Marquee Sports Network ads target YouTube TV as Cubs opening day gets closer

Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune
·1 min read

CHICAGO — While attention has largely been focused on the Chicago Cubs and Sinclair Broadcast Group still trying to hammer out a carriage deal to put Marquee Sports Network on Comcast, Marquee has another TV service on its mind: Google’s YouTube TV.

“YouTube TV Doesn’t Have the Cubs on Marquee Sports Network. Switch Providers,” say some of the ads a team source said Marquee has begun running on Facebook and Instagram.

It’s a simple and straightforward message with Friday’s season opener at Wrigley Field fast approaching, a salvo to remind YouTube TV subscribers they have other options and tacitly get Google to make a deal to carry Marquee at the risk of losing customers to Hulu + Live TV and others that do.

The fact Marquee hasn’t launched a similar offensive against Comcast, which serves roughly half the homes in the Cubs’ MLB-designated TV market, may reflect the confidence team executives have expressed that an agreement is imminent.

But it also could be because the stakes with Comcast are much higher for the Cubs’ new TV home, so ratcheting up that tension is a riskier tactic.

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