4 replies to this topic

[Oriole85]

New York Times: Which Team Do You Cheer For? An N.B.A. Fan Map

 

[mweb08]

It's interesting to see so many Heat fans in Ohio.

 

Also, Baltimore doesn't really root for the Wizards as they aren't even in the top 3 teams in the city or the county.

[Oriole85]

It's interesting to see so many Heat fans in Ohio.

 

Also, Baltimore doesn't really root for the Wizards as they aren't even in the top 3 teams in the city or the county.

Wait a few years, this team just won a second round game for the first time in over 30 years. I know *some* from Baltimore will never support a DC team, but I'm guessing if the Wizards are good you'll see a surge in popularity like we saw with the Caps. (speaking of which, I'm looking forward to that hockey map). 

[BSLChrisStoner]

It's interesting to see so many Heat fans in Ohio.

 

Also, Baltimore doesn't really root for the Wizards as they aren't even in the top 3 teams in the city or the county.

 

Some percentage in parts of the Baltimore Metro (Anne Arundel, Howard, Carroll Counties)... but I'm surprised the Wizards are not among the Top 3 most popular in Baltimore City and County.

[Matt_P]

Some percentage in parts of the Baltimore Metro (Anne Arundel, Howard, Carroll Counties)... but I'm surprised the Wizards are not among the Top 3 most popular in Baltimore City and County.

 

I haven't had a chance to look at the map yet but that's bad news for Comcast. Especially if the same is true for the Capitals (I bet it is).

 

Here's the deal: CSN Mid Atlantic charged $4.33 per subscriber and made about $36 million in advertising revenue in 2013. They were able to do so for a number of reasons. 

 

1) The Wizards and Capitals have strong demand in the Washington Region.

 

2) Historically about 70% of cable subscribers in Washington have Comcast as their provider. If Comcast has a sports channel that charges a lot of money then they make a huge profit.

 

3) MASN told the satelite TV providers that if they want to broadcast MASN in Baltimore they need to do so in the rest of the Orioles/Nationals TV market (North Carolina, Virginia and parts of Philadelphia). Presumably CSN-MA did the same thing.

 

4) Comcast doesn't want satelite TV to broadcast their content. Comcast has been able to legally deny satelite TV providers the ability to carry CSN Philadelphia and they've fought hard to keep that up. They have been unable to do this for CSN-MA so Comcast is doing the next best thing and charging a fortune for their station. Either the satelite TV providers agree to get ripped off or they lose customers when they can't provide the station. Comcast wins either way because their station will be hugely profitable even if satelite TV refuses them carriage.

 

5) Baltimore signed a contract with Comcast basically making Comcast the exclusive cable provider in the city from 2004 to 2016. I believe Baltimore thought that by doing so that they would get better service. Whoops. Historically 95% of cable subscribers in the Baltimoire region have Comcast as their provider.

 

6) Given Comcast's strong control over the core regions of Baltimore and Washington, as well as the fact that they do have some subscribers in Central and Southern Virginia, they can pretty much charge whatever they want because they don't need any other cable providers to pick up their station. They'll make a huge profit. Fewer people are subscribing to CSN-MA in response to the increase of prices.   

 

The city of Baltimore isn't happy with the status quo and is looking into building their own cable network. I know it will provide internet and possibly TV. If the Wizards aren't very popular in Baltimore then the city of Baltimore will either force CSN-MA to lower prices or just won't pay the carriage fee. Could potentially cost CSN-MA $70 million a year and that can only help MASN.