Consider that the majority of these broadcast rights are at or below the current league minimum player salary! Some things don't change, however. Beer companies are still the largest advertisers, although most were single-market operations, not the mega global breweries of today. What has changed is that tobacco companies used to be big advertisers, too. Legal regulations have confined Big Tobacco to the dustbin of advertising history. And while it's no surprise to see a fair share of automobile manufacturer sponsors, modern viewers/listeners would be plenty surprised if an ad for an oil company popped up on their broadcast - something that would have been perfectly normal in 1961.
It's interesting to see that advertisers had similar fears about the future marketability of the game as they do today. Ticket prices were rising while ratings were declining. That's not true of all markets today, but it's certainly true in some markets (
Houston, I'm looking at you). Production costs were rising, as was competition with other sports. (Humorously, the article from
Sponsor magazine that forms the basis of this story lists bowling and jai-alai as sports whose rise in popularity threatens baseball.)
But the most prescient concern expressed is probably this one: "Both the daytime and nighttime viewer have more programing from other channels from which to choose." Consider that this was written in an era when most viewers were lucky to have three channels (NBC, ABC, and CBS) on their dial. Fast forward to today, when my AT&T U-verse guide runs from channels 1 through 9999. That's to say nothing of the preponderance of other available forms of entertainment: PCs, consoles, tablets, smart phones, on-demand television and movies, iPods capable of holding an almost unlimited number of songs, etc., etc. And this is just a partial listing of entertainment options that don't require people to leave the comfort of their own homes.
Given this, it's interesting to see how broadcast rights fees have skyrocketed in recent years (highlighted by
the Dodgers' massive deal with TWC). Some speculate that
the growth is unsustainable, yet
RSNs show no let-up in their willingness to pony up for broadcast rights. Clearly, advertisers still believe they can make money through live sports programming, and baseball remains a focal point of their spending. Indeed, TWC believes it so much that they are willing to bet 23,333x the amount that was spent on broadcasting Washington Senators games back in 1961. Time will tell if they bet wisely. In the meantime, this is a really neat window back into an under-examined component of baseball's history.