Sorry- correct. The minority ownership (40% I think) has been passed around several times over the years. Key here is that the Ms controlled their own access, which is not stupid.
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Bally RSN owner Sinclair looking at bankruptcy
- Thread starter Ccook55
- Start date
As per this article from the New York Post, MLB will stream the games of six teams for free while negotiating with cable providers for lower contracts. Four teams--Arizona, Cincinnati, Cleveland and San Diego--will have their contracts rejected as their return on fees is far less than what they get. The teams MLB will stream were not disclosed.
Well, it's not hard to guess: Arizona, Cincinnati, Cleveland, San Diego (as Diamond Sports will petition the court to cancel their contracts), and Pittsburgh and Colorado (who are effected by the closure and liquidation of the Warner/AT&T RSNs).
The assumptions on my part:
* Houston Astros have a deal in progress with another RSN
* Seattle Mariners will take full operational control of the RSN they already own majority control
will the three leagues sue both Sinclair and Bryon Allen? I know Bryon has once had fights with distributors and advertisers.
Charter/Spectrum: https://deadline.com/2021/02/byron-...on-lawsuit-charter-communications-1203026905/
Variety's own take on Allen and AMG's discrimatory lawsuits: https://variety.com/2021/tv/feature...racial-discrimination-fight-roots-1235090198/
Nielsen: Byron Allen sues Nielsen, claiming it misrepresented its ratings service
Mcdonald's: BYRON ALLEN'S ALLEN MEDIA GROUP WINS SIGNIFICANT LEGAL VICTORY IN RACIAL DISCRIMINATION-BASED LAWSUIT AGAINST MCDONALD'S CORPORATION IN U.S. FEDERAL COURT
Comcast/NBCU: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast_v._National_Association_of_African-American-Owned_Media
and of course Bloomberg oh how the current situation between Tegna and the FCC in terms of local station takeovers.: Entertainment Studios CEO on Streaming, Tegna, Nielsen Lawsuit, Advertising
Charter/Spectrum: https://deadline.com/2021/02/byron-...on-lawsuit-charter-communications-1203026905/
Variety's own take on Allen and AMG's discrimatory lawsuits: https://variety.com/2021/tv/feature...racial-discrimination-fight-roots-1235090198/
Nielsen: Byron Allen sues Nielsen, claiming it misrepresented its ratings service
Mcdonald's: BYRON ALLEN'S ALLEN MEDIA GROUP WINS SIGNIFICANT LEGAL VICTORY IN RACIAL DISCRIMINATION-BASED LAWSUIT AGAINST MCDONALD'S CORPORATION IN U.S. FEDERAL COURT
Comcast/NBCU: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast_v._National_Association_of_African-American-Owned_Media
and of course Bloomberg oh how the current situation between Tegna and the FCC in terms of local station takeovers.: Entertainment Studios CEO on Streaming, Tegna, Nielsen Lawsuit, Advertising
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I guess we’ll see if MLB actually prepared for team contracts being torched in bankruptcy court right before the season starts. The fact Diamond lost $20M a year on the Padres contract is ridiculous.
They’re going to be lucky to get any deal, let alone finding an broadcast or cable outlet that won’t give them a haircut of some sort.
They’re going to be lucky to get any deal, let alone finding an broadcast or cable outlet that won’t give them a haircut of some sort.
Consider how did Bally Sports ended up to a company embraced by Donald Trump without any significant carriage deals for Sinclair's stations and networks for Hulu Live TV
One thing not being discussed is that sports teams moving to regular OTA TV will result in those stations jacking up the retransmission fees charged to video providers, which will then accelerate cord cutting. You might not pay RSN fees any more, but that money instead will go to the local stations via the “broadcast TV charge”. They’ll get you one way or the other.
That also raises the question of station income being reduced due to falling retrans revenue due to cord cutting. Will those OTA stations carrying the local teams find themselves in the same situation as the current RSNs?
We are likely at the point where player salaries and ownership profit expectations have outrun the market, and a pullback is needed.
Officially, the MLB TV Schedules were wiped clean in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Phoenix and San Diego today. MLB will start from ground zero with these teams. Once the NBA and NHL seasons finish, the Bally Sports channels in those markets will likely go dark (San Diego the lead city, reportedly having lost the most money)
the future of pro sports on TV is in house webstreams streaming on a streaming platform produced by the sports leagues set in a national/geolocked to region set up where the game is free to stream on basic plans of Hulu/ESPN+, HBOMax, Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, Paramount+, Apple TV+ or Youtube, and the national out of market stream will cost extra if they go the geolocking route for games to be seen regionally in a way similar to the out of market PPV model for regional games.
and for the biggest games, OTA broadcast could simulcast the webstream the big games of the teams in each market.
for example, in Dallas, you got the Mavs, Stars and Rangers on Bally Sports Southwest now, but when that goes and they go to streaming, let's say MLB goes to Peacock, the Rangers would air their game on Peacock, but only Dallas Market gets it bundled in the basic packages, but MLB puts a special out of market deal and you pay an extra 5 dollars to see the game in LA (unless they play the Dodgers or Angels) without the need of a VPN, or say NBA opts to go to HBO Max, the Mavs game would stream on HBOMax's basic plans for Dallas, but if you live in Maimi, you pay extra to see the games, (unless they play the Heat) and NHL would do a deal with ESPN+ and stream the Stars games regionally on ESPN+ for Dallas but if you live in New York City, you got to pay extra to see it (unless they face the New York Rangers, New York Islanders or New Jersey Devils).
if the Dallas Teams goes the Webstreams/OTA for big games route, then KTXA "TXA 21" gets the Mavs, KDAF "CW 33" gets The Rangers, and KDFI 27 "Fox 4 More" gets The Rangers in this hypothetical scenario, but the channels could be different.
Speaking of MLB player salaries, will the franchises be able to keep honoring those contracts despite what looms as a huge gap in expected TV revenue vs. actual TV revenue going forward? There's only so much more they can increase ticket prices before no one but the very rich can afford to attend more than a couple of games a season, and corporations affected by the souring economy would likely balk at renewing luxury box contracts. Could MLB itself be in danger of bankruptcy as the result of the collapse of the RSN model?
Wouldn't AppleTV+ get the MLB streaming rights per se. As for OTA/Local, the Rangers may go to KDFI since they had a relationship with KDFI in the past. Mavs and Stars would go to KTXA since they have had a past relationship. Sinclair/Diamond started a clusterf()k. I wonder would Apple or Amazon.com step in and buy those RSN's and along with NBA/NHL and MLB then maybe share the inventory with the local teams.
No baseball or any other major sports league will go bankrupt. They will refinance the debt or a owner will sell the team.
The biggest roadblock for streamers making money outside of subscriber fees are advertisers. So few of them are interested. At best, MLB has maybe between 5-10 total clients. True, they get their ads run every other half inning, but as a viewer, that's got to take it's toll. Right now in 2023, most of the big spenders in sports book either the OTA networks or ESPN.
Not a factor. Fans may complain, but they're not avoiding watching their teams' games just because that weird Farmers Insurance "unnatural amount of natural light" commercial plays every other half inning.
Here's an article concerning the Diamondbacks. Nowhere is OTA broadcasting mentioned, nor will it likely ever happen again, at least not in Phoenix.
Despite Gray setting up a sports channel (albeit one with a very small signal), the D'backs left OTA in 2007 (English) and 2008 (Spanish). The current ownership has had zero desire to offer their product for free. I'll be absolutely shocked if Gray, or Scripps for that matter, get OTA rights for the D'backs or Suns, and only a slim possible chance for the Coyotes.
MLB could offer free streaming if it takes TV rights from Bally Sports
MLB will aim for fans to stream games for free if Diamond Sports Group, which operates Bally Sports TV stations, loses its rights.
arizonasports.com
What other options exist for them in a such a short amount of time? You can’t always get what you want and if the D’Backs are on free streaming only for the entire season due to sheer stubbornness and a total failure to recognize the changing marketplace, it’s their own fault.Here's an article concerning the Diamondbacks. Nowhere is OTA broadcasting mentioned, nor will it likely ever happen again, at least not in Phoenix.
Despite Gray setting up a sports channel (albeit one with a very small signal), the D'backs left OTA in 2007 (English) and 2008 (Spanish). The current ownership has had zero desire to offer their product for free. I'll be absolutely shocked if Gray, or Scripps for that matter, get OTA rights for the D'backs or Suns, and only a slim possible chance for the Coyotes.
MLB could offer free streaming if it takes TV rights from Bally Sports
MLB will aim for fans to stream games for free if Diamond Sports Group, which operates Bally Sports TV stations, loses its rights.
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