The end of American Regional Sports Networks?

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Yeah_Baby

So, um, this is Salary Cap implications potentially right?

nah, just keep raising it and pumping into escrow

[Yeah_Baby]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

You can steam the Flames on Sportsnet for $15/month right now (assuming you are local).

Cost more to get out of market games.

This is how I watch, after several years without cable and not being able to watch prior.

[Beatle17]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

hard to find hard numbers, but the most recent Disney deal only pays $400M a year our of the $5.2B revenue. While I'm sure there's potential significant impact, I'd much more hate to be Baseball right now

I think baseball is doing ok. Most of the owners of teams have ownership shares in the Regional Sports Networks, i.e. RedSox own 80% of NESN, Yankees own their own etc. Even Oakland has a $1B television deal.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/lets-upd...for-mlb-teams/

[Rutuu]

Originally Posted by nik-

nah, just keep raising it and pumping into escrow

I love escrow because it's so poorly understood.

[Beatle17]

Originally Posted by Beatle17

I think baseball is doing ok. Most of the owners of teams have ownership shares in the Regional Sports Networks, i.e. RedSox own 80% of NESN, Yankees own their own etc. Even Oakland has a $1B television deal.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/lets-upd...for-mlb-teams/

And the teams EACH get $60.1M per year from the new TV contract. As a Cincinnati fan they take in over $100M a year from tv alone and only pay out about $40M in salaries. When you add in tickets, concessions etc., they make as much profit as the top NHL team, haha.

[Engine09]

Have to ask since I basically ignore streaming of any kind.

Do Sportsnet or the NHL have an app you can use on a Smart TV? Or must you stream through a computer and then connect to your TV?

[Draug]

Originally Posted by bzoo02

Just cut ties with cable all together and offer a streaming subscription service in 4k with no blackouts.

With any luck, it might even be as good as SN NOW!

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by Engine09

Have to ask since I basically ignore streaming of any kind.

Do Sportsnet or the NHL have an app you can use on a Smart TV? Or must you stream through a computer and then connect to your TV?

Depends on your TV, but Sportsnet may have a specific app for it that you can stream through, or you can do Chromecast/AirPlay, or through Playstation.

https://www.snnow.ca/support/watchin...w-available-on

[Flames1217]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

You can steam the Flames on Sportsnet for $15/month right now (assuming you are local).

Cost more to get out of market games.

I'm not local.

[Mazrim]

https://theathletic.com/4307996/2023...ts-bankruptcy/

It looks like two companies are going down soon. Bally's grace period on their debt payment is up this week.

Diamond Sports, the company that owns the Bally Sports Regional Network, which carries 14 MLB teams, 16 in the NBA, and 14 NHL squads on 19 RSNs, will likely file for bankruptcy protection this week. Meanwhile, Warner Brothers Discovery said in a statement it will walk away from its deals with regional sports channels that carry three MLB teams by the end of March, leaving baseball fans, in particular, worried whether the games of the 17 teams in the strike zone will air come Opening Days in a few weeks.

Indeed, the current environment is not a reflection of the value of sports in the media. Baseball games on RSNs routinely are top-rated programs on the days they air. The issue is as more viewers abandon the cable bundle, the economics of fans paying cable operators, followed by cable operators paying RSNs, to the RSNs paying the teams, is breaking down.

“The one thing is that this is not a crisis in terms of the value of sports content, sports games, teams are being watched and the ratings are strong and much stronger than virtually any other television category,” said Berke, the sports media consultant. “It’s not the ratings that are a problem. It’s the business model that’s a problem and changing the business model that needs to be done in order to help everybody concerned fully realize the value of the sports content that they’re offering up.”

[kevman]

Originally Posted by Engine09

Have to ask since I basically ignore streaming of any kind.

Do Sportsnet or the NHL have an app you can use on a Smart TV? Or must you stream through a computer and then connect to your TV?

They have an app and, as you'd expect from Roger's, it's terrible.

I use the app on my android phone and usually stream it to a tv with the app installed, an android TV without the app or an old chromecast without the app.

Pros:

• Stream sports to my TV

Cons:

• App logs out often requiring you to go through convoluted sign in process. (Sounds like a minor issue but when you're trying to catch the last 3 mins of a game it's frustrating when it takes you that long to log in.)
• App often starts streaming but then kicks you back to the "ready to stream" screen after 10-20 seconds.
• When you're watching a game in progress and are not live the stream ends when the live feed ends forcing you to go find the replay version and catch up to where you were.
• Hard to navigate the app sometimes to find said replay version without the app very clearly showing you the final score of the game. (No way to turn off spoilers that I can find.)
• App randomly glitches sometimes and takes you live when you're watching it delayed.

Essentially the app tries as hard as it can to spoil the game for you so it's right on par with everything else Roger's does for hockey.

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by kevman

They have an app and, as you'd expect from Roger's, it's terrible.

I use the app on my android phone and usually stream it to a tv with the app installed, an android TV without the app or an old chromecast without the app.

Pros:

• Stream sports to my TV

Cons:

• App logs out often requiring you to go through convoluted sign in process. (Sounds like a minor issue but when you're trying to catch the last 3 mins of a game it's frustrating when it takes you that long to log in.)
• App often starts streaming but then kicks you back to the "ready to stream" screen after 10-20 seconds.
• When you're watching a game in progress and are not live the stream ends when the live feed ends forcing you to go find the replay version and catch up to where you were.
• Hard to navigate the app sometimes to find said replay version without the app very clearly showing you the final score of the game. (No way to turn off spoilers that I can find.)
• App randomly glitches sometimes and takes you live when you're watching it delayed.

Essentially the app tries as hard as it can to spoil the game for you so it's right on par with everything else Roger's does for hockey.

An additional con is there is virtually no tech support if something goes wrong with the app or stream. At least, that was the case last year.

[Jethro Choicebro]

I know this stuff is often Your Mileage May Vary, but i use the SN Now app on a firestick, Xbox, PC and phone and have had virtually no issues at all.

Dont think it has ever logged my out
Stream has been 99% reliable
Generally always watch on delay without issue

The App is by no means perfect and quality on some devices could be better but overall I've been pretty happy with it

[1991 Canadian]

Good. I want to see these broadcasters fail and the leagues take a hit. I feel like I can just copy and paste my comment from when rumblings of this started 2.5 years ago.

I feel like nobody on the industry side has stopped and asked “what are the medium term impacts of maximizing short term sports revenue”?

Sports franchises/leagues have been more than happy to see tv deals skyrocket in value. Sports broadcasters like Sinclair have historically seen good advertising / cable carriage cost returns on these deals so have been happy to pay. Cable companies recognized that sports fans are going to be the last of the cord cutters so they seem content paying $5-7 a month for a sports channel to be in their cable packages.

I could make the argument that their greed is going to screw all of them in the long run.

Sports teams are losing the next generation of fans because their product is not as accessible and affordable as the competition (E-sports, Youtube, Netflix, Non-American sports streaming)
Sports broadcaster are stuck with expensive contracts that they cannot make a profit from
Cable companies are losing their subscriber base because they have tied themselves to carrying overpriced sports channels

There is a naïve belief that consumers will be continually content with increased sports costs and an even naiver belief that young people will just magically become sports fans.

Even in the 2.5 years since then, I've gotten even more bitter with the general direction of sports leagues and television stations. Jersey ads. Gambling ads. Moving board ads. Ever increasing cable tv carriage costs.

I get that we live in a relentless world and that this is an optional sports product that I don't need to buy. It is just depressing knowing that something I've sunk irrational fandom into is objectively getting worse. So maybe I'm the naive one, but I'm hoping these bankruptcies are a wakeup call to sports business world. I still think that they will regret taking the short term greed route. Just ask the CFL how well that strategy worked for them.

[InternationalVillager]

I think sports watching is going backwards due to technology. The whole point of watching sports is that it is LIVE.

My parents have Shaw and their neighbors have Telus.

The game is behind on Shaw then it is on Telus and the neighbor always texts my dad about a goal in advance of him getting to watch the goal being scored.

Now online streaming has the same issue- 45 seconds to a minute delayed behind the live trackers on NHL.com and updates through Score or ESPN app. Now I've had to shut off alerts on my phone so the game doesn't get spoiled - score alerts AND twitter!

My entire life I grew up watching either Satellite or Cable TV and never had this issue once. Only started happening since Shaw switched to IPTV and streaming became more popular. Even Center Ice seems like a waste of money due to IPTV services being delayed.

Any suggestions or other fans being frustrated by this?

[PaperBagger'14]

I'll gladly pay $10 per month for the flames or maybe $15-$20 for all games on a polished streaming service. SNNow is trash and $70+ per month for cable is insane. In the mean time the high seas are fair and the slight hassle of finding a good stream is worth the money.

Also does anyone remember the threat of some dynamic pirated stream blocking last year? Well I haven't been blocked from a single game this year.

"The new ruling is about to make it much, much harder for Canadians without a cable subscription to watch the rest of the NHL playoffs on illegal streaming websites"



https://www.google.com/amp/s/nationa...31eef532b/amp/

[sureLoss]

Bally's has agreed to pay for the regional rights of 11 NHL teams for the 2023-24 season.

https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/news/re...rts-bankruptcy

The rights revert back to the NHL starting in the 2024/25 season.

So the good news is that they will get paid for this season. The bad news is they have to find new buyers going forward

[getbak]

There was also news on Monday that Amazon is in talks to invest in Diamond Sports, which could see their regional broadcasts be available on Prime Video.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/deal...sj-2023-12-18/