Marquee's demise won't impact payroll spending
Because they never plan on spending anyway
When word came out on Monday night that the Cubs had made several changes at their failson[1] of a TV channel, Marquee Sports Network, your first thoughts were probably either, "Who gives a shit?" or "How will this affect their payroll?" Both reactions were perfectly reasonable.
The good news is two-fold. We should definitely got give a shit, and it's not going to affect payroll at all. But that second part isn't just good news, it's also bad news.
Can a TV network be a failson? And if it can, does it make it the Todd Ricketts of TV networks? ↩︎
Firings and reassignments at Marquee became inevitable the moment that Comcast told the Cubs that their little viewed vanity channel was being booted from its comfy spot on Comcast's basic tier of programming to the "Sports and Entertainment" tier. While that sounds prestigious, it was actually a kick to the collective groin of the Cubs' finances.
Under the old deal the Cubs got money every month from Comcast for every Comcast subscriber whether they watched Marquee or not. And, ratings will tell you that most of them did not. The fee is believed to be $4.99 a month, per subscriber. Comcast has roughly a million subscribers in the Chicago market, and that doesn't include their subscribers in other parts of the state and Indiana where they carry Marquee.
But even without those "downstate" subscribers you get a pretty clear idea of just how much money the Cubs were getting per month, all year around, even when the Cubs weren't playing. That's roughly five million bucks a month.
Comcast won't say what percentage of its subscribers pay the extra $9.95 per month for the Sports and Entertainment package which includes NFL Network, MLB Network, NBA TV, RedZone, NHL Network, CBS Sports Network, ESPNews, ESPNU, Outdoor Channel, Cartoon Network, CMT, Crime+, Military History, Turner Classic Movies, and as of earlier this year CHSN, and now Marquee.
But it's estimated to be no more than 40%, and that seems generous. But let's say it's 40%. So now, instead of getting $5 million a month, the Cubs are at most getting $2 million, and that's assuming they are still getting the $4.99 per subscriber, and that's no certainty.
Whatever that loss of revenue is, whether it's $40 million a year or less (or more), it's really going to cut into all of the vast profits of Marquee.
Coming into 2025, MLB Trade Rumors reported that the most recent annual revenue number for Marquee came in 2022 and it was $99 million. The Cubs, for some unknown reason, only own half of their own network. They share it 50/50 with the right wing grifters at Sinclair Broadcasting. Supposedly the Cubs needed a partner to help them get distribution when the network launched in 2020. What the fuck, exactly, does Crane Kenney do?
