Dan Caesar | Post-Dispatch
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The new, controversial era in Blues broadcasting gets its first prep game Saturday night when the team opens its exhibition schedule. But the man who will be doing the play-by-play doesn’t expect to have much difficulty making the transition once the regular season begins.
The Blues have gone to a simulcast model, dropping separate radio and television calls in favor of using the same audio on FanDuel Sports Network’s telecasts and on its radio network, led by WXOS (101.1 FM) in St. Louis.
Ousted in the process were longtime Blues TV play-by-play broadcaster John Kelly, who since has been hired by FanDuel Sports Network to do Los Angeles Kings games, and analyst Jamie Rivers, who will be on the roster of Blues TV pregame, between periods and postgame commentators. Also out is studio anchor Alexa Datt.
Chris Kerber (play-by-play) and Joey Vitale (analysis), who had been doing the club’s radio broadcasts, now also will be heard on television.
The Blues are set for six exhibition games, all of which will air on radio but none on TV — although the in-house video will be streamed on stlouisblues.com and the Blues app, with the call of Kerber and Vitale providing the soundtrack for five of those (the exception is Sunday, when the Columbus radio feed will be used).
Kerber, who is entering his 26th season with the Blues, isn’t planning to use the exhibition broadcasts to make any drastic alterations to the way he and Vitale call the action because of the manner in which they have handled their radio duties in their six seasons together.
“I don’t think it’s going to change much on my end,” Kerber said this week. “Joey and I — and Chaser (Kelly Chase) and I for a very long time before that — frankly had a little bit more of that conversational, looser approach that would be suited for TV then a traditional call for radio.
“We’ve mixed in things when things need to be mixed in. We’re focused and right on top of things in dramatic moments, so I don’t think much will be different there. I think the important thing for people to know is the folks that we have behind the scenes, (TV producer) Tim Pabst and (TV director) Phill Mollica and the entire crew is so experienced in what they do.”
Wouldn’t it be beneficial for at least one of these exhibition games to have the whole TV crew together, as well as the radio team, to get used to working together before the season opens on Oct. 9 with a home game against Minnesota?
“No,” Kerber said. “I think the conversations that we’ve had and the amount of effort that people have put in that, I think we’re going to be in really good shape. So no, I’m not concerned at all. Joey and I are in great hands as we make the transition.”
Baseball’s TV future
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, speaking this week at Front Office Sports’ Tuned In event, said several media-rights deals that would begin next year have been agreed to in principle.
“We still have issues that need to be resolved,” he said. “They are the agreements that have been reported publicly, and we hope to push them across the finish line.”
The key changes that have been reported are that “Sunday Night Baseball” will move from ESPN to NBC and its Peacock streaming outlet, along with wild-card playoff games, while ESPN will add midweek telecasts. Also, the Home Run Derby would switch from ESPN to streamer Netflix.
“We feel like we made real progress,” Manfred said. “We feel like ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ on broadcast television is important.”
ESPN also would gain local rights to teams that were squeezed out in Diamond Sports Group’s regional sports network bankruptcy case that was settled late last year — the Padres, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Guardians and Twins. MLB has been producing those telecasts.
These deals would serve as a bridge for the next three years, until all of MLB’s national media rights are set to end after the 2028 season. When talks begin for new long-term contracts, there is expected to be the push and pull between what likely will be more money offered by streaming operators vs. making games more widely available through broadcast television.
“Maybe the deciding factor … we need (to have an) offering that is fan-friendly in terms of fans knowing and being able to find the games on a regular basis,” Manfred said. “That discoverability issue is really going to be important going forward.
“There will be more games available in national packages is my bet, but I could be wrong about that. We’ve got three years to go. I also think that local is not going away. We’re going to need a local solution for those games that are not available in national packages.”
Manfred was asked about MLB’s future with the troubled regional sports networks, such as the FanDuel-branded outlet locally.
“It’s a very challenged model as a result of the cord cutting,” he said. “I do think for a period of time, the RSNs will continue to play a role. The question is: What comes next? That’s the more interesting question, I think.”
He reiterated the eventual importance of making it easier for fans to find their favorite team’s games rather than sifting through a maze of outlets that now carry MLB contests.
“For me, the ideal would be — for example — having either an MLB Network-based or digitally based fallback where you always know that if it’s not a national game, ‘I’m going to find it in one of these two places.’ We’d like to make it easier on the fan. They are the most important party in terms of our business.”
Chiefs’ charge
The Kansas City Chiefs have been the kings of all of St. Louis television in terms of drawing viewers in recent seasons and are off to a rousing start again this year.
Their opener was exclusively streamed by YouTube two weeks ago, and viewership figures for St. Louis were not available. But the numbers are in for KC’s first game of the season that was shown on conventional television, and the results again are massive.
According to Nielsen, which tracks viewership, 19.1% of the local market tuned in Sunday to KTVI (Channel 2) for Fox’s national telecast of the game. It was a blockbuster, a rematch of last season’s Super Bowl, and the result was the same — an Eagles victory.
That is believed to be the highest-rated program on St. Louis TV since the Super Bowl.
To put things in further perspective, the Chiefs’ first televised game last year drew a 17 rating in St. Louis, and the season before, it was 15.4. Both were prime-time Thursday games to kick off the entire league season. This year’s was a 3:25 p.m. Sunday start.
The Chiefs, who have had narrow losses in their two outings, are in the national spotlight again this weekend when they are on the road to face the New York Giants on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.” Kickoff is set for 7:20 p.m. (St. Louis time), airing locally on KSDK (Channel 5).
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Dan Caesar | Post-Dispatch
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