The Cardinals are joining the Blues in returning some of their locally produced games to over-the-air television, announcing early Thursday that at least 10 contests this season will be shown on KMOV (Channel 4) and/or Matrix Midwest (Channel 32).
It will be the first time since 2010, when KSDK (Channel 5) had some Sunday games, that any Cardinals local telecasts will be on “free TV.” In the ensuing years, over-the-air Cards coverage had been limited to contests shown regionally or nationally by Fox (KTVI, Channel 2 locally).
The first contest in the KMOV/Matrix package is set for April 11, when the Cardinals entertain Philadelphia at 7:15 p.m. These telecasts also will air on cable’s FanDuel Sports Network, which produces them and remains the team’s anchor telecaster. That’s unlike the three over-the-air Blues games this season, which are not on FanDuel.
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KMOV and Matrix are owned by Gray Media, and the games also will be carried on over-the-air channels it has in other markets throughout the Midwest. That was a key selling point in the deal.
“We’ll be in eight states, so pretty much our entire TV territory, which is great,” said Anuk Karunaratne, the team’s senior vice president of business operations.
Those states are Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, Arkansas, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky and Oklahoma, and Gray says stations on that network reach nearly 7½ million households.
Among the markets in which the games are set to be shown over the air are Cape Girardeau and Springfield in Missouri; Rockford, Peoria and Quincy in Illinois; Sioux City, Cedar Rapids, Ottumwa, Davenport, and Mason City in Iowa; Memphis, Tennessee; Jonesboro, Arkansas and Evansville, Indiana.
This expands the Cardinals’ rapidly growing television coverage options, as for the first time this season the club also is selling streaming of its games directly to fans That's in addition to continuing to have the entire local television schedule airing on what last season was Bally Sports Midwest and now is FanDuel. The arrival of over-the-air TV and direct-to-consumer streaming is designed to fill some of the gaps on FanDuel’s distribution map.
“Even with streaming, a big goal was how can we maximize our reach and get our games in front of more people — not just in ӣƵ, but across our entire footprint,” Karunaratne said. “We’re hoping this will be just one other thing in the tool kit for people to be able to access our games.”
Six over-the-air games have been scheduled, all on Fridays, and the club would like to continue that Friday focus with the remainder of its over-the-air schedule that is to be announced as the season progresses.
“Our hope would be that they can be on a consistent day,” Karunaratne said, although scheduling circumstances could impact that. “There’s been no decision yet.”
The Cardinals talked with other stations in the market about the over-the-air package, but Gray’s reach with its network of Midwest outlets in addition to its stations in the local area was highly attractive to the club.
“We felt like the fact they have both the main channel (KMOV) and Matrix Midwest (in ӣƵ) and a strong outer market footprint of stations they own, that lines up really well with our core” goals, Karunaratne said. “That’s what led us to choose them.”
KSDK (Channel 5) general manager Alicia Elsner and KTVI (Channel 2)/KPLR (Channel 11) GM Kurt Krueger had expressed interest in adding the Cardinals — as they had done with the Blues. Despite not landing either, Krueger is pleased for the over-the-air TV business in general.
“I’m just happy teams are going back to broadcast TV,” he said.
JD Sosnoff, who runs Gray’s ӣƵ operations, could not be reached for comment. But he did issue a statement.
“KMOV and Matrix Midwest are proud to serve our viewers in ӣƵ and across the region, by bringing iconic Cardinals baseball back to free, over-the-air broadcasts,” he said. “... We are ready to bring the excitement from Busch Stadium to the fans.”
Like with the Blues, it is believed the Cardinals are not receiving a rights fee from Gray.
“I think it’s it’s fair to say ... this is really being done more for marketing reach than anything else,” Karunaratne said.
Also like with the Blues, this will be an experiment for the Cardinals and Gray to gauge viewer interest.
“It’s a one-year agreement,” Karunaratne said. “... So in some ways I think this is a test, we’re going to learn about how this fits into the mix. But we hope it’s successful and that it’s something we continue.”
Today’s Ten Hochman sports video — brought to you by Cardinals spring training home Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter, Fla. — celebrates Mardi Gras with NOLA connections to STL! And as always, Ben Hochman chooses a random Cards card!
