back up, logically, Sinclair will attempt to pull any RSNs into the fold.

Now, Sinclair has been very successful in negotiating carriage rights for their local affiliate channels. Yes, all TV negotiations seem to get ugly, but they have been successful.

“We have been very successful in negotiating package deals for all of our programming with all the traditional (cable and satellite operators),” Ripley said. “And so I’d expect this to continue that strategy with DISH.”

Now, yes, they have succeeded in these negotiations. They haven’t been very successful getting their RSNs included. There has been some small successes with high-value RSNs, but as a whole negotiating these new contracts finds the vast majority of RSNs left out. Look no further than the recent negotiations with YouTube TV. Sinclair and YT were able to come to agreements on their local’s and some regionally based stations, but most were left out – which included Marquee.

So, while it might be a bit of an uphill battle, there is some hope that Marquee can be added to the Dish family soon (Dish Network and Sling TV).

What about the spring?

The other news, which has been shared quite a bit, is the Marquee broadcasts in the spring. Marquee has made the decision to only broadcast home games from Sloan Park. This was to ensure they weren’t traveling in groups to other ballparks during the pandemic.

So, you won’t get the full slate of Cubs Spring Training games like we were getting last season.

There will be an ESPN broadcast that will be nationally done. Cubs fans, if they have other means, could possibly find ways to watch out of market feeds. Perhaps some are legal, perhaps some will take ways.