What's a Blue Jays TV rally killer? Another Apple game on Friday to bounce Sportsnet coverage

Article content

The Blue Jays are the hottest ticket in town and it’s not even close — now that the red-hot, first-place team is riding a sellout streak of 13 consecutive games at the Rogers Centre and is drawing massive ratings numbers for their corporate sister, Sportsnet.

Buck Martinez is back, adding another welcome and familiar touch to the game coverage and the pictures and production from the first-rate Sportsnet once again look spectacular. With the roof open for the first time in the last three games, the stunning drone shots on Thursday’s exhilarating 2-1 win over the Chicago Cubs once again put a punctuation on how special the dome looks with a full house these days.

So how does that momentum build?

Cue the latest disruption for the fan base — another Apple TV game on Friday when the Jays open a three-game weekend series against the Texas Rangers and interest, one that arrives when interest in the first-place team is arguably as high as it has been in a decade for a regular season game.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

The timing is never great for the Apple TV interruption, but for three of the four Jays appearances on the streaming service certainly could be seen as rally killers for Canadian TV audiences.

The first appearance came on the opening weekend of the season, essentially robbing Sportsnet of a potentially massive prime time Friday night audience.

Another Apple TV date came immediately after the Jays had finished up a sweep of the New York Yankees to seize first place in the American League East.

And now this. This is not a knock on the Apple TV production, it needs to be said. The slickly produced shows are designed to attract a younger audience and are not only mandated to do so but have paid for the rights in a national deal with Major League Baseball.

As well, the Jays fan base is not the only one to endure the interruption of their regularly scheduled baseball programming — it’s a league-wide thing.

But with the Jays as hot as they are right now — and following the electrifying effort of starter Max Scherzer and the dramatic Vlad Guerrero Jr. home run for Thursday’s win to take two of three from the Cubbies — it would have been a virtual lock that Sportsnet would have drawn well over a million viewers on Friday.

It has to be particularly frustrating for Sportsnet execs, given the undeniable buzz and momentum around the team right now, storylines that are well told on the broadcasts. The Apple TV crew will be all over the narrative of the Jays elevating from a last-place team to one with the best record in the American League and no doubt chronicle the recent Guerrero heroics.

The problem, of course, is that a good portion of the regular audience has no interest in paying a streaming service to hear those stories, especially when they’re already Sportsnet subscribers.