As more live sports games move to national networks and streamers, local broadcasters get the short end of the stick.
This month, Opening Day for the New York Yankees will not be on YES Network. And longtime play-by-play announcer Michael Kay isn’t holding back with his frustration.
Netflix acquired exclusive rights to an Opening Day game between the Yankees and San Francisco Giants last year, which means Kay and game analyst David Cone will not be on the call for local fans. Last season, the Yankees’ opener aired on ESPN.
In an interview with Newsday this week, Kay said the whole arrangement “sucks.”
“To be blunt, it sucks,” he said. “It really does.”
The Yankees-Giants game will air the night before the rest of MLB opens play, in a standalone primetime window. Then, Saturday’s series finale in San Francisco will air on Fox — meaning YES will only be on the call for the middle game of the Yankees’ opening series.
“It’s not ideal because Opening Day, there’s a special pageantry to it, pomp and circumstance,” Kay added. “People look forward to pitchers and catchers, that’s number one, and then number two is Opening Day. I guess if I’m Netflix, I’d want the Yankees and the Giants, too, but I know that all of us at YES would rather have it.”
Yankees fans — and the team at YES — arguably get the worst scheduling of any local MLB team. The Yankees are probably the second-biggest national draw for baseball’s assortment of national partners, including Netflix, Apple TV, NBC Peacock, Fox, TNT Sports, and ESPN. Plus, they air a handful of games on Amazon Prime Video each season (though YES produces those).
The situation is nothing new for Kay. But the biggest events of the baseball season, including Opening Day, are also the most valuable games for new national broadcast partners. Unfortunately for him, this dynamic doesn’t figure to change any time soon.