Gray Television in Talks With More Teams and Leagues

[powergate92]

Apparently after successfully getting broadcast rights to Phoenix Suns and Mercury games, Gray is now in talks with more sports teams and leagues and hopes to have deals in place in the coming months.

Gray TV Talking To More Sports Teams and Leagues

Broadcaster making ‘InvestigateTV Plus’ available to non-Gray stations

www.nexttv.com

“In the coming months, we hope to have more innovative sports rights partnerships that will return local teams to our broadcast stations and to local fans,” he said.

Gray stations in several large markets including Phoenix, Atlanta, Portland and Cleveland on which it could air games without disrupting network programming.

 

[TheBigA]

I wonder if this experience with Diamond is making some teams consider lowering their fees for TV, or just who is doing the compromising. Because in the baseball world, it's not unusual to need several subscriptions on top of an RSN to get the full season. For example, teams have deals with Apple+, Amazon Prime, and Peacock in addition to the regular coverage on MLB.com, Fox, Turner, and the local RSN. So I assume the local broadcast TV will just augment those other more lucrative streaming options.

 

[powergate92]

I wonder if this experience with Diamond is making some teams consider lowering their fees for TV, or just who is doing the compromising. Because in the baseball world, it's not unusual to need several subscriptions on top of an RSN to get the full season. For example, teams have deals with Apple+, Amazon Prime, and Peacock in addition to the regular coverage on MLB.com, Fox, Turner, and the local RSN. So I assume the local broadcast TV will just augment those other more lucrative streaming options.

Well, a recent court filing revealed that Diamond is in negotiations in with the NBA and NHL probably to renegotiate unprofitable contracts to lower fees that they will otherwise reject. My guess is those teams are probably also negotiating with other parties such as Gray and Scripps as alternatives.

 

[TheBigA]

Well, a recent court filing revealed that Diamond is in negotiations in with the NBA and NHL probably to renegotiate unprofitable contracts to lower fees that they will otherwise reject. My guess is those teams are probably also negotiating with other parties such as Gray and Scripps as alternatives.

What I was saying is it won't be one thing or another, but rather a multiplicity of platforms. That's the only way they can retain their rights fees, because broadcasting can't afford to pay the fees that already bankrupted a subscription-based RSN. If it was too much for Diamond, it's also too much for Gray or Scripps. But perhaps the teams can afford to do a few loss-leaders once a month on broadcast, and use their time to hammer the viewers to pay for the various streaming options. The battle is usually over the number of commercials the team can sell during their games. That's what the Yankees used to do in NYC on WPIX. I think they ended that deal last year.

 

[powergate92]

What I was saying is it won't be one thing or another, but rather a multiplicity of platforms. That's the only way they can retain their rights fees, because broadcasting can't afford to pay the fees that already bankrupted a subscription-based RSN. If it was too much for Diamond, it's also too much for Gray or Scripps. But perhaps the teams can afford to do a few loss-leaders once a month on broadcast, and use their time to hammer the viewers to pay for the various streaming options. That's what the Yankees used to do in NYC on WPIX. I think they ended that deal last year.

True that can be one of the options. Not sure exactly how Gray deal with the Suns/Mercury works, but from what I seen during the Mercury games is all the commercials are for the same companies that have court side ads. The Suns did say in a court filing back in May that they sale their own "commercial inventory" which makes me wonder if they lease the air time from Gray or give Gray X% of the ad revenue.

 

[TheBigA]

True that can be one of the options. Not sure exactly how Gray deal with the Suns/Mercury works, but from what I seen during the Mercury games is all the commercials are for the same companies that have court side ads. The Suns did say in a court filing back in May that they sale their own "commercial inventory" which makes me wonder if they lease the air time from Gray or give Gray X% of the ad revenue.

I added that sentence to my post before you quoted it. That's the point of negotiation. How many spots the team gets to sell. Because what that does operationally is make the TV station a competitor with the team for certain advertisers. So the turf needs to be defined before a deal can be done. And sure, if the team wants to lease time, the station has a rate card for that. But it likely won't be a permanent thing. Because there is more money when you own the platform than when you lease it. That's the case in some cities where the teams are part owners of the RSNs. My expectation is these deals with local TV will be temporary until thy find a better option to the RSN.

 

[powergate92]

I added that sentence to my post before you quoted it. That's the point of negotiation. How many spots the team gets to sell. Because what that does operationally is make the TV station a competitor with the team for certain advertisers. So the turf needs to be defined before a deal can be done. And sure, if the team wants to lease time, the station has a rate card for that. But it likely won't be a permanent thing. Because there is more money when you own the platform than when you lease it. That's the case in some cities where the teams are part owners of the RSNs. My expectation is these deals with local TV will be temporary until thy find a better option to the RSN.

I'm not entirely sure how a team's part ownership in a RSN works, but owning part of the RSN doesn't necessarily mean more money for the team. I think it really depends if that RSN Joint Venture is making a profit. In the case of not in bankruptcy Bally Sports San Diego, the Padres own 39.5% of the network, yet the network was losing money making it necessary for in bankruptcy Diamond Sports to give it funding to pay the Padres, which they decided not to do in May leading to the Padres terminating broadcast agreement with a network they own part of.

The Debtors also made the decision, in their business judgment, to not fund a money-losing joint venture with the San Diego Padres to allow that joint venture to make a telecast rights agreement payment to the Padres, resulting in the Padres terminating that telecast rights agreement with the joint venture.