dish and the RSN's

Unless Dish is allowed to sell RSNs as addons to customers similar to premium channels, they aren't coming back, unless Sinclair plays hardball with their broadcast networks, like NYDutch was saying.
 
IMHO if Sinclair trys to strong arm Charlie it will be the end of the game. They would be gone forever.
 
and NBC is next
Will they be willing to lose NBC Bravo Cozi TV E! NBC LX Syfy USA Network Universal Kids Oxygen and more?? or will the NBC RSN's come back??
 
and NBC is next
Will they be willing to lose NBC Bravo Cozi TV E! NBC LX Syfy USA Network Universal Kids Oxygen and more?? or will the NBC RSN's come back??

According to The Athletic, Dish has signed a new contract with NBC for all the other NBC properties:


The Athletic has a story on the RSN's from the California perspective but has some excellent info in it. You do need to be a subscriber to read it, however, there are two things of importance in it:

1) Dish's comment to the Athletic was a-la-carte RSN's or nothing - we have seen this before when they talked about dropping NBC Sports Chicago and Altitude. A quote from a Dish rep: "Instead of continuing to support the broken model, we propose a change: offer our customers the sports they want on an a la carte basis, similar to premium channels like Starz or Showtime. The RSNs would determine the price customers pay for a la carte channels. With this updated model, no customer would be forced to pay for RSNs they don’t watch."

2) Dish just signed a contract with NBC that is not a bundle and NBC knew they were opting out of the RSN's. "Dish and Sling were able to drop NBC’s RSNs while still keeping a hold on networks like NBC, MSNBC, USA, Bravo, etc. Most of NBC’s deals with cable and streaming providers were done in a way that bundled all of the company’s properties, but that wasn’t the case with Dish. So when Dish decided it wanted out of the RSN business (something the company made clear to NBC in recent months), it was able to opt out. That’s a decision other providers aren’t able to make, based on the contracts they’ve entered with NBC that call for all of NBC’s properties to be bundled together."

When I read that second part, something I have never explicitly read before but we have all assumed was happening behind the scenes, makes me think the RSN's aren't coming back.
 
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According to The Athletic, Dish has signed a new contract with NBC for all the other NBC properties:


The Athletic has a story on the RSN's from the California perspective but has some excellent info in it. You do need to be a subscriber to read it, however, there are two things of importance in it:

1) Dish's comment to the Athletic was a-la-carte RSN's or nothing - we have seen this before when they talked about dropping NBC Sports Chicago and Altitude. A quote from a Dish rep: "Instead of continuing to support the broken model, we propose a change: offer our customers the sports they want on an a la carte basis, similar to premium channels like Starz or Showtime. The RSNs would determine the price customers pay for a la carte channels. With this updated model, no customer would be forced to pay for RSNs they don’t watch."

2) Dish just signed a contract with NBC that is not a bundle and NBC knew they were opting out of the RSN's. "Dish and Sling were able to drop NBC’s RSNs while still keeping a hold on networks like NBC, MSNBC, USA, Bravo, etc. Most of NBC’s deals with cable and streaming providers were done in a way that bundled all of the company’s properties, but that wasn’t the case with Dish. So when Dish decided it wanted out of the RSN business (something the company made clear to NBC in recent months), it was able to opt out. That’s a decision other providers aren’t able to make, based on the contracts they’ve entered with NBC that call for all of NBC’s properties to be bundled together."

When I read that second part, something I have never explicitly read before but we have all assumed was happening behind the scenes, makes me think the RSN's aren't coming back.
and others can't use MFN to get the same deal?
 
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Does anyone know if Dish and Sinclair are even talking about the Regional sports channels anymore, keep hearing rumors, but it seems
Dish has moved on.
DISH has moved on. At this point there is no sense whatsoever of bringing them back. Those that really want the RSNs have left, or have plans to when their contract comes up.
 
DISH has moved on. At this point there is no sense whatsoever of bringing them back. Those that really want the RSNs have left, or have plans to when their contract comes up.
It’s been more than two years. Those with contracts would have either re-signed after the take down, or have been on pause for atleast 6 months.
 
It’s been more than two years. Those with contracts would have either re-signed after the take down, or have been on pause for atleast 6 months.
Not that I like to quibble (who am I kidding?) but it has been less than two years. July (late July at that) 2019 is when the bulk of the RSN's disappeared, with some individual ones not being dropped until much later that year. Some have not even been dropped yet, but will disappear at the beginning of next month.
 
According to The Athletic, Dish has signed a new contract with NBC for all the other NBC properties:

The Athletic has a story on the RSN's from the California perspective but has some excellent info in it.
The ironic thing here is that the whole reason the founders of Sling (long before Dish bought the company, the technology, and the brand) created the company in the first place was so that they could have a way to watch their Bay Area sports teams while they were away from home. And now Sling TV will not even be carrying those teams' games.
 
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Not that I like to quibble (who am I kidding?) but it has been less than two years. July (late July at that) 2019 is when the bulk of the RSN's disappeared, with some individual ones not being dropped until much later that year. Some have not even been dropped yet, but will disappear at the beginning of next month.
Thought it was July 2018...
 
Thought it was July 2018...
Nah, you must be getting your long-standing Dish channel removals mixed up. HBO and Cinemax was 2018, although that happened at the beginning of November. Maybe you were thinking of Univision? I'm pretty sure that one started long before HBO and Cinemax, although the Univision channels eventually did return. How much longer they will stick around is a question, though, since there has been a recent uplink seeming to indicate that Dish is preparing for yet another Univision dispute.
 
Today John Ourand, very respected in the Sports Business arena, had an article on the Sinclair RSN's. We all thought that the best chance for the RSN's to come back would be the summer when the locals come up for renewal. It looks like that isn't as sure of a thing as we thought before. I have never heard this take before:


Adding to the distribution angst, some in the financial community note that Sinclair operates the RSNs as a part of Diamond Sports Group — a legal entity that is separate from Sinclair’s local television stations. Speaking on background, several Wall Street analysts said the fact that Sinclair’s television group operates from its own silo makes it less likely that the company will use its local TV station leverage to win carriage for the RSNs.

Also something I didn't realize - Sinclair's contract with the NBA and NHL for the out of market packages expire this year.
 
Also something I didn't realize - Sinclair's contract with the NBA and NHL for the out of market packages expire this year.
So, what would happen then, assuming it isn't renewed? Would those leagues produce their own feeds for those games, if Sinclair still has the in-market rights? Or would those packages simply have a lot fewer games in them, with nobody providing out-of-market feeds for those games?
 
From the article:

Sinclair’s out-of-market agreements with the NBA and NHL are up after this season and face lengthy negotiations. The agreements dicate how much Sinclair will pay those leagues to show games outside of a team’s designated market.

Umm, Sinclair doesn't carry NBA or NHL games out-of-market. Sinclair PRODUCES games for its various RSNs which are then included in the out-of-market packages. The agreement that is coming us is about how much Sinclair WILL BE PAID for this, not how much it pays.
 
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