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

https://www.startribune.com/mlb-com...rts-north-rob-manfred/600252772/?refresh=true

Rob Manfred has imagined baseball's future on television, and it's both daringly revolutionary — and delightfully simple.

"I hope we get to the point where, when you go to MLB.tv, you can buy whatever the heck you want," baseball's commissioner told reporters Thursday. "You can buy an out-of-market package. You can buy local games. You can buy two sets of local games. Whatever you want!"

As straightforward a business model as this sounds, it's not possible now in most places, because of arcane blackout rules instituted decades ago by MLB, and because the regional sports networks (RSNs) that carry them have largely been unable to find a way to reach cord-cutting viewers who no longer subscribe to cable or satellite TV.

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That's because RSN contracts, most of which pay tens of millions of dollars to their teams, come with exclusivity clauses that allow no other broadcasters to make a team's games (save a handful of national broadcasts) available in that team's "territory," a broadly defined area that in many cases far exceeds each network's reach. In one of the most notorious cases, Iowa is designated as within the home territory of the Twins, Royals, Cardinals, Brewers, Cubs and White Sox, meaning that Iowans who subscribe to MLB.tv's streaming service will not be able to watch any live games involving those six teams, home or away.

But if bankruptcy wipes out Sinclair's Bally networks, which are in debt by more than $8 billion, according to MLB?

Baseball sees a well-timed chance to change the business model.

"The blackout issue has been a concern for a number of years. Some of it, maybe a lot of it, was built into the structure of the RSNs [but] the issue has become more acute in the last few years," Manfred said. "And our aggressiveness with respect to stepping in, in the event that Bally can't broadcast, was driven in part by the fact that we saw it as an opportunity to fix the blackout."

Sports networks, and not just the Bally-branded ones, have reached a crisis point because they were designed for the cable era. Bally Sports North, which broadcasts Twins, Timberwolves, Wild, Lynx and some Gophers games, charges a small monthly fee for each subscriber to cable (like Comcast in Minneapolis) or satellite (like DirecTV) systems that carry it, which the carriers then pass on to consumers.

Trouble is, fewer households subscribe to those systems each year, choosing instead to stream programming though online services, most of which have been willing to pay that fee.

"The combination of [factors] made it clear to us some months ago that there was going to be a serious problem here, that they were likely headed to bankruptcy and that we needed to be prepared. We have taken those preparation efforts really seriously," Manfred said. "We know that we can produce games in the event that Bally is not broadcasting. We know that we can put those games up, in conjunction with mlb.tv, digitally. And we are in the process of trying to work out arrangements that will put us in position to make those games available within the cable bundle as well."

The Twins are estimated to have earned in the neighborhood of $50 million per season — neither the team nor the network will reveal the specific figure — from BSN under a contract that expires at the end of 2023. The pending bankruptcy poses significant problems for the team, both from an unhappy fan base cut off from the broadcasts and from the loss of that revenue.

Manfred, however, said MLB is ready to help limit the lost income.

"There could be revenue losses for individual teams. You can assume when stepping in, we will do everything possible to generate revenue in each local market that we will pass through to those clubs, at least as an interim arrangement," the commissioner said. "You know, we have a pretty good balance sheet in central baseball, and it's safe to assume we will provide every support that we possibly can to those clubs that are at risk."
 

^^ Good! That's the correct way.

Die off RSN's. No one wants you and your fake blackouts.


Teams might lose some revenue. Cable systems aren't there anymore to jack that up on the backs of subscribers who never watch sports.

They'll have to figure it out, whether that means more league revenue sharing or what.
 

^^ Good! That's the correct way.

Die off RSN's. No one wants you and your fake blackouts.


Teams might lose some revenue. Cable systems aren't there anymore to jack that up on the backs of subscribers who never watch sports.

They'll have to figure it out, whether that means more league revenue sharing or what.
That Iowa blackout situation is epically stupid and arcane.
 

Forbes:

But insiders tell Forbes that Diamond could be headed to a bankruptcy filing, which would send leagues on a frantic search for alternatives. Because each of the Bally regional sports networks has a separate deal with the teams it broadcasts, the leagues are putting together emergency plans to avoid blackouts of local games, with MLB and the NBA preparing to take over production of games and strike deals with local TV stations, the insiders told Forbes.

Though the regional sports network business model is far from dead – both the Yankees and the Red Sox have thriving cable channels, for example – the financial woes of Diamond Sports and its owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group, are a sign that sports media is at a crossroads. Leagues want to create a new set of media rights, but regional sports networks are in the way. Fans complain they can’t watch their favorite teams without a cable subscription, and due to cable contracts, in-market games aren’t available live on league-run streaming outlets like NBA League Pass and MLB.TV. That disadvantages younger fans. To solve the dilemma, media executives are gearing up for a future without cable, when leagues will shift back to airing games on local TV channels and Gen Z is free to stream all it wants. At stake are billions of dollars in a global market that’s estimated at $55 billion and rising.
 

Forbes:

But insiders tell Forbes that Diamond could be headed to a bankruptcy filing, which would send leagues on a frantic search for alternatives. Because each of the Bally regional sports networks has a separate deal with the teams it broadcasts, the leagues are putting together emergency plans to avoid blackouts of local games, with MLB and the NBA preparing to take over production of games and strike deals with local TV stations, the insiders told Forbes.

Though the regional sports network business model is far from dead – both the Yankees and the Red Sox have thriving cable channels, for example – the financial woes of Diamond Sports and its owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group, are a sign that sports media is at a crossroads. Leagues want to create a new set of media rights, but regional sports networks are in the way. Fans complain they can’t watch their favorite teams without a cable subscription, and due to cable contracts, in-market games aren’t available live on league-run streaming outlets like NBA League Pass and MLB.TV. That disadvantages younger fans. To solve the dilemma, media executives are gearing up for a future without cable, when leagues will shift back to airing games on local TV channels and Gen Z is free to stream all it wants. At stake are billions of dollars in a global market that’s estimated at $55 billion and rising.
This is an interesting way around it. Put the games on over-the-air TV for the old people (very important for MLB) and let anyone else stream it via MLBTV/Extra Innings with no black-outs. I would probably pay for Extra Innings unless it's on OTA on a channel I get on my satellite package because I almost never watch the games live. I'm assuming in non-Minneapolis markets like Fargo and Sioux Falls they will be on a digital subchannel if they are on at all locally.
 


This is an interesting way around it. Put the games on over-the-air TV for the old people (very important for MLB) and let anyone else stream it via MLBTV/Extra Innings with no black-outs. I would probably pay for Extra Innings unless it's on OTA on a channel I get on my satellite package because I almost never watch the games live. I'm assuming in non-Minneapolis markets like Fargo and Sioux Falls they will be on a digital subchannel if they are on at all locally.
that would be sweet.

I thought about going back to cable to get the sports. But after the sports fee and taxes, it was 50 bucks more. I said forget that noise, staying with youtubetv.
 

Fubo is doing a big advertising push that they now have the rights to carry BSN. so that would be one option to watch the Twins as long as BSN exists. however long that may be.
 

that would be sweet.

I thought about going back to cable to get the sports. But after the sports fee and taxes, it was 50 bucks more. I said forget that noise, staying with youtubetv.
Does cable have it yet where you don't need to have any hardware from them, you can just log into your account and stream the content from the internet, like on a Roku app that works the same as YTTV?

I'll never buy or rent hardware from a cable company, ever again.
 

Comcast has a roku app but its not vert good
Does cable have it yet where you don't need to have any hardware from them, you can just log into your account and stream the content from the internet, like on a Roku app that works the same as YTTV?

I'll never buy or rent hardware from a cable company, ever again.
 




Live TV should never be anything other than streamed from the internet by whatever app you choose, going forward.

We'll still keep over-the-air broadcasting, if nothing more than for emergency purposes, since the antennas are all still physically there, but I don't think we should invest any more time and money into upgrading the ATSC standard beyond 3.0.
 

DirecTV no longer as has rain/snow fade on most channels. It just switches to streaming automatically. Sadly this doesn't apply to DVR recordings.
 

I guess if you're so rural that you literally have no option but Dish, then that is what it is.

We need to string fiber to every single home in the country, the same as we do electricity.
 



I guess if you're so rural that you literally have no option but Dish, then that is what it is.

We need to string fiber to every single home in the country, the same as we do electricity.

as always, the question is who pays for it.

from the Digital Infrastructure website:

On average, it costs between $1,000 to $1,250 per residential household passed or $60,000 to $80,000 per route mile, to “lay” or bury fiber optic cable. Households passed refers to fiber optic cable that is built along residential streets, but excludes the connection or “drop” into the home, which uses lateral fiber connections.

Fiber construction costs vary significantly, depending on factors including labor, population density, depth or height of the fiber deployment, terrain, equipment, whether or not the provider has existing conduit, make ready costs, and permitting costs.


it's one thing to go fiber-to-the-home in a city where you might have multiple potential customers on every block. but in a rural area, the cost of running fiber makes it very difficult if not impossible to get a return on the investment when you might have to run several miles of fiber to reach 1 potential customer.
 

During the company’s quarterly earnings call, Executive Chairman Charlie Ergen widened his attack on programmers seeking to extract ever-higher fees from Dish to carry their networks. The company has long been at odds with regional sports networks and at times has feuded with HBO, Univision and local stations. Asked during the press portion of the call about the company’s dispute with Cox Media Group, nine of whose stations went Dark on Dish platforms last fall.

“I said it about regional sports and I’m saying it now,” Ergen said. “The next step in retrans is down, not up. … Any customer that wanted Cox has left Dish.”..

Much of the earnings call was focused on the grand pivot to telecom, but once the topic of pay-TV came up, Ergen didn’t hesitate to grind his axe. “We have some empathy for their plight but we cannot be their bank,” he said of broadcasters. He called local TV “the newspaper of this decade,”

Ergen said rather than distributors or programmers, the consumer is the one with leverage nowadays. “And the consumer is saying to us, ‘We don’t want you to raise the price.'”


 

Anybody know the status of Twins baseball on Bally for this year? I signed up for the app for Wolves and Wild, but I don't think the Twins reached an agreement to stream on Bally yet, correct?
 

During the company’s quarterly earnings call, Executive Chairman Charlie Ergen widened his attack on programmers seeking to extract ever-higher fees from Dish to carry their networks. The company has long been at odds with regional sports networks and at times has feuded with HBO, Univision and local stations. Asked during the press portion of the call about the company’s dispute with Cox Media Group, nine of whose stations went Dark on Dish platforms last fall.

“I said it about regional sports and I’m saying it now,” Ergen said. “The next step in retrans is down, not up. … Any customer that wanted Cox has left Dish.”..

Much of the earnings call was focused on the grand pivot to telecom, but once the topic of pay-TV came up, Ergen didn’t hesitate to grind his axe. “We have some empathy for their plight but we cannot be their bank,” he said of broadcasters. He called local TV “the newspaper of this decade,”

Ergen said rather than distributors or programmers, the consumer is the one with leverage nowadays. “And the consumer is saying to us, ‘We don’t want you to raise the price.'”


Distributors can never lose.

All they ever have to do is distribute the things that people want, if those people are willing to pay the cost of the thing.


When I say distributors, I'm talking about YTTV, Hulu Live, cable, sat, etc. who sell bundles of live TV channels (usually with DVR these days).


This is what they should do: be completely and totally open with their customers about the per subscriber fee that each channel currently gets. When a group of channels asks for a raise in that, let the customer base vote on it. Do we accept the increase? This is what you'll pay if we do that. Or reject it?


How can they ever lose doing that? They're just the middlemen. They take the programs produced by production companies and physically get them to the end customers to consume.
 
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People don't want to have to launch, exit, re-launch a different app for every different channel, either.

They want all the channels in one app, one place where you can easily cycle between different programs.

That's the value provided.
 

Anybody know the status of Twins baseball on Bally for this year? I signed up for the app for Wolves and Wild, but I don't think the Twins reached an agreement to stream on Bally yet, correct?
Given we don't even know if they will be on Bally's period, I would think the odds of them reaching agreement about streaming is close to zero.
 

Given we don't even know if they will be on Bally's period, I would think the odds of them reaching agreement about streaming is close to zero.
Yeah, probably correct. I guess it depends if their bankruptcy is going to lead to a restructuring or collapse.
 

Yeah, probably correct. I guess it depends if their bankruptcy is going to lead to a restructuring or collapse.
Regardless of their bankruptcy, this is the last year of the Twins deal with them, and there's zero chance they will be signing with them again. So there's not much motivation on either side to add things like streaming rights to the existing deal.
 

Given we don't even know if they will be on Bally's period, I would think the odds of them reaching agreement about streaming is close to zero.

last I saw, out of 14 MLB teams on the Sinclair/Diamond RSN's, they only had streaming agreements with 4 of them. and given that Diamond is currently in bankruptcy discussions, they are not in a strong negotiating position.

so if you want to watch the Twins on TV, your choices are a cable TV system or Fubo. (as far as I know)

I still think Bally's will be on the air this season, but if things go wrong with the bankruptcy and Diamond tells MLB that they can't make their rights payments, then all bets are off.
 

last I saw, out of 14 MLB teams on the Sinclair/Diamond RSN's, they only had streaming agreements with 4 of them. and given that Diamond is currently in bankruptcy discussions, they are not in a strong negotiating position.

so if you want to watch the Twins on TV, your choices are a cable TV system or Fubo. (as far as I know)

I still think Bally's will be on the air this season, but if things go wrong with the bankruptcy and Diamond tells MLB that they can't make their rights payments, then all bets are off.
Bally's is in DirecTV as well. Not sure about their streaming service.
 

If BSN doesn't make payments, then the MLB should step in and disallow them from being able to air Twins games. Simple. Full stop.

Too bad Twins, you signed a deal with shysters.
 

If BSN doesn't make payments, then the MLB should step in and disallow them from being able to air Twins games. Simple. Full stop.

Too bad Twins, you signed a deal with shysters.

If Bally's misses any payments, I think Manfred has made it pretty clear that MLB has a contingency plan to step in and provide some type of TV/streaming offering for the affected teams.

and to be fair, the problem is not with BSN - the problem is that Sinclair and Diamond paid way too much to purchase the RSN's when they went on the market as part of the Disney & Fox merger. Because Disney owns ESPN, they had to divest themselves of the RSN's.

Sinclair simply over-valued the property and now they can't generate enough revenue to cover their debt.
 

If Bally's misses any payments, I think Manfred has made it pretty clear that MLB has a contingency plan to step in and provide some type of TV/streaming offering for the affected teams.
"Contingency" doesn't sound strong enough.

That to me sounds like BSN still gets to put Twins games on their cable channel this year, without paying what they promised to pay. That sounds like BS to me.

Pull the rug out. Put them on MLB channels.

and to be fair, the problem is not with BSN - the problem is that Sinclair and Diamond paid way too much to purchase the RSN's when they went on the market as part of the Disney & Fox merger. Because Disney owns ESPN, they had to divest themselves of the RSN's.

Sinclair simply over-valued the property and now they can't generate enough revenue to cover their debt.
That's their problem. Not the fans' problem.

They should not be allowed to put a single Twins game on any streaming or cable channel, if they don't make payments.

Should be an automatic rug-pull.
 

Whoa!! the stuff is hitting the fan. We may be looking at the end of Regional Sports Networks.

Warner Bros. Discovery owns AT&T Sports Net - but has announced that it is getting out of the RSN business immediately. this impacts 4 MLB teams a month before the start of the regular season.

From Sports Business Journal:

Warner Bros. Discovery has told teams that it plans to exit the regional sports network business entirely within the next several weeks.

The company, which operates three AT&T SportsNet-branded channels in Denver, Houston and Pittsburgh and has a minority stake in the Root Sports channel in Seattle, has told teams that they have until March 31 to reach an agreement to take their rights back. If the RSNs can’t reach deals with the teams, the channels eventually plan to move forward with a Chapter 7 liquidation filing.

In a statement provided to SBJ, WBD said, “AT&T SportsNet is not immune to the well-known challenges that the entire RSN industry is facing. We will continue to engage in private conversations with our partners as we seek to identify reasonable and constructive solutions.”

WBD sent letters to the leagues and teams this afternoon informing them of their plans to divest their interest in those four RSNs.

WBD has rights deals with 10 teams across those four networks: four MLB teams (Astros, Mariners, Pirates, Rockies), three NBA teams (Blazers, Jazz, Rockets) and three NHL teams (Kraken, Penguins, Golden Knights).

In the letters, WBD said that it will allow the teams to use the same production staff and equipment to continue producing the games.
 

"Contingency" doesn't sound strong enough.

That to me sounds like BSN still gets to put Twins games on their cable channel this year, without paying what they promised to pay. That sounds like BS to me.

Pull the rug out. Put them on MLB channels.


That's their problem. Not the fans' problem.

They should not be allowed to put a single Twins game on any streaming or cable channel, if they don't make payments.

Should be an automatic rug-pull.

my understanding is that IF Diamond missed payments, MLB would immediately take over distribution of games for the affected teams - so BSN and the other Diamond RSN's would be out of business and the games would be provided to cable or streaming directly through MLB in some fashion.

The bigger picture is that the entire RSN system is on the verge of collapsing. If you look at post #207 directly above, you can see what's happening across the RSN industry. 4 MLB teams just lost their RSN's a month before the start of the season.

earlier this week in Sports Business Journal, there was a story about this. the story states that "many teams with RSN distribution deals have been told to expect their local media rights fees to be cut by as much as 70% over the next several years" as the local TV landscape changes.

the Titanic has already hit the iceberg. and now the survivors are fighting for the lifeboats. the way we watch pro sports in this country is about to go through a huge change.
 

Good. RSN's need to die off.

They were a helpful thing back in the glory days of cable TV being the top way that most people got their view of the world.
 

my understanding is that IF Diamond missed payments, MLB would immediately take over distribution of games for the affected teams - so BSN and the other Diamond RSN's would be out of business and the games would be provided to cable or streaming directly through MLB in some fashion.

The bigger picture is that the entire RSN system is on the verge of collapsing. If you look at post #207 directly above, you can see what's happening across the RSN industry. 4 MLB teams just lost their RSN's a month before the start of the season.

earlier this week in Sports Business Journal, there was a story about this. the story states that "many teams with RSN distribution deals have been told to expect their local media rights fees to be cut by as much as 70% over the next several years" as the local TV landscape changes.

the Titanic has already hit the iceberg. and now the survivors are fighting for the lifeboats. the way we watch pro sports in this country is about to go through a huge change.
Jim Pohlad's wallet just screamed.
 




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