Bally Sports RSNs Are Reportedly Preparing For Bankruptcy

[Bruce]

I didn’t know where to post this, I mean it does offer a online version and one of the reasons it is in trouble is because so many have left Live TV, only about 48 Million pay per sub fees for RSNs vs 100 million 9 years ago.

So I will post it here-

Bally Sports RSNs Are Reportedly Preparing For Bankruptcy | Cord Cutters News

Today it is being reported that Sincalir’s Sports Channels are preparing for bankruptcy. This would include the Bally Sports RSNs. The company called Diamond Sports Group LLC, which runs Sincalirs sports channels, is reportedly $8.6 billion in debt. Sinclair is hoping to strike a deal to help...

cordcuttersnews.com

By the way, I said this was going to happen months ago back in the DirecTV Sunday Ticket thread.

 

[ncted]

Yeah, this seemed inevitable. BTW: I noticed recently that a lot of smaller conferences no longer have their men's basketball games on RSNs or even ESPN or CBS. They are on something called FLOHOOPS which I'd never heard of. It costs $30/month or $150 per year.

 

[Bruce]

Yeah, this seemed inevitable. BTW: I noticed recently that a lot of smaller conferences no longer have their men's basketball games on RSNs or even ESPN or CBS. They are on something called FLOHOOPS which I'd never heard of. It costs $30/month or $150 per year.

They might be on ESPN+, I hate basketball so I never watch.

 

[ncted]

They might be on ESPN+, I hate basketball so I never watch.

Nope. They used to be on ESPN3 or +, but apparently not any more. This is what we have instead:

FloSports - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[comfortably_numb]

If the RSN's die off, does that mean baseball games will go back to OTA? That would be awesome..

 

[Bruce]

If the RSN's die off, does that mean baseball games will go back to OTA? That would be awesome..

The OTA Station will have to pay for them, teams are used to the big money they were getting from the RSNs, doubtful the Station will want to pay that and/or can afford it, specially the non network affiliates, they are the only ones with time slots to air them, they do not have the money.

Basically the old UHF of our childhoods.

So, either the leagues will do it themselves, or looked at taking the money from Amazon, Apple and Google, who are the only ones flush with cash right now.

ESPN is another option, but again money and logistics play into that, no matter what, teams will not be getting the big pay days they were getting, not enough people watching.

Like I said RSNs have lost 50 million households out of a 100 paying per sub fees in the last 9 years, that number gets less and less, reported every quarter.

Ballys is just the first, many more RSNs will soon be doing the same, either to get a better with teams or just cannot go on anymore because of the loss of subscribers.

 

[comfortably_numb]

teams are used to the big money they were getting from the RSNs

Who will pay?

 

[SamCdbs]

The RSN model is broken. That has been discussed. Lots of stakeholders made huge mistakes. Sinclair, MLB as a whole, certain owners of individual teams.

Issue going forward is that the, not a, the reason a particular team is a "small market" or a "large market" is the RSN money, which is, depending on what source you read, something like 30% or more of team revenue. Live gate has nothing to do with it, I could draw 30 to 40K 81 times in any of 200 metro areas, or more. It is the RSN money.

At the end of the day, the players are not going to take pay cuts (and the teams are stuck in long term contracts anyway) and somebody has to pay the money.

Network TV seems to me to be maxed out.

The mlb.tv package and the inclusion of some of those games on ESPN+ also seems maxed out. Disney certainly is bleeding money on streaming and isn't going to pay big money for this out of town baseball deal, and mlb.tv is really just gravy money. Taking games produced and paid for by the local fans and showing them (mostly to displaced fans and gamblers) elsewhere. They are not going to pay more for it.

And, remember this. The games are produced by the RSNs. The mlb.tv is just gravy. There is not money there to produce all these games for it without the RSNs covering the costs first. There just isn't.

I do not see a solution that does not involve predicating mlb.tv access upon first paying your fair share for local baseball. If you do, please explain it.

 

[comfortably_numb]

I'm certainly not going to pay more than the single team price for MLB.tv, and in fact last year I didn't purchase at all- I was (and still am) sour about the player strike. The players are money grubbing prima donnas. I like the NFL's salary cap system. We get to keep players like Mahomes and Kelce here in KC because of it. Otherwise, they'd go to NY or LA, like the MLB system.

 

[Bilbo1]

I do not see a solution that does not involve predicating mlb.tv access upon first paying your fair share for local baseball. If you do, please explain it.

Pretty good summary.

As for path forward, pretty much this, or MLB entering into an Apple/MLS style arrangement with someone.

That article said something about Sinclair being on the hook for $2 billion in fees to teams… no breakdown by league.

If Sinclair defaults on the payment it would be interesting to see what happens to the rights agreements.

Interesting times ahead. Because sports play such a major role in the MVPD realm, this is going to result in big changes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SamCdbs]

That article said something about Sinclair being on the hook for $2 billion in fees to teams… no breakdown by league.

Old article, and incomplete, but as to baseball:

Let’s Update the Estimated Local TV Revenue for MLB Teams

While revenue is very much in question for the 2020 season, it was time to update our local revenue estimates from 2016.

blogs.fangraphs.com

My guess is that NBA and NHL are a lot less. Both are less popular, in terms of total viewership considering the longer season, and fandom is much less regionally based, especially in the NBA, lots more people follow whoever is good rather than the "local" team, which is often not that local really.

 

[dishdude]

Who would want to watch baseball on TV? I'd rather watch paint dry. And how is Sinclair not on the hook for this?

 

[Bruce]

Who would want to watch baseball on TV? I'd rather watch paint dry. And how is Sinclair not on the hook for this?

Because they spun it off into Diamond Sports, it is how corporations works, they wanted it off the books.

Kind of like how AT&T spun off DirecTV and TPG Capital having a minority stake, while AT&T owns 70% of the new company, the main company (AT&T)will not be affected when it goes bye bye in a few years.

 

[NashGuy]

As for path forward, pretty much this, or MLB entering into an Apple/MLS style arrangement with someone.

Yep, this is what I've been saying for awhile now is likely to happen. The DTC apps operated by MLB, NBA and NHL will expand to offer subscriptions to your in-market team too or the league will partner up with an exclusive streaming partner the way that MLS did with Apple. In either case, the leagues may have to come to some new revenue-sharing agreement among teams to make it all work.

But yes, as everyone knows, the RSN model is broken. There are just too few folks still willing to pay for big cable TV packages that include those channels. So if the vast majority of regular season games can't be distributed as part of the cable bundle any more, then they'll have to figure out a way to profitably distribute them outside it.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Why is is that the NFL can survive by only showing games OTA and on Sunday Ticket but MLB can't do the same?

 

[NashGuy]

Why is is that the NFL can survive by only showing games OTA and on Sunday Ticket but MLB can't do the same?

Boils down to two things: the greater popularity of the NFL versus other major league sports and the far fewer number of games on the NFL calendar, which concentrates viewership.

 

[navychop]

Big recession,
Big retrenchment.

 

[dishdude]

Big recession,
Big retrenchment.

 

[navychop]

Overpaid sports figures and the whole establishment may take major earnings cuts if we have a major recession and people cut back spending. Momma ain’t gonna allow paid sports when rent is due and cupboard is bare.

 

[Don in CT]

Why is is that the NFL can survive by only showing games OTA and on Sunday Ticket but MLB can't do the same?

Baseball 162 games over 6 months. 16 games each day. NFL, 18 weeks, every game on one day over two networks.