List_of_historical_Major_League_Baseball_television_broadcasters

List of historical Major League Baseball television broadcasters

List of historical Major League Baseball television broadcasters

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Local

American League

More information Team, Stations ...

National League

More information Team, Stations ...

Former teams

Team Stations Years
Boston Braves WBZ 4 (NBC)2/WNAC 7 (CBS; later WHDH)
WBZ 4 (NBC)2		 1948-1949
1950-1952
Brooklyn Dodgers W2XBS, (NBC; later WNBT, now WNBC)4
WCBS 2 (CBS)2
WATV 13 (Ind; later WNET)
WOR 9 (Ind; later WWOR)5
WPIX 11 (Ind)5/WABC 7 (ABC)1/WABD 5 (Dumont; later WNYW)3		 1939-1945
1946–1949
1949
1950–August 16, 1953; 1954-1957
August 17, 1953-October 1, 1953
Kansas City Athletics WDAF 4 (NBC)
KCMO 5 (CBS; later KCTV)		 1958-1961
1962-1967
Milwaukee Braves WTMJ 4 (NBC) 1962-1964
Montreal Expos CBMT 6
CFCF 12
SRC
TVA
TQS
TV Labatt
WAPA 45 (Ind; Puerto Rico)		 1969-mid-1980s
mid-1980s-1991
1969-1999
1982
1995-1998
1987-1989
2003-2004
New York Giants W2XBS (NBC; later WNBT, now WNBC)4
WPIX 11 (Ind)5
WOR 9 (Ind; later WWOR)5		 1939–1945
1947–1948
1949–1957
Philadelphia Athletics WPTZ 3 (NBC; later KYW)2
WCAU 10 (CBS)4
WFIL 6 (ABC; later WPVI)1		 1947-1954
1948-1954
1949-1954
Seattle Pilots KING 5 (NBC) 1969
St. Louis Browns KSD 5 (NBC; later KSDK)
WTVI 54 (CBS; now KTVI channel 2)		 1948-1952
1953
Washington Senators (original franchise) WTTG 5 (Dumont/Ind)3
WTOP 9 (CBS; later WUSA)		 1948-1958
1959-1960
Washington Senators (expansion franchise) WTOP 9 (CBS; later WUSA) 1961-1971

See also

1ABC owned television station.

2CBS owned television station.

3Fox owned television station.

4NBC owned television station.

5Superstation (bold indicates former superstation).

National

Network Years Additional notes
DuMont 1947–1949 World Series only from 1947 to 1949
NBC 1947–1989
1994–2000
2022–2023		 World Series and All-Star Game (beginning in 1950) only from 1947 to 1956 and 1965
Saturday afternoon Game of the Week from 1957 to 1964 and exclusively from 1966 to 1989
Monday Night Baseball games from 1967 to 1969 and 1972–1975
Part of a revenue sharing joint venture with Major League Baseball and ABC called "The Baseball Network" from 1994 to 1995
All-Star Game (in even numbered years) and postseason games only from 1996 to 2000
Weekly Sunday morning games from 2022 on (select games simulcast on NBC)
ABC 1948–1950
1953–1954
1960
1965
1976–1989
1994–1995
2020–present		 World Series only from 1948 to 1950
Saturday afternoon Game of the Week from 1953 to 1954 and in 1960 and 1965 (exclusive coverage)
Monday Night Baseball games from 1976 to 1988
Thursday Night Baseball in 1989
Part of a revenue sharing joint venture with Major League Baseball and NBC called "The Baseball Network" from 1994 to 1995
Select regular season and Wild Card Series games from 2020 on (produced by ESPN).
CBS 1947–1950
1955–1965
1990–1993		 World Series only from 1947 to 1950
Saturday afternoon Game of the Week from 1955 to 1964
New York Yankees games only in 1965
Sporadic, 16 game coverage of Saturday afternoon Game of the Week plus, exclusive network television broadcaster from 1990 to 1993
Fox 1996–present Saturday afternoon Game of the Week beginning on Memorial Day weekend from 1996 to 2006
Saturday afternoon Game of the Week for the full season since 2007
Exclusive network television broadcaster since 2001

Superstations

Main article: Major League Baseball on superstations

Postseason coverage

When the League Championship Series was first instituted in 1969, the Major League Baseball television contract at the time allowed a local TV station in the market of each competing team to also carry the LCS games. So, for example, Mets fans in New York could choose to watch either the NBC telecast or Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner on WOR-TV.

1983 marked the last time that local telecasts of League Championship Series games were allowed. In 1982, Major League Baseball recognized a problem with this due to the emergence of cable superstations such as WTBS in Atlanta and WGN-TV in Chicago. When TBS tried to petition for the right to do a "local" Braves broadcast of the 1982 NLCS, Major League Baseball got a Philadelphia federal court to ban them on the grounds that as a cable superstation, TBS could not have a nationwide telecast competing with ABC's.

Since 2007, MLB playoff games on TBS are not made available[1] to local over-the-air broadcasters in the participating teams' markets.[2] Under the previous contract, ESPN was required to make those games available on the air in local markets. As of 2023, Major League Baseball is currently the only "Big Four" league with regional broadcast rights whose entire postseason is exclusive to national television; the National Basketball Association playoffs and National Hockey League playoffs continue to air their first round games on both national and local television.

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Hiestand, Michael (2007-10-09). "Fox's Buck makes pitch for late show". USA Today.
  2. [2]
    Postseason exclusivity boosted the price for TBS. If MLB continued to allow local outlets to air their team's games, the rights would have been "significantly diluted", according to Neal Pilson, the former president of CBS Sports who now runs a broadcast consulting company. "The TBS sales people now can assure advertisers that this is the only place where people can see the games," Pilson said. "It's a judgment baseball had to make. It had to balance the revenue stream, which is formidable, against the loss of a certain number of homes."
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