The article blames COVID, but it is much worse than that. COVID has quickly accelerated cord cutting, and those cord cutters won't go back. Hulu dropped all Sinclair sports nets today following YTTV's move earlier, so they won't be replacing the revenue of cord cutters at all any more. Even though services weren't making much of a dent anyway.
Most of the TV contracts go up by about 5%/year, and they already seem to be upside down on revenue to cover the TV contracts.
It seems very likely that half of the American NHL and MLB teams will lose their TV contracts within the next year if Sinclair declares bankruptcy. Some of these are primary sources of revenue for these teams, and will have a major impact on these sports.
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The impending burst of the regional sports networks bubble has been talked about for a long time. Maybe it's finally here.
Yep, this is going to be a worst case scenario for the leagues. MLB tried to prevent Sinclair from buying these, but couldn't come up with a good alternative, as I'm sure they feared this happening. Back when it was owned by Fox, they could have counted on Fox to eat the losses for a while and ease the blow.
Not surprising. I read an article awhile back that stated that cable subscribers were propping up the sports leagues and as people unsubscribe from cable, that future TV contacts may get significantly impacted.
I wonder what NHL salary cap will look like in 5-10 years from now. It looks like it'll be pretty hard to replace the revenue some of these lucrative TV contracts over the last decade or so.
Not surprising. I read an article awhile back that stated that cable subscribers were propping up the sports leagues and as people unsubscribe from cable, that future TV contacts may get significantly impacted.
I wonder what NHL salary cap will look like in 5-10 years from now. It looks like it'll be pretty hard to replace the revenue some of these lucrative TV contracts over the last decade or so.
Funny. I have often held the belief that live sports programming is the only thing propping up cable TV providers. Thats how it is in my house at least. I would cut the cable if live sports wasnt on there.
I know there is other subscription alternatives out there for live sports now, but at the end of the day once I factor in the monthly costs for SN and TSN online subscriptions, I am close to what I am paying monthly for my Cable subscription anyways so I just keep my cable in place like a dummy maybe.
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I honestly would be pretty hyped if live sports started going to streaming services. I guess the only concern is not everyone has the internet to stream something that is live
Funny. I have often held the belief that live sports programming is the only thing propping up cable TV providers. Thats how it is in my house at least. I would cut the cable if live sports wasnt on there.
I know there is other subscription alternatives out there for live sports now, but at the end of the day once I factor in the monthly costs for SN and TSN online subscriptions, I am close to what I am paying monthly for my Cable subscription anyways so I just keep my cable in place like a dummy maybe.
There's truth to that. The problem for the sports networks is that the only people keeping cable or virtual bundles are sports fans and an older generation resistant to change and that's not enough to pay their sports contracts. Their revenue is tied to subscribers, not viewers, so they are losing 10-20% of their revenue every year now even if the core viewers are keeping their package.
Sports (especially the NHL and MLB) have been funded for years now by tens of millions of subscribers unknowingly paying $30/year to a team they don't watch.
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Funny. I have often held the belief that live sports programming is the only thing propping up cable TV providers. Thats how it is in my house at least. I would cut the cable if live sports wasnt on there.
I know there is other subscription alternatives out there for live sports now, but at the end of the day once I factor in the monthly costs for SN and TSN online subscriptions, I am close to what I am paying monthly for my Cable subscription anyways so I just keep my cable in place like a dummy maybe.
I would say people posting on CalgaryPuck talking about hockey during the offseason are not typical cable subscribers. I'm sure there's many people on CalgaryPuck that are willing to pay hundreds of dollars per year to get good quality broadcast of hockey games, which currently is via cable.
nfotiu's post above described it pretty well. People who don't care about sports will continue cancelling their cable and the money that they've been paying to subsidize these massive TV contracts will dry up, and there's only so many dollars I'm willing to pay to watch hockey.
I think we'll get to a point where NHL can directly offer live streams without blackouts (since blackouts are due to TV contracts). But by the time that happens, I would think that cable would've already lost a lot more subscribers and we won't see these massive TV contracts anymore.
It'll definitely be interesting to see what happens to professional sports and player salary when it's time to renew these TV contracts.
I honestly would be pretty hyped if live sports started going to streaming services. I guess the only concern is not everyone has the internet to stream something that is live
until the day of the big game when you get nothing but buffering and you have a few in your living room
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until the day of the big game when you get nothing but buffering and you have a few in your living room
Even with Center ice/Rogers live or whatever it is, I’d have certain feeds freeze every 5-10 minutes using my PlayStation. A frustrating, but with more people adapting it the technology will come.
The NHL has always been about 10 years behind with tech.
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Even with Center ice/Rogers live or whatever it is, I’d have certain feeds freeze every 5-10 minutes using my PlayStation. A frustrating, but with more people adapting it the technology will come.
The NHL has always been about 10 years behind with tech.
I've been watching NHL and all my TV via streaming the last 3-4 years. I watch mostly every Flames and Nationals game every year, and I'd say glitches have been down to less than 1 per 20 games over the last year or two. Definitely surpassed the reliability of Satellite here a couple years ago where we get a lot of summer thunderstorm rain fade. Also NHL.tv has a better, smoother picture than cable/sat now that 60fps is more reliable.
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As a huge MLB fan, buffering etc issues would definitely happen a few years ago, but now are virtually non-existent on MLB TV. Do they still rarely occasionally happen? Sure, but on par with random traditional tv issues. I get a brief less than high quality bit about the same as I get a brief pixelated snippet watching on tv.
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DAZN is amazing. Serie A, EPL, Champions League, Europa League. Plus you can have two devices on at once so you ca split it with a buddy. Think it’s around $150 a year.
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There’s a limit to all this though, I guess I will tell my kids to make a choice between Disney+ and DAZN...
Anyway, I agree it seems CB like cable sports are done, right now the only thing I watch is hockey. No need for MLB, NFL, or NBA. Does the NHL streaming service cover the local team?
Last edited by Flamenspiel; 10-23-2020 at 12:46 PM.
The day of reckoning is coming for pro sports. These leagues are built on two foundations that are starting to crumble:
1) Huge TV deals that networks are realizing are money losers
2) Public funding for stadiums/areas are becoming more contentious with each new project
Sports seems taken a lot of money from people who don't actually care about sports (through TV packages and money for stadiums) and finally those people are starting to avoid paying for something they don't want.
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The day of reckoning is coming for pro sports. These leagues are built on two foundations that are starting to crumble:
1) Huge TV deals that networks are realizing are money losers
2) Public funding for stadiums/areas are becoming more contentious with each new project
Sports seems taken a lot of money from people who don't actually care about sports (through TV packages and money for stadiums) and finally those people are starting to avoid paying for something they don't want.
Not to mention it is still unknown how the post COVID world will embrace packing stadiums in the future. Social distancing could become a permanent ideal, especially during cold and flu seasons. Remove gate driven revenue, and the NHL is done.
Professional sports leagues as we know them have only been around for about 100 to 150 years. We think of them as fundamental cultural institutions, but they could end up being just a long fad. The television aspect has been around for an even shorter time, and the business model has always been a little tedious.
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The Looming bankruptcy of Sinclair sports networks
