Sports media: NBC Sports Chicago using rebuild to keep White Sox fans engaged

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Yoan Moncada’s debut with the White Sox last season was NBC Sports Chicago’s highest-rated Sox game of the year. |
Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

The team is enduring a rebuild, so TV viewership is down. Some of its stars of the future are well-known, but they’re not ready yet. And the regional sports network airing the games is doing all it can to ease the pain of today by looking to tomorrow.

The team is the 2014 Cubs.

That year, the Cubs finished in fifth place in the National League Central for the fifth consecutive season. Their final household TV rating on then-Comcast SportsNet was 1.5, the lowest since their organizational overhaul began with the 2012 season.

Fast-forward to 2018. In the second season of their rebuild, the White Sox have the third-worst record in baseball, and, according to a report last week by Maury Brown in Forbes, they had the second-worst prime-time TV ratings on RSNs at the All-Star break. The Sox rated a 0.79 on NBC Sports Chicago. The only other team below a 1.0 was the Athletics at 0.75.

(The Cubs, meanwhile, had the eighth-highest rating at 4.63. The Cardinals were first at 7.23.) 

The Sox start out with one hand tied behind their back because, well, they’re not the Cubs. Their final rating on CSN in 2014, when they weren’t rebuilding but still finished fourth in the American League Central, was 1.1.

This poses a challenge to NBCSCH, which will carry 107 Sox games this season (WGN has the other 55). The network needs to keep fans engaged.

So NBCSCH is going above and beyond by showing longing Sox fans more of their future than even Cubs fans saw during their rebuild. The network is showing Class AAA Charlotte games for the second consecutive season, and it added Class A Winston-Salem games this season.

It even travelled to Texas to follow top pitching prospect Michael Kopech and his training regimen. It’s all with an eye toward the day the kids are called up.

“Because if Kopech gets called up and pitches on our air, or if WGN carries that game, that game is going to do exceptionally well,” said Jeff Nuich, senior director of communications for NBCSCH. “Our job is to build it to the point that [fans] want to see these guys when they are here, and when they are here, it’s a big deal.”

Nuich pointed to second baseman Yoan Moncada’s debut with the Sox on July 19, 2017. The Sox lost to the Dodgers 9-1, but the game averaged a 2.2 rating and peaked at 2.6 for Moncada’s first at-bat. It was the network’s highest-rated Sox game of the year.

The network also is creating a buzz through podcasts and social media. Pre- and postgame host Chuck Garfien – whom Nuich called “Captain White Sox” – and producer Ryan McGuffey have interviewed any Sox minor-leaguer they can reach for their podcast “White Sox Talk.”

“The product is what it is right now,” Nuich said. “They’re in a rebuild, but it’s really about going that extra mile for the audience and saying, ‘You see what’s on the field here, but there’s something going on elsewhere that you need to know about.’ ”

Fans have been appreciative of the supplementary coverage. And the Sox have been very supportive of the network’s efforts to focus on the future. That’s important considering Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf has the biggest stake of anyone in the network, given that he also owns the Bulls.

No one knows if the rebuild will net the same payday it did for the Cubs. In the meantime, NBCSCH will be looking ahead to more long-awaited arrivals and hoping to capitalize on them.

RELATED STORIES

• White Sox trade closer Joakim Soria to Brewers for prospects

• White Sox will employ closer-by-committee after trading Joakim Soria

Top hitting prospect Eloy Jimenez was named the International League Batter of the Week on Monday. Could his debut be far off?

“When Jimenez hopefully comes up this year, I really hope we have that game,” Nuich said, “because guess what: That’s going to do very well.”

TV loves Cubs-Cardinals

The Cubs and Cardinals return to the national stage this weekend. The rivals are rivaling the Red Sox and Yankees as the apple of programmers’ eyes.

FS1 will carry the game Saturday, with a pair of Cardinals broadcasters on the call. Play-by-play man Dan McLaughlin and analyst Rick Horton call Cards games for Fox Sports Midwest. Fortunately for Cubs fans, NBCSCH will carry the game locally.

On Sunday, ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” crew will call a Cubs-Cardinals game for the fourth time this season. In fact, after this series, the Cubs and Cardinals will have appeared nationally eight times, with a ninth rained out, in 16 games (not including games on MLB Network, which often carries the local broadcast).

New dawn for The Score mornings

Friday will be Brian Hanley’s last day on the “Mully & Hanley” morning show on 670-AM. Tribune columnist David Haugh will take over alongside Mike Mulligan on Monday.

Sox minor-league games on NBCSCH

Class AAA Charlotte Knights

Aug. 5: vs. Durham (Rays), 4 p.m.                                                     

Aug. 19: vs. Louisville (Reds), 7 p.m. (delayed)

Aug. 26: vs. Gwinnett (Braves), 4 p.m.

Class A Winston-Salem Dash

Aug. 22: vs. Myrtle Beach Pelicans (Cubs), 6 p.m.    

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