CH, you want to be an expert on all things media. What is your personal experience with Sinclair? I know nothing about broadcast groups, but a quick Google shows they have no channels in the Chicago market.

The broadcast partner seems to be the dumbest, most minute detail that isn't worth discussing? Do you believe CUBS.TV is going to have a segment on how Trump is breaking the Republican and NRA agenda by pushing for the banishment of bump stocks?

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

You know the answer. The anchors were beside themselves due to right wing agenda.

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Elections have consequences.

I know, right? Jerry and Sox win again.

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Elections have consequences.

Yeah the owner kinda gets to do that.

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Elections have consequences.

Can’t you see?! The right wing agenda will come. Kasper will be talking up abortion provider murder plots.

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Elections have consequences.

I guess this is the state of journalism in 2018.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I seem to always remember the station manager giving the editorial. You don’t think the owner that hired him influenced those ever?

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Elections have consequences.

You don't see this as an issue? A Chicago baseball team starting their own TV channel (a risky venture) partnering with a broadcast company with zero presence in the baseball team's market?

No. Do you watch channels for the broadcast group or the content?

Comcast Sportsnet had no presence in Chicago before they started here. They didn't own NBC yet. The channel had low quality shows and even weird camera angles in the first year or two. But they had local sports teams playing games. You know...what people want to watch. Hell, Comcast TV and internet had only been around for a few years. It was all AT&T before.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Comcast existed in Chicago.

That's not anywhere close to what happened with this though.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

when a Trump propaganda organization is broadcasting cubs games, I find it kind of interesting.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Read my edit. Comcast was a broadband company. I'd say Comcast opening Comcast Sportsnet Chicago was riskier than a broadcast company creating a channel in a new market.

Would you be more comfortable with a new sports network in Chicago being run by RCN instead of Viacom, for instance?

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

The production value isn't my issue. The availability is. I have strong doubts any cable provider will carry this channel.

Sinclair has 600 channels in 89 markets, per Google. Why would a 90th market have a huge issue carrying one of their channels? Why would Comcast, which carries Sinclair channels in MANY markets, suddenly not offer one in Chicago? Comcast has been carrying Sinclair channels without interruption since 2007.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Cost. Cubs/Sinclair have to negotiate carriage rates with cable companies. The Cubs/Sinclair will want to be on a basic tier so they can earn the $x/subscriber fee. The cable companies will say piss off you're going on the sports package. There will be no agreement and the Cubs channel will be unavailable. With Comcast there was no risk of CSN/NBC not being carried. They were vertically integrated.

I'm not saying the Cubs should partner with Comcast. Just saying that's how it was.

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Comcast SportsNet took over Fox Sports Net. Same channel number, same teams, same announcers, same buttons you had hit on your remote to get there. Plus, the channel was already part of MANY cable packages that people already received. As trendy as the Cubs are, few millenials are going to pony up that extra coin simply for Cubs games, and the old timers on a fix income can't afford to.

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^

Waves of cash in this revenue streams.

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Elections have consequences.

MLB streams on Reddit. Problem solved.

No, they didn't. They hired many of the same personnel, but they did not take over and rebrand the station.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FSN_Chicago

If you recall, there was a period of risk after Fox Sports Chicago announced it was ceasing operations when fans didn't know how the teams' games were going to be broadcast. In fact, both channels were in Chicago at the same time for 2 years. Please tell me how you had two different channels on the same number in 2005?

Frank is upset that the new Cubs channel will be on basic cable and that will prove how much more popular the Cubs are in Chicago.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Meh.. all billionaires are dirty POS cut from the same cloth

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Guys, if Len "Lenny" Kasper cuts back on his broadcasts, Donald Trump, Jr. may have said all the right things about Tom Ricketts as an owner, but consider this. Trump isn't much younger than Kasper. Donald, Jr. is 40 compared to 47 for Len.

If he retires after this season, the Cubs should bring in Sarah Huckabee-Sanders to call games with JD on the road, especially in the D.C. area. She's been part of a pro-Cub administration, knows the media very well, and almost became a professional wrestler. I think she'd fit right in.

No, FSN Chicago tried to chug along without the sports teams it lost but died a few months later.

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I miss Sportsvision.

Valid, but I doubt the Cubs are going to let availability be a problem. Deals will get done. Games will be on.

As for me...fuck cable

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Lets sample the product before we judge it. I suspect the Cubs channel will be top notch, with superior production quality. Everything the Rickets family has done, from the improvements of facilities in the Dominican Republic, the minor league and spring training facilities, to the reconstruction of Wrigley Field has been well done. I see no reason to believe this will be any different. it is likely cable bills will increase ten dollars a month to include this channel, but it should mean the team will have plenty of money to sign (and keep) top players and remain contenders for another title.

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Go Cubs!!!!

I'm unfamiliar with the Yankees and Dodgers network programming so please forgive my ignorance.

However, if my favorite team has its own channel that is all things my favorite team - past, present and future... that is awesome.

Forget the carrying soccer, other sports, etc. during the offseason to cover air time. Give me my team's old school features, minor league games, interviews, documentaries and old MLB games reran in their entirety - 24/7.

I understand there could be some copyright and licensing issues that might need to be ironed out but so be it. Make it happen.

I'm an old school type fan who enjoys the history of my favorite team just as much as the present and future.

If I subscribe to a network that is all things my favorite team and I have to endure infomercials and other useless "air filling" programming - keep it. Cable prices are crazy enough.

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"This is Chicago, my friend. Anything can happen."