RandBall: Wild, Wolves, Twins viewers stuck between recent past, distant future

[BleedGopher]

per RandBall:

I've written about the stalemate between streaming services like Hulu and YouTube TV and the parent company that owns regional sports networks like Bally Sports North for long enough now that it's no longer an impasse.

It's the past.

It's been a year since BSN (formerly Fox Sports North) left those two major streaming services, frustrating fans nationally and specifically those locally who had signed up for a cheaper way to watch the Twins, Wild, Wolves and other local teams.

If you've kept those streaming services in hopes that something might change ... sorry, but you should prepare to continue to be frustrated as we head into another season of the Wild and Wolves on TV.

Wild, Wolves, Twins viewers stuck between recent past, distant future

The future of streaming is complicated, and the recent past isn't coming back.

www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[short ornery norwegian]

Saw an article on the "awful announcing" website - the company that owns the regional Sports Networks, including BSN, is apparently in severe financial problems and some industry insiders think they could go bankrupt.

Also of note in this article: various executives think that Diamond Sports, the Sinclair subsidiary that runs the Bally Sports RSNs, is on the road to bankruptcy.

If Fanatics were to make a move, it would need to get control of the local rights, which may be the easiest step. Sources say NBCUniversal and AT&T have been trying to find buyers for their RSNs. And top executives from leagues and media companies share a common belief that the Sinclair subsidiary Diamond Sports Group, which owns 21 Bally Sports-branded RSNs, could be headed into bankruptcy.

Sinclair has been bleeding money since purchasing the former Fox Sports RSNs for roughly $10 billion in May of 2019. In November, the company took a writedown of over $4 billion on the RSNs, along with posting an operating loss of over $3 billion for that quarter. Earlier this year, Sportico reported that Sinclair owed $1.8 billion in rights fees in 2021 alone.

 

[howeda7]

 

[GophersInIowa]