Tuesday Rockpile: Evaluating Rockies TV, Year 1

Colorado Rockies news and links for Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Back on December 12, 2023, I speculated about the future of the Colorado Rockies TV broadcasts. At the time, the only models we had were MLB’s takeovers of the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres broadcasts.

Now we’re a year in, and while some questions remain unanswered, it’s worth taking a moment to evaluate how the first year of Rockies.TV went.

In terms of the broadcast, it worked pretty much as expected

The entire broadcast team was back — save Jenny Cavnar who left to become a play-by-play commentator for the then Oakland Athletics. That meant another season of Drew Goodman, Jeff Huson, Ryan Spilborghs, Cory Sullivan, and Kelsey Wingert with occasional appearances by Marc Stout. For viewers, the continuity provided some stability.

Gone were elaborate pre- and post-game productions. Instead, most broadcasts did a, roughly, 15-minute, on-field pre-game show and a postgame program that was about the same duration. (If there was a rainout, too bad. Go find something to entertain yourself because “The Club” was not an option.)

Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images

The broadcasts themselves were gorgeous — MLB’s production was top notch — and we got those “behind the scenes” looks into MLB’s New York headquarters during replay reviews.

Just in terms of the broadcast itself, I thought the production was solid.

I do have one suggestion if any Rockies.TV folks are reading: Please make the pregame music loop, well, longer. Whatever that music is, it gets old fast.

The cost was reasonable

For fans who purchased the entire season, the cost was $99.99 with a monthly option of $19.99/month. The price decreased by $10 each month thereafter. For monthly subscribers, that’s less than $1.00/game with a greater savings for those who signed on for the full 162 games.

If you’re a casual fan, probably this wasn’t a deal that interested you. After all, why pay $100 to watch a losing team? But for serious fans, this was a very fair deal.

The portability ruled

Life without MLB blackouts was amazing. There’s no other way to put it. Wherever I was, if I could connect to the internet, I could watch that Rockies. This was baseball as it was intended.

So, yeah, I’ll happily pay $100 for Rockies.TV. For those of you with MLB blackouts, I’m so sorry.

The financial impact remains unclear

We know that prior to the shuttering of AT&T SportsNet, the Rockies were earning $57 million in television revenue, money that was essential to the team’s operations. That total has decreased and will be largely responsible for an expected cut in payroll for the 2025 season, a trend that began last season in anticipation of decreased revenues.

Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

Patrick Saunders wrote about this over the weekend:

But as the Rockies switched to their online streaming service (Rockies.TV, which is produced and distributed by Major League Baseball), revenue took a hit and Colorado’s total payroll dipped to $147.3 million (17th) this past season. Even with retired outfielder Charlie Blackmon’s $13 million contract coming off the books, the Rockies plan to spend less in 2025.


Their payroll reduction is not tied to attendance at Coors Field. Despite back-to-back 100-loss seasons, fans continue to flock to Rockies games and there has been only a slight decline in attendance. The Rockies drew an average of 34,467 fans per game in 2022, ranking ninth in the majors. They drew 32,196 (14th) in 2023, and 31,361 (15th) this past season.

My understanding is that the Rockies will not know their 2024 television revenue until December, but there’s no reason to expect it will surpass $57 million, which will matter going forward.

Closing thoughts

For now, the Rockies television future is set though there were other disruptions last week. Diamond Sports became the FanDuel Sports Network. (More gambling!) Although the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves will be broadcast on FanDuel, the Cleveland Guardians, Milwaukee Brewers, and Minnesota Twins have turned their rights over to MLB for production. Other teams with Diamond Sports have been cut loose, and their broadcast futures remains unknown.

We also know that MLB is interested in acquiring the rights to as many teams as possible, something Commissioner Rob Manfred told John Ourand over the weekend.

What I’d like to see happen over time is, we do our national deals, that we convert some of that local inventory into national inventory. It increases our reach and at the same time, when you think about it, we own the out-of-market rights already, if we control local rights as well, we can sell anything anywhere. Right? You don’t have to just sell in your market. And I’d like to get into a mode, where if it’s not in a national package, the consumer has the ability to go in, buy what he wants to watch, wherever he is, and we get rid of that really questionable business concept of the blackout, meaning not letting people who want to watch, watch.

Clearly, big-market teams, like the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, have zero incentive to enter into such an arrangement given that they earn significant revenue from their own broadcast arrangements.

But, surely, teams like Rockies are hoping for revenue sharing of television broadcast monies — and it’s reasonable to wonder if that’s not where Dick Monfort is right now: Just hoping to triage this part of the Rockies finances until MLB broadcasting takes the next step.

That’s certainly one possibility. Another would be for the Rockies to develop a better on-field product that wins games and incentivizes baseball fans to subscribe to Rockies.TV. Such a move would allow the Rockies to take more control of their financial portfolio rather than waiting for the largesse of MLB.

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The week on the internet

I’ve become a big fan of The Athletics (the baseball team, not the sports magazine) Brent Rooker and his very smart online commentary. Here’s a post from last week:

He is surely going to be posting through the World Series, and I am here for it. I am also very much looking forward to his visit to Coors Field in 2025.

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3 bad contract swaps the Astros could make to facilitate Lance McCullers Jr. trade | Fansided

Try this out: Drew Koch proposes the Houston Astros bring Kris Bryant to Minute Maid Park in return for the Rockies taking on Lance McCullers Jr’s contract. Who says no?

Red Sox Could Acquire Projected $9 Million Rockies Hurler On Trade Block | SI.com

The Sox are looking for additional pitching, and perhaps they should consider making a deal for Cal Quantrill, argues Colin Keane. This sounds like a good plan to me, but perhaps it’s worth considering what happened when Quantrill pitched against the Sox back in July.

Where should the Rays Play? | Defector ($)

Ray Ratto games out the possibilities in that unique Defector style. Why share the article here? First, it’s a good article that reinforces how ridiculous MLB’s “stadium scam” is. Second, whatever stadium the Rays select to begin 2025 will also be home to the Rockies season opener.

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