Diamond Sports Group, the corporation that owns 14 Bally Sports regional sports networks, is expected to file for bankruptcy March 17, according to a report from Josh Kosman of The New York Post. The timeline will be awkward for Major League Baseball since the 2023 season opens on March 30, but the league plans to step in and broadcast the games themselves.
It had been reported for some time that Diamond is in financial trouble and they forewent interest payments worth roughly $140MM to creditors last month. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said at that time that the league was monitoring the situation, hoping that Diamond would make its payments but also drawing up contingency plans. It was subsequently reported that the league had hired multiple former RSN executives for a newly-created Local Media department, seemingly to get in position to take over broadcasting duties where necessary.
The problem stems from continued cord-cutting as fewer customers are paying for cable bundles these days, opting instead to use streaming services. That leads to decreased revenue from ad sales and cable contracts, creating situations where RSNs are paying teams more for rights fees than they are able to make back from those revenue streams. Per Kosman’s report, there are at least four teams where Diamond plans to reject the contracts via the bankruptcy proceedings. The teams in question are the Reds, Diamondbacks, Guardians and Padres, with the San Diego deal currently $20MM in the red on an annual basis.
The report goes on to state that MLB’s plan is to take over the local TV broadcasts of those teams, as well as streaming them for free in those local markets as they negotiate lower deals with cable companies. It’s not yet clear if fans in blacked-out markets would be able to access those streams in the short-term. If deals are reached, the league plans to offer over-the-top service for around $15 per month. As Kosman notes, that’s lower than some other streaming deals, with the Red Sox charging $29.99 per month. The league also already tried to acquire the rights to all 14 teams currently controlled by Diamond but were turned down. Those clubs are the Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Guardians, Marlins, Padres, Rangers, Rays, Reds, Royals, Tigers, and Twins.
A similar situation has arisen with Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns AT&T SportsNet and is a minority owner of Root Sports. It was reported last month that Warner was planning to get out of the RSN business, which would have implications for the Rockies, Astros and Pirates, though not the Mariners. Warner only owns 40% of Root Sports Seattle with the Mariners owning the other 60%. Kosman’s report indicates the league plans to take over those broadcasts eventually as well, though not by Opening Day.
This is a fluid situation and many of the details are still being worked out, but it’s possible there is a sea change approaching in how Major League Baseball delivers its broadcasts to its fans. Most out-of-market games are available to paying subscribers via MLB TV, though these RSN deals have always taken precedent, leading to blackouts that prevent fans from watching their local club on the platform. Many fans have been critical of the way these blackouts are applied, with some subscribers saying that their home is covered by various overlapping blackout areas. The people of Iowa, for instance, have often complained that they can’t watch games featuring the Cubs, White Sox, Cardinals, Twins, Royals or Brewers. That’s an extreme example but highlights the sorts of issues with the current system. Manfred has expressed a desire to move to a new system that would allow customers to purchase broadcasts regardless of where they are, though it’s unclear how long it would take to get such a model in place.
Whenever that new system is in place, it will also have implications for the finances for teams. These RSN deals have long been a significant source of club revenue that seems to now be drying up. Streaming will present new revenues sources, of course, and already has. The league has previously agreed to lucrative deals with streaming platforms like Apple and NBC and may strike other deals in the future.
For now, it seems the immediate concern is making sure that the broadcasts for the 2023 season are maintained. Kosman reports that the league plans to retain current local announcers for any broadcasts that it takes over and it doesn’t seem as though there are any current concerns of games being missed. Assuming the league is successful in all of these plans, it’s possible that fans won’t notice much difference in their baseball consumption here this year, but the field may be wide open for changes down the line.
Free baseball!
Unfortunately not for the Rangers apparently.
That’s what T Mobile Tuesdays are for.
I hope this turns into a really good thing for the sport and they finally start getting rid of blackouts and opening up streaming access to everybody. Force Manfred to make the change that will ACTUALLY help with the decreasing fans problem
Yep. I’ll pay double what mlb tv costs right now to not be blacked out for brewers games.
Another Brewers fan that would pay.
i ride or die with SD, but live in wisco and have grown quite fond of the brewers. Would absolutely pay more to not have them blacked out of mlb.tv
Same here. Reds fan in Portland but would pay extra to watch the Mariners, no question
just get a VPN and you can watch all games
opposite here. Brewers fan sin South Carolina. Would not pay money to watch the team that knocked us out in 2021 (first playoff game I’ve ever been to, got chopped at by everyone in my section when Hader gave up that bomb)
still have nightmares
That doesn’t work as well as you think. I did this last season. Had to disable location services, change time zone, and still MLBTV would figure it out most times. It became a headache.
I didn’t create a burner email for MLBTV, but it was far from a solution.
VPN
That doesn’t at all address the problem of blackouts and the lack of new fans. The only people who are going to put the effort in to this are already fans. There is also a large segment of the population that A) aren’t tech savvy enough to identify and use a VPN or B) aren’t comfortable breaking the terms and conditions and risking getting their account banned or C) both.
Same. I forgot to turn on my VPN one time as I logged into a game and it never worked once after that, they had my flagged and blocked at that point.
Exactly this. I don’t pay for cable, and I never will again. But I’d be thrilled to open my wallet for MLB – just don’t black out games.
Good news for MLB’s plan to eventually have a centralized over the top streaming service for baseball, now it’s just down to ROOT, Marquee, NESN, NBC Regional, YES, and that pain in the ass MASN to give up stakes so by my estimations by 2340 we’ll have our way…
They should still just go for it at this point with all of these freed up teams. It will strongarm the rest to follow suit and fall into line as they watch their fan bases jump to follow other teams because they are more accessible.
Baseball is moving towards the opera model, with a fanbase that’s increasingly aging and ticket prices too high. It’s still a great business to be in, but viewers should be able to purchase games of the teams they want to watch. Blacking out doesn’t serve either the fan or ownership–the idea is to put potential consumer with seller, not make it incredibly hard.
@Mikenmn A friend of mine in the financial services sector used to say to me that the high ups are constantly sweating the details while the big picture walks by unfrisked.
Yes imagine if they just made game streaming ala carte. How much would you pay per game if there was no hassle, no blackouts, any MLB game on demand?
@abc123baseball
There ya go, thinking big picture. You should be focusing on the photocopier budget
For the win. I love, too, that it’s basically a photocopier model…
The current system has served the team owners very well until now. It got them huge guaranteed revenue streams. The only way this system will be disrupted is if the teams don’t receive the guaranteed money because the RSNs that bought the in-market broadcasting rights go bankrupt. Maybe that’s what’s happening now and a new system will emerge, but it will be patchwork at best and create a good deal of pain and suffering along the way.
Baseball needs to get their sport out to the masses. When I was a 10-year old boy, I could turn on the TV and see baseball on the TV over the antenna. I fell in love with the sport and became a fan. I attended MLB games and got the merchandise. This is how you build a fanbase, not by hiding behind a cable package.
Yeah, back in the “good old days” I’m sure I could see at least one game per week for free on rabbit ears. The other 5-6 games were on radio. Old days for sure, but not necessarily good.
I’d gladly pay Bally Sports or whomever to see all the games.
Even in the early 90’s many regional network affiliates had games on pretty regularly you would get one or two during the week and usually all three weekend series games when the team was on the road. It wasn’t perfect by any means but it was better in many ways than today where you have to pay for massively overpriced cabel and then have to worry if your carrier and the network get into a dispute and the carrier drops the network
@For Love of the Game
I’m glad you can pay for it. I’m just saying that it makes more sense if they don’t hide it behind cable packages and instead make it accessible to the masses. If that means they offer some for money and some for free, good on them. However, cable packages just aren’t worth the money, even if you can get all the games.
You can games without a cable package. Some games are available with a digital antenna. The rest(aside from blackouts) available with either cable or streaming. That is where the revenue is at for them. And TV revenue has proved to b a huge boon for MLB, much more so than ticket sales, so less fans paying more=more revenue. Sadly even if all games were free it likely would not lead to a surge in fans as u imply. Nowadays there is just to much competition to captivate kids as far as entertainment goes.
Same here. I remember moving to California as a teenager and turning on channel 5 and hearing Vin Scully say “It’s time for Dodger Baseball” and it was just like this warming at home feeling that an entire generation of Baseball fans (and even potential new fans) have been deprived of
Those were the nice and simple good days.
Depending upon how far back RSox was referencing, those games broadcast on local TV for LA would usually be a small number of games.
But I’m not sure if you were being facetious about the “good days.”
When was that? I remember them on 11. Must have been in the 80s…
Nope, they switched to channel 5 in 1993. From ’93 to ’95 channel 5 carried both the Angels and Dodgers until the Angels moved to channel 9 in 1996
Yes, I remember that those rabbit ears somehow magically made a good game last a little over two hours so it could actually hold your attention.
I wonder what the percentage is of persons over the age of 60 who have been watching games on cable and who will instead be willing to pay for a streaming service to watch games?
I dumped cable several years ago, invested in a good antenna on my roof and now get TV broadcasts for free in higher quality than cable. I also invested in Bally Sports+ streaming app for $15 /month and will be getting all The Tigers games.
Seems like the Tigers should be paying you 15/month
Lmfao
Wow invested? Geesh how much of a return are you getting?
Exactly what I paid for, including the Red Wings and Pistons.
I wonder how many special dividends were paid to the parent company instead of shoring up its finances.
While you’re taking care of that issue how bout dealing with no MLB network on YouTube TV. Would make sense to the fans! At least this fan!!!
Agreed. Not just YouTube TV, but other like Hulu, Sling, etc. etc.
They’ll probably get it all fixed. The cord-cutting community and online piracy has really hurt the monopoly that the networks and cable companies have built.
Sling does have MLB Network. But your point is correct, MLB Network is hard to get.
But they don’t have local MLB coverage. They lost those contracts.
Would like MLB Network on Hulu. Have to pay over a $100 for out of market games for my team. Guess its good to be able to watch, but it would be nice if you got MLB Network access via the app with MLB.TV subscription.
So something good may come out of this. I live in Michigan, so I can get the Tigers via cable with no blackouts or direct subscribe to Bally Sports Detroit + if I want. I understand why blackouts exist. RSN’s pay to be on cable so they don’t want MLBTV horning in on their action. But come on, there are too many overlapping blackouts, and it isn’t just Iowa, though that is probably the most egregious. It is 2023 time to get out of the dark ages. If baseball wants to really grow the game, then having fans being able to watch whatever game they want when they want is something they should strive for. If the RSN’s all have to die to achieve that, so be it.
Oddly enough, Iowa isn’t the most egregious. In Hawaii, they get “local” blackouts for Angels, Dodgers, Padres, Giants and Athletics. As if they can just get in a car and drive to the west coast. At least in Iowa it’s in the realm of possibilities of driving to one of their blackout cities.
Which is strange because in the Inland Empire you have the Angels and Dodgers blacked out but the Padres, A’s, and Giants games are all available (except when they play the Angels/Dodgers)
I live in NC at the moment, and paid to have the MLB network the past two seasons so that I could watch the Phillies.
They blacked out all Braves (5 hours away), Nationals (5 hours) and Orioles (6) games, plus the lost games to the goofiness of Facebook games and the like – over 25% of the games blacked out. I canceled it this year in a fit of pique, just because if they are that greedy and stupid about things then they should every customer walk on them until they get real.
I am willing to pay for the very few things that I actually watch, but they are making it difficult as heck and a huge pain in the butt to deal with them.
Where do they plan to broadcast these games? They can’t possibly plan on showing them on the Bally channels that are bailing out on the contracts? Would they strike deals with the local ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC channels? PBS???
They wouldn’t be able to strike deals with ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC because those can only be had for free through antenna…and that’s only if antenna reception is possible for an area. Other than that, cable companies have the rights of those networks for digital broadcasts. And not every cable option has all four.
Maybe the bankruptcy proceedings would allow MLB to use the existing TV channels to show the games where the RSN broadcasts would normally be. Either that or (far more likely) they would only be available via streaming.
This was going to happen sooner or later. Very likely good for the fans. I have always said that MLB TV should have always put something together that allowed for fans to pay for service to watch their home team without blackouts…and also have the current package that has all of the out-of-market teams. Essentially, give fans the chance to purchase the extra option for their home team. I currently have the Bally’s package for both Florida and Sun so I can watch my Marlins (and the Rays) and Heat. I’d prefer the option to just pay a little more to watch my local teams in a package with all of the other teams
Crazy as it sounds, a lot of this was changed by the online piracy that allowed many people to cut the cord, stop paying for bundles and watch their teams.
This is all good for sports fans, and everyone as a whole. Sports is being dealt with. Soon we’ll see networks like CBS, NBC, FOX and ABC offer more digital availability as well without cable subscriptions as some of the smaller networks like ION Television, Bounce TV and others have already done. That whole Locast drama also affected them, with, again, online piracy impacting the industry.
Yeah, I’ve always said (as a cord-cutter) I’d be happy to pay the equivalent of the carriage fee on top of my MLB.tv subscription, if I could stream my local team’s games. But what I WILL NOT do is pay the $60-70 a month Comcast charges for the bloated channel tier that they require for you to get the RSN channel.
OOT, why US sports team outside soccer didnt allow advertiser put their logo in their jersey chest?
I know some NBA teams and now in USA WBC jersey, there some advertiser logo in their sleeve. But none in the chest. I mean, it can worth a lot of money.
Spotify paid Barcelona FC 310M USD for 4 years (77.5M per year). Real Madrid got paid 420M USD for 6 years from Emirates (60M per year).
Heck, small teams in England Premier League like Bornemouth can get about 15M -17M USD per year from their chest sponsorship (Dafabet), sleeve (Dewalt) and their kit sponsor. It could help smaller teams like The Rays to compete.
Want something crazier, just googling Indonesia Liga 1 jersey in google. You can find 3-4 logo in the player chest LOL
They are actually allowing it starting this season but I’m not really sure how many teams will take part. MLB has a history of allowing corporate advertising on sleeve patches and helmets but it has seemingly only been during games in international settings (Japan, Mexico, England(
I’m over the MLB package.
Just sell each game for $1. That’s basically what it boils down to.
Yeah, but they would never do it that way because most people won’t watch every game. If they can get people subbed for $15/mo it creates a much more stable revenue stream for MLB, and they’ll net well over $1/game in revenue.
I’d do that today if that was an option.
The increasing tv deals and decreasing demand v subscriber base were bound to collide at some point.
That point is now.
Just add a local option to mlb.tv and pass the extra fee to the RSN.
If you have t mobile you get all games free with MLB pass
No, you dont. I got the MLB pass with Tmobile a few years back and I couldn’t watch a single Angels game that wasn’t nationally broadcast. I was grateful it was for free, but I wasn’t about to pay for a service that was ultimately useless to me.
If I pay to watch the game don’t black me out. All I and most fans want. Advertisers should want as well.
The only time there should be a blackout is for Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN, or if televised nationally on Fox.
I don’t agree with that. I paid $150 big ones to watch any game at anytime I want. This should include ALL prime-time cable & network broadcasts. Those stations will be making their money back on ads. I don’t even think MLB.tv should have ads. Again, I paid that all upfront.
Yup, but as a concession to ESPN or whoever paid for the national rights MLB.TV should leave all the badging and ads in place so they don’t lose what they paid for. I honestly don’t care that much but the sales and marketing people sure do.
I live in Iowa. The blackouts suck. Glad I’m a Braves fan, only gotta use my vpn once in awhile
I feel you on that one in the same boat
I’m a big MLB fan and watch parts of at least 400 games a year on MLB.TV. The best value I know of.
As for the blackout, that’s not quite true…….
While I follow the team in my market some, every year there are other teams I like to watch more. MLB.TV archives all games it broadcasts (at least 95% of games played). Although the team in my market is blacked out while they’re playing, subscribers can replay the game 2 hours after the game concludes (fast forwarding past breaks between innings). All achieved games can be replayed on-demand year-around…24/7/365 (plus you get some spring training games).
The cost this year was $150 for the season (not counting the post-season). I can’t take 3 people up to see the local team play live, pay for decent seats, gas, parking, refreshments and souvenirs for the kids for $150. This is an incredible value for anyone that likes the sport.
Last thing – most of the people in my area that are running organized baseball teams in schools, travel teams, etc. are subscribers. Like me they watch the teams around MLB that are playing good baseball and doing some innovative things.
Forget cable.
Except when you live in Iowa or Oklahoma half the teams in the sport are blacked out at any given time. You’re basically paying for the privilege of not watching baseball games.
I want to be able to watch scraggly slobs who don’t even acknowledge fans and send them money, directly or indirectly.
Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for the DOJ to force Disney to divest its RSN assets since they are, well, umm, solvent. Of course, we can blame MLB here for going with Sinclair, which had financial concerns from day one. They went with what they thought was the best dollar, but it turned into the worst choice. On the other hand, this will probably be a good thing because the entire cable/RSN model is eroding, so hopefully this will accelerate the process to the next platform.
When Cohen purchased the Mets, didn’t he refuse to negotiate on the RSN part of the deal? Perhaps he saw this coming, or maybe I’m misremembering the details.
I cut the cable years ago and have been getting MLB TV for 6 yrs now. I’m also with T-Mobile which gives you the entire package for FREE March 28th on T-Mobile Tuesday for customers to claim the 2023 season BYW. Like others, I miss the good ole days too. I became a Braves fan by watching the “SuperStation” where at 7:35 the Braves game was always on. I hope they figure out the lost revenue aspect of it so teams don’t lose that stream of cash. End of the day I don’t care how of what I got to do IM WATCHING MY BRAVES! Chop on!
This was exactly me with the Cubs & WGN. Live in FL and became a diehard Cubbie based solely on “WGN… Chicago’s Very Own Ch. 9!” Later WGN SuperStation and later WGN America. I still get a contact high just from hearing, “the following is a presentation of WGN SPORTS!” Oh, and I watched alot of Dale Murphy & the Braves on TBS too! Harry Caray or Skip Caray. Either way I’m getting a game. God be with the days…
Too bad they didn’t end the Cardinals contract too.
All good free sports streaming services don’t last forever. I enjoyed free phone football last season, and watched zero free games this season
I have a feeling MLB will finally end blackouts
God be with the days of the Cubs & Sox on WGN. *sighs like a love sick school girl*
I wouldn’t watch anything on cable if I was paid, especially what they call ‘news’, and there’s no way I’d pay to watch legacy mainstream media-CNN, CBS, MSNBC. The only thing that is any good is the baseball or a few other sports, and I cut the TV cord long ago and watch MLB a ‘different’ way. MLB TV needs to be far more cost effective, and blackouts need to be worked out so that people can see the game. As far as I am concerned, ‘blackouts’ are ridiculous and do nothing to promote the game of baseball, in fact, it turns loyal & true baseball fans off.
Baseball needs some Taiwanese/Japanese atmosphere at the ground if it wants to get more people involved. The way I see it, the crowds in most US ballparks are quite sterile in comparison to Japan or Taiwan, but you just won’t get that level of involvement/passion/atmosphere in USA ever. As far as I am concerned Manfred is ruining baseball with some of his new ‘rules’, but he might attract a lot of fast food drive thru eaters, because they want to get their food delivered within 15 or 20 seconds.
Japan is absolutely insane for baseball, the way it should be. I have a friend from there who the first time she went to a Reds game, asked why it was so quiet. That was back when they still had a good team.
You’re right about the ‘news’. Fake news is more like it. Yet people will sit and watch that crap for hours and believe everything they hear.
I remember as a kid sitting down on a hot July night watching the Tigers on Local Channel 3 b/c the team was owned by John Fetzer and he owned the channel so his team took precedent over shows like Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. And you could also always watch the Cubbies on WGN-9 so you had free choices back then. Seems like a long long time ago! Lol
What a mess this is right now. Fans of other teams stuck paying exorbitant prices just to secure the one streaming channel they can watch baseball on; while teams in other markets (that aren’t hurting in the payroll department might I add) are giving their games out to fans for free now.
I get that it’s likely the only solution available at this point, but holy poop, man. What a freaking mess we have on our hands.
What I’d like to see most in baseball is the return of the cheap bleacher seats. For say, five bucks, a fan could watch a game, sit in a seat that would have probably been empty anyway if the home team isn’t a contender, buy concessions, and have an enjoyable day without forking over hundreds of dollars. It would bring the working class back into the fan base and increase the popularity of the sport.
When I was a kid back in the 70″s, the outfield bleacher seats at old Arlington Stadium were $3 for adults and $1.75 for kids. We went to games fairly often.
I went to the new Rangers ballpark three times in 2021. We got the tickets on a deal from a friend of mine that arranged a group purchase for opening day. The package included a pair of opening day tickets (in right field) and a pair of tickets for a couple of other games. I think we paid about $200 for all of that. That’s really not such a great deal, but it was cheaper than face value. Once we got there, it was $25-$30 to park, and every time I went to get us a couple of beers, it was $27. On top of that, they no longer take cash for anything, and they’ve eliminated the roaming vendors in the seating areas.
I didn’t go to any games last season, and I don’t have plans to go to any this season. My hard-earned money can be better allocated in other places.
Yeah, and the modern ballpark experience honestly isn’t all that great. Paying a kings ransom just to be there and then getting pounded with commercials between innings on the scoreboard really grates on me. Might as well just watch it all on TV. It feels the same.
And bad music blasting throughout the game
I looks to me like a great opportunity to start sharing TV revenue amongst the teams. Leveling the playing field as far as revenues would go a long way towards improving competitive balance. The NFL is a great example of that.
This is a he only way to shrink the gap between the haves and have nots.
Problem is the big market teams want to keep the gap and mlb wants the big market teams playing in the playoffs. The big market teams bring in more viewers meaning more playoff revenue.
We ditched our cable provider a couple of weeks ago and started service with Fubo. During that process, I learned that Fubo recently reached an agreement with the Bally RSNs. After pulling the trigger on that subscription, I learned that Fubo is tacking on an extra $13.99 per month as an RSN fee. I’d love to see Bally go belly up if it means getting rid of that fee.
Now, if only MASN would go under…
Forwent? Seriously, this isn’t the Middle Ages!
Where’s benben when ya need him?
I’m curious why the RSN model is in such trouble because of cord cutting. I watch my team on an RSN but I don’t have cable. I subscribe directly to the stream of the RSN. Is it just because they are included in cable bundles that a bunch of people are paying for but not watching? I feel like those RSNs must be carrying their fair load or more of any package. There‘a a lot of crap in any cable bundle. Live sport must have a pretty good share of that market and for every fraction of a subscription cost they lose to a cord cutter, they might also make back from a full direct subscription.
I find it hard to believe that all along Mike Trout’s salary has been paid for by someone who has cable just to watch Antiques Roadshow.
I don’t know about other areas, but you can’t get the direct RSN stream here because the RSN is available on our local cable provider.
Like etex211 mentions, the direct subscription to the RSN isn’t available in all markets.
If you think about it, it’s really not surprising that Diamond is losing a ton of money on San Diego because there you can’t subscribe directly to the RSN, and Diamond doesn’t have contracts with Hulu live or YouTube TV for them to carry the RSN. There’s also no ability to pay for local games through mlb.tv, which is a league-wide problem.
So aside from traditional TV, there’s really no option for cord cutters to pay to watch the games as it’s not available for purchase anywhere. They have a situation where excitement/demand in SD to watch Padres games is at an all time high but willing customers can’t even buy their product.
With the cable model the RSN got money for every subscriber even if they never watched a baseball game. Streaming only brings in the baseball fans.
That is definitely true, but the carriage fees in the cable model are a fraction of what direct to the consumer costs. From what I understand, RSNs have the highest carriage fees among TV stations, at around $5-6 per month per subscriber. In contrast, Bally sports +, which is direct to consumer, runs about $20 per month. So even if you’re only generating revenue on sports fans instead of everyone, they charge the sports fans 3 to 4 times as much to help make up for that.
These high carriage fees are also a big part of why people are cutting the cord. People who don’t want to watch sports end up paying inflated prices for cable because the providers are paying these high prices to the RSNs. Those people drop cable and go to Netflix, HBO, etc… and then the cable providers/RSNs don’t get anything from them.
The old RSN/Cable model is broken, they have to adapt to streaming.
Why can’t they just throw it on MLB Network?
The reason these RSN’s are in trouble is because too many people have cut the cord. Your just asking for them to use the same solution that caused the RSN’s to file bankruptcy.
MLS struck a deal with Apple TV. If your an Apple TV subscriber you get all the games for $79, and if you don’t subscribe to Apple TV it’s $99. I think this is a good model. The streamer offers deals at a discounted price, but MLB offers subscription at full price.
I miss the Cardinal baseball games on channel 11. Free broadcasts were the best. Everyone watched, everyone knew what was going on. I’m only approaching 40, can’t be that old yet for it to seem so unlikely to happen again.
Free streaming would be great for the game.
OOOOps Free baseball, well please reread the article and pay attention to the last word of the heading (TEMPORARILY).
It shouldn’t be that hard. I’m a Cardinal fan who lives in Arkansas. I should be able to pay $15 a month, or $20, or whatever, to watch all the Cardinals games. That should be the only step that it takes. While cable dies a slow death, MLB would be ahead of the curve getting a system like this in place before even the NBA (who suffers the same blackout issues that MLB does).
Look how many Braves fans Ted Turner created by giving the games to everyone over his own network. That franchise has been in the playoffs almost every year since 1991. Who says winning and fan base don’t go hand in hand?
This is a prime example of an industry sticking their head in the sand. There was no way not to see this coming and create some type of BATNA.
It’s my understanding that once Bankruptcy is filed, the court pretty much dictates conditions. If it’s a chapter 11 reorganization, the court usually orders all current operations of the company to continue, as a going concern.
If the judge rules that way, I can’t see how MLB can take over cable broadcasts the cable companies and advertisers have paid for – that’s operating capital, part of the going concern equation. The continued operations, if losing money, will require funding to continue in business, and that may be how MLB can take over as a court-appointed executor, but that’s not automatic.
Yes, I think you’re right. The main job of the bankruptcy court is satisfying creditors. Assets have to be sold off in such a way as to maximize the satisfaction of debts. In the case of the RSNs, MLB can step up with an argument that they are the only party in a position to preserve the value of the local broadcasts by taking them over temporarily in bankruptcy. In the end they might have the best cash offer to assume them permanently. But they can’t just swoop in and simply assume ownership of the rights. The court would never allow it.
Been a diehard baseball fan over the years. Had mlb tv and my local games became blacked out when i moved to an address 10-15 miles away. I refuse to pay such high prices for cable just to watch baseball and then countless advertisements.
There should be an option for customers to get what they pay for. Baseball only. And during these days of inflation, and wallet gouging people need an escape from all the events happening in the world today.
Good luck out there baseball friends and happy viewing our American Pastime thru overpriced cable i refuse to purchase.
Baseball has gotten too darn greedy. There’s nothing wrong with making money but baseball, as a whole, has gotten out of hand. The players and agents are greedy. The owners are greedy. the commissioner is greedy. MLB ignores the problems facing the game and makes up things to make the game “fun” while ignoring the core problems–namely, it is getting increasingly more difficult and expensive for average fans to see games on tv or in person. Free agency is out of control–the “cap” is a joke. Game blackouts are a joke. $22 for a hamburger at a stadium is crooked. Millions of dollars a year for a person to play a game is obscene.
Maybe MLB could also get their contract with YouTubeTV fixed