Sinclair(Bally's Sport) nearing a deal for NBA streaming rights for direct to consumer offering

[Gophers_4life]

Too bad.

It's a dead model. Twins, and most of the MLB teams that don't get viewership like the Dodgers and Yankees, you'll have to figure out how to make it work in the new regime where inflated RSN dollars aren't there anymore.

 

[GophersInIowa]

That Iowa blackout situation is epically stupid and arcane.

I used to live 30 miles from Missouri and still couldn’t get the Twins.

 

[howeda7]

Too bad.

It's a dead model. Twins, and most of the MLB teams that don't get viewership like the Dodgers and Yankees, you'll have to figure out how to make it work in the new regime where inflated RSN dollars aren't there anymore.

One thing that certainly true is scrambling to figure this all out 30 days before the season starts is not ideal for anyone involved.

 

[Ope3]

I used to live 30 miles from Missouri and still couldn’t get the Twins.

Uffda. I guess I could understand Mason City being subject to a Twins black out, but anything south of that seems silly.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

a new development: from ESPN - Bally's owner files for bankruptcy

Diamond Sports Group, the Sinclair subsidiary that controls the regional sports networks for 42 teams across Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday night, three days before the end of a 30-day grace period it entered into with creditors.

As part of a news release, Diamond, which has more than $8 billion in debt, said it "intends to use the proceedings to restructure and strengthen its balance sheet" and that the RSNs "will continue to operate in the ordinary course during the Chapter 11 process." The company added that it possesses $425 million of cash on hand in order to continue funding its business during the process.

MLB, whose teams draw significant revenues from its RSN deals with companies like Sinclair, is the most directly impacted by Diamond's situation, given that its season will begin in less than three weeks. Diamond owns the rights to 14 major league teams and must continue to pay them their rights fees; otherwise, teams would be free to break their contracts, at which point MLB might take over broadcasting duties.

Sinclair, with Diamond acting as a subsidiary, purchased the RSNs from Fox in 2019, after Disney was forced to sell them off, for $10.6 billion. In the process, though, the company took on roughly $8 billion in debt, putting itself in a precarious position as the rate of cord-cutters increased.

Diamond, which initially began its grace period after skipping a $140 million interest-only payment to creditors in the middle of February, announced Tuesday it will now separate its business from Sinclair and become a standalone company. During bankruptcy proceedings, Diamond's debt will turn into equity for its secured creditors.

Diamond's hope to building a sustainable business, a source said, is to prop up its Bally Sports+ streaming platform, ideally by making it a one-stop shop for fans to also purchase tickets and merchandise, place bets and read up on their teams. Diamond owns streaming rights for all 16 of its NBA teams and all 12 of its NHL teams, but for only about a third of its MLB teams.

 

[Ogee Ogilthorpe]

a new development: from ESPN - Bally's owner files for bankruptcy

Diamond Sports Group, the Sinclair subsidiary that controls the regional sports networks for 42 teams across Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday night, three days before the end of a 30-day grace period it entered into with creditors.

As part of a news release, Diamond, which has more than $8 billion in debt, said it "intends to use the proceedings to restructure and strengthen its balance sheet" and that the RSNs "will continue to operate in the ordinary course during the Chapter 11 process." The company added that it possesses $425 million of cash on hand in order to continue funding its business during the process.

MLB, whose teams draw significant revenues from its RSN deals with companies like Sinclair, is the most directly impacted by Diamond's situation, given that its season will begin in less than three weeks. Diamond owns the rights to 14 major league teams and must continue to pay them their rights fees; otherwise, teams would be free to break their contracts, at which point MLB might take over broadcasting duties.

Sinclair, with Diamond acting as a subsidiary, purchased the RSNs from Fox in 2019, after Disney was forced to sell them off, for $10.6 billion. In the process, though, the company took on roughly $8 billion in debt, putting itself in a precarious position as the rate of cord-cutters increased.

Diamond, which initially began its grace period after skipping a $140 million interest-only payment to creditors in the middle of February, announced Tuesday it will now separate its business from Sinclair and become a standalone company. During bankruptcy proceedings, Diamond's debt will turn into equity for its secured creditors.

Diamond's hope to building a sustainable business, a source said, is to prop up its Bally Sports+ streaming platform, ideally by making it a one-stop shop for fans to also purchase tickets and merchandise, place bets and read up on their teams. Diamond owns streaming rights for all 16 of its NBA teams and all 12 of its NHL teams, but for only about a third of its MLB teams.

Been trying to follow this to some extent.

With any luck, it's a net improvement for people who only want to watch one NHL or MLB or NBA franchise. The optimist in me is thinking there will be options that weren't previously there for fans to consume their favorite team.

Fingers crossed this turns out well for the fan who generally watches one team

 

[GophersInIowa]

 

[Gophers_4life]

Diamond was created to operate the RSN’s.

It is filing bankruptcy and will completely spin-off from Sinclair, in order to insulate then from any damages or repercussions of the filing. Sinclair gets off scot free.

Diamond gets to cancel a bunch of debt they owe.

AND, Diamond gets to continue operating the RSN’s exactly like they were, “unimpeded”.


WTF????



Rigged game

 

[Ogee Ogilthorpe]

The guys at The Athletic, including Michael Russo (the Wild beat reporter for The Athletic), do a decent job of breaking things down as they stand now...

If You're An NHL Fan With Bally or AT&T Sportsnet, You're Okay.... For Now

>>
The fear across sports had been that Diamond would abandon the 47 teams (across 19 separate channels) for which it holds the broadcast rights. The 12 NHL teams in question are the Blue Jackets, Blues, Coyotes, Ducks, Hurricanes, Kings, Lightning, Panthers, Predators, Red Wings, Stars and Wild.

If the situation further curdles, Bettman said, the league has long- and short-term backup plans — though he wouldn’t specify them — for the affected Diamond teams, despite the astronomical costs associated with producing broadcasts of professional sports. Diamond has reported $8 billion-plus of debt, incurred as part of parent Sinclair’s 2019 purchase of the regional sports channels, and lost $1.2 billion in the most recent fiscal quarter.

“Obviously, it’s not inexpensive to run sports channels or (Diamond) wouldn’t be in the situation that they’re in. But in a combination of linear carriage and streaming, we can get the games out there,” Bettman said. “And listen, we’re in an era where the business model is evolving for local distribution of games in all the sports, and that’s something we’re going to have to address not just on a short-term basis, but on the long-term.<<

 

[short ornery norwegian]

as long as Diamond keeps making its required payments to teams, they will continue to operate.

But, if they start missing payments or try to make partial payments, that is when the stuff hits the fan.

Bettman's comments in the story Ogee posted are almost identical to what Rob Manfred has been saying - making me suspect that the various commissioners and their underlings have been talking to each other about this.

I just don't know how Diamond gets out from under more than $8-Billion in debt. that's a lot of restructuring......

 

[short ornery norwegian]

bump - interesting story on subscriber numbers for BSN. from the Strib:

A Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal report, citing research from S&P Global Market Intelligence, indicates Bally Sports North lost well over half of its subscriber base in the last decade.

Per the report, there were 2.9 million subscribers to the regional sports network in 2013 (branded Fox Sports North at the time) compared with just 1.2 million subscribers to Bally Sports North now. That includes a staggering 1.4 million subscribers lost in just the last five years alone. Other markets saw large decreases in subscribers as well.

for the math-challenged - if accurate, that means that BSN has lost 59% of its subscriber base in the last 10 years.

if some of the other RSN's had similar numbers, it's no wonder that Diamond filed for bankruptcy.

 

[JimmyJamesMD]

bump - interesting story on subscriber numbers for BSN. from the Strib:

A Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal report, citing research from S&P Global Market Intelligence, indicates Bally Sports North lost well over half of its subscriber base in the last decade.

Per the report, there were 2.9 million subscribers to the regional sports network in 2013 (branded Fox Sports North at the time) compared with just 1.2 million subscribers to Bally Sports North now. That includes a staggering 1.4 million subscribers lost in just the last five years alone. Other markets saw large decreases in subscribers as well.

for the math-challenged - if accurate, that means that BSN has lost 59% of its subscriber base in the last 10 years.

if some of the other RSN's had similar numbers, it's no wonder that Diamond filed for bankruptcy.

Im.one of the lost. I found out I can live without watching the twins and wolves for every game. Now I just watch the nationally televised games

 

[Iceland12]

bump - interesting story on subscriber numbers for BSN. from the Strib:

A Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal report, citing research from S&P Global Market Intelligence, indicates Bally Sports North lost well over half of its subscriber base in the last decade.

Per the report, there were 2.9 million subscribers to the regional sports network in 2013 (branded Fox Sports North at the time) compared with just 1.2 million subscribers to Bally Sports North now. That includes a staggering 1.4 million subscribers lost in just the last five years alone. Other markets saw large decreases in subscribers as well.

for the math-challenged - if accurate, that means that BSN has lost 59% of its subscriber base in the last 10 years. .

We've went through how Disney and Sinclair way overestimated how much Dish and the Cable companies would pay for their Regional Sorts Networks. DirecTV was hooked in through AT&T. Wish that article had shown the year-by-year decline.

This was also in the article:

While TV ratings are still more closely correlated with wins and losses than channel access — Twins President Dave St. Peter, for instance, said in a Star Tribune interview two years ago that the team's TV ratings went up 65% during their 101-win season in 2019 — being in front of fewer and fewer viewers is never a good thing.

If you count yourself among the 1.2 million subscribers that still gets Bally Sports North, enjoy Thursday's Twins opener. Just know that 10 years ago, more than twice as many of you existed

 

[howeda7]

We've went through how Disney and Sinclair way overestimated how much Dish and the Cable companies would pay for their Regional Sorts Networks. DirecTV was hooked in through AT&T

This was also in the article:

While TV ratings are still more closely correlated with wins and losses than channel access — Twins President Dave St. Peter, for instance, said in a Star Tribune interview two years ago that the team's TV ratings went up 65% during their 101-win season in 2019 — being in front of fewer and fewer viewers is never a good thing.

If you count yourself among the 1.2 million subscribers that still gets Bally Sports North, enjoy Thursday's Twins opener. Just know that 10 years ago, more than twice as many of you existed

I think it's a safe bet that regardless of whether Bally survives or not, this is the last season of the Twins on the network. They will end up on a package of streaming/direct cable access and over-the-air next year.

 

[Gophers_4life]

Kinda hard to not lose half your viewership .... when you aren't on the TV bundles that everyone has and no one can even tune your F'ing channel in!!

Jayzus

Morons

 

[short ornery norwegian]

Hey, I am one of the mighty 1.2 million. I still have traditional cable TV. I thought I would be switching to a streaming service last year, but plans got derailed (long story). so for the time being, I'm still on cable. But that is not going to last. sooner or later - likely in a year or less - I expect to drop cable and move to streaming.

when that happens, I still want to watch the Twins. I could live without the Wolves and Wild, but I am a baseball guy. So, when I go to streaming, if I cannot get the Twins, I hope that MLB or the Twins offer some type of a stand-alone streaming package or option that I can afford.

a lot of that depends on what happens with the bankruptcy proceedings for Diamond and the Bally Sports RSN's.

to be continued........

 

[Gophers_4life]

Or, the Twins can just not re-up with loser RSN’s and instead move into modern times.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

Whoa - from Sports Business Journal: Diamond is late on paying the Twins.......

Diamond Sports missed rights fees payments to the Guardians AND TWINS and entered a 15-day cure period to make the payments without penalty. Diamond, which owns and operated the Bally Sports-branded RSNs, made payments on time to at least 8 teams within the past week - the Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Marlins, Rays, Royals and Tigers. One reason for withholding the Twins payment is due not so much to the size of its rights contract, but its length. The Twins deal with Bally Sports North ends after this season, and sources say the team has not been receptive to cutting a new deal.

A main question comes down to what will happen to the Guardians and Twins rights if Diamond does not pay within its cure period. Almost immediately, MLB will petition the bankruptcy court to make a decision about who controls those rights and whether bankruptcy affords Diamond protection in this case.

MLB clearly believes that the rights will go back to the teams. League execs have said that it has arrangements in place to produce and distribute the games in both markets, although it has been short on specifics and cost structures.

 

[Gophers_4life]

Come on. Put the fork in em.

“____ Sports North” is DOA. Appreciate all the good moments.

Onward and upward.

 

[howeda7]

 

[JimmyJamesMD]

Is everybody still getting ballys? Read a comment that someone couldn't get the twins anymore

 

[Ope3]

Is everybody still getting ballys? Read a comment that someone couldn't get the twins anymore

I'm still getting BSN & BSN+ on Spectrum.

 

[howeda7]

Is everybody still getting ballys? Read a comment that someone couldn't get the twins anymore

People are being slow to learn that paying $19.99 for the app doesn't get you Twins games even though that's been said from the beginning. You have to log in through a cable/satellite provider that has Bally's to watch the Twins.

 

[JimmyJamesMD]

People are being slow to learn that paying $19.99 for the app doesn't get you Twins games even though that's been said from the beginning. You have to log in through a cable/satellite provider that has Bally's to watch the Twins.

gotcha

 

[Ope3]

Wow. Getting pretty hostile now.

Bally Sports' parent to cut payments to 3 MLB teams

Diamond Sports cites Chapter 11 bankruptcy law in allowing them to restructure deals to reflect current market value.

theathletic.com

 

[short ornery norwegian]

For non-Athletic subscribers - Diamond (owner of the Bally's RSN's) is arguing in bankruptcy court that - because Diamond is in bankruptcy proceedings, then it should be allowed to essentially tear up its existing contracts and pay teams, including the Twins and Guardians, less money - citing the drop in cable TV subscribers and resulting drop in revenue. MLB responded with a demand that the Bankruptcy court declare the contracts null and void because Diamond failed to live up to the terms of the contract.

a ruling in favor of MLB could mean that BSN could lose the rights to show the Twins games - possibly as soon as this week. MLB is arguing that Diamond is benefitting by continuing to broadcast games and generate revenue while withholding contractually required payments to the teams.

no idea how soon the court could rule, but this Thursday is the deadline for Diamond to make a required payment to the Twins.

 

[Gopherguy0723]

Let's hope they don't pay and the lose the right to broadcast almsot immediately thereafter.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

Let's hope they don't pay and the lose the right to broadcast almsot immediately thereafter.

that presumes that MLB has a plan to make the games available - and can implement that plan immediately. it's easy to say - "put the games on streaming" - but for older fans who are used to cable TV, you're asking them to make a big change.

I suspect that if MLB does take over control of the Twins' broadcasts, there will still need to be some kind of linear option. I know the cord-cutters are upset because they couldn't get BSN on their streaming services, but if you go to all streaming, then the older fans who still have cable are going to be upset.

 

[GophersInIowa]

that presumes that MLB has a plan to make the games available - and can implement that plan immediately. it's easy to say - "put the games on streaming" - but for older fans who are used to cable TV, you're asking them to make a big change.

I suspect that if MLB does take over control of the Twins' broadcasts, there will still need to be some kind of linear option. I know the cord-cutters are upset because they couldn't get BSN on their streaming services, but if you go to all streaming, then the older fans who still have cable are going to be upset.

It's been reported that MLB does have a plan in place that can quickly be implemented. We'll see.

Does anyone know who broadcasters like Bremer and Morneau is actually employed by? Do they work for the Twins or Bally's?

 

[howeda7]

It's been reported that MLB does have a plan in place that can quickly be implemented. We'll see.

Does anyone know who broadcasters like Bremer and Morneau is actually employed by? Do they work for the Twins or Bally's?

I believe they work for the Twins. That used to be the case anyway.When Victory Sports folded, Dick and Bert were on FSN the next day. The Twins are the ones that shoved Bert aside a couple years ago. Not sure about the camera crew etc. though.