Marquee Sports Network, the regional sports network home of the Chicago Cubs, faces a pivotal carriage renewal negotiation with Comcast, with the current deal expiring in September. 

The channel’s top executive, Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney, told Chicago radio station 670 the Score's Bernstein & Holmes show that he’s not confident that Marquee will maintain distribution with a pay TV provider that controls around half the channel’s reach. 

“I think distribution is going to be a challenge,” Kenney said. “And I’m sure you’re going to be asking me in September, ‘Hey, what’s going on now?’ Because it’s going to be bumpy.”

The Cubs launched the channel in the middle of a pandemic back in spring 2020, a joint effort with Sinclair Broadcast Group. Marquee also launched a $20-a-month direct-to-consumer app last year, but that effort seems far away from providing enough revenue to support the channel.

Meanwhile, Comcast — which remains at a distribution impasse with 18 Bally Sports regional sports channels operated by bankrupt Sinclair subsidiary Diamond Sports Group — might not be inclined to deviate from its current trend line and break the bank for an RSN built around a 33-35 ball club currently trying to keep its mouth and nose above water in Major League Baseball's National League Central Division. 

“I wish the clock was turned back to 2011,” Kenney said. “Because the market is in turmoil. You’ve got half the RSNs in bankruptcy, being rejected in their rights agreements. You got wonderful markets like Atlanta — like if you’re a Comcast subscriber in Atlanta, you can’t watch the Braves [on Bally Sports] today. If you’re a Comcast subscriber in Milwaukee, you can’t watch the [Brewers] today. If you’re a Comcast subscriber in Detroit, another great baseball market, you can’t watch the Tigers today.”

Kenney also noted that earlier this month, Chicago Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf exited his teams’ RSN partnership with Comcast on NBC Sports Chicago. The teams, along with the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks, are launching a new multi-platform channel, Chicago Sports Network, in partnership with broadcaster Standard Media Group.

"Comcast has made it pretty clear that they are exiting the sports market,” Kenney added. “And half of our homes are Comcast homes. And our contract with Comcast ends in September. So trust me, the reason I spend — other than worrying about our batting average with runners in scoring position — the other thing that keeps me up all night is worrying about what’s going to happen with distribution.”

Marquee Sports Network, the regional sports network joint venture of the Chicago Cubs and Sinclair, said it has launched a direct-to-consumer offering for viewers in the Chicago area.

The service will cost $19.99 a month for viewers without a pay TV service.  

Marquee becomes the latest regional sports network to launch a streaming service as more consumers cut the cord with pay TV and look to streaming popular sports programming. Others trying the new strategy out include MSG Networks and YES Network in the New York area and various Sinclair Broadcast-owned Bally Sports networks across the country, and recently Charter Communications disclosed DTC plans for its Spectrum SportsNet outlets.

Also: Mixed Reviews for NESN 360, the First RSN to Go DTC

Diamond Sports, the subsidiary that runs Sinclair’s other regional sports networks, declared bankruptcy in March.

Fans already subscribing to Marquee via a cable, satellite, telco or virtual multichannel video programming distributor (vMVPD) can stream programming through the new Marquee Sports Network App at no added cost.

The new app features a high-resolution (1080p) feed and on-demand game highlights and player interviews. The app will also support screencasting from a smartphone, tablet or web browser to most smart TVs and connected-TV devices.

“We’re thrilled to launch our new direct-to-consumer subscription option, providing all in-market Cubs fans with access to Marquee Sports Network, including live Cubs games,” Marquee Sports Network general manager Mike McCarthy said. “The new Marquee Sports Network App will also provide an improved 1080p streaming experience for all Marquee Sports Network subscribers. We look forward to continuing to bring Cubs baseball to the passionate Cubs fans across the region.”

App users will have access to more than 200 live Cubs-affiliated games per year, including regular-season games (excluding nationally televised games), spring training matchups and minor league games.

They will also get off-season Cubs coverage including studio shows, press conferences and coverage of the MLB winter meetings and the annual Cubs conventions. 

The app will also provide archival programming and original shows including The Reporters and Class in Session with Doug Glanville. 

The Chicago Cubs plan to launch a streaming service in July that will carry its games, the team’s president of business operations Crane Kenney said.

Cubs games are televised by Marquee Sports Network, a joint venture between the Cubs and Sinclair Broadcast Group. Diamond Sports Group, which runs most of Sinclair’s other regional sports networks, filed for bankruptcy protection in March.

The new streaming service would make the games currently available on Marquee to fans who don’t have a traditional pay TV bundle or a virtual pay TV service like Fubo, Kenney said in an interview on The Score, a sports radio station in Chicago.

No price point was disclosed for the direct-to-consumer offering.

Kenney had confirmed the team was looking at streaming options in March. 

“People are finding their programming in all sorts of ways, not just with cable and satellite subscriptions,“ Kenney said. “Streaming services seem to be popping up daily. We’ve seen a few teams — the Red Sox and Yankees and then a few of the Bally teams and most notably the Padres just launched a streaming service after their rights were returned to them in the bankruptcy.

“So the world is changing very, very quickly, even since the 2019 launch of Marquee, which is primarily on cable and satellite. And to reach our fans that have cut the cord, we’re going to be introducing a streaming service this year,” he said.

Kenney said Marquee has been working on the streaming service for about a year.

“We’re taking our time to make sure this thing is exactly right in terms of both the quality of the program, the type of program, pricing, marketing, ease of access so that it’s available on all devices, whether it’s Roku, a handheld, etc.” Kenney said.

DirecTV said it is making programming from the Marquee Sports Network, a joint venture of Sinclair Broadcast Group and the Chicago Cubs, available nationwide, except for live games of the Cubs and the WNBA Chicago Sky.

The satellite company already carried the regional sports network in Chicago.

“The addition of Marquee to DirecTV’s Sports Tier further cements our leadership position in regional sports networks across all pay TV providers,” said Rob Thun, chief content officer at DirecTV. “It also gives passionate, displaced Cubs fans nationwide access to popular team content not available elsewhere.”

Out-of-market subscribers will be able to see Marquee offerings including in-season studio shows such as Cubs Live and Cubs Postgame, The Reporters, Icons of the Ivy and Cubs Classics, full replays of classic Cubs games.

 Also available nationally are Marquee documentaries and interview shows.

Also: Cubs Exploring Direct-to-Consumer Service, Team President Confirms

“We are thrilled to now offer Marquee Sports Network to DirecTV and its customers across the country, giving Cubs fans access to all of our unique programming and studio content,” said Marquee Sports Network General Manager Mike McCarthy. “Our goal has always been to deliver Cubs content, as well as all of our programming, to fans nationwide and we’re thankful for this expanded carriage agreement with DirecTV.” ■

The Chicago Cubs are looking at a direct-to-consumer streaming service that would make games available to fans who don’t subscribe to cable or satellite TV, a team official said.

The team wants to get the service ready for the 2023 season, but Crane Kenney, president of business operations for the Cubs, told the Chicago Tribune that issues concerning Major League Baseball, distributors, pricing and technology all must be overcome. 

The Cubs are partners with Sinclair Broadcast Group in Marquee Sport Network, the regional channel that carried Cubs games. Sinclair is planning to roll out direct-to-consumer apps for its Bally Sports regional sports networks that carry baseball during the first half of this year.

Also: Tradition-Bound Baseball is Streaming Into the Future

“The ability to just freeform, bring wall-to-wall Cubs coverage to our fans [with Marquee Sports Network], that was always the dream,” Kenney said. “The question then is: how do you go deeper?”

Kenney said that in addition to streaming game telecasts a Marquee app would also let fans buy tickets and team merchandise.

“There’s a bunch of different vertical businesses that you can build alongside just the video production,” Kenney said. “We want to make sure it’s as robust as it can be.”

Major League Baseball has been a leader in streaming technology, but local territorial rights issues have hamstrung making games available online to areas just outside the Chicago broadcast and cable markets with blackout rights. 

“One of the great solutions should be solving the blackouts,” Kenney said 

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has balked at Sinclair's direct-to-consumer plans, arguing that Sinclair might not have enough rights to mount a service. There have also been reports that MLB could be working on its own streaming service. ■

Major League Baseball‘s Chicago Cubs are negotiating with Sinclair Broadcast Group to possibly take the regional sports network they co-own direct-to-consumer, according to the New York Post.

The negotiations come after the Cubs and Sinclair had difficult talks with Comcast to re-up its pay TV distribution license for the channel, Marquee Sports Network. Those negotiations ultimately resulted in the Cubs and Sinclair agreeing to cap licensing costs. 

Also: Sinclair Still Faces Long Odds on DTC Regional Sports Streaming, Despite NBA Deal, Analyst Says

Through its Diamond Sports subsidiary, Sinclair owns — or co-owns — 19 RSNs. The company has recently signed agreements with the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League that include limited DTC streaming rights to local teams covered by those networks. 

Fourteen of Sinclair's RSN's have contracts with local MLB clubs, but MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has expressed reluctance to cast his league's DTC fortunes with Sinclair, given the nearly $10 billion in debt the company incurred while building its Diamond Sports empire. 

Manfred wants a unified strategy for launching MLB clubs into DTC distribution. But a DTC deal from a marquee team like the Cubs might influence other MLB teams to go it alone with Sinclair. 

TMT equity analysts including the celebrity-likes of Richard Greenfield have been highly skeptical of leveraged Sinclair's ability to pull off a DTC promise the company made to investors last summer. 

Then again, the consensus was that it was unlikely that Sinclair could secure NBA and NHL rights, and that has already been accomplished. ■

ESPN will move its Aug. 8 Sunday Night Baseball game to ABC, the first time the broadcast network has aired a game from the cable sports network’s exclusive baseball franchise.

The game, pitting the Chicago White Sox against the Chicago Cubs from Wrigley Field, will feature Matt Vasgersian providing commentary for the game telecast along with analyst and World Series Champion Alex Rodriguez and reporter Buster Olney, said ESPN. 

Last year ABC aired its first MLB postseason game in 25 years during the MLB Wild Card Series. 

Also Read: ESPN Finishes NBA Playoffs Coverage on High Note

Baseball Tonight: Sunday Night Countdown will precede Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN. The game telecast will be available to stream on the ESPN App and will also be available on ESPN Radio and ESPN Deportes. 

Sports data provider Sportradar said it will be providing Marquee Sports Network, the joint venture between the Chicago Cubs and Sinclair Broadcast Group, with services including game notes, research support, analytics and graphics.

“As a new sports network, our goal is to bring fans closer to the Cubs and closer to the game than ever before,” said Mike Santini, senior VP, programming and production, Marquee Sports Network. “Partnering with Sportradar allows us to deliver compelling insights in real-time, so we can package them in ways that are attractive to our audience. Backed by the fastest, most accurate, and reliable data and tech, as well as flexibility, Sportradar is the perfect partner to help us deliver a fresh broadcast experience for the fans.”

Formed in 2001, Sportradar provides sports federations, news media, consumer platforms and sports betting operators, with services and data. 

“We’re thrilled to partner with Marquee Sports Network in their inaugural season by supplying them with the data, technologies and insights to deliver a modern, engaging broadcast experience for fans,” said Brian Josephs, VP of digital sport, Sportradar. “We are particularly excited by Marquee’s technology prowess, which, when combined with Sportradar’s extensive data and insights, will unleash innovative content and captivate both long-time Cubs fans, as well as younger fans that prefer to consume games in different ways.” 

Comcast and Marquee Sports Network have agreed to a multiple-year deal that will let the majority of Chicago households watch Cubs games as the season starts.

Marquee, a joint venture of the Cubs and Sinclair Broadcast Group, has been negotiating with Comcast, the largest cable operator. The network launched in February without a Comcast deal, leading to concern that many fans won’t be able to see games.

Related: Marquee Sports Network Steps Up to the Plate

The deal was part of a larger distribution agreement between Comcast and Sinclair. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“We finished our negotiations with Comcast to carry Marquee and it will be available in all Xfinity homes,” Crane Kenney, Cubs president of business operations told the Chicago Tribune, which first reported the story Friday morning.

The Cubs, like the rest of Major League Baseball, will be playing a 60 game season that was shortened and postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This agreement is monumental for us and the multitude of Chicagoans who can now watch live Cubs games on a network as dedicated to the team as they are,” said Marquee Sports Network GM Mike McCarthy. “We are proud that thanks to an undying commitment from the Cubs, Sinclair and Comcast to get this deal done, fans in and around Chicago can tune in when the team opens the season against the Brewers tonight.”

The team's opening game Friday will appear nationally on ESPN and Saturday's game will be on Fox.

Marquee had previously announced carriage deals with carriers including AT&T, RCN and Hulu. It does not have a deal with Dish, which has been balking at expensive sports deals.

Comcast customers can watch Marquee Sports Network and the Cubs on channel 202 in the Chicago Metropolitan area. The agreement also provides carriage in Ft. Wayne and portions of the Indianapolis market that Comcast serves.

Sinclair Broadcast Group shares were up more than 10% in early trading Monday after reports that its Chicago-area regional sports network was close to a carriage deal with Comcast.

Comcast, the largest cable operator in the Chicago region had been slow to reach a carriage agreement with Sinclair’s Marquee Sports Network, the RSN it jointly owns with the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball team. But reports over the weekend that the two may be close to a deal helped goose the stock.

Sinclair stock was priced as high as $17.54 each on May 18, up 12.6%, or $1.96 per share. The stock was priced at $17.41 as of 2:03 p.m., up 11.8%.

According to reports, Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney told season ticket holders in a conference call that a Comcast deal would be signed shortly after MLB play resumes. While the league hasn’t said anything official yet, according to reports it has proposed resuming games in July, playing an abbreviated 82-game season. That proposal would have to be approved by the MLB Players Association before it would become reality. Baseball’s regular season was suspended in late March because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Comcast officials did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Marquee Sports Network launched in February. Sinclair has secured deals with distributors representing about half of the homes in the Chicago area, including Hulu and DirecTV. According to reports, Kenney said Comcast and MSN were close to signing a deal on March 12, but that was shelved as the pandemic took hold. Every major professional sports league has suspended their regular seasons as a result of the outbreak.

Comcast and Sinclair have reportedly been at odds for months over the price of the Marquee Sports Network, which by some estimates is as high as $6 per subscriber per month. While other distributors have balked at paying increasingly higher prices for RSNs, some pundits believe that the lack of live sports, scripted and unscripted programming during the pandemic has made it more critical for pay TV providers to have access to games once they resume. 

Sinclair Broadcast Group shares were up more than 10% in early trading Monday after reports that its Chicago-area regional sports network was close to a carriage deal with Comcast.

Comcast, the largest cable operator in the Chicago region had been slow to reach a carriage agreement with Sinclair’s Marquee Sports Network, the RSN it jointly owns with the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball team. But reports over the weekend that the two may be close to a deal helped goose the stock.

[embed]https://twitter.com/MLBBruceLevine/status/1261095786386948097[/embed]

Sinclair stock was priced as high as $17.54 each on May 18, up 12.6%, or $1.96 per share. The stock was priced at $17.41 as of 2:03 p.m., up 11.8%.

According to reports, Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney told season ticket holders in a conference call that a Comcast deal would be signed shortly after MLB play resumes. While the league hasn’t said anything official yet, according to reports it has proposed resuming games in July, playing an abbreviated 82-game season. That proposal would have to be approved by the MLB Players Association before it would become reality. Baseball’s regular season was suspended in late March because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Comcast officials did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Marquee Sports Network launched in February. Sinclair has secured deals with distributors representing about half of the homes in the Chicago area, including Hulu and DirecTV. According to reports, Kenney said Comcast and MSN were close to signing a deal on March 12, but that was shelved as the pandemic took hold. Every major professional sports league has suspended their regular seasons as a result of the outbreak.

Comcast and Sinclair have reportedly been at odds for months over the price of the Marquee Sports Network, which by some estimates is as high as $6 per subscriber per month. While other distributors have balked at paying increasingly higher prices for RSNs, some pundits believe that the lack of live sports, scripted and unscripted programming during the pandemic has made it more critical for pay TV providers to have access to games once they resume. 

It’s a whole new ballgame in Chicago.

Marquee Sports Network, launched on Feb. 22, is the new home of Major League Baseball’s Chicago Cubs, promising viewers one stop shopping for all local Cubs telecasts and a smorgasbord of broad-shouldered programming from the friendly confines of Wrigley Field.

But the regional sports network, a joint venture of the Cubs and Sinclair Broadcast Group, has not been hailed as a field of dreams by all in the Windy City.

There have been concerns that it might not be carried by Comcast, Chicago’s dominant cable operator, leaving some Cubs fans out in the cold. And even if a deal with Comcast is worked out, die-hard fans used to seeing the team for more than 70 years on over-the-air broadcast TV will be shut out.

On top of that, in an era of cord-cutting, skinny bundles and streaming, the regional sports network business, once seen as a cash cow, is under financial pressure as the number of subscribers fall and the cost of media rights climb.

Marquee general manager Mike McCarthy, hired a year ago to help build the network, is full of the optimism most baseball fans feel this time of year.

“It is not a risky bet to figure out whether people in Chicago want to watch Cub games,” McCarthy said.

Superserving Superfans

McCarthy, who ran MSG Networks when it had the rights to the New York Yankees and Mets, feels Chicago has a unique, passionate relationship with the Cubs.

RELATED: More Than a South Side Story at NBC Sports Chicago

“This is really a Cubs fan’s dream,” he said. “I think they deserved what the Yankees and Red Sox and Dodgers and Mets fans have had for years now, which is not just game coverage but a 24-hour channel fully dedicated to serving their passion. We’re going to be eating, sleeping, breathing Cubs.”

Marquee has retained the team’s main TV announcers, Len Kasper and Jim DeShaies, and signed a roster of former Cubs players to appear on the network, including Ryan Dempster, Rick Sutcliffe, Doug Glanville, Mark Grace and one-time manager Lou Piniella.

“There’s a lot that has gone on, but we feel very good about a lot of it and we’re very excited to launch in a way that everyone can be proud of,” McCarthy said. “We know we’re going to deliver the fanbase something that they have deserved for a while, which we’re excited about.”

The new network’s offices and studios are across Waveland Avenue from Wrigley Field and McCarthy plans to sneak away from the control room so he doesn’t miss opening day.

“My dad was a groundskeeper for the Mets for 30 years and I grew up in a baseball stadium and I don’t think I’ve ever missed an opening day,” he said.

But missing opening day is a concern to Chicago fans used to watching games on TV.

Sinclair has helped Marquee gain carriage deals with nearly 40 distributors, including DirecTV, Charter Communications, Mediacom, Frontier Communications and RCN. The network also has announced its first streaming deal, with Hulu+Live TV. Between DirecTV and Hulu, Cubs fans will be able to get Marquee wherever they live in the market.

In Chicago, Comcast has about 1.5 million subscribers, or 40% of the market. Comcast is also a part owner of NBC Sports Chicago, which carried Cubs games on cable last year and will be the exclusive home of the White Sox this season (see sidebar). Cubs TV rights were split in 2019 between longtime TV home WGN, ABC-owned WLS and NBCSC.

In an interview on sports-talk radio station WSCR, Crane Kenney, president of business operations for the Cubs, said the Hulu agreement “validates our pricing model.”

Analysts estimate Marquee is seeking a monthly per-subscriber fee of $6 per month from distributors.

“We’ve offered the same terms to Comcast that have been accepted by AT&T and Charter and Mediacom and Hulu,” Kenney said. “Almost 40 of them have said ‘yes’ to the terms, which tells us they’re reasonable.”

McCarthy seems certain a deal with Comcast will be worked out, even though 11 years ago the Chicago-based Big Ten Network launched in the Midwest without Comcast for a year. And half of the Dodgers fans in Los Angeles can’t watch games, because they still can’t get Spectrum SportsNet LA after six years, with DirecTV as the major holdout.

“We don’t think we remind anybody of the Los Angeles situation, with all due respect,” McCarthy said. “We think this is a religious experience, the Cubs and their fan base. We continue to remain optimistic and hopeful because it just doesn’t strike me as anybody’s idea of a good result if the Comcast people don’t end up with the Cubs games and Marquee Sports Network.”

Marquee hasn’t generated a lot of enthusiasm among Cubs fans, according to Chicago media maven Rob Feder. Feder noted that when Cubs owner Tom Ricketts mentioned the Marquee Network at the team’s convention last month, he got booed.

“Here was the head of the company in front of a roomful of hundreds of the most die-hard Cubs fans that exist, who have paid something $350 a ticket to be at this event, and the first time word come out of his mouth mentioning Marquee Sports Network, the entire room boos,” Feder said. “That told you everything.”

Feder said many fans feel the loss of the free games they’ve been able to watch for 72 years on WGN. The network’s rollout has left many unanswered questions about what the network is going to cost, how people are going to get it, what channel it will be on and what do you do if you opt out, he added.

There is also some lingering resentment towards Sinclair, which was criticized last year when it tried to take over WGN’s owner, Tribune Media, because of its political positions and how it operates. “They did not endear themselves in any way to Chicago,” Feder said.

On top of that, the top managers of Marquee are from out of town. “They’re making these decisions on a product that is supposed to appeal to Chicagoans, but they’re flying blind,” Feder said.

Feder credited Marquee for hiring Bob Vorwald, who had been executive producer of WGN Sports, as one move that would make Cubs fans comfortable when they tune in to the new network.

McCarthy said that hiring Vorwald was part of Marquee’s effort to be sensitive to the folklore and long history of the Cubs on TV.

RELATED: Outlook Uncertain for RSN Business Overall

“I think we will more than replace what folks are used to watching on other television outlets here in Chicago,” he added. Even at the Cubs convention, after the owner was booed, when the roster of former Cubs that would be appearing on the network were announced, there was nothing but cheers from the fans, he said. “They were asking ‘How do I get this channel,’ which is what we were hoping to hear.”

McCarthy said he watched the Cubs in New York on the WGN Superstation. And when he arrived in Chicago, he lived in an apartment just beyond Wrigley’s bleachers to soak up the atmosphere. “One of the most dramatic things I’ve been able to do is take someone in the stadium when it’s empty in the winter. People got emotional, because it feels like you’re going back in time,” he said.

Murray Hits Leadoff

On Feb. 22 at 1 p.m. CT, Cubs fan Bill Murray was set to lead off for the network as it signs on with Marquee Debut, a one-hour show introducing the channel. The Cubs’ first exhibition game was to start at 2 p.m. but was pushed back at the last minute. That first day Marquee was to air a documentary on Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks.

During the season, each game will be preceded by Cubs Live and followed by Cubs Postgame Live.

The network’s programming will include a local Chicago sports talk show produced by Stadium, a service partly owned by Sinclair, and Follow the Money, a gambling show from Las Vegas produced by VISN.

The schedule will be filled out with documentaries, player profiles and game replays, plus other programming from Stadium and the Fox Sports Regional Networks, now owned by Sinclair.

Marquee will also air a package of Cubs minor league games that will feature farm teams in Des Moines, Iowa, and South Bend, Indiana, markets where the network is looking for distribution.

McCarthy said Marquee has won over sponsors. Those with high profiles in Wrigley Field and on TV remain on board, including the local Toyota dealers group, AB InBev, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Wintrust Bank. “Those folks didn’t lose interest,” he said. “In many cases they doubled down. They appreciated that there’s one place to buy Cubs telecasts. That wasn’t the case the last few years.”

Marquee has also formed a “unique” relationship with the local plumbers union, McCarthy said. “They were very interested in having a presence within Cubs telecasts and they stepped up,” he said.

After it’s up and running the network also plans a robust outreach to the community. “We look forward to learning more about how we can best deploy our services to help folks in Chicagoland,”

McCarthy said. McCarthy was in Mesa, Arizona, where the Cubs have spring training, early last week, returning for some last-minute tweaks to the graphics they would use for Cactus League games from Sloan Park.

Members of the staff — more than 60 people have been hired — are still getting to know each other and finding a working rhythm for things, like how often the network should be posting on social media.

“We’re learning as we go, but the basics, like the truck and the signal and the announcers, we’ve been prepping for a while and we’re ready, so it will be fun,” McCarthy said.

Marquee Sports Network, the new channel being launched Feb. 22 by the Chicago Cubs and Sinclair Broadcast Group, took a big step by making a carriage deal to be streamed as part of the Hulu+ Live TV lineup.

It is Marquee’s first over-the-top deal with a virtual MVPD (multichannel video programming distributor), which is important because it means Cubs fans can watch games if they cut the cord.

The dominant cable operator in Chicago is Comcast, which has not yet made a deal with Marquee. Comcast also is a part owner of NBC Sports Chicago, which carried Cubs games on cable last year and continues to carry the White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks.

After more than 70 years of getting games for free over-the-air on WGN-TV, Cubs fans have been concerned about their ability to watch Cubs games on the new network, which will carry all local Cubs telecasts, if it does not reach a deal with Comcast and other carriers.

The new deal might put pressure on Comcast, if it wants to avoid having its subscribers cut the cord and stream the games via Hulu+ Live TV, which costs $54.99 for its basic service.

Hulu has been promoting live sports on Hulu+ Live TV with commercials featuring star athletes, including one with New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady that aired during the Super Bowl.

Marquee Sports Network has already made deals with a number of traditional pay-TV providers including DirecTV, Charter Communications, Mediacom, Frontier Communications and RCN.

Financial terms of the new Hulu deal were not disclosed.

Last year, Sinclair bought the 21 former Fox regional sports networks for $10.6 billion from The Walt Disney Co., which owns Hulu. Disney acquired the RSNs — plus a 30% stake in Hulu — when it bought 21st Century Fox last year. Regulators forced Disney ‚ which also runs ESPN — to sell the RSNs on antitrust grounds.

Marquee officials have expressed confidence they will be able to reach a deal with Comcast. Sinclair's carriage deal with Comcast is up later this year, so Marquee could be a part of a larger negotiation.

Marquee Sports Network recently launched a promotion campaign and said it has signed up a number of sponsors.

The network has also announced that its on-air talent will including a return of Len Kasper and Jim DeShaies in the both a number of former Cubs, including Ryan Dempster, Rick Sutcliffe, Mark DeRosa, Carlos Pena, Jason Hammel, Doug Glanville, Dan Plesac, Mark Grace and ex-manager Lou Piniella. 

Marquee Sports Network, the new channel being launched Feb. 22 by the Chicago Cubs and Sinclair Broadcast Group, took a big step by making a carriage deal to be streamed as part of the Hulu+ Live TV lineup.

It is Marquee’s first over-the-top deal with a virtual MVPD (multichannel video programming distributor), which is important because it means Cubs fans can watch games if they cut the cord. 

The dominant cable operator in Chicago is Comcast, which has not yet made a deal with Marquee. Comcast also is a part owner of NBC Sports Chicago, which carried Cubs games on cable last year and continues to carry the White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks.

After more than 70 years of getting games for free over-the-air on WGN-TV, Cubs fans have been concerned about their ability to watch Cubs games on the new network, which will carry all local Cubs telecasts, if it does not reach a deal with Comcast and other carriers. 

The new deal might put pressure on Comcast, if it wants to avoid having its subscribers cut the cord and stream the games via Hulu+ Live TV, which costs $54.99 for its basic service.

Hulu has been promoting live sports on Hulu+ Live TV with commercials featuring star athletes, including one with New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady that aired during the Super Bowl.

Marquee Sports Network has already made deals with a number of traditional pay-TV providers including DirecTV, Charter Spectrum, Mediacom Frontier and RCN.

Financial terms of the new Hulu deal were not disclosed.

Last year, Sinclair bought the 21 former Fox regional sports networks for $10.6 billion from the Walt Disney Co., which owns Hulu. Disney acquired the RSNs--plus a 30% stake in Hulu--when it bought 21st Century Fox last year. Regulators forced Disney--which also runs ESPN--to sell the RSNs on antitrust grounds.

Marquee officials have expressed confidence they will be able to reach a deal with Comcast. Sinclair's carriage deal with Comcast is up later this year, so Marquee could be a part of a larger negotiation.

Marquee Sports Network recently launched an promotion campaign and said it has signed up a number of sponsors.

The network has also announced that its on-air talent will including a return of Len Kasper and Jim DeShaies in the both a number of former Cubs Ryan Dempster, Rick Sutcliffe, Mark DeRosa, Carlos Pena, Jason Hammel,  Doug Glanville, Dan Plesac Mark Grace, and ex manager Lou Piniella 

Sinclair Broadcast Group has formed a joint venture with the Chicago Cubs that will own and operate Marquee Sports Network, a regional sports channel that will be the exclusive home of Cubs baseball games beginning with the 2020 season.

Cubs games have been broadcast by WGN in Chicago for 72 years. WGN’s owner, Tribune Broadcasting, owned the Cubs until the team was sold to the Ricketts family in 2009.

The Cubs had been partners with Comcast in NBC Sports Chicago, which televises Cubs games on cable. NBC Sports Chicago recently announced a deal that extends its partnerships with the Chicago White Sox, Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks.

The new Marquee Sports Network will have to negotiate a carriage deal with Comcast, the dominant cable provider in the Chicago TV market.

“This partnership brings together one of the most iconic sports franchises in the country with one of the largest television broadcasting companies,” said Chris Ripley, president and CEO of Sinclair. “It is hard to imagine any content that is more unique and valuable than the live sports entertainment the Cubs have been delivering to their fans for more than a century. Sinclair’s strength in production, distribution and local sales will support bringing more content to more viewers, all while leveraging the latest technology.”

Sinclair has also reportedly been bidding on some of the Fox regional sports networks, which are being acquired, then divested by The Walt Disney Co. Disney is selling the networks in order for its acquisition of 21st Century Fox to gain regulatory approval.

“Providing an enhanced experience for our fans is at the heart of everything we do. We are excited to better serve our fans with expanded and exclusive programming showcasing our remarkable players, beloved ballpark and storied past,” said Crane Kenney, president of business operations for the Cubs. “Our dedicated ‘Cubs-centric’ network will carry all available Cubs games and feature uncompromising, in-depth and behind-the-scenes coverage.”

Owning their own TV networks appeared to be a gold mine for baseball teams, whose 162-regular season games represents a large volume of high-demand programming. Sports networks commanded high sub fees and were carried on basic tiers, which generates a lot of revenue.

Among the first teams to start their own network was the New York Yankees, which launched YES in 2002. It is now among the Fox-owned RSNs on the block because of the Disney Deal.

In 2014, Time Warner Cable agreed to pay 2013 $8.35 billion over 25 years to the Dodegers to start a regional sports network featuring the team. The network has been a big money loser because it has been unable to secure carriage to more than 50% of L.A. area pay-TV subscribers. The network is now owned by Charter.

With the number of pay-TV subscribers falling and sports starting to move to on-demand and streaming platforms, the value of RSNs appears to be falling, based on the low price the Fox RSNs are expected to fetch.

In Chicago, there were concerns about Sinclair last year when it tried to acquire Tribune Broadcasting last year. The conservative news commentaries that Sinclair compels its stations to air appeared to clash with the philosophy of local management at the Tribune stations.

The deal also comes at a time when racist emails surfaced from Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts and the father of of Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts. Team president of baseball operations Theo Epstein condemned those emails earlier this week.

“The emails were upsetting to read and especially upsetting that some of our fans were put into a position where they had to consider a connection of their favorite team and some of those views,” Epstein said according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

More than 5 million viewers tuned into TBS last night to watch the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Chicago Cubs to win baseball's National League Championship Series, according to Nielsen.

TBS' game five NLCS coverage -- in which the Dodgers defeated the Cubs 11-1 to secure a trip to the World Series -- generated 5.2 million viewers, up 84% over game five of the 2016 Toronto Blue Jays-Cleveland Indians American League Championship series, according to TBS.

The game also drew more than 6.5 million Twitter and Facebook interactions across 2.5 million unique social media accounts, according to Nielsen.

Overall, the Dodgers-Cubs series averaged 6.2 million viewers, up 88% over TBS’ Jays-Indians coverage, according to the network.

TBS scored big ratings numbers for last night’s Chicago Cubs-Washington Nationals National League Division Series deciding game.

The Game 5 telecast -- which saw the Cubs defeat the Nationals 9-8 to move on to the NL Championship Series -- averaged 7 million viewers, according to the network. Overall, TBS' NLDS coverage -- which also includes the three-game Arizona Dimondbacks-Los Angeles Dodgers series -- averaged 3.7 million viewers, up 29% over the network’s 2016 League Division Series coverage.

TBS’ 2017 NLDS coverage also garnered 28% growth in the adult 18-49 demo and increases of 27% in adults 25-54 and 12% in Men 18-34, said the network.

RELATED: FS1 Sets Ratings Record With Yankees-Indians ALDS Finale 

Further, live streaming coverage of the 2017 MLB Postseason across Turner’s TV Everywhere platforms averaged 6.2 million minutes of consumption through the NLDS, up 102% compared to last year, according to TBS. 

The network will telecast the Cubs-Los Angeles Dodgers NL Championship Series beginning Oct. 14.

Comcast’s CSN Chicago said it will live stream the upcoing season's Major League Baseball games featuring the World Champion Cubs as well as the White Sox.

The games will be available to authenticated pay TV subscribers via CSNChicago.com and the NBC Sports app. CSN Chicago also will stream its pre- and post-game shows.

Baseball games were not previously available online because of tangled rights issues and legacy issues related to defining each team’s home markets. Last year, Fox’s regional sports networks made deals to stream games, and now the floodgates seem to be fully open.

“With live streaming currently offered for our Bulls [NBA] and Blackhawks [NHL] telecasts, the addition of MLB streaming further illustrates our commitment to provide our viewers with the most in-depth and compelling Cubs and White Sox content in and out of the home and on any device,” said Phil Bedella, VP/GM of CSN Chicago.

CSN Chicago is a partnership of the NBC Sports Group with the Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks and Bulls.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

When Jamie Horowitz took the reins of FS1 as president of Fox Sports National Networks in 2015, he decided to chart a new course for the three-year-old service. He put a heavy emphasis on opinion-themed, sports-centric talk shows during the network’s daytime block, rather than try to compete with the tried-and-true news/information format that became a cornerstone of its closest competitor ESPN, through its SportsCenter franchise.

“What we realized was the people don’t want to get sports information anymore in the mornings — they’ve already discussed what happened during the game with their buddies and their family and now they want to know whether their takes are as interesting as the shows we have on the network,” FS1 executive vice president of content Charlie Dixon explained. “We knew we had to create habit-forming programming — people want to know what they’re going to get every day.”

Horowitz was intimately familiar with ESPN, having joined the network as a senior producer in 2006 and serving as the network’s executive vice president of original programming and production — launching such programs as ESPN2’s popular sports-debate show First Take — before leaving in 2014 to head up NBC’s Today.

In 2015, FS1 set out to aggressively seek out the biggest names in TV sports talk to sit behind its cameras and microphones. In August of that year, FS1 and Horowitz signed longtime ESPN talk-show host Colin Cowherd to helm the afternoon sports-talk show The Herd.

This past September, veteran sports-talk personality and ex-First Take co-host Skip Bayless and former National Football League star Shannon Sharpe joined the roster for Undisputed, a new morning sports-debate show that firms up a daytime block of original, talk-themed content that Horowitz hoped would appeal to viewers who already knew the day’s breaking sports news of the day but wanted to gain perspective from a variety of different opinions and outlooks.

“Jamie Horowitz is the reason I came over to Fox Sports,” Bayless told Multichannel News. “Jamie took a big risk on me at ESPN and I like to think it paid off, and then fate struck again and I had the ability to reunite with him at Fox. I couldn’t have been more excited about the opportunity.”

The experiment seems to be working. After only two months on the air, Undisputed has grown audience for its 10 a.m. to noon timeslot by 400% year over year and, more importantly from a competition standpoint, has closed the gap to ESPN from a factor of 23:1 to a 3:1 ratio.

Further under Horowitz’s tutelage, FS1 has cut into ESPN’s audience lead on a total-day basis in 2016 from 8:1 to 4:1, in large part to its growth in daytime hours and the success of its primetime live event programming. FS1 set ratings marks in October and was the most watched network in primetime among all cable networks for two weeks straight (Oct. 10-Oct. 23) on the strength of live Major League Baseball playoff coverage — specifically of the Chicago Cubs vs. Los Angeles Dodgers National League Championship series.

Horowitz, in the spotlight as Multichannel News Sports Brand Executive of the Year (sharing honors with WNBA president Lisa Borders), spoke with MCN programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about the evolution of FS1 and what’s next for the national sports service.

MCN:Was there a big adjustment for you working at Fox Sports, particularly after having been successful at ESPN?

Jamie Horowitz: I think I told my boss [Fox Sports president and chief operating officer Eric Shanks] during the interview that I’ve always been a Fox guy, but I’ve just worked other places. There’s a fearlessness to the Murdoch spirit. I think that’s really one of the many reasons I was excited to join Fox is because when we did market research and we asked sports fans what do you want in a sports network, the words they would use — not knowing Fox was asking — were honest, combative and filled with risks. They think they’re describing just a sports network, but they were describing the values that we hold dear here, so I knew this would be a great match.

MCN:Obviously, your biggest competitor remains the well-established ESPN sports brand. How did you want to position FS1 against its biggest competitor?

JH: First, I want to say I love ESPN. Not only did I love it as an employee while working under [ESPN president] John Skipper, but I also loved it as a consumer. I grew up on SportsCenter and, in a lot of ways, ESPN and Fox are in the same business. But to me there are four different components of being a sports network: there’s live events; there’s pre- and post-game shows; there’s news and highlights; and there’s opinion based programs. We’re making a big bet on live events and so is ESPN. We’re making a big bet on pre- and post-game shows; so is ESPN.

ESPN is making a big bet on news and information: 54% of their schedule is SportsCenter. We’re making a big bet on opinion-based programming. The thing that helps build a brand for a company and that eats up a ton of hours are the daily shows. So one of the changes we made when we joined FS1 is that we were going to make a huge investment in opinion-based programming, and that will be our source of differentiation.

When you wake up in the morning, I just think sports fans go to the phone to get the headlines and the highlights, then they turn on the TV to find people with perspective. And that’s the bet we’ve made with Skip Bayless, Shannon Sharpe, Colin Cowherd, Katie Nolan and Jason Whitlock — you are seeing us make these bets time and again.

MCN:How have those bets paid off at this particular point?

JH: We’ve improved the time period by 400% — it looks like a typo. Someone could say its coming from a low base, and I’d say that’s the point. The point is that people weren’t coming and now they are in record numbers. It’s amazing — from 10 a.m. to [noon], we saw the [audience ratio] in that timeslot was 23:1 [compared to ESPN]. That’s like me playing my 7-year-old son in basketball. Now it’s 3:1 — some days its less than 2:1. It’s incredible.

MCN:Some will say that that improvement came at a high cost of acquiring the talent that you just mentioned.

JH: There’s a great misunderstanding about these shows from a financial point of view. They say the talent is highly compensated and that is true. However, that is the lion’s share of the cost to the show. These shows are actually incredibly inexpensive to produce, relative to a traditional news-and-information show that has to send trucks all over the country at all hours trying to gather the news of the day. That’s an expensive operation. We still report the news, except [Undisputed co-host] Joy Taylor will read it and say, “Oh, that’s an interesting story ... I didn’t know Jerry Jones said that to some other news organization.” Then we even play that sound bite, so we’re delivering the same news but adding our opinions about it. So it’s nice when you can say your programming is economically efficient and it rates higher.

MCN:What do you say to critics who say your sports talk shows are all discussing the same one or two stories all day long, just with different voices?

JH: That is a misunderstanding of how TV actually works from people who never actually produced television. The way I try to explain that is to say if you ran a Starbucks and were serving lattes in the morning would you say to your boss, “You know you serve lattes all morning; we should probably stop it this afternoon.” No, you wouldn’t — when coming to Starbucks, there is an expectation of what they are. And the person who comes in at 10 in the morning is not the same person that’s there at three in the afternoon. And so when people say to me that I heard Skip at 9:30 in the morning talking about [Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks Dak Prescott and Tony Romo], and then at 2:30 Colin was talking about the same thing, I say, “Yes!” They are talking to different viewers, and the viewer at 2:30 is just as important than the one at 9:30, and they deserve the most interesting stories of the day.

MCN:So you have daytime covered with opinion-themed programming and live sports events in primetime. Are there any other dayparts you’ll be focusing on in the near future?

JH:Undisputed has generated strong ratings, and, more importantly, they’ve driven up ratings for The Herd, which is up 64% year over year. So you don’t have to be the smartest guy in the room to say if you put a compelling show on in front of The Herd and it’s up 64%, why don’t you do the same thing for Skip and Shannon? So our plan is to at some point in the next couple months start the process of meeting with talent and creating a show to lead into Undisputed.

MCN:How do you see FS1’s overall development evolving a year from now?

JH: Listen, I think the goal for these studio shows is to create habit-forming television and to speak directly to what the viewer wants from those shows. Eric Shanks says it best: I am more optimistic about FS1 today than any day in its history. I share those sentiments and my bet is a year from now I’ll be more optimistic on that day than I was today and every day since then. It’s such a fun time to be at FS1 because we are in such an incredible growth mode.

SIDEBAR: FS1’s Tale of the Ratings Tape

Under the tutelage of Fox Sports National Networks president Jamie Horowitz, FS1 has scored big year-to-year ratings growth both in total viewers and in its target male 18-34 audience, according to Nielsen.

FS1 2016 vs. 2015 (Total Day)*

+14% on Household Rating

+12% on Persons 2+ (average audience)

+10% on Men 18-34 (average audience)

FS1 2016 vs. 2015 (Prime)*

+25% on Household Rating

+24% on Persons 2+ (average audience)

+16% on Men 18-34 (average audience)

*Period for 2016 is 1/1/16-12/4/16; Period for 2015 is 1/1/15-12/6/15

SOURCE : Nielsen, Fox Sports

It was the best of times and the worst of times for Major League Baseball. The Chicago Cubs won the World Series after a 108-year absence, the Cleveland Indians almost won the World Series after a 68-year drought and Fox reversed their long-standing ratings decline for the Fall Classic… AND, got a Game 7 for the ages! Further, in a testament to the influence and social impact team sports can have, a reported 5 million people came out for the victory parade through the streets of Chicago land. The best of times for Cubs fans, no doubt.

But on the morning of Game 7, the worst of times were represented when the Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust action against DirecTV Group Holdings LLC and AT&T for violating Section 1 of the Sherman Act. The complaint states that DirecTV colluded with other Southern California MVPDs against distributing the Dodgers Channel since its inception. Amidst a myriad of intricate details and testimony, the DOJ complaint paid little attention to the fact Time Warner Cable guaranteed the Dodgers a big increase in rights fees, shattering MLB's RSN economics like a fastball does a poorly milled bat. Or that the impasse has protected existing subscribers from an additional $3+ dollar per month on their So Cal bills.

My guess is there are some Cable Hall of Fame MVPD programming execs that understand and, in some private manner, appreciate the extraordinary commitment it takes to withstand sports network carriage battles. And while the inside baseball on the DOJ action is likely a brush back pitch for the pending AT&T-Time Warner merger approval process, they may want to take the time to look at the good ‘ole expanded basic bundle and run some quick numbers on the level of sports expense included in such.

It would also appear that the postgame fireworks are just getting started. Adding to this hardball madness: it's been long rumored that the Cubs' owners want their own RSN. Early this year, TheChicago Tribune’s Mark Gonzales even penned an article headlined “New TV arrangement at forefront of Cubs' business decisions.”Mr. Gonzales’s piece didn’t make any mention of the current standoff between Comcast and YES Network, which has now entered year two and has benched Yankees (and New Jersey Nets) games for nearly 1 million Comcast subscribers in the New York and Hartford DMAs. Likewise, nothing about the extra innings distribution marathon the Baltimore Orioles encountered launching MASN, or any mention of failed MLB team owned RSNs in Houston and Minnesota. No indeed, it’s all good in Wrigleyville, to the victor go the spoils and bring on Bill Murray and CubbyTV!

The longstanding debate over where pro sports teams and their RSNs belong in the MVPD packaging scheme will not be settled anytime soon. Looking back at the carriage history of pro sports, the original concept of offering professional team games via RSNs was created by Mr. Charles Dolan and his Cablevision Sports 3 in 1976, followed shortly thereafter by MSG Network in 1977. Originally, Mr. Dolan offered these as “mini pay services” at a price above that of the entry-level packages. The concept of moving RSNs to the larger and more heavily penetrated basic tiers first surfaced south of the nation’s capital in the outer markets that carried Home Team Sports. Recounting those days with veteran distribution exec Jim Bates, he explained the move to expanded basic as more a function of convenience for the cable operators in and around Norfolk, Va., who didn’t have the marketing muscle to drive them as pay services, and saw the reasonable license fee as an appropriate tradeoff.  

As the 90s rolled around, the idea that there was larger ad sales success to pursue for the RSNs gave way to negotiations for pay to basic re-positioning, and the game was on. Couple that with the strategic consolidation of the RSNs by SportsChannel and then Fox Sports Net, add in Fox’s David Hill’s proclamation that “sports are tribal,” then finish it off with the sales pitch that RSNs were higher rated than ESPN and, well, ESPN is in expanded basic. Game set and match! Wait a minute, that’s a tennis term. How about “a walk off homer” for the RSNs? Much better.  

But enough about the badness of protracted and painful baseball/RSN distribution strikeouts as this will inevitably play out and probably cure itself with the shift in purchasing trends currently disrupting Pay TV. Let’s end on a high note for our nation’s pastime. There is a youth movement in baseball with 15 players under the age of 25 playing in the world series, Bob Bowman and his MLB Advanced Media team have created the best of the U.S. pro leagues’ digital platforms, and commissioner Rob Manfred is a forward thinking leader who is looking to shorten games through various rules innovations.  

People watch winners, and having 5 million Cubs show up for a victory parade may be a strong pitch for placing yet another RSN on expanded basic. If only the Cubs could win it every year!

(Chicago Cubs' victory parade photo by Ryan Dickey on Flickr.com)

Matt Cacciato is an Adjunct Professor in Ohio University’s No. 1-ranked Sports Management Program and founder of American Education Television. Prior to that, he spent 20 years negotiating affiliate distribution agreements for YES Network, Fox Sports Net’s L.A., Arizona and Washington state RSNs, ESPN (including the company’s only RSN effort, ESPN West) and SportsChannel NY. 

The Chicago Cubs’ historical run to the World Series helped propel Fox Sports 1 to its second straight weekly primetime cable ratings win.

FS1 rode the Cubs’ defeat of the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games of the National League Championship Series to earn its first World Series appearance since 1945 to a cable industry high average of 4.2 million primetime viewers during the week of Oct. 17-23, according to Nielsen.

Fox News finished second for the week with 3.3 million, followed by ESPN and CNN, which tied for third with 2.2 million viewers. AMC, which drew big numbers for the Oct. 23 season seven premiere of its zombie-themed series The Walking Dead, finished fifth with 2 million viewers.

MSNBC (1.8 million viewers), TBS (1.6 million), USA (1.4 million), HGTV (1.3 million) and Discover Channel (1 million) rounded out the top 10.

Fox News was the most watched network on a 24-hour basis, followed by Nickelodeon, CNN, MSNBC and ESPN.

Most Watched Cable Shows During The Week Of Oct. 17-23

Date ShowNetwork Total Viewers

10/23 The Walking Dead                                        AMC                            17.0 million

10/19 Presidential Debate (Live)                            Fox News                    11.3 million

10/22 MLB NLCS—Chi. Cubs-L.A. Dodgers          FS1                                9.7 million

10/19 Presidential Debate (Pre-show)                    Fox News                      9.4 million

10/19 Presidential Debate (Live)                            CNN                              8.7 million

10/19 Presidential Debate/analysis                        Fox News                      8.6 million

10/17 ESPN Monday Night Football                      ESPN                             8.3 million

10/23 Talking Dead                                                AMC                              7.5 million

10/20 MLB NLCS—Chi. Cubs-L.A. Dodgers         FS1                                7.1 million

10/18 MLB NLCS—Chi. Cubs-L.A. Dodgers         FS1                                6.5 million

Source: Nielsen

TBS continues to ride the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs into the Major League Baseball post-season ratings record book.

The network’s Oct. 19 coverage of Mets-Cubs NLCS Game 3 averaged 9.2 million viewers, a record for a TBS NLCS game, according to Nielsen Fast Nationals.

The telecast was up 92% over the network’s Game 3 coverage of the 2013 St. Louis-Los Angeles Dodgers NLCS series and 53% up over TBS’ Kansas City-Baltimore Orioles 2014 ALCS series coverage, according to the network.

TBS will air Game 4 of the Mets-Cubs series tonight. The Mets, who are up 3 games to none over Chicago, could eliminate the Cubs with a win.

Last night’s Chicago Cubs-Pittsburgh Pirates Wild Card telecast drew a record 8.3 million viewers, breaking the viewership mark set 24 hours earlier.  

TBS’ National League Wild Card telecast upended the 7.3 million viewers ESPN generated for its Tuesday night New York Yankees-Houston Astros American League Wild Card telecast, according to Nielsen.

The game, which the Cubs won 4-0 over the Pirates, is also the most watched baseball game on cable since the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals-Philadelphia Phillies NL Division series game drew 8.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

Wednesday’s NL Wild Card Game also delivered double-digit increases across Turner’s TV Everywhere platforms with live streaming coverage up 58% among unique visits, 23% in total minutes consumed and 15% in live video starts.

RELATED STORY: 'Home Run Derby' Pulls 4.9 Overnight Rating

Ahead of tonight's Major League Baseball All Star Game on Fox (July 14), the Harris Poll and digital network 120 Sports each released some stats of their own about America's favorite pastime.

Who's on First?
32% of Americans say they follow Major League Baseball (vs. 37% last year). Of those:
- 43% are men; 22% are women;
- 38% live in the West, 36% in the Midwest, 34% in the East and 25% in the South;
- 36% are suburbanites, 26% live in rural areas; and
- 41% are college grads, 39% have attended grad school, 33% have some college and 26% have a high school education or less.

Top 5 Favorite Teams

(1) New York Yankees
(2) Boston Red Sox
(3) Chicago Cubs
(4) Los Angeles Dodgers
(5) Detroit Tigers

Top 5 Picks to Win the World Series

(1) St. Louis Cardinals (17%)*
(2) New York Yankees (11%)
(3) Kansas City Royals (10%)
(4) Los Angeles Dodgers (9%)
(5) San Francisco Giants (7%)

*The last time the Cardinals were the top pick (in 2013), they made it to the series but were defeated by the Red Sox.

Instant Replay Reaction
- 75% of fans are aware of this season's new instant replay rule.
- 61% believe it has slowed down the pace of a typical game at least a little.
- 80% believe it has been good for the game overall.

SOURCE: The Harris Poll online survey of 2,200 adults, of whom 700 follow Major League Baseball; conducted June 17-22

120 Sports's Top 5 Millennial Players From the "MLB 25 and Under" List

(1) Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels, 23
(2) Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals, 22
(3) Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins, 25
(4) Manny Machado, Baltimore Orioles, 22
(5) Anthony Rizzo, ChicagoCubs, 25

Random Notes About the Top 25 "MLB 25 and Under" Players
- 17 are on the 2015 All-Star team rosters.
- They represent 15 MLB teams, with the most coming from the Houston Astros and the St. Louis Cardinals (3 each).
- 16 are from the National League; 9 are from the American League
- 7 are pitchers, 1 is a catcher, 3 play first base, 2 play second base, 4 play third base, 1 is a short stop, and seven are outfielders.
- 14 were first-round MLB Draft picks.

SOURCE:120 Sports

The All Star Game airs live from Great American Ball Park (home of the Cincinnati Reds) at 6 p.m. on Fox.