In case you were wondering about the decision not to show all of the Florida Marlins game on television, there is reason .
So why aren't the Marlins televising two road games in the next five days -- Saturday at Tampa Bay and Tuesday at Seattle? Shouldn't all the road games be on TV? That would be ideal, but unrealistic (or in Saturday's case, not even possible). Cathy Weeden, general manager of FSN and Sun Sports, said her networks skip 12 games a year because if they televised every game, ``things start getting diluted from what is available from an advertiser standpoint.''
Funny, when I lived in Houston every game for the Astros, yes, all 162 were televised to the local market. If I remember correctly, and I think I do, there were commercials in between every inning and every pitching change and at that time the Astros had lower television ratings than the Marlins.
Of course, it is entirely possible the television folks in Houston didn't understand the economics of what they were doing, though that seems somewhat doubtful to me.
The article goes on.
Unfortunately, seven of the 12 will be on the road. The Marlins-Rays game Saturday was excluded because the 6:10 p.m. start falls within Fox's exclusive Saturday window (4-7 p.m.), during which no other broadcasts are allowed.
Although FSN will televise the Monday and Wednesday games in Seattle -- Florida's first visit to the Pacific Northwest -- the Tuesday game was omitted because late-night starts typically don't generate big ratings. And the June 26 home game with Tampa was left out because 12:10 p.m. games on a Thursday don't attract big numbers, either. Meanwhile, FSN added the Saturday, June 28, night game against Arizona to replace a rained-out Marlins-at-Reds game.
Okay, I get why Saturday's game against the Rays will not be on TV. There is nothing anyone can do about that. And I even understand why a Thursday day game would be left off the schedule. But I'm a little confused why one would drop a game against the Mariners because it is a late night game in the middle of a three game series when two of games will be on TV. The crew and the announcers are already in Seattle and they are presumably still drawing paychecks, so why not televise the game and get whatever advertising dollars you can.
Clearly, I don't understand the television game.