Jays broadcasts averaging record 825K viewers so far

[Rhettmatic]

Most-watched Jays half-season on record.

http://media.sportsnet.ca/2016/07/sportsnet-delivers-most-watched-blue-jays-first-half-season-on-record/

The Blue Jays are rolling into the 2016 MLB All-Star break with the team’s best first half since 1992, and Sportsnet is delivering the audiences to prove it. The Blue Jays’ first 81 games of 2016 set a record for Sportsnet as the most-watched first half season in network history, delivering an average audience of 825,000 viewers (2+).

This marks an increase of 51% in comparison to the average audience at the same time last year (545,000).Season-to-date in 2016, 45% of the Canadian population has watched a regular season Blue Jays game on Sportsnet.

The Blue Jays are also music to sports fans’ ears, as Sportsnet 590 The FAN delivered 86% year-over-year growth in the A25-54 demo, and 32% year-over-year growth in the coveted M25-54 demo, for the first 77 games of the season.

Plus, the month of June was a hot one for both Sportsnet and the Blue Jays, with Sportsnet delivering an overall 5.9 audience share and an average audience of 216,000 – a year-over-year increase of 29%. Sportsnet was also Canada’s #1 specialty channel in June and the third most-watched of all Canadian networks (conventional or specialty) for the month.

[Raps_Swingman]

Most-watched Jays half-season on record.

http://media.sportsnet.ca/2016/07/sportsnet-delivers-most-watched-blue-jays-first-half-season-on-record/

The Blue Jays are rolling into the 2016 MLB All-Star break with the team’s best first half since 1992, and Sportsnet is delivering the audiences to prove it. The Blue Jays’ first 81 games of 2016 set a record for Sportsnet as the most-watched first half season in network history, delivering an average audience of 825,000 viewers (2+).

This marks an increase of 51% in comparison to the average audience at the same time last year (545,000).Season-to-date in 2016, 45% of the Canadian population has watched a regular season Blue Jays game on Sportsnet.

The Blue Jays are also music to sports fans’ ears, as Sportsnet 590 The FAN delivered 86% year-over-year growth in the A25-54 demo, and 32% year-over-year growth in the coveted M25-54 demo, for the first 77 games of the season.

Plus, the month of June was a hot one for both Sportsnet and the Blue Jays, with Sportsnet delivering an overall 5.9 audience share and an average audience of 216,000 – a year-over-year increase of 29%. Sportsnet was also Canada’s #1 specialty channel in June and the third most-watched of all Canadian networks (conventional or specialty) for the month.

Likeable team coming off a playoff run not seen since the early 90's mixed in with a massive demographic of fans, the results are impressive but predictable.

Attendance has been higher then usual this early, especially on weeknight games. But the television numbers mixed in with the increased attendance shows a new pocket of fans emerging, very encouraging from a business side.

NOW DON'T F IT UP Sha - PIE - ro

[The_Hater]

Attendance has been higher then usual this early, especially on weeknight games. But the television numbers mixed in with the increased attendance shows a new pocket of fans emerging, very encouraging from a business side.

NOW DON'T F IT UP Sha - PIE - ro

Shapiro and Atkins aren't the concern, they're smart baseball people, the key is the size of the payroll budget that Roger's hands them in the off-season. AA traded so many cost controlled players for expensive vets the past few seasons that it's impossible to keep everyone if the payroll doesn't spike.

[Raps_Swingman]

Attendance has been higher then usual this early, especially on weeknight games. But the television numbers mixed in with the increased attendance shows a new pocket of fans emerging, very encouraging from a business side.

NOW DON'T F IT UP Sha - PIE - ro

Shapiro and Atkins aren't the concern, they're smart baseball people, the key is the size of the payroll budget that Roger's hands them in the off-season. AA traded so many cost controlled players for expensive vets the past few seasons that it's impossible to keep everyone if the payroll doesn't spike.

Tongue in cheek comment...they're smart baseball people, but don't kid yourself, they we're brought in to keep spending within a certain range after AA/Beeston went off the rails a bit.

Rogers sees this as an opportunity to make money, not win at all costs. Regardless of the increase in tickets, merchandise and TV/Radio sales.

[The_Hater]

[
Tongue in cheek comment...they're smart baseball people, but don't kid yourself, they we're brought in to keep spending within a certain range after AA/Beeston went off the rails a bit.

I'm curious on what are you basing this opinion on? Rogers is going to hand management a budget. Management has to spend within that budget. Whether AA is the GM or somebody else I don't see how that figure changes? Shapiro was successful running his previous team on a tight budget but that has nothing to do with the Jay's current situation.

[Raps_Swingman]

[
Tongue in cheek comment...they're smart baseball people, but don't kid yourself, they we're brought in to keep spending within a certain range after AA/Beeston went off the rails a bit.

I'm curious on what are you basing this opinion on? Rogers is going to hand management a budget. Management has to spend within that budget. Whether AA is the GM or somebody else I don't see how that figure changes? Shapiro was successful running his previous team on a tight budget but that has nothing to do with the Jay's current situation.

Former Rogers employee with ties to Jays & MLSE.

Budget would be the same for both GM's. Difference is AA would spend to the top end/potentially over vs. Shapiro who will be more methodical, in my opinion. Him running under a tight budget was a huge selling feature for Rogers.

I'm not saying one way (spend to the max vs. stay under budget) is better then the other. But the AL East dictates that you need to spend to remain competitive, that's just how it's going to be. Since 1990 there have been 2 anomaly's to this rule, 2008 & 2010 Rays.

The fear, and it's real, is the Shapiro regime will not be willing to overspend on certain players to remain competitive and we will repeat the cycle of the JP era.

[The_Hater]

[
Tongue in cheek comment...they're smart baseball people, but don't kid yourself, they we're brought in to keep spending within a certain range after AA/Beeston went off the rails a bit.

I'm curious on what are you basing this opinion on? Rogers is going to hand management a budget. Management has to spend within that budget. Whether AA is the GM or somebody else I don't see how that figure changes? Shapiro was successful running his previous team on a tight budget but that has nothing to do with the Jay's current situation.

Former Rogers employee with ties to Jays & MLSE.

Budget would be the same for both GM's. Difference is AA would spend to the top end/potentially over vs. Shapiro who will be more methodical, in my opinion. Him running under a tight budget was a huge selling feature for Rogers.

I'm not saying one way (spend to the max vs. stay under budget) is better then the other. But the AL East dictates that you need to spend to remain competitive, that's just how it's going to be. Since 1990 there have been 2 anomaly's to this rule, 2008 & 2010 Rays.

The fear, and it's real, is the Shapiro regime will not be willing to overspend on certain players to remain competitive and we will repeat the cycle of the JP era.

I get what you're saying, but not overspending on certain players isn't neccessarily a bad thing. Fans love the big splash, the 'superstar' with the big contract but that that's usually a bad allocation of funds in MLB. But if each GM has the exact same budget, I'm not sure how one is ultimately a positive and the other a negative? They're just different approaches to the same common goal.

As it is, Beeston had is own, self-imposed spending restrictions for years. He refused to give pitchers longer than a 5 year contract. And that's a very good rule IMO as pitchers can fall of the rails quickly.

[Yosemite Dan]

Rogers has zero interest in making this team competitive over the long run because all the extra cash they are making right now off the Jays is going into thier general revenue. They are taking a beating in cable revenue recently because of streaming boxes (both legal and illegal) where many people are cancelling thier cable completely. It's gotten so bad for them that they have actually are pursuing legal action against the little mom and pop shops that sell these Android boxes. Chargng ridiculous prices for cable and forcing people to buy these expensive bundle packages has finally caught up to them.

The Jays are simply propping up thier bottom line. It's not a separate entity for them. Increasing the budget by 20% to get a further 5% bump in revenue is not worth it to them. Shapiro is there for a reason. He's got a 140 million budget and that's all he's getting for the foreseeable future. There is zero chance Jose or EE are coming back and Saunders is a long shot too if he gets a good offer elsewhere in the 10 to 12 million range. Look for guys like Martin to be be shopped hard in the offseason too because of the 60 million still owed to him in the next 3 years. As salaries continue to increase that 130-140 million budget is gonna make us the new Cleveland Indians despite making much more revenue.

[The_Hater]

Rogers has zero interest in making this team competitive over the long run because all the extra cash they are making right now off the Jays is going into their general revenue.

Is this an actual fact Dan? I ask because I honestly don't know. But my impression is that each division of the company is run as a separate business entity and that they're not putting profits into a so-called general revenue pot.

But if the goal is to make a profit on the baseball team, spending those profits on other divisions and/or subsequently cutting the payroll would seem like a bad business decision for that particular branch of the company. Not every multi faceted company uses the profitable divisions to subsidize the unprofitable ones. That can often lead to more divisions losing money.

[Yosemite Dan]

Rogers has zero interest in making this team competitive over the long run because all the extra cash they are making right now off the Jays is going into their general revenue.

Is this an actual fact Dan? I ask because I honestly don't know. But my impression is that each division of the company is run as a separate business entity and that they're not putting profits into a so-called general revenue pot.

But if the goal is to make a profit on the baseball team, spending those profits on other divisions and/or subsequently cutting the payroll would seem like a bad business decision for that particular branch of the company. Not every multi faceted company uses the profitable divisions to subsidize the unprofitable ones. That can often lead to more divisions losing money.

You'll find out in the next year because the cash the Jays are making Rogers right now is incredible and there is no valid reason for then to not increase the payroll by at least 20% next year. The fact that thier TV#s have increased over 50% from last year in the 1st half of the season is mind boggling. Do you know how much they can rake in next year just based on advertising dollars for TV games? Let's say it's a lot. And that's not even factoring in the large increased attendance this year. The Jays have become a complete cash cow for Rogers but unfortunately for fans it's coming at the time where cable revenue has decreased. Anthopoulos left for several reasons but I can guarantee you a big one was the fact that Roger's won't be ponying up any extra dough for the budget anytime soon and it's hard for a GM to operate like that when salaries are continually increasing.

It's like the insurance industry. I don't know about you but my car insurance went up 15-20% this year. The last time my rates went up that much was back in 2010. Coincidentally both 2009 and 2015 saw a big dip in the stock market. When the insurance companies' invested rate of return is negatively affected in a bear market then the consumers are forced to offset it thru increased premiums under the excuse of things like there are more car thefts, living in a bad area for insurance, more claims etc.... All crap. The truth is they didn''t make as much with thier investements as expected and they just want to keep thier bottom line the same as the previous year and if the market won't do it then the customers will with increased premiums. Same for Rogers. They would still be profitable despite a dip in subscriptions but not as profitable as the year before and that implies the company is weakening when it really isn't. Same with banks who gleefully charge you insane bank fees just to keep thier record quarterly profits in line. I went to the bank to put a stop payment on a cheque and they wanted to charge me $15 to do it. The cheque was only $20. And I have been with this bank and have money invested with them for decades. I had to chew out the manager to get it waived.

It's all about greed. MLSE is easier to manage with the Leafs because there's a relatively low NHL salary cap so thier salary costs can always be controlled and maxing out is not an issue because it's a hard cap. Even the Raptors are like that to a certain extent but they will never venture into luxury tax territory if it hurts the bottom line. And Rogers are also part owners of MLSE where they can't manipulate MLSE like they do with the Jays as a sole owner. Also the benefit of the Leafs is they are a rich team in a poor league. With baseball having no cap, it forces owners to have to spend to remain successful and Rogers is not keen on doing that because thier rate of return will suffer at a time when they have thier hands in alot of cookie jars. Sucks to be a sports fan in Toronto with corporate ownership. Rant over.

[Raps_Swingman]

I'm curious on what are you basing this opinion on? Rogers is going to hand management a budget. Management has to spend within that budget. Whether AA is the GM or somebody else I don't see how that figure changes? Shapiro was successful running his previous team on a tight budget but that has nothing to do with the Jay's current situation.

Former Rogers employee with ties to Jays & MLSE.

Budget would be the same for both GM's. Difference is AA would spend to the top end/potentially over vs. Shapiro who will be more methodical, in my opinion. Him running under a tight budget was a huge selling feature for Rogers.

I'm not saying one way (spend to the max vs. stay under budget) is better then the other. But the AL East dictates that you need to spend to remain competitive, that's just how it's going to be. Since 1990 there have been 2 anomaly's to this rule, 2008 & 2010 Rays.

The fear, and it's real, is the Shapiro regime will not be willing to overspend on certain players to remain competitive and we will repeat the cycle of the JP era.

I get what you're saying, but not overspending on certain players isn't neccessarily a bad thing. Fans love the big splash, the 'superstar' with the big contract but that that's usually a bad allocation of funds in MLB. But if each GM has the exact same budget, I'm not sure how one is ultimately a positive and the other a negative? They're just different approaches to the same common goal.

As it is, Beeston had is own, self-imposed spending restrictions for years. He refused to give pitchers longer than a 5 year contract. And that's a very good rule IMO as pitchers can fall of the rails quickly.

Totally agree, if we didn't play in the AL East. But Boston, NY and Baltimore are all willing to spend and spend, thus to remain competitive the Jays have to as well. It's why I referenced division winners over the past 26 years. Overspending to keep an Edwin and Bautista could have a negative impact long term, yes, but if they let them walk they'll end up in the division and facing them for the next few years. Which is also no good.

I think the Beeston 5 year thing was smart. But if Rogers is making all this money(which they are) and Shapiro ends up letting 3 of our most productive hitters(minus JD-MVP) walk. How does this team look next year? Wouldn't you rather overpay to keep Edwin and one of Bautista/Saunders or just hope for the best? Especially after being a treadmill team for the last 20 years?