The impending death of Bally Sports

[Biff Mayhem]

9 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

He’s made a career out of his self-deprecating humor and banging all of the Hollywood hotties. 

He's a professional fixer upper.

[oblong]

The only time I can recall Pete making me laugh:

 

 

And it was mostly Chamalat, who looks exactly like my son in this at the time, except his hair wasn't red.

 

[casimir]

10 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

He’s made a career out of his self-deprecating humor and banging all of the Hollywood hotties. I like him, but agree that his actual talent is not particularly evident.  Has to be near the bottom of the all-time SNL performers.

I cannot argue about his performance talents, I've only seen him in Taco Bell commercials (which I think are kind of good).  But if he has no talent yet he's making bank, I would say he's still winning.

[theroundsquare]

Plus Kate Beckinsale and Emily R.  Whew!

[Shinzaki]

Arianna Grande is a doughnut licking skank..

[Edman85]

Warner Brothers-Discovery trying to get out of the RSN business now too. That's three more teams whose local media deal is up in the air.

[chasfh]

Looks like there's a good chance it all ends up with MLB.

I hate watching games on their Network, for a couple old reasons and a new one. The old ones are, they have a constant crawl along the bottom, plus a box in the RH bottom corner than rises above the crawl—I hate detritus on my screen, especially along the bottom where play tends to take place—plus, the crawl now features in-game constantly-updated gambling odds along with URLs and app names where people can go make bets. I absolutely despise that one. Too bad everybody for whom the Black Sox scandal was a living memory is long dead.

The new one, I just saw on a spring training game: they cut away from the game to a double screen, mute the game announcers, and show a full 15-second TV spot in the larger of the two screens. The announcer will be cut mid-sentence, this one time in the middle of a replay description I was actively interested in. It all adds up to a substandard viewing experience.

I will be very sad when Baseball takes over the local broadcasting and implements these "innovations" to all 162 Tigers games.

[Tenacious D]

I know this is a baseball forum, but what of the local NBA and NHL games that are also carried on the regional networks?  Isn’t the solution for all three leagues to solve this together?  

[Motor City Sonics]

25 minutes ago, Tenacious D said:

I know this is a baseball forum, but what of the local NBA and NHL games that are also carried on the regional networks?  Isn’t the solution for all three leagues to solve this together?  

I am fairly certain that the NHL will screw it up in some way.  Who cares about the NBA.  Might as well move the Pistons, they're never going to be good again.   We finally get a break, we get a #1 pick and he's always going to be injured, they won't resign him, then he'll go play for the Las Vegas Kings or new Seattle Supersonics and he'll finally be a star.  

[casimir]

1 hour ago, Tenacious D said:

I know this is a baseball forum, but what of the local NBA and NHL games that are also carried on the regional networks?  Isn’t the solution for all three leagues to solve this together?  

It’s in each of the leagues’ best interest to keep its product on TV.  I’m not so sure that they need to be in kahootz with each other to do so.

Let’s say for instance MLB is rolling along trying to figure out how to manages its 30 teams.  But at the same time, WGN or YES networks are trying to figure out how to manage multiple sports teams from the same metro.

Or what about RSNs that do multiple sports with different and same teams?  There are two Ohio BS RSNs, one for the Cleveland Guardians and one for the Cincinnati Reds.  Both carry the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Columbus Blue Jackets.  My guess is that those teams would end up broadcast by the leagues, but maybe some rich family wants a crack at an Ohio based RSN to replace BS RSNs?

I have no idea about all league NBA or NHL packages.  Are they available for strictly out of market (like MLB blackout restrictions), or are all games available for a particular team or all teams?

[RedRamage]

19 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

I know this is a baseball forum, but what of the local NBA and NHL games that are also carried on the regional networks?  Isn’t the solution for all three leagues to solve this together?  

I kinda hope that regional sports networks don't go away... I mean, I like the idea of a one-stop shop for local sports.  But the reality is that this is probably disappearing.

What would concern me with the NBA, MLB, and NHL teaming up would be that a juggernaut might be able to charge whatever price they want to consumers.  I don't want to pay an for a full sports package when what I watch is maybe 140+ games of the Tigers, a handful of Redwings, and nothing else.

[Tigeraholic1]

20 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

I am fairly certain that the NHL will screw it up in some way.  Who cares about the NBA.  Might as well move the Pistons, they're never going to be good again.   We finally get a break, we get a #1 pick and he's always going to be injured, they won't resign him, then he'll go play for the Las Vegas Kings or new Seattle Supersonics and he'll finally be a star.  

You talking about the Pistons or the Tigers? This speaks to both of them....

[Tiger337]

22 hours ago, chasfh said:

I hate watching games on their Network, for a couple old reasons and a new one. The old ones are, they have a constant crawl along the bottom, plus a box in the RH bottom corner than rises above the crawl—I hate detritus on my screen, especially along the bottom where play tends to take place—plus, the crawl now features in-game constantly-updated gambling odds along with URLs and app names where people can go make bets. I absolutely despise that one. Too bad everybody for whom the Black Sox scandal was a living memory is long dead.

 

Don't worry.  Buddha has assured us that MLB's relationship with gambling is nothing to be concerned about.   

[oblong]

I could see where the NBA could take over their own programming of local games, and letting the national networks carry on with what they do now.  The Pistons actually used to create their own broadcasts.  They weren't a production of the local Fox Sports or whatever it was called at the time.  That's why at the beginning you'd hear Ken Calvert say something like "This is a production of Palace Sports Entertainment".  It was basically an infomercial.  They paid for the time and bought/sold the commercials themselves.  Production staff got paid by the Pistons for those games.

[Tenacious D]

So, are we talking three separate local networks?  I don’t see that happening—there isn’t enough programming outside of games to go around.  And they can’t move to a paid subscription model outside of basic cable because no one will pay (besides nerds in an online baseball forum).

I think the solution will be that someone will come in and buy Bally Sports and maintain the programming similarly.  

[Edman85]

6 minutes ago, Tenacious D said:

So, are we talking three separate local networks?  I don’t see that happening—there isn’t enough programming outside of games to go around.  And they can’t move to a paid subscription model outside of basic cable because no one will pay (besides nerds in an online baseball forum).

I think the solution will be that someone will come in and buy Bally Sports and maintain the programming similarly.  

Who, though? Warner/Discovery is trying to get out of their RSN's. Disney had to sell what became Bally due to antitrust concerns... There aren't too many suiters out there, and the business model seems to be in decline.

[Tenacious D]

8 minutes ago, Edman85 said:

Who, though? Warner/Discovery is trying to get out of their RSN's. Disney had to sell what became Bally due to antitrust concerns... There aren't too many suiters out there, and the business model seems to be in decline.

I agree—I just can’t imagine what a Detroit Tigers channel would be?  They have to have games on basic cable, right?  If they go to a pay model, they will get crushed.  It will be interesting to see how this gets resolved.

[gehringer_2]

44 minutes ago, Tenacious D said:

So, are we talking three separate local networks?  I don’t see that happening—there isn’t enough programming outside of games to go around.  

any reason a streaming service has to run a full schedule? You live stream when there is a game, then you go dark......well, drop to a static web page...

Edited February 27, 2023 by gehringer_2

[Toddwert]

30 minutes ago, Tenacious D said:

I agree—I just can’t imagine what a Detroit Tigers channel would be?  They have to have games on basic cable, right?  If they go to a pay model, they will get crushed.  It will be interesting to see how this gets resolved.

could MLB run the games off of the MLB network  where you would just get your local game on the network kind like what happends with the NFL on FOX and CBS

[gehringer_2]

28 minutes ago, Toddwert said:

could MLB run the games off of the MLB network  where you would just get your local game on the network kind like what happends with the NFL on FOX and CBS

Could. But what they could do in the sense what can be done techinically or logistically I don't think is so much the problem, it's how do the teams get paid? Right now Bally collects money from cable operators, some money from direct subscriptions, plus ad revenue, and then pays the team out of that income for the broadcast rights. It's that 1st part that is going away and probably not coming back. I have to think it's the organization of the money end that is going to be harder to figure out than who carries the games via what media.

Edited February 27, 2023 by gehringer_2

[Shinzaki]

IIRC...The AHL has a streaming service that allows you to buy full access/full access to "your" team or single games only. If they can do it...the NHL should be able to

[gehringer_2]

20 minutes ago, Shinzaki said:

IIRC...The AHL has a streaming service that allows you to buy full access/full access to "your" team or single games only. If they can do it...the NHL should be able to

I'm going to try a little back of the envelop finance: As per SB Nation, local revenue is 20% of the MLBs $10.9 B in media rev- so call it $2B. For lack of any other data lets cut it 30 ways - that something on the order or $70M/yr per team in local rev. The AHL subscription costs $65 for a season - lets assume they have good marketing data to support that price point. So the Tigers would have to sell a million subscriptions at that price to regenerate the gross income loss and they still have to produce the broadcasts out of that - but let's say the local ad revenue is a wash with actual broadcast costs. Is that feasible? IDK, but for certain I doubt the Wings, Pistons and Tigers could eash sell a million  $70 subsriptions in our market...

Edited February 27, 2023 by gehringer_2

[gehringer_2]

according to this source, the Tigers TV ratings rating vary around 7.5-9.0

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2014/07/tv-ratings-tigers-down-on-fs-detroit-also-mlbespn-nbcsn/

[Motor City Sonics]

51 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

according to this source, the Tigers TV ratings rating vary around 7.5-9.0

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2014/07/tv-ratings-tigers-down-on-fs-detroit-also-mlbespn-nbcsn/

Ten years ago..............

[gehringer_2]

47 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Ten years ago..............

so if anything even less.

So in  2020 90K per game during the pandemic as per below..  LOL - that puts them miles short of selling a million subscriptions.

https://www.mlive.com/tigers/2020/10/tigers-tv-ratings-surge-in-2020-amid-pandemic.html#:~:text=That said%2C Nielsen reported that,18th largest among MLB clubs.

Edited February 28, 2023 by gehringer_2