Local Broadcasting/Media

They clearly over valued it... When the RSN were connected to Fox and then Disney, they had a ton of clout because many times the RSN's were linked to other big networks. So the contracts were for all those entities. But then Sinclair buys them and even though they are big, they are obviously not FOX/Disney. So they found out that charging the same price as FOX/Dis wasn't working. So when they could not get the price they wanted, they didn't bargain with the providers. So the providers simply refused to work with them. Which is why you no longer see the RSN's on Hulu, YouTube, Dish and the like. I wonder how long the contract is with XFinity and DTV? Lose them and the RSN's are gone. (If not before)

Good post. Sounds like a classic case of mergers and acquisitions overreach. A common business practice in today's economy. I see it all the time.

I am surprised that they could not get a better price from Disney... Disney was forced to get rid of the RSN's by the Department of Justice, so I am surprised they got the price they did when Disney HAD to sell.

It's also interesting that the DOJ took any interest in breaking it up in the first place. Not a standard practice nowadays.

DOJ sure did us consumers a big favor by breaking up that monopoly.

I don’t know what the answer is but I think teams need to start speaking up more. Maybe they have privately.

The longer people go without the RSNs, the more they won’t miss them

Life was so much simpler when all you had to do was tune in to "The Kitten That Roared" - for free.

Which reminds me: I distinctly remember saying to my wife, sometime in the 70's, "who in their right mind would ever pay to watch TV"? Then a couple years later we were paying $7 to do just that. :dope:

And who would pay for a bottle of water. Truly different times. If Sinclair is going to burn up what will happen to the regional networks? Will they sell the contracts at a bank auction or do the teams just sign on with someone else?

It seems like the problem will take care of itself once Sinclair is out of business.

Maybe if Sinclair does go belly up, this may be the right time for the local teams to get together and try the Victory Sports Network model again. I know last time around it didn't work, but maybe the time is right for it now. Have the Twins, Wild and Wolves work together ( maybe a pipe dream that they would work together) and then get that station back on most providers. Obviously this is way above my pay grade, and I'm not sure how much money that would take. I'm afraid if they go to strictly streaming, they will continue to lose the fanbase who don't want to deal with that option. Just spitballing...

Sinclair is so in love with what they got from Fox they are bidding on NBC's regional sports networks.

The article Vegoe posted above is a fantastic look at the situation.

Whether intentional when they purchased them from the Mouse or not, looks like Sinclair is going all-in on bundling sports with gambling, likely trying to leverage the fantasy football following into a revenue stream. Get ready for sidebars and opportunities to gamble while you watch any sports whatsoever. In my opinion, YUCK.

The problem is that they don't control enough content, despite the purchase of the RSNs, because of how their contracts are worded with teams. So they will still need to acquire more rights to fully implement what they are attempting to do. And even then, it may not be a hit with consumers. That's why they had to go in on the NBC RSNs.

But it seems like they understand that, until their apps and streaming platforms roll out in the spring, they are expecting to lose money and are just eating it now.

But if the MLB strike/lockout happens this spring, and it delays the baseball season, they will have no content to air on this platform they have paid money for. They don't need to pay teams for games they aren't having to air, but they will have invested a ton into the content and infrastructure with zero return. That may mean the investors throw in the towel at that point and bankruptcy is inevitable.

Maybe that is what to hope for now!

Anything linked to gambling will be very problematic without football... Yes they have college football, I think the ACC or something that comes on BSN on Saturday's. But in this market, it will be very tough to succeed without local football for people to gamble on. Speaking of that... I would think that since sports gambling in MN is still not legal... That causes even more problems locally for BSN???

There just seems to be a lot of overpaying for all of it if you ask me. 1. The Teams expect way too much money for their product in the first place so they overcharge the networks. Then the networks expect way too much so they overcharge the distribution.

And as Jupiter pointed out Disney made a complete killing on the sale.

And Bally's didn't buy it for what it was, they bought it for what they thought it could be. I guess people are forgetting that there is so much entertainment out there right now that you only have so many eyeballs. People moved on from going to Mariucci. They'll move on from watching sports on TV. I'm halfway there now.

That is probably why Sinclair is doing what it is with Bally's: trying to define the next generation of consuming sports.

But I agree with you-- the market is probably overvalued right now and there is a reckoning occurring.

For that I don't fault Sinclair for taking the risk. But it is a big one for the sports teams, as TV is how the current market connects with the fans, and without easy TV-- and by transitioning to a gambling "game", you are converting it into a giant version of electronic gambling and taking away the sport.

For those of us who enjoy the sport for what it is, they are taking it away from us. When that happens, we all move on, which further kills the market. So it is a high-risk endeavor for the teams.

I think the teams are going to suffer greatly. The pandemic already did what it could, this could push them off the ledge. Pretty sure I saw something recently where NHL attendance was not even close to meeting expectations. Sinclair is basically taking revenue away from the teams by making it impossible for their fans to see the games. Exposure/buzz is key in any entertainment venture. Out of sight, out of mind.

But it is a market. The teams sacrificed their long-term exposure for a short-term monetary gain (or extended financial certainty). That was their trade-off too.

They are tied up in this until their carriage contracts end, but if you read what Manifred is saying about MLB, they are not really interested in heading down this path further with Sinclair. So either he is bluffing so Sinclair will way overpay the team more for the next cycle, or they are pissed and are going to jump off this horse as soon as they are able to.

I was looking through a book of old stuff of my father in law’s today and came across an article from 1958 where his success in the Golden Gloves was called out. It also talked about how much of an athlete he was in high school and his in 20s.

The article was written by none other than Sid Hartman.

Nice find! Something to safely hang onto for many years to come...

I don't remember where, nor how, I got it, but I have a Sid bobblehead that I've been hanging onto...

B$N should be showing Gopher football, why are we getting Michigan football?

If Gophers lose this game today Fleck gets Turkey of the year award

Small businesses are not the little guys, working class Americans are.

I'm not sure how or why this has turned into a "Capitalism bad" thread, but maybe you should read some history books and go to an Econ 101 class before you complain that you can't see a hockey game at will, and on your terms.

I found this article interesting

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/21/sports-fans-are-being-sidelined-as-rsns-fight-the-decay-of-pay-tv.html

I would like a little less monopoly and more free market on the capitalist controlled NHL streams. They are limiting the fan base of their product. Someone said Sinclair is doing poorly and we can only hope they go belly up and the nhl (MLB, WNBA, Wolves, …) figures out how to do regional broadcasts. Or I could go to a game, but I’m less interested mainly because I’m less informed about how they are doing.

Maybe take your own advice

https://twitter.com/mattsarz/status/1467459675948003329?t=3V2zy6_XWU_N4AVJ9rQTtA&s=19

Wild included.

The neighbor has hired Dave Lee's replacement

[media] https://twitter.com/StarTribune/status/1468266795341598720 [/media]

Minnesota resident sounds like she is leaving SNF

[media] https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1470887591662669824 [/media]

I do hope she continues her career in reporting. She's one of my favorites, total HOF sports reporter.

YoutubeTV is in negotiations with Disney. Anyone know if this will be going on for a while? Espn channels, FX channels, there’s a lot in there. They dropped their price by $15 a month down to $50.

https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-sports/youtube-tv-pulls-espn-in-the-middle-of-timberwolves-game

The Disney bundle costs 13.99 a month, so I don't think Google has much hope for an agreement

was her remarks on the hen show the view have anything to do with it where she talked about crt in a neg way or saying anti vax was okay look at the source nbc or abc one of the 2

Can you repeat that part… But in English?

..........

Feel free to borrow a few of these.

i thought you were smart guess not

:reading: :coffee:

But you don't get live ESPN programming with that. You get ESPN+

I doubt Disney will do a deal with Google, they want people signing up for Hulu.

I just signed up for a free trial of FuboTV, thinking I might switch to that. Seems to have everything I need from a sports perspective (still no Bally, but Tbh I'm pretty much over it with that)

Fubo has NHL Network which will be fun during the World Juniors!

Well Jup, I also can not decypher it.

At least I'm smart enough to know you don't poke a guy that has ban hammer power. Dumb.

There's apparently some sort of inside language mixed with text-speak, as best I can make out.

Possibly an Enigma machine would help?

ban hammer power oh no not that

smart or just scared to poke

Not in the mood. Month off it is.

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You just can't fix stupid.

Or lack of capitalzation & punctuation. ?

Do they speak English in What?

Of course the YouTubeTV / Disney BS doesn’t affect getting any NFL games except the Vikings playing on MNF

Any chance you could make them type a few sentences with punctuation to return, as an entry fee?

Fubo has been pretty decent so far. UI takes some getting used to, but overall after 1 day of use, pretty solid.

This past Thursday was the last NFL Thursday night game on an over the air network(Fox). Next weeks game is on NFL Network. Next year all Thursday night games will be exclusively on Amazon streaming service. I think Amazon has an 11 year deal. Since we don't have Amazon prime, it would cost me $9 a month to get those games... :chainsaw: