Phillies Set To Bring In Big Buck$

Ryan Lawrence | Daily News Staff Writer

" The new deal with Comcast SportsNet is for at least 25 years and in the neighborhood of $2.5 billion. It also includes the Phillies' obtaining an equity stake with the network.... Under terms of the new deal, in the upcoming season, some games will be broadcast on NBC10, which is under the same ownership umbrella, but games will no longer air on PHL17."

My Comments About The Article Above
Aside from the fact the Phillies scored big with the Comcast SportsNet I noticed PHL17 was cut out of the deal. PHL17 use to carry all the Sunday Phillies games.

This made me wonder what's going on between NBC10 and PHL17?


On December 10, 2005 PHL17 partnered up with NBC10 to do their news for them. That partnership lasted until September 14, 2012 at which time WPVI (6ABC) took over the newscasts for PHL17. Currently Comcast Cable only carries PHL17 on four of it's cable systems. None of the satellite providers carry it at all outside of Philadelphia.

What's soured?
PHL17 is owned by the 'Tribune'. In July 2013 'Tribune' announced they were spending $2.7 billion cash to acquire an additional 19 local TV stations. Thus making them one of largest TV station holders in the United States. Along with about 42 TV stations (14 of which are in top 20 markets), the 'Tribune' also owns 10 newspapers. This places the 'Tribune' in position to be a threat in the competition for ad revenue. They also own a cable company in Chicago wired into 75 million homes.

'Comcast', I suspect, sees PHL17 as a posing a threat to their ad revenue stream coming from the former PHL17 Phillies broadcasts in Philadelphia. Also keep in mind 'Comcast' as of March 2013 now owns 'NBCUniversal' (the owner of NBC10).

So while nothing nefarious is going on here, it explains the reason why PHL17 has been scratched from broadcasting the Phillies games this year. It also explains why NBC10 is no longer providing news coverage for PHL17.

Lest not your heart be troubled
Tribune's Philly TV station might have taken a small hit, but the 'Tribune' conglomerate is too large for 'Comcast' to ignore nationally. So plenty of other sister stations will continue to be carried in other cities. Many of which are located in key demographic market areas.

I'm sure PHL17 isn't going boohoo even if eventually WPVI were to up and leave either. After all it is the 'Tribune' who owns them. I'd be fairly certain with 10 newspapers and 41 other TV stations PHL17 could manage to come up with a newscast on their own.

While this answer satisfies my first question, instead of being content I'm now left with two others. Why isn't PHL17 producing their own news? Why doesn't ABC owned WPVI see PHL17 as a threat to their advertising revenues as 'Comcast' does?

Perhaps I can answer the latter one. Maybe it's because 6ABC (WPVI) is the powerhouse in Philadelphia news. Channel 6 news has 33% more viewers then NBC10 who is in second place. Now that WPVI is doing PHL17's at 10pm and their own at 11pm they pretty much have the advertising revenue sewed up for themselves when it comes to news.

Of course WPVI's owner Disney/ABC isn't exactly hurting for sports revenue in Philadelphia since it holds a 80% stake in ESPN which 'Comcast Cable TV' pays them to carry. Along with the local ABC network stations, the Disney channel, etc. So I see no reason why 'Comcast' wouldn't want to save a little of the action for themselves in Philadelphia.



Now a lot of you may be saying that I'm over thinking this.
Well that may be true, but that's just how I roll :-)

After all, that's why I use this graphic on my profile

Go Ahead.. Click on it to learn why?