Baseball Changes Channels: The Dodgers, the Giants and the Birth of Pay TV (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781476699738)

In the 1950s, the Brooklyn Dodgers' Walter O'Malley and the New York Giants' Horace Stoneham sought to address attendance declines caused, in their view, by overexposure of their teams' games on local television. They partnered with dynamic Hollywood entrepreneur Matty Fox to create a pioneering subscription service where TV viewers would become paying customers just like those fans who purchased tickets at the ballpark.

This is the story of how the promise of pay TV--and an eye on reaping millions--helped set in motion events such as the relocations of the Dodgers and the Giants to cities 3,000 miles away. The book depicts a journey of many twists and turns that ultimately transformed the businesses of baseball and television.