Braves joined on TBS

Additional coverage starts with '07 division series

 

By TIM TUCKER

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

 

Published on: 07/11/06

 

TBS, long known for its national telecasts of Braves games, has struck a deal with Major League Baseball to televise games not involving the Atlanta team for the first time, people familiar with the negotiations told the Journal-Constitution on Monday.

 

Under the deal, TBS is expected to get broadcast rights to baseball's division series games beginning next season and to weekly regular-season games beginning in the 2008 season.

 

The deal will broaden the baseball reach of a national cable channel whose Braves-centric telecasts once helped the club become known as "America's Team."

 

The new TBS deal and a separate extension of baseball's national television contract with Fox could be announced as soon as today in Pittsburgh, where baseball's All-Star game is being played.

 

TBS founder (and then Braves owner) Ted Turner began beaming Braves games across the nation on his fledgling cable superstation in the 1970s. But TBS gradually has scaled back its number of national Braves telecasts, from 150 at the peak to 70 this season.

 

The new MLB deal isn't expected to affect the 70 Braves games scheduled to be shown on TBS next season.

 

Atlanta-based TBS previously was scheduled to reduce its number of national Braves telecasts to 45 per season starting in 2008, and it is not clear how the MLB deal will affect the number of Braves games shown on TBS in '08 and beyond.

 

Braves games not shown on TBS will continue to be aired in the Southeast on regional cable channels Turner South and FSN South. Earlier this year, Turner Broadcasting ? a division of Time Warner ? sold Turner South to Fox Cable Networks, which also owns FSN South.

 

Three years ago, TBS attempted to give a more neutral feel to its Braves telecasts by briefly renaming them "MLB on TBS" and even more briefly benching longtime Braves announcers Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren from the national broadcasts. The duo was reinstated after a half-season.

 

The new deal will mark the first time TBS has had rights to any baseball playoff games. It is not known if the deal will include any postseason games beyond the division series round, or if it will include any playoff games this year.

 

Last year, MLB signed a new eight-year contract with ESPN that gives the cable network rights to up to 80 regular-season games per year.

 

TBS is available in about 90 million homes.

 

http://www.ajc.com/braves/content/sports/b...es/0711tbs.html

 

NY Times also reporting: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/11/sports/s...amp;oref=slogin

A long time coming. TBS initiallytried to do this back in the 90s

does that mean ill have to hear the carey family during playoff baseball now?

does that mean ill have to hear the carey family during playoff baseball now?

 

Likely.

 

Sunday Afternoon Baseball (26 weeks) to TBS.*

Division Series and Tiebreakers to TBS.

All Star Selection Show to TBS.

Any overlaps may require TNT to show some games.

*If your local team is on TBS and local TV, then TBS will be showing an alternate game for those 2 markets.

 

FOX Sports' new agreement with MLB gives the network the rights to:

Up to 26 FOX Saturday Baseball Game of the Week regionalized single-header broadcasts, an increase from 18 previously;

Exclusive coverage of the American League Championship Series in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013;

Exclusive coverage of the National League Championship Series in 2008, 2010 and 2012;

Exclusive prime-time coverage of the World Series from 2007 through 2013 with Game 1 scheduled for the first Tuesday after completion of the LCS;

Exclusive prime-time coverage of the All-Star Game from 2007 through 2013;

This Week in Baseball, MLB's award-winning, youth-oriented magazine show which precedes the FOX Saturday Baseball Game of the Week.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5776108

 

The other non-FOX LCS seems still available. (ESPN?)

Score one for the Ted....all those Braves fans can move into one of our fine Braves Nation states or buy the MLB package.

 

I can now retire my superstation for good. TBS is a cable network.

 

*sheds tears of joy as cash gets delivered to Montana ranch*

This is even dumber than the NHL putting Stanley Cup games on OLN.

Buck: "You're stuck with us for the next 7 years!!!!"

 

McCarver and Buck: "MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

I would think that now that TBS is getting into the entire league that they'll hire new talent and not just rely on the Careys for play-by-play.

 

Anyway, I guess we're so used to associating that channel with the Braves and reruns that we forget that it's one of the those cable channels that is instantly recognized. Just like HBO, ESPN, MTV, Nickelodeon and CNN are the first names to pop when you're asked to name a cable channel. Certainly TBS is much more recognizable and available than OLN. I don't know what universe some people live in who think they're the same in terms of recognition. :plain

 

As for the Braves, now there's an interesting question. The word is that Turner Sports will relegate their exclusive Braves coverage to mostly the local feed after 2007, depending on the language of the agreement. I think that decision has already been made at the higher ups.