Diamond Sports Group, the corporation which owns the Bally Sports networks responsible for local broadcasts of a number of MLB teams, forewent interest payments worth roughly $140MM to creditors last Wednesday (Associated Press link). The decision kicked off a 30-day window for Diamond to determine whether it is capable of meeting its debt obligations or is going to default on its commitments.
The missed payment came as no surprise, with various reports noting Diamond’s rough financial situation for months. Should the corporation default and potentially file for bankruptcy, it’d likely have a few options: honor its existing contractual commitments, withdraw from the deals, or attempt to renegotiate its contracts at more manageable rates. Diamond has separate broadcasting deals with all 14 MLB clubs* with which it has contracts; renegotiations, if things come to that, would be at a team-by-team level rather than in any kind of package deal.
There’s still plenty to be determined about the company’s next steps. Its precarious financial position places a great deal of uncertainty about the stability of local TV rights for the clubs that have contracts with Diamond, however. Commissioner Rob Manfred addressed the situation at last week’s owners meetings, noting that the league is exploring alternatives to make sure those teams don’t lose in-market broadcasting (link via Alden Gonzalez of ESPN).
“Obviously, our first choice would be that Diamond pay the clubs what they’re contractually obligated to pay them, but because I guess I’m a contingency planner by nature, we are prepared no matter what happens with respect to Diamond to make sure that games are available to fans in their local markets,” Manfred said. “We think it will be both linear in the traditional cable bundle and digitally on our own platforms, but that remains to be seen. … Our first hope is that Diamond figures out a way to pay the clubs and broadcast the games like they’re contractually obligated to do.”
The league makes most out-of-market games available to subscribers to its MLB TV package. However, clubs’ local broadcasting deals supersede the league platform, leading to blackouts of in-market games on MLB TV. Manfred broadly indicated a desire to eventually permit MLB TV consumers to purchase various broadcasts both within and out of market (via Hannah Keyser of Yahoo! Sports), though that certainly won’t happen on a league-wide level anytime soon.
MLB has already branched out into various streaming deals. The league agreed to contracts with Apple and NBC for broadcasting arrangements on those companies’ respective streaming services last year. It certainly wouldn’t be a surprise to see MLB negotiate similar deals with other platforms over coming seasons. Those contracts — paired with various postseason TV deals, including a new broadcasting contract with ESPN tied to the creation of the Wild Card round in the most recent CBA — highlight the kind of national revenue bases the league will certainly continue to explore outside the realm of local broadcasting. Nevertheless, the uncertainty with Diamond is sure to be an area of concern within the league office over the coming months.
Diamond first purchased various regional sports networks, which had been under the Fox Sports moniker, from Disney in 2019. The company reportedly took on roughly $8 billion in debt to facilitate that transaction. As Travis Sawchik of The Score explored last month, rates of cable ownership have dropped precipitously over the past couple years, contributing to Diamond’s revenues falling short of its expectations. Declining cable rates are generally expected to continue in the future given the ongoing rise of various streaming platforms.
Concerns about a potential default have raised questions about the player payrolls for the teams that rely on local broadcasting fees from Diamond. It’s still too early in the process for clubs to have a firm idea if/how Diamond’s situation will affect player spending, though it’s something those organizations are surely monitoring.
Cardinals’ chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. addressed the situation shortly before Diamond failed to make its February 15 interest payment, for instance. “It’s a concern and a fluid situation, there’s no question about it,” he said last week (link via Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch). “Something is going to happen sooner rather than later. It’s a big part of our revenue stream. We have nice rights fees. The (RSN) model is at risk. We’re operating like, no, it’s going to stay, but the reality is there’s going to be change.”
The situation has led to concerns about the possibility of a lowered salary cap in both the NHL and NBA. Those leagues, which have player spending fixed to league revenues as part of their respective collective bargaining agreements, each have a number of clubs with broadcasting agreements with Diamond. MLB, of course, has no salary cap. The MLB Players Association has steadfastly resisted any hard limitations on team spending throughout past CBA negotiations.
Questions about a potential league push for a cap arose again over the weekend. MLB created an Economic Reform Committee, which the commissioner indicated was in response to both this ongoing local TV uncertainty and more longstanding concern about revenue disparities between franchises. There’s little chance of the MLBPA entertaining a cap during the next round of collective bargaining negotiations in 2026, however. That would’ve been true regardless of the status of local RSN contracts but seems apparent as ever in light of the questions facing those cap leagues.
* The Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Guardians, Marlins, Padres, Rangers, Rays, Reds, Royals, Tigers, and Twins are all broadcast by Bally.
MLB number 1 issue isn’t the length of games or PEDs or Cohen spending money it’s the fact fans and potential new fans simply cannot WATCH THE DAMN GAMES because of blackout rules and lack of local teams having streaming.
I’m pretty sure it’s the length of games, particularly when combined with the endless breaks during the game. NFL is also having problems. Basketball is doing well with the youth for a reason, people want to see more of the sport being played and less of players just idling away wasting time. Love a game where the pitcher works fast.
I love the game where the pitcher isnt rushed and allowed the time to perfect his art… there have been exactly ZERO things done to help a pitcher other than the exploration of pretacked balls and everything has been done to help the hitter, from lowering the mound, to crack downs on sticky stuff, now this, make him rush to deliver a pitch in an exact spot with pin point precision… LEAVE MY GAME ALONE
Don’t need to tinker with pitching as it’s been dominating the sport for several years now. Good lord we live in a world where someone can get away w a 230 average if they can draw some walks and have a little pop
Hippyripper
I love the game where the pitcher isnt rushed
====================
To each their own, but watching Buchholz take 40 seconds between each pitch drove me nuts. And he was one of the guys that would’ve been better off getting the sign and throwing the pitch.
And watching Pedey perfect “his art” by spending 5 seconds adjusting his gloves, on every pitch, was something I absolutely loved to watch.
if only I had the problems the NFL has. a franchise sold for $5B and another is about to sell for $6B. They’re really getting hit hard.
If I could watch 162 games for a fair price, I’d do it. but I’m not paying for Bally, Apple, Peacock, ESPN, MLBTV, YouTube TV, and TBS to watch 1 team.
On the other hand, if there was competition in broadcasting for your subscription dollars, there is a better chance of it increasing the quality of the broadcast.
Having said that, my preference for broadcasts would be to watch the game without any commentary or graphics or advertisements. Just have a mic to pick up the ballpark sounds and let me choose which camera to stream (or mic too). If they can deliver that, no need to worry about production quality.
Gtfdrussell
If I could watch 162 games for a fair price,
=========================
I watch them on MLB.com. It’s so cheap that I don’t even bother checking the price. It helps that I am a RS fan in NY, so I get every game except for the ones in NY, but I also get every other MLB game.
It’s an even better deal (FREE), if you’re a T-Mobile customer. And the phone service has improved over the years, as well.
Just have to live out of market for your favorite team.
This year should be even better for you, with the balanced schedule removing some of those RS games at the Stadium.
Unfortunately T-Mobile doesn’t have the free MLB.TV deal anymore.
@case
NBA ratings are in decline. The game has been far too manipulated and it becomes hard to watch as a fan. Same thing with MLB. If you want to grow the sport, make it accessible to watch local and national sports.
Said NFL fan.
I will watch any sport but NBA or WNBA. They have politicized themselves to the point where they are polarizing.
I think all ratings are in decline, just a symptom of the modern streaming world with so many options. I read articles about how the MLB and NFL are having huge problems attracting younger viewers. Basketball still seems popular with the youth but I don’t have any numbers behind that.
With the MLB I’m just worried that the MLBPA and tradition obsessed fans will fight to the death for the pitcher/hitter’s right to constantly step out in some endless battle to ruin each other’s timing.
Maybe it’s you who have politicized it. Why do you care so much about an athlete’s or a leagues’s politics?
The problem is putting the games behind so many pay walls.
30 years ago, you watched games on regular broadcast TV. No need for cable. Certainly no need for 6 different streaming subscriptions to piece together watching games.
To justify every increasing media rights fees the pay walls had to go up.
Similarly, disposable income vs ticket prices. Kids used to sneak into games sometimes, if not buying cheap seats. Some, and by no means all especially in the biggest markets, clubs still have cheap seats, but, parks are increasingly located away from where kids can easily get to them as well.
Exactly! Why would I buy a service when I can’t use almost half of it due to blackouts?
In Dallas-Ft Worth/central TX region, it is awful. Bally is not available on any service except one type of dish. If you stream, you get blacked out. So the only practical way to watch is to pirate the games or go to a sports bar. Consequently, you run into a coworker and ask them to name you one Texas Ranger, and they will say either Nolan Ryan or Chuck Norris.
@trog or the cable boxes are trash and it’s a pain sometimes getting bally’s website to stream the game that i ended up pirating cards games even though i’m paying for the cable subscription because the resolution was better on the pirated site than the “hd box” i had
On those days of peds, when baseball was exciting.
This situation insures the Guardians will not spend another nickel on player salaries if they’re going to lose $50 million on tv rights fees
The #1 issue for MLB, NBA and NHL right now is Diamond Sports Group. The whole reason why player salaries exploded was because of the size of these deals. The cable model is slowly ending. That model used to pay these guys huge $$$. Cord cutters are eating into it more every day. When you cut the cord, you shut off the revenue that these leagues were making off of you from cable. They make that money whether or not you watch or not. ESPN gets more than $8 per month for every cable tv subscriber. Regardless of whether you watch sports or not.
Streaming revenue is NOT nearly as robust as the cable model. When cable model implodes and streaming takes the lead ….. you will see player salaries begin to decline in a big way. You will also see all the money in college athletics begin to dry up as well.
How sad for all the people exploiting college athletes.
I think horrible announcing and presentation on TV is a big problem. You tune into ESPN Sunday Night Baseball and they are talking about shoes and food and they split the screen and put an interview next to the game. It tells potential new fans that the game is not important. Nothing interesting going on here. Football seems to only focus on the game while broadcasting.
I watch games on pirate sites. When MLB wakes up and realizes it is 2023, and blackout restrictions are stupid, maybe I will pay for MLB.tv.
I also hate how the playoffs are on fifty different stations, all of which are paid TV.
Just put all of those teams games on EXTRA INNINGS and stream it. If you want to see your team you pay a monthly fee. And those teams get the revenue.No blackouts.
That’ll fall well short of promised funds from bankrupt cable tv
I’m guessing it is because people are not willing to spend as much on baseball as they have to spend on cable TV. those dollars are long gone, and that business model is quite dead.
Combine this situation with the three AT&T sports networks that made payments that didn’t live up to contracted expectations this week, then add in the ongoing MASN lawsuits and that makes 18 teams out of 30 dealing with some sort of regional broadcast mess in one way or another. Looks like it may be time to rethink the model.
This could be the best thing to actually happen to Major League Baseball. Sure, in the short term they’d lose a substantial amount of money. But if they do it right, it could revolutionize the way we watch sports for the better.
Of course, it is Major League Baseball we’re talking about. Everytime it seems they need to take a right at the fork, they make a left and vice versa
With every team playing every team this year everyone should have a chance to watch all the games
Manfraud: “Everything is fine”
Look at what franchises sell for, and their rate of appreciation. That is Manfred’s only real responsibility, and pretty much the only thing his bosses care about.
A lotta teams gonna slash payroll in the offseason
Exactly. The large markets will have even more of an advantage with their massive local TV deals.
Most of the big-city major league clubs own a share of their RSN. Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Dodgers, Mets all come to mind. Even the smaller-market Orioles and Mariners.
Most teams own a chunk of their RSN. The Cardinals own 30% of Bally Midwest, for example.
The Giants own part of their network as well.
No one is going to get the Bally app when it costs $15 a month on sale.
For in market baseball? That’s a steal.
Why not? People subscribe to cable for $60-$100 a month because of sports. Everything else is available via streaming. Sports is what makes cable viable.
It’s absolutely infuriating that you can’t watch the Padres in San Diego unless you subscribe to 6+ months of Cox Cable… and we can’t get Cox Cable in certain parts of Carlsbad! I’d buy the Extra Innings deluxe package IF MY PADS WERE SHOWN ON IT, but alas, all local games are blacked out… and sold out!!! Stewpid, stewpid, stewpid… and the younger generation(s) are losing more and more interest even though they try to be fans of Soto, Tatis, Bogey, Manny, Yu, Musgrove, etc. Etc. Etc.
Aren’t you able to use a VPN to fool the geniuses at MLB TV?
It’s based on the billing address of the credit card you use, not IP address.
So I pay for your service and you pay for mine, and the system is beat when we are at different ends of the country?
That’s not true, I use a vpn and watch all my in market games every year
I used to fool it by VPN, but what happened was they wouldn’t allow streaming if your GPS isn’t turned on. To get by that I used a GPS Spoofer Application from the Google Play Store.
I have seen pirated games online, but I have no idea on how to acquire a schedule.
I currently pay for Direct TV and pay a small fee for Angels games. I will also take the time to listen to many games on the radio.
When I want to take in radio broadcasts from other markets I use a VPN q quite week.
I like the Yankees announcers, John Sterling and Susan Waldman. Susan is such a big – time Homer. I find her hilarious when she gets really enthusiastic about some trivial Yankees news or when the Yanks win close games.
I would love it if Will Ferrell would do a parody of her on SNL, like his classic impersonations of Harry Carrey.
I would lo I’ve any SNL cast member do an impersonation or skit involving those 2.
I also love listening to the Hud Man and Steve Pysioc on KC broadcasts.
I used to love listening to Rex Hudler. Who cares if he’s stoned. Get stoned, if it makes your broadcasts more interesting.
I love listening to Terry Smith and Mark Langston on Angels Radio broadcasts.
This year we have Steve Randazzo joining the TV Booth along with Guby.
Will Randazzo be an upgrade to the Angels TV Broadcasts?
Nailed it, Troutani. If I stream through my phone, then the Location has to be turned on, nullifying any VPN. I considered a spoofer, but at what point does this all become ludicrous? I’m just trying to watch a Padre game with friends and family in my living room. We can’t get the cable package, Extra Innings is futile for locals, we probably couldn’t get tickets because the game is sold out. The entirety of the issue is ridiculous. Going to a friend’s house across town isn’t a viable everyday solution, nor is frequenting Pizza Port for all 3 games of a fun weekend series… but if I lived 20 miles north then I’m able to watch every single exciting Padre game with Don Orsillo and Mudcat breaking it down like only they can. My nephew asked for Padre tickets for his birthday, so now I have to flush out some decent seats through a scalper? Again, the entirety of the situation is beyond parody at this point, and one could only hope these broadcast issues are addressed by MLB. Otherwise they’re losing potential future fans by the bucketload… and that’s just people I know that actually love the game but are unable to watch their team.
Randazzo is the man! You’ll be happy 🙂
Yes.
You are not watching mlb.tv then.
VPN lol now we’re paying for internet to stream the service, VPN to fool geniuses, then of course the MLB network fee? Wtf that has to be more expensive than 6 months cable?
Used to love video games, then the NWO started producing them and it used to be you had to pay for the system to play the game, on top of the cost of the game? Now you have to do that, have internet, a monthly subscription to online services, and that’s just to enjoy the game… Then to add insult to injury instead of actually playing the game to unlock stuff you now have to pay money for that as well…. STUPID
Guess who doesn’t play video games anymore? Same will happen when I have to pay for 3 separate things to watch a MLB game
That’s a luxury 1/3 of the population can afford
VPNs and proxy servers are free champ. All you need is internet/Cable and MLB At Bat subscription. Hell, I don’t even have cable and I watch every game.
Maybe 1/3 of the population should be better at life then.
There is always Rojadirecta and mlb66.ir (though that has been shut down of late).
The reason I missed a ton of baseball in the Mike Dee era and why my nephews didn’t grow up watching The Padres.
I have to admit, as an Australian, it’s fairly bizarre, following all this. Obviously we are a lot smaller country but sports broadcasting here is like one of those kids’s mazes, compared to MLB’s 4d Rubik’s Cube, LOL:)
Where is the mention of Sinclair in all of this? The giant media conglomerate that controls a huge amount of media markets and oh yeah – Diamond is a subsidiary of…
Fox sports was a waste of money, but they knew it and spun it into Diamond. They were buying out sports like golf and tennis. they already own all they can in TV markets so they’re cornering other markets like Disney and all the other power media companies.
They’ll let ballys go bankrupt and sell rights to say “lifetime fitness sports” a new subsidiary of Sinclair which is not responsible for diamonds mistakes or liabilities.
Diamond Sports Group is incorporated as an LLC, thus it is walled off from Sinclair Broadcast Group and its local stations. Sinclair actually lost operating control of Diamond Sports Group at some point prior to this crisis.
Its a wholly owned subsidiary so it’s not “walled off”. For it to be separate legally in bankruptcy court there would have to be other shareholders.
Streaming games is only going to get worse. They keep making stupid deals to stream random games exclusively here and there on a variety of platforms. Such a joke. And they wonder why younger people aren’t getting into baseball.
Yeah, most people would pay an amount just for reliable everyday games. Instead I feel I gotta sail the high seas most of the time. I don’t want live tv for anything but sports. Make it unavailable for a good price, and I’m just gonna stream it for free.
Apple TV tells me the player’s chances of walking go up after a strike and the chances of a strikeout go up after a ball half the time. I hate when only Apple gets to broadcast. Hunter Pence is the only hope at redemption.
Diamond Sports, which is wholy owned by Sinclair Broadcasting, not only paid Disney $11 billion for the company but also took on another $8 billion in debt in the purchase.
The 14 RSNs they bought had just over $1 billion in annual revenue or enough to justify a purchase price of $8 billion. Paying $11 billion might have been ok if not for also taking on the $8 billion in debt.
The cable and satellite tv operators would certainly be willing to pay the same carraige rates as they were paying Diamond if MLB takes over broadcasting the games. They don’t want to lose that valuable programming. MLB and the teams themselves would get a larger share of that money than they do now.
It would be good for MLB and the teams that are broadcast on those 14 RSNs if Diamond Sports were to fold.
this thing may have stopped potential angels buyers.
“But because I’m a contingency planner by nature”
maybe it’s because nothing you do works Mr. Manfred… so maybe you’ve had to be a contingency planner because your plan A is everyone else’s plan C
Make no mistake- Manfred and the owner’s Plan A, B, C through Z is always what makes them the most $$. There is no other “contingency”. Their eye rolling first statement always includes some malarkey about “what’s best for the fans” but then they’ll risk everything by getting into bed with Bally and Diamond- who clearly over extended themselves- in the hopes of even higher profits. And of course, it’s all at the expense of fans ability to see their local team’s games.
That there was funny, bambi!
MLB revenue keeps going up. He is doing what the owners want.
Makes sense this is how nba pays their absurd salaries.
I think streaming is the future. I currently pay $150 per year for Flo Racing, so I can watch the Chili Bowl and Lucas Oil Late Models. There’s a whole lot of other stuff on there I could watch if I choose to do so.
My cable bill is nearly $200 per month. One reason I haven’t cut the cord and started streaming is that Bally Sports on the local cable provider is the only way to watch my Rangers, other than DirecTV or DirecTV stream. DirecTV isn’t a reasonable option because it would cost just about as much as the local cable company.
I’m in the preparation phase now of kicking my cable company to the curb, even if it means I can no longer see the Rangers on TV. Divorcing myself from the cable company is tricky, because they are also my email provider, and I’ve had the same email address for over 20 years. I recently got me an email address not tied to that cable company, and I’ve been working to get all of my business moved over.
I would gladly pay 10 bucks per month to stream my Ranger games. I’m not sure I would pay $30 per month for it. The pricing is going to be the key.
As an added bonus, when I get rid of my cable company and start streaming (probably on Fubo), I will get the MLB channel. My cable company doesn’t offer it.
I think the future of all TV programming will be with a la carte pricing. Why should I be forced to pay for a bunch of channels every month that I will never watch?
My cable/internet was reaching $200 a month when I cut cold turkey. There was a line at the cable company when I went in to negotiate as a 20-year customer. I cut cable and kept internet at $50 a month and have not looked back.
Antenna, smart TVs and Roku pick up the slack. I make better choices for pi$$ing away my time.
etex211 – Did you check out Bally Sports+ (note the “+”)? It’s a streaming option available here in Michigan for $20 per month that broadcasts all Detroit sports. I plan to start using it when the season starts.
If I’m not mistaken, that’s part of the Diamond group, so it may not stick around much longer.
Only four of the teams on the Bally’s RSNs have their games available on Bally Sports +.
Jammin, I’ve got the free Bally Sports Southwest app, which allows me to stream Ranger games the next day after the game is played. On Bally Sports+, in order to stream live games, you have to log in using your cable or satellite subscription.
The only way to watch live Ranger games in my town is to subscribe to either Suddenlink/Optimum (my cable company) or one of the DirecTV products.
I found this on the Bally Sports+ FAQ page: “Bally Sports currently has the rights to stream the Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays on Bally Sports+. We are in discussions with MLB and our other MLB team partners to expand our offering in 2023.”
Thanks for the info!
Just wanted to mention I JUST signed-up with Bally Sports+ in Michigan….it’s on sale for $14.99 per month and I am supposed to have access to The Tigers, Red Wings and Pistons. Seems to work OK so far………………
$30 a month is probably what you’re going to be looking at.
Here I thought I had it bad when MASN has a streaming app, but you need to subscribe to Xfinity or Verizon to use it. Sorry for all you folks with life harder than we have it here in the Mid-Atlantic.
The owners and the league are going to need to put their foot down and force the creation of a salary cap even if it means firing all the striking players… the sport is in big big trouble long term, the average fan is in their mid-to-late 50’s, and they don’t know how to attract younger fans. Within 20 years, MLB is going to have sustainability issues.
Yeah, because controlling and massively underpaying players for six years during their prime and remunerating minor leaguers below minimum wage isn’t enough for those poor billionaire owners.
And let’s fire all the players who insist on getting a fair share of the profits they generated with their work.
Let the owners take the field then. Moreno on the mound manages to throw only balls, Seidler strikes out in all of his PAs while Nutting still tries to figure out the 1B glove he borrowed from Steinbrenner because he was too cheap to buy his own. Reinsdorf fell asleep in RF and, after being woken up by a fly ball, has no idea how to find his way back to the dugout. Cohen at SS does what he can but keeps getting hampered by bad infield bounces. Steinbrenner as DH finds out that a big bat alone doesn’t make one a power hitter. Stuart Sternberg and Bruce Sherman in CF and LF, respectively, try to engage with the fans, only to discover that no one is interested in them.
I haven’t covered all the positions yet but I’m sure fans couldn’t wait to pay for that circus.
It’s because going to a game, with good seats is a financial decision.
Watching a game, takes effort and a specific financial commitment.
Going to a game used to be pretty easy and you could invite your kids’ friends without hesitation.
Channel surfing might find a game on the weekend or Mondays or Fridays….
Reading the paper as a kid, the Sports Section, featured baseball….and it had math, with those batting aveerages always present and was funner than reading about Cypress being invaded or whatever..
The greedy are pricing themselves out.
My local paper dropped all boxscores … and subscribers. The shopper is more vital.
I truly believe Yahoo news is anti-American and has targeted baseball in an effort to show how powerful they can be. This year it was almost all nasty stories about strife and ill behavior.
Definitely not promoting baseball in a positive light.
Here you’re lucky if the paper even gets delivered, let alone has useful content. And yet a subscription costs several hundred dollars per year.
I can’t fathom how anyone can still complain about blackouts these days, when free HD streams are available left and right.
One doesn’t even have to sit in front of a laptop or tablet computer. Just connect a regular PC to the TV via HDMI cable, plug in some speakers and indulge yourself with anything from MLB games to Papuan midget* wrestling.
* I believe the politically correct term nowadays is “little people”.
By free streams, do you mean the illegal ones that flood your computer with viruses? In any case, many of us live in areas without reliable (let alone affordable) internet service, so trying to stream a game is more difficult than convincing Bob Nutting to sign Aaron Judge.
I see someone had to regurgitate that moth-eaten “flood your computer with viruses” narrative. There has been reliable ad-blocking software for safe browsing out there for many years now. Only the technically illiterate wouldn’t master such simple safety measures.
Where do you have to live in order to NOT have reliable Internet? I’d assume that MLB franchises consider South Sudan “out of market” or don’t they?
Regarding affordability, something like 20 Euros per month for 250 Mbit/s shouldn’t be too hard to raise if you’re able to pay for cable already..
Pretty much go outside of any major city and the chances of having sketchy internet skyrockets.
I have lived in the country away from cities in six states. The internet is actually better in rural areas then many cities. It’s amazing what they can do when running it on electricity routes.
Obviously, you’ve never lived in southern Alabama
I get blacked out of Nationals and Orioles games. I live seven hours away in North Carolina. I’ve never seen such a poor business decision in my life. There are no options to watch these teams if I wanted to.Not that I want to watch these teams but can’t watch them when anyone plays them.
It’s nuts, that’s for sure.
Guessing they file for bankruptcy, reorganize debt, continue to broadcast games.
A Chapter 11 filing can be used to terminate existing contracts. That helps explain why Major League Baseball is making contingency plans.
Even the NBA is concerned about the potential collapse of Diamond Sports Group — the NBA’s commissioner brought the situation up during the All-Star Weekend.
We used to just watch on broadcast tv…..me and my Grandpa.
I also recall when the playoffs and World Series were broadcast nationally for free, and every city with an MLB franchise broadcast their team’s games for free. As Archie and Edith sang: Those were the days.
“every city with an MLB franchise broadcast their team’s games for free.”
One or two games a week. Not every game.
Sorry to hear about the situation in your town.
“Prior to 1948, there was no local television of baseball in New York as the three teams then active in the City generally agreed not to venture into the new medium. But after the successful telecast of the 1947 World Series by NBC, all three decided to plunge into the televising of games. With three teams offering a full schedule of 77 home games each to television, local stations, then hungry for any type of programming, snapped up the games. WPIX, then the station of the Daily News, purchased rights to both the New York Giants home games in the Polo Grounds and the Yankees games at Yankee Stadium. Jack Murphy came to the forefront as a creative genius with respect to inventive ways to capture these games for the home viewing audience. Taking advantage of the peculiar shape of the Polo Grounds, for instance, he placed cameras behind first base at field level which enabled viewers to look virtually over the first baseman’s shoulder. After the Giants moved to San Francisco for the 1958 season, Murphy concentrated on the Yankees, who by then then were also offering a schedule of their road games on WPIX.”
https://sports.nyhistory.org/category/broadcaster/
We literally can’t watch about 10 teams home games in Vegas because its considered their in market games.
Does anyone believe MLB would change anything as far as tv rights for the better??
I don’t
You literally doubled the number of teams blacked out in Vegas.
I guess it’s alright then because it’s only five.
BallySports blacked out Rangers games in Midland and San Antonio last year…says it all right there i don’t know who’s maKing those kind’ve decisions
Because in Midland and San Antonio you can get cable and have access to Bally Southwest.
It’s not really that complicated.
Uverse had it blacked out…or maybe i just couldnt read yeah that must be it.
Everyone knows this tv situation is brutal. I have Directv only because of baseball. They have every sports network that broadcasts baseball, so I am stuck with them until things change.
Sucker.
FWIW, this is why I don’t take sides between labor and management. When things go well, the owners get paid off. When things go sideways, owners take the hit. That’s how it should be.
Didn’t MLB.tv at one point offer where you could pay per season for just 1 team? Or was that subject to the blackout rules as well?
That is subject to the blackout rule.
Twice, I asked about this in the chats and of course… no response.
But they did tell us about Bees and Beans.
Beads!
Dump this dumpster fire of a company and negotiate with the local tv markets. Free available baseball over local channels will drive the interest. That’s why this game is slowly dying. Football got it right you get atleast 4 games free tv and the other 2 on cable or Amazon. Is the recipe that hard to follow or is MLB just that damn stupid?
Besides the fact that there’s too much micro-managing in baseball and the games are typically too long. Greed! Greed! Greed! The amount of commercial time during the telecast is ridiculous.
Any sports telecasts on Bally and Fox are irritating. Way too many commercial breaks and often too long. Most of those commercials are repeated several times during the game because only those select few companies can afford to pay for the commercial cost time.
Usually in the fifth inning on, it’s half-inning over, a 2-4 minute commercial break, an AB or two in the next half inning, a pitching change, a 2-3 minute commercial break, during the next AB, a manager replay challenge, a 2-4 minute commercial break, next 2 ABs later, another pitching change, and 2-4 minutes of commercials, final AB of the half inning, 2-4 minutes more of commercials. Equals one-half inning of baseball with 10-15 minutes of in-game coverage and 10-15 minutes of commercials. Let’s also not forget the split-screen ads being run between pitches or outs on the screen.
Remember when every break in the action during the game didn’t require a commercial break?
Let alone every available physical space in the stadium is covered by advertising along with the viewing screen on your device typically has several locations with a company brand logo or website on the view from centerfield behind the pitcher towards the batter.
Your post if full of lies. There is not a single game, including playoffs, where there would be a 4 minute break, either between half-inning or during a pitching change.
“Full of lies”? Really? I said two (2) to four (4) minute commercial breaks and stand by my comment. If you don’t believe there’s the occasional four (4) minute commercial break during any sports broadcast, you’re either too transfixed and lose track of time by the garbage on TV. Or perhaps you’re delusional or a shill? The TV dumbing down of the American public has been in full swing for decades.
There are NOT four minute commercial breaks during pitching changes or between half-innings. NONE, ZERO, ZIP. NADA. MLB has rules about how much time can elapse during those situations. And even during playoff games, that time is less than 3 minutes
To suggest otherwise is a flat out lie. So don’t lie just to make your position seem stronger. That’s a douchey thing to do.
How is his post “full of lies” when you only cited one?
He said “2-4 minutes of commercials.”
“Between-innings commercial breaks account for a significant chunk of the longer running times in October. The standard break for an MLB regular-season game is 2 minutes, 5 seconds, and extends to 2:25 for a nationally televised game. During the postseason, the between-innings break increases to 2:55.”
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/playoff-games-tend-to-take-a-very-long-time/
What other “lies” did he tell?
Along with one might note the average commercial break times in the fangraphs article were from 2017.
And there is ZERO chance a between inning commercial break will exceed 3 minutes. So to say that it could last as long as 4 minutes IS A LIE.
Oh, so now it’s “A LIE,” not “full of lies.”
So, when you said his comment was full of lies . . . was that a lie?
Let’s just let sleeping dogs lie.
He repeated it several times, so, yes, full of lies is quite accurate. Shame that you think only a few lies is acceptable, Donald Trump.
The only “lie” you’ve cited is his estimate of the length of commercial breaks. That he mentioned it more than once doesn’t change the subject, which was the length of the commercial breaks. It’s one misstatement that you characterize as a lie. You could’ve disputed his estimate politely, but instead you opted for the nuclear option and called him a liar.
And despite the fact that he made numerous other observations besides the length of the commercial breaks, you haven’t been willing — or able — to cite a single other instance in which he lied.
Would you care to do that now?
It’s as lie because it’s not true. Pretty freakin’ simple, that. Although it’s nice to know that you don’t have any morals. That knowingly telling falsehoods isn’t lying and is perfectly acceptable to you.
How do you know that he knew his estimate was wrong? For that matter, are you certain there were absolutely no commercial breaks that lasted at least four minutes — for instance, during an injury timeout or another unusual lull in the action?
And again:
“And despite the fact that he made numerous other observations besides the length of the commercial breaks, you haven’t been willing — or able — to cite a single other instance in which he lied.
“Would you care to do that now?”
So far, you seem unable.
He gave five specific times. All of them lies.
Either he’s lying, simply to make his point seem stronger, which is one of the doucheyest things to do. Or he’s just a moron. I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he ain’t stupid. Maybe I shouldn’t have.
A douchebag sticking up for a lying douchebag. Not a shock that you are a Yankee fan.
I strive to preserve others from unnecessary shock whenever possible. Thank you for confirming that I’ve succeeded in this case.
I hope that recalling the possible addition of Luke Voit to your team’s roster will lift your spirits. And remember — it won’t be long before there’ll be sausage races once again. You have many reasons to smile.
So, since you seem to believe you’re always right j**k**s. Show me proof that “there is zero chance a commercial break will exceed 3 minutes.” Because when MLB 9 inning games often last 3:15 to 4 hours, that sounds like there’s some time that’s unaccounted for correct?
Poor baby pdx, what’s a matter? Apparently, your nose is bent out of shape because I criticize the Brewers and Counsell/Arnold/Stearns that you seem to worship in an unhealthy manner. Do you have a Counsell poster on the ceiling above your bed too?
I’m really curious about how the MLS season pass works for Apple TV+. They’re basically charging $99 a year with no blackouts.
If MLB can transition MLB TV over to Amazon or Apple and have them pay rights fees for the streaming, maybe there’s a blackout free one stop shop to be had in the future.
The shedding of cab/sat subscribers is certainly a factor here, but the biggest factor is DSG has no clue what the bleep they’re doing. They overpaid for Fox’s RSNs by multiples. All entirely leveraged by the way.
The leagues stepping in is fine, but quite frankly I’d like to see Diamond Sports Group just go away. A smarter media company would have handled this better. There would still be challenges for it, but DSGs foray into this should have cost higher ups at Sinclair their jobs. Im not sure if it did or didn’t, but regardless, their dealings with all this is the biggest problem.
I actually DON’T see them not paying. Why? Because DSG and Sinclair won’t ever get sports rights for broadcasting again then most likely. And I think they like doing it, even though they’re terrible at it. I’d be fine if they stopped doing it.
The leagues aren’t nearly as prepared to take on the inventory of regular season games as they’d like to tell you. Anyone who’s seen the production value of MLB Network, NBA TV, or NHL Network can attest to that. It’s marginal on it’s best days. Even NFL Networks is only so so. But it’s better than the other leagues. And likely has well more dollars pouring into it.
But a hard reset wouldn’t be the worst thing long term. Short and medium term it might be. Regardless, Diamond Sports Group going away would be a good thing.
If only there was some kind of… sketchy site where you have to have a couple of free popup blockers and a quick mouse hand but you could watch anything for free…
The regional sports networks employ the camera crews & production staff who actually create the video content, right? Do the contingency plans involve MLB taking this over in the event Bally gets liquidated?
…and then there is MASN.