Why Baseball Will Be Gone from Broadcast TV in 25 Years

Baseball may be the "American Pastime," but one thing it is not, is a big draw on TV.

While gathering around the TV to watch the home-town team used to be a very popular activity, the increase in popularity of the NFL and NBA have taken away baseball's stranglehold on the broadcast networks.

National baseball broadcasts have been reduced to ESPN's Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday Night games, in addition to FOX's Saturday game of the week and the TBS Sunday baseball game. FOX is the only broadcast network to carry regular-season baseball games. The rest are reduced to local broadcasts and cable special presentations.

The baseball postseason is now split between TBS and FOX, where only a few years ago, it was entirely on broadcast TV. NBC and FOX used to air all of the playoff games. The division series and the NLCS are carried by TBS, as FOX carries merely the ALCS and the World Series.

This is a disturbing trend in the baseball world. While cable networks and the internet are expanding their baseball coverage, broadcast networks are quickly losing their interest in actually showing baseball. Americans who don't have cable can only see one national game a week. While most people do have cable, apparently the marketability of baseball is dropping rapidly.

The best announcers are transitioning to other sports and cable networks, while FOX viewers are continuously doomed to "enjoy" the spouting of Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.

In the future, it's clear that baseball will be off broadcast television.  Baseball is no longer as big a money maker as other sports. Viewership is down across the board, as the World Series was outdrawn by the X Factor and Dancing with the Stars. The American public needs constant entertainment, and the prospect of a three-hour baseball game doesn't appeal to the average viewer.

Baseball is still immensely entertaining for diehard fans, but professional sports need to appeal to a wide margin. Baseball has been surpassed by a number of other sports in popularity, and it doesn't seem to be gaining any momentum. In 25 years, its very possible that anything but the most important game will be available on any national network.

Let us enjoy broadcast baseball while we can, because before long, it might be gone.