CSNbbs

It will be interesting who gets them. Fox, Amazon, and Sinclair would be my top 3. The Yankees will likely get their network back too so they can then have full control on who to partner with

(11-20-2018 10:07 AM)solohawks Wrote: [ -> ]It will be interesting who gets them. Fox, Amazon, and Sinclair would be my top 3. The Yankees will likely get their network back too so they can then have full control on who to partner with

I hate Sinclair so much and they have been pretty anti-streaming and been one of the most aggressive demanding high carriage fees from local cable and satellite.

(11-20-2018 10:24 AM)arkstfan Wrote: [ -> ]

(11-20-2018 10:07 AM)solohawks Wrote: [ -> ]It will be interesting who gets them. Fox, Amazon, and Sinclair would be my top 3. The Yankees will likely get their network back too so they can then have full control on who to partner with

I hate Sinclair so much and they have been pretty anti-streaming and been one of the most aggressive demanding high carriage fees from local cable and satellite.

I think Fox will get them back. Disney doesn't need to give a big competitor like Amazon such a major key into the sports world. Amazon could put these RSNs on Amazon prime and boom you have a major competitor in the sports OTT market that ESPN is trying to corner. Sinclair maybe, but I think Disney will sell them back to Fox in a gesture of good will.

(11-20-2018 11:39 AM)solohawks Wrote: [ -> ]

(11-20-2018 10:24 AM)arkstfan Wrote: [ -> ]

(11-20-2018 10:07 AM)solohawks Wrote: [ -> ]It will be interesting who gets them. Fox, Amazon, and Sinclair would be my top 3. The Yankees will likely get their network back too so they can then have full control on who to partner with

I hate Sinclair so much and they have been pretty anti-streaming and been one of the most aggressive demanding high carriage fees from local cable and satellite.

I think Fox will get them back. Disney doesn't need to give a big competitor like Amazon such a major key into the sports world. Amazon could put these RSNs on Amazon prime and boom you have a major competitor in the sports OTT market that ESPN is trying to corner. Sinclair maybe, but I think Disney will sell them back to Fox in a gesture of good will.

That's kind of what I thought. If Amazon buys those RSN's they could put them together in a "sports package" that they could include with Prime Video. It would be direct competition to ESPN+. Could also be the proverbial "camel's nose under the tent" that gets them fully into sports media/rights.

If they were to sell them back to Fox, it would be the devil you know is better than the devil you don't.

(11-20-2018 11:39 AM)solohawks Wrote: [ -> ]

(11-20-2018 10:24 AM)arkstfan Wrote: [ -> ]

(11-20-2018 10:07 AM)solohawks Wrote: [ -> ]It will be interesting who gets them. Fox, Amazon, and Sinclair would be my top 3. The Yankees will likely get their network back too so they can then have full control on who to partner with

I hate Sinclair so much and they have been pretty anti-streaming and been one of the most aggressive demanding high carriage fees from local cable and satellite.

I think Fox will get them back. Disney doesn't need to give a big competitor like Amazon such a major key into the sports world. Amazon could put these RSNs on Amazon prime and boom you have a major competitor in the sports OTT market that ESPN is trying to corner. Sinclair maybe, but I think Disney will sell them back to Fox in a gesture of good will.

Sounds less likely if FOX isnt even bidding in the first round. The company in the OP headline, Amazon, is the interesting player here.

(11-20-2018 01:02 PM)Attackcoog Wrote: [ -> ]

(11-20-2018 11:39 AM)solohawks Wrote: [ -> ]

(11-20-2018 10:24 AM)arkstfan Wrote: [ -> ]

(11-20-2018 10:07 AM)solohawks Wrote: [ -> ]It will be interesting who gets them. Fox, Amazon, and Sinclair would be my top 3. The Yankees will likely get their network back too so they can then have full control on who to partner with

I hate Sinclair so much and they have been pretty anti-streaming and been one of the most aggressive demanding high carriage fees from local cable and satellite.

I think Fox will get them back. Disney doesn't need to give a big competitor like Amazon such a major key into the sports world. Amazon could put these RSNs on Amazon prime and boom you have a major competitor in the sports OTT market that ESPN is trying to corner. Sinclair maybe, but I think Disney will sell them back to Fox in a gesture of good will.

Sounds less likely if FOX isnt even bidding in the first round. The company in the OP headline, Amazon, is the interesting player here.

I believe that I read this too. They may be lying in wait for round 2. However, Disney is not doing anything here out of the goodness of their heart. High bidder wins.

I hope Amazon wins.

Fox will probably bid in round 2. No need to bid now if there will be a round 2. If Amazon does get them watch out. They could do a lot with all those TV rights

(11-20-2018 03:01 PM)orangefan Wrote: [ -> ]Disney is not doing anything here out of the goodness of their heart. High bidder wins.

Not necessarily. Disney could be using Amazon the same way that Amazon used all of the cities that bid on its so-called HQ2. Use them to drive up the bid of whomever Disney wants to "win" the RSNs, so that the RSNs end up with the owner that Disney thinks will serve Disney's strategic interests.

(11-20-2018 11:39 AM)solohawks Wrote: [ -> ]I think Disney will sell them back to Fox in a gesture of good will.

Why would they do that? They are still essentially buying the assets from Fox at "full price."

(11-20-2018 12:44 PM)BadgerMJ Wrote: [ -> ]

(11-20-2018 11:39 AM)solohawks Wrote: [ -> ]

(11-20-2018 10:24 AM)arkstfan Wrote: [ -> ]

(11-20-2018 10:07 AM)solohawks Wrote: [ -> ]It will be interesting who gets them. Fox, Amazon, and Sinclair would be my top 3. The Yankees will likely get their network back too so they can then have full control on who to partner with

I hate Sinclair so much and they have been pretty anti-streaming and been one of the most aggressive demanding high carriage fees from local cable and satellite.

I think Fox will get them back. Disney doesn't need to give a big competitor like Amazon such a major key into the sports world. Amazon could put these RSNs on Amazon prime and boom you have a major competitor in the sports OTT market that ESPN is trying to corner. Sinclair maybe, but I think Disney will sell them back to Fox in a gesture of good will.

That's kind of what I thought. If Amazon buys those RSN's they could put them together in a "sports package" that they could include with Prime Video. It would be direct competition to ESPN+. Could also be the proverbial "camel's nose under the tent" that gets them fully into sports media/rights.

If they were to sell them back to Fox, it would be the devil you know is better than the devil you don't.

The pro rights that make these RSNs valuable are restricted to a very small area. That makes it very difficult and fairly unlikely anyone can morph them into an effective network capable of monetizing shared content in any meaningful way.

So if Amazon wins are they going to make the RSN content available though prime? Hopefully for no additional cost?

(11-21-2018 08:09 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote: [ -> ]So if Amazon wins are they going to make the RSN content available though prime? Hopefully for no additional cost?

They cant. Thats my point. The RSN's only have rights for a very small limited area encompassing the home territory of a given pro franchise. The buyer wont be able to use their Yankees RSN rights to show Yankee games on their RSN in LA--even though they own both. The rights are only good for a very small area. They COULD buy some additional national content and share it across multiple RSN platforms---but the big money these RSN's generate comes from the their local pro sports subscribers. Whatever else is on there is just going to be filler.

(11-21-2018 09:41 PM)Attackcoog Wrote: [ -> ]

(11-21-2018 08:09 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote: [ -> ]So if Amazon wins are they going to make the RSN content available though prime? Hopefully for no additional cost?

They cant. Thats my point. The RSN's only have rights for a very small limited area encompassing the home territory of a given pro franchise. The buyer wont be able to use their w Yankees RSN right to shoe Yankee games on their RSN in LA--even though they own both. The rights are only good for a very small area. They COULD buy some additional national content and share it across multiple RSN platforms---but the big money these RSN's generate comes from the their local pro sports subscribers. Whatever else is on there is just going to be filler.

I think he’s referring to a league pass sort of deal. But to your point, no they can’t offer that either: only the leagues can. However I wonder if there is a gray area where streaming rights are concerned? Hence watching games thru the prime OTT service.

The team sells the right to distribute within a specific geographic region and the league holds the right to re-transmit those games outside the region.

ESPN will sell to the highest bidder because they have a fiduciary duty to shareholders but they are not going to want to sell to Amazon or any tech company if they can avoid it.

There are really only three players in the streaming sports arena. ESPN with ESPN3, ESPN+, MLB.tv, and NHL GameCenter. Then you have the NBA and its streaming out-of-market package and then you have Stadium.

Right now the two other entrants are an out-of-market league package for a league where the most popular teams get a buttload of national broadcasts and an outfit that has not made any large rights fee investments.

Google owns a couple local rights packages for MLS and I don't have any idea how they are doing them. I don't know if they are a standalone subscription, available free on YouTube based on geography or just bundled with YouTubeTV or even if it is offered to local cable and satellite.

Amazon often does unexpected things. They might offer your local FSN content as a part of prime or as an add-on or just something completely unexpected.

(11-21-2018 11:51 PM)arkstfan Wrote: [ -> ]The team sells the right to distribute within a specific geographic region and the league holds the right to re-transmit those games outside the region.

ESPN will sell to the highest bidder because they have a fiduciary duty to shareholders but they are not going to want to sell to Amazon or any tech company if they can avoid it.

There are really only three players in the streaming sports arena. ESPN with ESPN3, ESPN+, MLB.tv, and NHL GameCenter. Then you have the NBA and its streaming out-of-market package and then you have Stadium.

Right now the two other entrants are an out-of-market league package for a league where the most popular teams get a buttload of national broadcasts and an outfit that has not made any large rights fee investments.

Google owns a couple local rights packages for MLS and I don't have any idea how they are doing them. I don't know if they are a standalone subscription, available free on YouTube based on geography or just bundled with YouTubeTV or even if it is offered to local cable and satellite.

Amazon often does unexpected things. They might offer your local FSN content as a part of prime or as an add-on or just something completely unexpected.

The only one that could get a secondary boost out the RSN's to me is STADIUM. They already have live content. They already have a studio set up to do a live nationwide sports center type show. They already have an OTA syndicated network--so these RSN's would just give them access to a well known platform already on multiple cable systems in 22 large metro areas. It would be a huge step up for STADIUM to have a cable outlet in 22 major cities as opposed to having just an OTA subchannel presence in many of those same metro areas.

The RSN's could do stories and feed them to the main network and the network could use them, in conjuction with the sports news of the day, to create a pretty solid national Sports Center type show. Mix in their live college sports STADIUM content and suddenly those STADIUM college games that barely have any viewers, start getting more eyballs by have easier access to viewers in 22 major metro areas. The RSN's should be woth more to STADIUM than anyone else....if they have the money.

Actually, there's one more group I can see bidding for Disney's RSN's: Gray Television, who recently merged with Raycom. I have to wonder if Gray Television would consider a merger with STADIUM as well. That would give them a lot of publicity, and they can deliver viewers to STADIUM.

I'd love to see Stadium buy the RSNs. They seem most committed to local sports.

(11-22-2018 09:14 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote: [ -> ]I'd love to see Stadium buy the RSNs. They seem most committed to local sports.

Isn't Stadium and Sinclair in partnership? If so, makes sense on the Sinclair bid.