WBD has notified the teams that they have until March 31 to make arrangements or WBD will put the RSNs in a chapter 7 liquidation.

Seattle Mariners seem to own 60% of ATTSN Northwest, WBD owns 40%, with the NHL Seattle Kraken and the NBA Trailblazers.

Pittsburgh Pirates and Penguins

ATTSN Rocky Mountains has a mix of Colorado Rockies, UTah Jazz and Las Vegas Golden Knights. (Denver Nuggets and Avalanche are on Altitude Sports, owned by Kroenke, same dude who owns the teams)

ATTSN Houston has Astros, Rockets. I think this is the descendant of the failed CSN Houston.

(Chapter 11 is the one where you screw your creditors, maybe lose the business. Chapter 7 is the one where you lock the doors and auction off whatever is left.)

I for one welcome our new ION TV overlords.

https://awfulannouncing.com/wbd/warner-b...teams.html

Wall Street Journal says that ATT-SN sent a letter to the teams saying that ATT-SN will not have enough money to pay their rights fees, and offering to hand over ownership to the teams in return for a release of liability.

Quoting ATT-SN president: “the business will not have sufficient cash to pay the upcoming rights fees”

Awful Announcing quoting the Wall Street Journal: The letter proposes that AT&T SportsNet transfer ownership of the networks and programming rights to the teams for no purchase price consideration beyond a release by the teams of any future claims against the networks.

Pittsburgh penguins are owned by Fenway sports group

They could easily implement the NESN model (Red Sox and Bruins TV Network) in Pittsburgh with the Pirates and Penguins. Cut out the middle man

(02-24-2023 08:47 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

WBD has notified the teams that they have until March 31 to make arrangements or WBD will put the RSNs in a chapter 7 liquidation.

Seattle Mariners seem to own 60% of ATTSN Northwest, WBD owns 40%, with the NHL Seattle Kraken and the NBA Trailblazers.

Pittsburgh Pirates and Penguins

ATTSN Rocky Mountains has a mix of Colorado Rockies, UTah Jazz and Las Vegas Golden Knights. (Denver Nuggets and Avalanche are on Altitude Sports, owned by Kroenke, same dude who owns the teams)

ATTSN Houston has Astros, Rockets. I think this is the descendant of the failed CSN Houston.

(Chapter 11 is the one where you screw your creditors, maybe lose the business. Chapter 7 is the one where you lock the doors and auction off whatever is left.)

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Da...-news.aspx

Quote:WBD has rights deals with 10 teams across those four networks: four MLB teams (Astros, Mariners, Pirates, Rockies), three NBA teams (Blazers, Jazz, Rockets) and three NHL teams (Kraken, Penguins, Golden Knights).
...
Over the past several months, league sources privately have praised WBD Sports’ RSN leadership, led by AT&T SportsNet President Patrick Crumb, for working with the teams to come up with a plan that would enable the company to get out of the RSN business.

In the letters, WBD said that it will allow the teams to use the same production staff and equipment to continue producing the games.

And here's a list of the RSNs:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Bro...properties

I'm not surprised.

I think this could be similar to the reasons they cancelled the Batgirl film. There may be unique tax advantages to be had because they are still resolving the merger.

Sinclair is still having issues too. Bally Sports might end up in the same boat, who knows.

It would seem the traditional RSN is not a sustainable business model. Consumers want more bundled content and it's becoming ever harder to limit your markets to a small geographical region.

Things like this could be a good thing for some larger scale networks though. They should be able to get more content from these leagues at a reasonable price, become selective in what they show, and still have plenty of inventory.

College sports leagues are fairly unique in American sports in that they bundle everything together. MLS now does that, and we'll see how that goes, but I wonder if some national networks that want to focus on sports might get some bargains out of situations like this.

(02-24-2023 08:47 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  ATTSN Houston has Astros, Rockets. I think this is the descendant of the failed CSN Houston.

Yes, it took the place of CSN Houston. No cable or satellite carrier outside of Comcast carried CSN Houston. It went belly up. The Astros & Rockets then partnered with AT&T to start AT&T Sports Net Houston. It's carried on Comcast in Houston proper, and on Directv. Not sure about any other provider..it's not on the Suddenlink system in my Houston suburb. We switched to Youtube TV, and it's not there, either.

Looks like AT&T SN is going to go away even sooner than the Bally sports networks. Bally Sports SW doesn't have a lot left on it, either, except for the local pro sports franchises, subject to blackout (Rangers and Stars territories are statewide, the NBA teams' territories are split). The best other thing Bally SW has going for it is Texas high school football, especially state championship weekend.

Scripps and Ion have a good opportunity to get some local baseball rights quickly.

(02-24-2023 10:49 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  Things like this could be a good thing for some larger scale networks though. They should be able to get more content from these leagues at a reasonable price, become selective in what they show, and still have plenty of inventory.

College sports leagues are fairly unique in American sports in that they bundle everything together. MLS now does that, and we'll see how that goes, but I wonder if some national networks that want to focus on sports might get some bargains out of situations like this.

I was joking about ION TV, but this post is the thought behind the joke. I agree about the potential bargains that might come out of this.

We might find out that RSNs have now entered the decline phase of the business cycle. If that's, indeed, the case, then we could see failure flow upwards. The small-market channels are bearing the brunt right now but, in ten years, we might see trouble for the likes of YES, Marquee, NESN, SNY, MSG and Spectrum Sportsnet. There's a small chance the large-market channels could still be in business but not if cord cutting continues apace.

In ten years we might see the Cubs returning to WGN, the Yankees back to WPIX, the Mets back to WWOR, etc., etc..

(02-25-2023 12:50 AM)Transic_nyc Wrote:  We might find out that RSNs have now entered the decline phase of the business cycle. If that's, indeed, the case, then we could see failure flow upwards. The small-market channels are bearing the brunt right now but, in ten years, we might see trouble for the likes of YES, Marquee, NESN, SNY, MSG and Spectrum Sportsnet. There's a small chance the large-market channels could still be in business but not if cord cutting continues apace.

In ten years we might see the Cubs returning to WGN, the Yankees back to WPIX, the Mets back to WWOR, etc., etc..

But they won't have the same impact because the feed that would carry those games is no longer national/international in scope.

I wondering if the PAC 12, MWC, MVFC, C-USA, WAC/ASUN, Big Sky, SoCon and CAA could combined and buy the Bally and RSN together, and target games with the help of the likes of ESPN and CBSSports to have their own tv Network. Maybe Fox Sports as well. Then you can have SoCon, MVFC, CUSA,ASUN and CAA matchups in the mornings, then MVFC west, C-USA west for parts of the afternoons. Then MWC, Big Sky and PAC 12 for late afternoons, evenings and night games on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. It gets you inventory, plus it would give PAC 12 coverage across the country since these sports networks are already in place on cable across the country. PAC 12 can fold their network into this.

This is getting interesting.

On the market right now at a steep discount:
Seattle: Mariners, Kraken, Huskies
Portland: Blazers, Ducks
Denver: Rockies, Buffaloes
Utah/LV: Knights, Jazz, Utes

Bonus
Houston: Astros, Rockets, ?Rice?
Louisianna: Pelicans, ?Tulane?

From Bally Sports
Bally Sports going to chapter 11 adds:
LA: Angels, Clippers, Ducks, Rams, Kings
SD: Padres, Aztecs
AZ: Suns, Dbacks, Sundevils, Wildcats

Honestly, Ion has an opportunity here. And strangely it sort of naturally configures like the old PAC12 networks for local feeds.

(02-25-2023 08:38 AM)jrj84105 Wrote:  This is getting interesting.

On the market right now at a steep discount:
Seattle: Mariners, Kraken, Huskies
Portland: Blazers, Ducks
Denver: Rockies, Buffaloes
Utah/LV: Knights, Jazz, Utes

Bonus
Houston: Astros, Rockets, ?Rice?
Louisianna: Pelicans, ?Tulane?

From Bally Sports
Bally Sports going to chapter 11 adds:
LA: Angels, Clippers, Ducks, Rams, Kings
SD: Padres, Aztecs
AZ: Suns, Dbacks, Sundevils, Wildcats

Honestly, Ion has an opportunity here. And strangely it sort of naturally configures like the old PAC12 networks for local feeds.

I know I was pumping Ion yesterday for a big share of the PAC rights, but I don't expect Ion to spend competitive amounts of money. It's a pure exposure vs dollars play, and the PAC desperately needs exposure.

Scripps has talked about live sports, but I don't think they have the money to replace the dollars the local pro franchises have been getting from the RSNs, or any realistic way to get it.

Looking at Diamond Sports published financials for 2021, advertising was 13% of their revenue in 2021, 7% in 2020 (no idea why it was so different year to year).

Edit: oh, yeah. what happened in 2020? coivd cancelled everything. hat tip, Section 200.

Live sports could boost the retransmission fees that the Ion TV stations get, but that's a "spend money to make money" move and I don't think Scripps has that kind of money.

Diamond Sports financial report, year end 2021. PAge 12 has the advertising and distributioin revenue numbers

Root Sports Northwest not impacted.

Mariners own 60% of RSNW, so they're the controlling partner. Not sure what happens to ATT-SN's 40% in an ATT-SN chapter 7, or if the Mariners buy it before March 31 or what. But it's 3 RSNs in danger of folding, not 4.

https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mari...-business/

(02-25-2023 09:01 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(02-25-2023 08:38 AM)jrj84105 Wrote:  This is getting interesting.

On the market right now at a steep discount:
Seattle: Mariners, Kraken, Huskies
Portland: Blazers, Ducks
Denver: Rockies, Buffaloes
Utah/LV: Knights, Jazz, Utes

Bonus
Houston: Astros, Rockets, ?Rice?
Louisianna: Pelicans, ?Tulane?

From Bally Sports
Bally Sports going to chapter 11 adds:
LA: Angels, Clippers, Ducks, Rams, Kings
SD: Padres, Aztecs
AZ: Suns, Dbacks, Sundevils, Wildcats

Honestly, Ion has an opportunity here. And strangely it sort of naturally configures like the old PAC12 networks for local feeds.

I know I was pumping Ion yesterday for a big share of the PAC rights, but I don't expect Ion to spend competitive amounts of money. It's a pure exposure vs dollars play, and the PAC desperately needs exposure.

Scripps has talked about live sports, but I don't think they have the money to replace the dollars the local pro franchises have been getting from the RSNs, or any realistic way to get it.

Looking at Diamond Sports published financials for 2021, advertising was 13% of their revenue in 2021, 7% in 2020 (no idea why it was so different year to year).

Live sports could boost the retransmission fees that the Ion TV stations get, but that's a "spend money to make money" move and I don't think Scripps has that kind of money.

Diamond Sports financial report, year end 2021. PAge 12 has the advertising and distributioin revenue numbers

Ad revenue collapsed in 2020 due to COVID shortening the MLB season - I think it was only 60 games long - starting in late July.