America's pastime has fallen out of favor with the majority of sports fans and lucrative paydays from television contracts may soon disappear, said Tim Pollard, telecommunications professor.

Over the past few years, Fox and ESPN television networks have lost hundreds of millions of dollars televising regular season baseball games.

"The major television networks hate baseball because it loses so much money," Pollard said. "Rights fees for sports has continued to escalate while ratings and profits have shrunk."

CBS and NBC both dropped major league baseball after running up huge loses in the 1980s and 1990s as rights fees to professional sports escalated.

Fox Entertainment Group Inc., the corporation running the television network along with a major movie studio, has the rights to the sport's World Series and many of its playoff games and took a $225 million charge in February. That covers what it estimates it will lose paying $2 billion in total rights fees to baseball this year and during the next four seasons.

Pollard believes major league baseball may find its product lacking in suitors when the next national television contract comes up for bidding among Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS.

"All the major networks are owned by major corporations that are demanding a profit from all divisions," he said. "I
think you are going to see a lot of hard bargaining when baseball's national contract expires."

"Baseball may have a new labor contract, but I think the economic realities are going to hit the game hard," Pollard said. "Baseball doesn't get it. The national contact bubble could burst at any time."

Pollard believes Fox will continue to lose millions annually because of the status of broadcasting major league baseball games.

Besides the national baseball television contract, which has another four seasons after this one, Fox Sports Net has contracts to show local regular-season broadcasts for 25 of the league's 30 teams. The company also owns the Los Angeles Dodgers, which has a shot at the post-season and its first World Series appearance since 1988.

"Showing major league baseball puts Fox right up there with the other older, established networks," Pollard said. "But, I don't know how long they'll continue to lose millions of dollars."

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Pollard at tpollard@bsu.edu or (765) 285-1481.)