How Much Money Do Red Sox Announcers Make

The negotiations for the adjacent Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) will characteristic considerable dorsum-and-forth betwixt the players' union and the league's various ownership groups. This is only natural: those are the two parties which must ultimately agree upon the terms of a new deal. But it's as well non an entirely aimless indicate to make, because those negotiations won't be the only ones taking place. The owners themselves could have some fairly contentious discussions in deciding their own strategy, particularly when it comes to sharing revenue among the teams. Big-market teams accept long gained an reward on revenues at the gate, but increasingly, the advantage has come from television receiver revenue from local cable networks. Teams continue to sign billion-dollar deals that include an ownership stake, and determining how to divide that money could prove difficult.

Over the last few years, the Arizona Diamondbacks, Philadelphia Phillies, and St. Louis Cardinals have all agreed to new long-term local idiot box deals with Regional Sports Networks (RSNs). Information technology has been a few years at FanGraphs since Wendy Thurm documented the local cable tv set deals for all MLB teams, and this post aims to provide an update. The work she did helped inform this post also every bit a few others to provide a base for research.

When we hear nearly television deals, nosotros often call back of them in terms of the average annual value they provide. That's a familiar term in baseball, as well-nigh role player contracts are structured to exist paid evenly over the course of the contract. That do is less common under other circumstances, however, with deals often paying a smaller sum at the beginning of a contract and increasing over time. Television contracts are often structured in this 2nd way. To account for that practice, I have estimated 2016 television money by bold a yearly 4% increment in money paid to teams in lodge to find a (hopefully) realistic judge for how much teams are receiving this year. For instance, the Phillies currently possess a 25-year, $ii.v billion dollar deal that begins this year. Instead of bold they will receive $100 million every year, I am assuming they will receive around $60 million this twelvemonth with 4% yearly increases over the grade of the contract.

At that place is a full chart beneath with all the relevant data, but permit's focus on 2016 money first in the graph below.

ESTIMATED MLB TEAM LOCAL TV REVENUE FOR 2016 (1)

I did my all-time to include only contracted acquirement — i.due east. to omit acquirement generated from an buying pale in a network. Even so, due to the lack of publicly available data, it's best to regard these numbers as estimates. Note that, particularly with respect to the Chicago teams, every bit well equally the Los Angeles Angels and Boston Red Sox, that the revenue estimates really might include money from network ownership. Information technology was difficult to parse those figures.

If the graph above leads one to believe that big-market teams are reaping almost of the benefits while the pocket-sized-market teams are left with a relative pittance, that view is supported by market place information. The graph below shows the estimated 2016 local television revenue along with the number of households in a squad's market.

MARKET SIZE AND CABLE TV REVENUE

Given the number of other variables — like how long ago a team signed its contract, the team'due south popularity, its regional appeal, and its ratings — a correlation coefficient of .64 is fairly strong. Especially for the simplicity of the categories utilized on the axes — that is, only the number of households in the primary market and the 2016 goggle box revenue estimates. Teams and networks make their money on getting their broadcasts to appear within the standard cablevision lineup and charging a per-subscriber fee, and the result is that more than homes means more than money to give to teams. And that'southward the not merely big-market advantage.

Teams also reap benefits from owning a stake in the network, bold it'due south profitable (the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers provide counter-examples). More often than not, the bigger-marketplace teams accept been able to negotiate more than favorable setups when it comes to ownership. The graph below depicts the ownership stakes teams have in the network that airs their team. (Note: I was unable to find the percentages for the Diamondbacks and information technology appears the Dodgers own 100% of the network in an unusual setup with Time Warner that does not evidence up in the graph)

MLB TEAM OWNERSHIP STAKES IN CABLE NETWORKS (1)

The Toronto Bluish Jays present an interesting case. They weren't included in the graphs above. Several years ago, the Blue Jays received $36 million from their RSN, but it's difficult to accurately discern how much they've received over the by few years. The Blue Jays are owned past Rogers, which entity besides owns Sportsnet, the channel on which the Blue Jays announced throughout Canada. The Blue Jays are likely only receiving a portion of the boob tube coin while the rest stays with the parent company.

For the well-nigh office, the teams receiving an buying share of the network are in the big markets. Only the San Diego Padres, and maybe the St. Louis Cardinals, are located in what would be considered a small market. The Cardinals might exist in a small-market television-wise; they operate on a larger calibration, however, due to omnipresence. Their deal with the buying pale does not begin until the 2018 flavour.

The ownership shares are incredibly important when it comes to revenue-sharing considering any money gained as an owner of a network is shielded from revenue-sharing, as are the figures that MLB has provided when calculating the players' share of revenue. The losses are not considered as well, which likely hurts the Astros, who struggled to go paid by Comcast on their deal, which is now with DIRECTV through ROOT SPORTS. This shielding of revenue is as well where the dispute between the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Nationals is relevant. The Orioles own a much bigger share of MASN than the Nationals, so every dollar that does not go towards the Nationals' rights fees gets paid in a asymmetric share to the Orioles.

The Yankees used to have a much higher share of the YES Network, but have sold off most of information technology to FOX over the past few years for roughly $2 billion. It's no surprise, then, that the Yankees are voicing their displeasure about revenue-sharing given that much of their revenue used to be sheltered from the balance of MLB through the network, but those sheltered revenues accept been decreasing.

In all, MLB teams are receiving an estimated $1.5 billion on their local cablevision deals without considering ownership interests. The nautical chart below shows the 2016 estimates, the full deal, if known, the start and end of the bargain, the ownership stake, and a link with more information.

MLB Team Estimated Television Contracts

	2016 Revenue	Deal	Deal Start	Deal End	Ownership	More Info
Dodgers	$204 G	25/$8.35 B	2014	2038	100%	LINK
Angels	$118 Thousand	20/$3 B	2012	2031	25%	LINK
Yankees	$98 M	30/$5.7 B	2013	2042	20%	LINK
Crimson Sox	$80 M		2006		80%	LINK
Mariners	$76 Thousand	xviii/$1.8 B	2014	2031	71%	LINK
Cubs	$65 Thousand		2004	2019	20%	LINK
Phillies	$60 M	25/$2.5 B	2016	2040	25%	LINK
Astros	$lx Yard	twenty/$ane.six B	2013	2032	No	LINK
Rangers	$56 M	twenty/$ane.6 B	2015	2034	10%	LINK
Tigers	$55 Yard	x/$500 M	2009	2018	No	LINK
Giants	$54 M	25/$ane.75 B	2008	2032	30%	LINK
White Sox	$51 M		2004	2019	20%	LINK
Diamondbacks	$fifty M	20/$one.five B	2016	2035	Yep	LINK
Mets	$46 M	25/$one.3 B	2006	2030	65%	LINK
Nationals	$46 Thou	Arbitration	2006	2028	eighteen%	LINK
Orioles	$46 Yard		2006	2028	82%	LINK
A's	$41 Yard	21/$one B	2009	2029	No	LINK
Indians	$40 Thou	10/$400 M	2013	2022	No	LINK
Padres	$39 Thousand	xx/$1 B	2012	2031	xx%	LINK
Twins	$37 M	12/$480 M	2012	2023	No	LINK
Braves	$35 M		2008	2027	No	LINK
Cardinals	$33 M	15/$1 B	2008, 2018	2017, 2032	thirty%	LINK
Reds	$30 One thousand		2007	2016	No	LINK
Pirates	$25 Thousand		2010	2019	No	LINK
Brewers	$24 M		2013	2019	No	LINK
Royals	$22 M	12/$240 Chiliad	2008	2019	No	LINK
Marlins	$20 M	fifteen/$270 M	2006	2020	No	LINK
Rockies	$20 M	10/$200 Thou	2011	2020	No	LINK
Rays	$xx M		2009	2018	No	LINK
Bluish Jays					100%	LINK