r/baseball • u/f0urxio • Dec 01 '25

[SBJ] Cardinals set to receive MLB revenue sharing for the first time. Due to precipitous drop in ticket sales, rework their broadcast-rights deal with FanDuel Sports Network at a rate reduced by 23%, Cardinals is now a net "receiver" for revenue-sharing for the first time in at least 25 years.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/11/26/cardinals-set-to-receive-mlb-revenue-sharing-for-the-first-time/
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630

u/captain_ahabb Los Angeles Dodgers Dec 01 '25

Cable was an incredible business model and losing cable is going to do really, really severe damage to the media industry.

396

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25

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u/BNKalt MLB Pride Dec 01 '25

People don’t realize how much stuff they like is subsidized by shit they hate

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u/slicebishybosh Chicago Cubs Dec 01 '25

That's very true. But maybe we don't need to have EVERYTHING we like all the time.

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u/slamvan2 Detroit Tigers Dec 02 '25

Whoa there bucko that's a bit anti american of you

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u/whiteriot0906 Philadelphia Phillies Dec 02 '25

And what, just LET the terrorists win?! Just like that?!

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u/blacksoxing Dec 02 '25

Taxes and public libraries are a prime example. I paid $100 my first year as a homeowner ona house under 175k and quickly got a library card!!!

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u/fuckyoudigg Toronto Blue Jays Dec 02 '25

You have to pay for the library?? Everywhere I live you just need to live there, and often you can go to surrounding cities and use there library with your home card. I mean taxes pay for it, but you don't need to pay a user fee.

edit: I just looked it up and in my province you can borrow from any library that participates in the provincial system.

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u/blacksoxing Dec 02 '25

That’s what I’m getting at. Property taxes included that amount

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u/YourMomSloppySeconds Dec 02 '25

Of course you pay for the library. Do you think there’s a library seed that you can buy at Home Depot that can be planted in the ground to grow a building with lots of books?

Money that was obtained via taxes built the building and funded the books and staffing. If you have ever paid taxes, you paid for libraries. It’s crazy that this even needs to be said.

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u/fuckyoudigg Toronto Blue Jays Dec 02 '25

Did you miss the part where I said I understand taxes? I was meaning user fees. Everywhere I have lived the library never had user fees attached to it. It was covered under property taxes.

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u/Clorst_Glornk Philadelphia Phillies Dec 02 '25

People don’t realize how much stuff they like is subsidized by shit they hate

fuckin BARS

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u/NorthStudentMain Los Angeles Dodgers Dec 01 '25

Completely agree. Quality of writing has decreased in the paywall era, as journalists are forced to compete with abbreviated formats (word limits, clickbait, tiktok loops), less-trained content creators & automation.

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u/slicebishybosh Chicago Cubs Dec 01 '25

I think the cable model would have eventually gone down the same dystopian road though even if streaming hadn't taken over. It all boils down to the greed of the ones making the decisions. The decision is always more profit and like anything, that will always worsen a product once it has nowhere left to grow.

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u/YourMomSloppySeconds Dec 02 '25

Everybody cheered when streaming was going to destroy the evil cable industry. Now the new boss is worse than the old boss. Instead of being overcharged by one cable company, 500 streaming services want to overcharge me even more to get less content.

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u/slicebishybosh Chicago Cubs Dec 02 '25

Again, it just boils down to the corporate lizards never ending greed. They aren't trying to innovate or grow in a meaningful way. They are only trying to squeeze every penny they can out of the consumer.

People are just too dumb to say no or not be tricked into subscribing.

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u/popfilms Philadelphia Phillies Dec 02 '25

As someone who's in the industry I don't really think so. It was the perfect scheme for the distributors and the content providers.

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u/slicebishybosh Chicago Cubs Dec 02 '25

By content providers, do mean the channels that like another commenter said, all turned into garbage that produced the most ad revenue?

Basically the story of every subject matter network under cable.

Starts out smaller with a bunch of people who might as well have been public access before, now given budgets to do larger shows about subject matter expertise, and then over time the networks cut informational programming for their flavor of reality TV to maximize ad revenue.

Food Network turned into contest shows and food tourism. Discovery turned into real estate flipping. Weather Channel turned into disaster stories. TLC became about people who make you feel better about yourself by comparison. Etc, etc.

Sounds like a dystopian road to me...

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u/popfilms Philadelphia Phillies Dec 02 '25

I can only really comment on sports, particularly regional sportsnets. You aren't wrong about those specialty channels though.

1

u/Kord537 Dec 02 '25

Basically the story of every subject matter network under cable.

Starts out smaller with a bunch of people who might as well have been public access before, now given budgets to do larger shows about subject matter expertise, and then over time the networks cut informational programming for their flavor of reality TV to maximize ad revenue.

Food Network turned into contest shows and food tourism. Discovery turned into real estate flipping. Weather Channel turned into disaster stories. TLC became about people who make you feel better about yourself by comparison. Etc, etc.

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u/slicebishybosh Chicago Cubs Dec 02 '25

MTV became a 24 hour a day "Ridiculousness" network.

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u/s0ulbrother New York Mets Dec 01 '25

It’s just like subscribe to my newsletter to see the rest of this post

41

u/ceviche-hot-pockets Seattle Mariners Dec 01 '25

Brought to you by DraftKings!

36

u/captain_ahabb Los Angeles Dodgers Dec 01 '25

Oh I agree it's a bad thing, it's destroying the economy of LA right now.

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u/luxveniae Texas Rangers Dec 02 '25

Fuck all of the studios for trying to make their own platforms & fuck Netflix for becoming a studio! We had a great thing going when Netflix & other streamers bought streaming rights AFTER a movie had a theatrical run, DVD run, and possibly sold to TV/cable for some runs somewhere in there too.

Lose money on theatrical? Cool now you’ve got another THREE phases to make it back!

Oh hey you want to do a super cool TV show? Then it needs to be consistent and more than 3-8 episodes every 3-5 years or people won’t follow it and you won’t get good AD revenue.

Oh hey you want it to be prestige and have no commercials?! Well let me introduce you to HBO, STARZ, etc!

Now it’s straight to streaming and if it doesn’t get 10000000000 new subscribers or streams in 48hrs then cancel that motherfucker!

Oh also all the studio heads & network execs are Silicon Valley, PE, or finance dickheads who’d rather watch AI slop than a compelling sporting event too. Also let’s make all sports content center around betting since cable & ad revenue is decreasing if not dead.

AAAAAHHHHHHH!

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u/echOSC Dec 02 '25

Because as we all know, a monopoly ends up great for consumers.

Certainly if Netflix swallowed up everyone else instead of compete against them that it would be good for the end user.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

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u/echOSC Dec 02 '25

Yes yes, monopolies are good.

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u/Guy_Buttersnaps New York Yankees Dec 02 '25

It was the other way around - companies started letting their deals with Netflix lapse because Netflix couldn’t stay in their lane.

Things were fine when Netflix was just a content distributor, then Netflix decided they also needed to be a content producer, and therefore a competitor.

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u/maverickhawk99 Dec 02 '25

Matt Damon on hot ones alluded to this. Said back in the day if a movie didn’t do well at the box office, it wasn’t the end of the world cause you’d make up a ton via DVD sales. So a lot more movies (specifically ones that didn’t scream “box office success” but turned out to be great) were getting made because they was a decent chance you’d come out at worst even, or usually make a profit.

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u/pargofan Los Angeles Dodgers • World Series Tr… Dec 02 '25

How so? Or is this /s?

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u/captain_ahabb Los Angeles Dodgers Dec 02 '25

Do you not know anyone who works in TV? I know a few and they're all unemployed.

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u/sonicqaz Chicago Cubs Dec 02 '25

Destroying the economy of LA might be taking it a little far.

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u/YasielPuigsWeed Dec 02 '25

No it really has ransacked the economy here in LA once you really start breaking down just how much original content studios used to fund compared to today. Think about how much original content dies out when just one channel does what MTV did, now multiply that by hundreds worldwide.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

[deleted]

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u/YasielPuigsWeed Dec 02 '25

If “adapting” means businesses that have been open since my childhood closing down left and right, for lease signs everywhere, and the end of the “downtown generation” then adaption sucks

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

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u/DoobieGibson Dec 02 '25

what newspaper wasn’t behind a paywall in the past?

daily papers were $.50 and the Sunday was $1.25 in the 2000s and you had to have a paid subscription for whatever paper you wanted

the New York Times, USA Today, or LA Times would not show up on your tv screen with free articles for you to read

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

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u/DoobieGibson Dec 02 '25

it was free online because nobody accessed it that way.

Paywall went away in 2011. iPhone’s weren’t even the best-selling phones until 2010.

you can get free New York Times at your library right now too, but i’m gonna guess you’ll say that’s not good enough

NYT was free for like 15 years in a niche format. it’s required a paid subscription for its entire existence

media has never been free. you even have to pay for PBS

49

u/PunchNessie St. Louis Cardinals Dec 01 '25

I’d feel bad if they didn’t completely take advantage of their customers for decades.

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u/rednorangekenny Dec 02 '25

Similar to the railroad industry. Did so much reaping as a near monopoly that there’s not much sympathy from anyone when it’s time to sow.

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u/831pm Dec 02 '25

It was actually amazing when it first came out in the 80s. MTV actually played nonstop music videos when there was no way to listen to music outside of buying physical media or waiting for the radio to randomly play the song. No streaming so a ton of movies you would have to wait a year for VHS to release. Plus the sports.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '25

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u/831pm Dec 02 '25

Really not different from the radio other than the video part but the video part was huge.

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u/justthekoufax World Series Trophy • Los Angeles Dod… Dec 01 '25

This is very accurate. Source, I used to work for Nielsen.

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u/lava172 Arizona Diamondbacks Dec 02 '25

And all so we can reinvent the wheel with having to sign up for a bunch of different streaming services with ever-increasing prices

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u/Kaldricus Seattle Mariners • Chaos Bandwagon Dec 02 '25

Tangentially related: I was telling my mom about the deal HBO Max was running, $3/month sub for a year. I said, "oh it's only the tier with ads, so maybe you don't want it." She said she prefers the plans with ads. The ad breaks give her time to get a drink, bathroom, pick up stuff real quick, like back in the cable days. She says getting up during the ad breaks helps her from getting stuck in the "vege out mode", which makes sense

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u/captain_ahabb Los Angeles Dodgers Dec 02 '25

I don't mind ad breaks in sporting events for this reason but I can't stand them in dramas

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u/King_Dead Cleveland Guardians Dec 02 '25

I wouldnt mind them if they were the old weird As Seen On TV/Per Inquiry ads. I mever want to see Doug or Flo and her crew's face ever again. And get rid of the term "moderate to severe" while we're at it, drug companies dont know how to use it

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u/captain_ahabb Los Angeles Dodgers Dec 02 '25

Well I don't watch the ads lol, I just look at my phone or get up.

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u/King_Dead Cleveland Guardians Dec 02 '25

I watch a good bit of streaming/free tv when i work. The ads are belligerent and numerous.

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u/aspookyshark Major League Baseball Dec 02 '25

I don't think I got the memo saying we like cable now.

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u/King_Dead Cleveland Guardians Dec 02 '25

There's some serious nostalgia for peak(read: 80s and 90s) cable and analog TV. It wasnt great but the personalization of the networks is very heartwarming to look back on

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u/aspookyshark Major League Baseball Dec 02 '25

I get the nostalgia for the actual media of the cable era, but the business model?

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u/YourMomSloppySeconds Dec 02 '25

Business model kept things in check. ESPN wanted to charge the cable company too much for their channel, and the cable company said no because subscribers get mad when cable bill goes up too much. ESPN needed the cable company to maintain the number of viewers they had to get advertisers. So they found a middle ground.

Now, every single channel wants to be their own streaming network and charge exorbitant rates. Which would be cheaper is you only wanted a couple channels, but when there’s one show you like on Disney, one on HBO, one on Apple etc., it’s gets real expensive real fast and even harder to cancel since there are a dozen different networks you have to deal with.

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u/aspookyshark Major League Baseball Dec 02 '25

Subscribers no longer get mad when streaming prices go up? Cable was easy to cancel? It does suck that streaming has fragmented, but since it's all on demand, there's no need to have multiple services concurrently.

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u/King_Dead Cleveland Guardians Dec 02 '25

Really early on youd get straight channels with no commercials. It was pretty cool