The Pirates announced Wednesday that they’ve entered into an agreement with the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins for joint ownership of the SportsNet Pittsburgh network. Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette first reported the agreement. With the new partnership, SportsNet Pittsburgh will continue to carry all regionally broadcasted Pirates games and expand the network’s pregame and postgame coverage of the team.
“Above all else, this was the right thing to do for our fans,” Pirates president Travis Williams said in a press release announcing the agreement. “From the outset of this process, the most important thing to us was to ensure that our fans have the same level of access to Pirates game telecasts and the same high-quality production that they enjoy today. This agreement accomplishes that and more as we enable Pittsburgh sports fans to continue to enjoy a two-team, 24/7 sports channel.”
Mackey reports in a full column on the news that it’s expected to be a multi-year but still short-term agreement, giving Pirates fans some stability in knowing how to watch their team’s games while also leaving the team with the flexibility to pursue alternatives that may arise in the not-too-distant future. Pirates fans will want to check out the column in full, as Mackey chatted with Williams for a one-on-one interview regarding the new partnership.
The deal creates some eyebrow-raising partnerships due to the fact that daily operations of the network are handled by the New England Sports Network (NESN), which is owned by Fenway Sports Group. FSG owns the Penguins and holds an 80% stake in SportsNet Pittsburgh, per Mackey. That means that Red Sox owners John Henry and Tom Werner, the founders of FSG, will directly profit from the Pirates’ television broadcasts moving forward. Williams emphasized to Mackey that MLB has not deemed that to be a conflict of interest — FSG’s operations are a separate business venture from the Red Sox — and he added that the existing relationship between Henry, Werner and Pirates owner Bob Nutting actually helped to facilitate the arrangement.
Notably, Williams indicated that both the Pirates and Penguins are hoping to be able to offer a direct-to-consumer streaming option “as soon as possible,” adding that such a feature is currently at the works at NESN. Financial terms of the short-term arrangement and any potential down-the-road streaming options remain unclear, but Williams claimed the broadcast situation will not change the team’s payroll outlook.
“I don’t think payroll is a product of our television deal,” Williams told Mackey. “Payroll is a product of many different things in terms of where we are in building a team. As I’ve mentioned before, the revenue that comes from these types of deals, whether it’s this or a sponsorship or a jersey patch, any of those topics, that’s part of the overall revenues that we use to invest in the organization, areas where we’re going to make a difference.”
That’s awesome for Pirates fans! It may take a couple years but that should really help increase their revenue
I guess I should have read the entire article, that last quote should make Pirates fans sick.
Will this result in a penguin with a patch over his eye?
I got dibs on the tee shirts…
No, but they will end up speaking with a guttural Boston accent the desire to cheat every game and dislike minorities
Not quite, a penguin with a wooden…flipper?
Good to see this won’t affect their payroll.
Next for the Bucs, sign or trade for another starter.
Or wait until the majority of the decent pitchers are signed by other clubs, then perform their annual dumpster diving drills
I think BC moved the Right Field wall back to 535 feet while promoting 12 million dollars to whatever Pirate player clears the Clemente wall. And yes, they expanded the right field into the river! The RF stands are no more. Is all kayaks and ferries in the RF!
So, that is what it’s like watching the free agent market so far. You want to get excited, but just broken promises.
The NESN streaming comes with a ridiculous monthly price tag! Can’t see that working well in PA
one season of Red Sox games (6 months) costs $180. One season of MLB.tv costs $140. One month of cable costs about $100.
I think it’s perfectly reasonable if you don’t watch any of the other cable channels, like I don’t, yet still live in Pittsburgh and can’t watch the games on MLB.tv.
I hear Grienke wants to go another year
Good for them. No dealing with Bally’s or anyone of that ilk.
So Boston profits from Pirates broadcasts… Yoshida to Pittsburgh confirmed?
No way… Yoshida is still going to rake in the MLB, I’m giving him a clean slate going into 2024. How about Boston sends Story and Sale to Pittsburgh instead?
It only stands to reason since the Fenway Group owns 80% .
See my reply below. FSG is not owned by the red sox. The red sox are owned by FSG. Boston won’t see any money from the pirates.
More like Dalbec…
So if the Pirates perform well enough to drive up viewership, the Red Sox directly benefit? That’s not a nothing burger, very interesting…
Red Sox don’t directly get richer.
This may help:
Fenway Sports Group (FSG) is the umbrella company. It’s owners range from John Henry and Werner who you know, but also the likes of LeBron James, and the subsidiary of Redbird Cptl – Redball ACQ – who also is partly owned by Billy Beane, yes, the same guy who works in the As front office, and, a bunch of other minority partners.
FSG is not the red sox, it OWNS the red sox, in addition to roush/fenway racing, Liverpool, the penguins, etc.
FSG hasn’t been funneling money down to the red sox. Actually, the red sox funnel money upwards into FSG, funding their purchase of other teams and whatever disbursements they pay to FSG ownership groups.
I thought that was banned in mlb, one ownership group multiple teams.
In further news it has been announced Sydney Crosby will now be the setup man for Bednar in 2024.
“Pirates fans will want to check out the column in full…”
The number of people who are 1) Pirates fans, and 2) can read, should limit the number of people who check out the column significantly.
* Just kidding, lol
Us yinzers can read and write. So you’re post is obsolete
The good people of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area deserve better than an owner who doesn’t care.
50 years of terrible attendance brought us to this point
They drew 2.5 million in 2014 and 2015. If you put a winning product on the field, people will show.
There attendance increased 5 million last year, after they signed Cutch according to their website from the end of last year
In game attendance is capped at a little over 3 million – if they sold out/SRO Only all 81 games.
I was mistaken, attendance improved by half a million fans in 2023
That sounds about right, based on my experiences there this season. Quite a few weekend games with 27,000+ crowds, which is pretty full for PNC. Opening Day was totally packed obviously, but I remember large crowds on the Mets’ weekend when Cutch was chasing his 2000th hit, the Yankees series and a couple of others that were in the 32-33K range.
In contrast, the Reds series in April was bone-chilling cold and the actual people there was like 5,000. I would expect the attendance for 2024 to stay pretty flat unless the team is still in the thick of things after the 4th of July (which seems like a big ‘if’ given their injury luck thus far).
Maybe the Pirates will wear a Red Sox patch
Even more reason after reading this for the Red Sox to exceed their budget and act like a big market team. They have the ability to blow anybody out of the water for Yamamoto, but they just won’t do it.
I hope the Cardinals and Blues will follow suite. Their contract with Bally Sports ends in September of next year and it is never too late to be prepare.
So do I need to cancel my FUBO subscription?
Should have 2 months ago if only reason you have it is to watch Pirates.
If not FUBO, then will Sportnet Pittsburgh be available only by subscription, price to be determined?
It’s just cable channel with a different name no att. They may and likely will have some over priced streaming stand alone.
IT’S A TRAP DOT JIF
I think the most important thing is that MLB is not taking over. The focus, in theory, will be what’s in the pirates best interest, not MLB as a whole.
I think the pirates make out reasonably ‘ok’ in this deal in the short term. What I’d like to see is three things:
1) how many years the Pirates are locked in for, vis-a-vis guaranteeing the rights to SportsNet,
2) if there is any option to boost ownership percentage, and
3) what percentage of revenue split is, if it’s simple 20/80 or what, and see how badly it tracks with the MASN debacle.
Developing your own broadcast and production infrastructure isn’t cheap, so, the fact PIT gets to have a semi-club-owned sports network is definitely a win. They won’t have that portion of overhead. My understanding is that most of Nutting’s fortune is the team itself, and that he isn’t exactly cash or easily liquifiable asset rich to where he could easily fund such a thing.
You’re right there are many questions that I’d like answered, including those. I don’t know if MLB running the broadcast rights would be a bad thing, I just could easily see it becoming bad for the pirates and fans. I’m about 100 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. With NFL games, the same distance east, west or north I have trouble finding the Steelers on TV, unless they’re prime time or playing the team in those markets. There’s also limited other programming about them here due to the distance from Pittsburgh stations. Baseball is more my sport and I don’t want to see that happen to the pirates, or anyone for that matter.
From the Tribune Review
“Forbes reported in October that the Pirates made MLB’s second-biggest jump in television viewership last season, with a 71.8% ratings increase (2.45 to 4.21), behind only the World Series champion Texas Rangers (98.6%, from 0.71 to 1.41 on Bally Sports Southwest). The Pirates ranked sixth in MLB in television ratings in 2023, behind the Philadelphia Phillies, three NL Central rivals — the St. Louis Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds — and the Baltimore Orioles.”
Just because the seats aren’t packed at the stadium doesn’t mean that the town doesn’t care.
Lame.
I was loving the part where SN PGH had no other programming and just ran the game 8 times and other Pens content all day.
Good for Nutting to be able to cheaply piggy back off what someone else built, though.
His life story repeats yet again.
The Pirates need revenue streams anywhere they can find them. Given the limitations on their market (age demographic, population within the Pirates’ “area”), they need ways to reach outside Pittsburgh to make money. They are not at the point of saturation, where they’re maximizing the amount of money they can make, but you can only sell so many tickets to games. This could be an opportunity for the team to broadcast affiliate games to a wider audience and sell streaming subscriptions outside the Pittsburgh market, for example.
It’s downright comical how people characterize the principle owner of the team as if they personally know him, when what all they’re really doing is repeating lines fed to them by local and national media. The only evidence ever presented regarding his supposed skinflint nature is not signing/keeping a particular player in favor of a cheaper alternative.
The Pirates have bought and developed a lot next to the ballpark. While this will benefit them, it is also an investment in the community. The Pirates (by a mile) attract more out-of-town visitors to Pittsburgh than either of the other two professional franchises. One need only attend any of the Phillies, Cubs, Cardinals, Mets, Yankees, Red Sox or Blue Jays games to see this. These visits add to the local economy through hotel rooms, rental cars, food and other activities these visitors do while in town. As a season ticket holder, I’ve talked to TONS of these people; they are all universally impressed with how friendly our city is, talk about the other places they’ve visited while in town, and ask about local secrets in terms of places to eat. These people are here, spending money, because of Bob Nutting’s stewardship in maintaining the Pirates as a viable business.
But you know, a certain overweight local radio host who is paid to spout buffoonery on a daily basis says he’s cheap, so I’ll just go with that instead of using my own brain.
Found Bob Nutting’s burner account.
Except that Bob Nutting is cheap
Pirates total revenue in 2022 was $262 million
Total payroll was $54 million
They could have easily signed a prominent free agent as they lacked offense and decent pitching
Super Utility player Josh Van Meter was one of their free agent signings and turned out to be one of the worst signings in recent history