Bally Sports and MSG RSN Are Reportedly Preparing For Bankruptcy

[comfortably_numb]

I think this is inevitable at some point in the future

Hope so. Might cause another strike, but things are different now than they were in 1994; the TV money just isn't out there anymore.

 

[Bruce]

even the teams paying the tax can only do so for so much longer. while the small market RSNs were the first to fall, don't think the big market ones like LA Sportsnet can keep going. There's no path in which LA Sportsnet can afford $335m/year payments to the Dodgers

I just read the LA Sportsnet is in about 2 Million homes, in their areas ( Southern/Central California, LV and Hawaii)

So if the per sub fee is $12 ( their share/wholesale rate), that is only $24 Million a month, $288 Million a year, not enough to cover the Dodgers, but do not forget the rights fees for the Lakers, which cannot be cheap.

Also reported, the channel was losing $150 Million a year just 5 years ago, has to be a lot worse now.

 

[cpalmer2k]

More info on the Braves plans are starting to leak out. It looks like they *may* be going to partner with Grey Media and air games on their local stations. This would be interesting if it plays out. Last year Grey TV launched local sports channels in Georgia and the Carolinas that are carried OTA on their stations in SD, but are carried by cable providers in HD. Those channels carried a limited number of Braves games via simulcast last year.

Sources: Angels and Braves contemplating their own regional TV networks

While seven of Main Street Sports Group’s nine departed baseball teams are expected to broadcast their games through MLB Media, sources told SBJ Thursday that the final two — the Braves and Angels —are in discussions to form their own networks that could involve the NBA’s Hawks and the NHL’s Kings,

www.sportsbusinessjournal.com