The Baseball Network
The Baseball Network was a short-lived American television broadcasting joint venture between ABC, NBC and Major League Baseball (MLB). Under the arrangement, beginning in the 1994 season, the league produced its own broadcasts in-house which were then brokered to air on ABC and NBC. The Baseball Network was the first television network in the United States to be owned by a professional sports league.
| The Baseball Network | |
|---|---|
The Baseball Network title card | |
| Also known as | Baseball Night in America |
| Genre | Baseball telecasts |
| Presented by | Various |
| Theme music composer | Scott Schreer |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 210 minutes or until end of game |
| Production companies | Major League Baseball ABC Sports NBC Sports |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC NBC |
| Release | July 12, 1994 – October 28, 1995 |
| Related | |
| Major League Baseball on ABC Major League Baseball on NBC MLB Network Showcase | |
The package included coverage of games in prime time on selected nights throughout the regular season (under the branding Baseball Night in America), along with coverage of the postseason and the World Series. Unlike previous broadcasting arrangements with the league, there was no national "game of the week" during the regular season; these would be replaced by multiple weekly regional telecasts on certain nights of the week. Additionally, The Baseball Network had exclusive coverage windows; no other broadcaster could televise MLB games during the same night that The Baseball Network was televising games.
The arrangement did not last long; due to the effects of a players' strike on the remainder of the 1994 season, and poor reception from fans and critics over how the coverage was implemented, The Baseball Network was disbanded after the 1995 season. While NBC would maintain rights to certain games, the growing Fox network (having established its own sports division two years earlier in 1994) became the league's new national broadcast partner beginning in 1996.