Reading a bunch about the expected upcoming death of regional sports networks (RSN's), think the Bally sports thing is already bankrupt.

However, it does seem that gaming companies are the most logical people to support ongoing sports TV/online availability, they need betters to have access to the product, if no sports are available to watch they lose money.

This would seem to shift coverage, less SJW grab assing and more detailed injury coverage as people tune in more for who will produce numbers or purely to root for game over/under/wins.

Bernstein is dead. He just doesn't know it yet. He's a ghost rambling on.

Isn't the difference in Chicago that the teams (Sox/Bull/Hawk on one hand and the Cub on the other) have an ownership interest in their RSN networks?

It stems the tide, but it's a fundamentally broken model. Ever since NESN went basic around 2000-2001, the RSN model has relied on extracting an ever-higher fee out of each and every cable subscriber whether they watch every game or not a minute. Rent-seeking, basically. But when people stop subscribing to cable, in part because they realize they're paying for a channel they don't watch, the bottom drops out, and that's trouble no matter who owns the channel. The RSN ecosystem was probably a lot healthier when more of these channels were owned by their teams (PASS in Detroit, PRISM in Philadelphia, good old NESN) or by territorial cable companies (Cablevision, TCI).

The Disney-Fox merger that caused all this -- Disney couldn't own Fox's regional networks and ESPN at the same time -- shouldn't have been allowed to happen. No media company should be that big. In the case of Fox's RSNs, even that package was too big for anyone to buy and reasonably manage. Fox threw absurd rights fees at, off the top of my head, the Rangers, Angels, and Cardinals when it seemed like free money would be rolling in forever. Anyone who bought all those contracts was going to be doomed.

any chance things go retro in chicago and games go back to ch 9

I think the broadcast rights are still valued by several companies. Sports are one of the few types of programming that people watch in real time. If memory serves me correctly (if I'm wrong here, please chime in), the issue here is that those rights are either not worth the amount Bally paid for them or are not generating enough revenue to service the broadcasters' debt. If you get that number right (and, yes that might mean some sort of casino network) sports broadcasting is a viable business, even in small markets.

The Rangers were getting $80MM/year from Fox. Without rent-seeking from people who don't care about Rangers games, those rights aren't worth that much money.

Without the RSN's, we might see the top of the bubble of sports team valuations.

One thing that intrigues me is what the NFL is going to do with its broadcasts. It's the only one of the four major pro leagues that offers the vast majority of its content on free TV. However, I've heard speculation that CBS is going to move games to Paramount, NBC. Is going to move games to Peacock, and Fox is going to move games to their equivalent of those streaming services.

Without the RSN's, we might see the top of the bubble of sports team valuations.

Without the RSN's, we might see the top of the bubble of sports team valuations.

Read where MLB will lose up to 1 billion in revenue if they have to take over TV for the small market clubs.

Really is quite odd that the A's still supposedly made money last year because they low balled on payroll, but were carried by the league TV deal.

You also limit access to your product if you go to a streaming service, how many Cub fans grew up watching the games on WGN back in the day?

I think so too. These teams won't be licenses to print money anymore. Shifting to TV on a PPV/a-la-carte basis is going to be a hard reality check -- if you're now only selling Padres games to people who want to watch Padres games, you're going to find that there aren't as many as you thought they were, they won't pay the non-subsidized price for those games, or both.


This would be very dangerous, but they may do it anyway. If the league gets too greedy, the affiliate groups are going to shit a brick, and then it's "nice antitrust exemption you got there, be a shame if someone revoked it."

The problem is Claw, live TV or 24x7 content is a waste. All that really matters is the games. Any money they put on pre and post game is waste. Other programming is waste. There is very little demand.

Gambling could very well be the savior. Sadly....there's more demand in gambling content than any of the other content offered by these RSNs. Even if this happens, the leagues aren't going to see the money they've gotten in the past. We've definitely eclipsed the top of the bubble.

The problem is Claw, live TV or 24x7 content is a waste. All that really matters is the games. Any money they put on pre and post game is waste. Other programming is waste. There is very little demand.

The problem is Claw, live TV or 24x7 content is a waste. All that really matters is the games. Any money they put on pre and post game is waste. Other programming is waste. There is very little demand.

Gambling could very well be the savior. Sadly....there's more demand in gambling content than any of the other content offered by these RSNs. Even if this happens, the leagues aren't going to see the money they've gotten in the past. We've definitely eclipsed the top of the bubble.

Baseball is the sport that seems to be the one that will begin to decline, slowly at first, and then a rapid downturn once the baby boomers pass away.

Was a huge baseball fan when I was a kid, would pour through the box scores, collected baseball cards, would play catch or baseball/whiffle ball every day during the summer. It does not seem that kids today have that level of interest, would fully expect that to manifest itself eventually in much lower game attendance and TV viewership.

Agree that the pre/post game RSN stuff is pointless, but it is a way to sell your product and help the fans connect with the players. The biggest problem with baseball is that if you grew up playing the game you can tell when a team/player sucks, it just sounds silly when the broadcasters try to make excuses for poor play.

The biggest problem with baseball is that if you grew up playing the game you can tell when a team/player sucks, it just sounds silly when the broadcasters try to make excuses for poor play.