The Bally Sports Thread

[channel2 918]

Or a banner, or a pennant...

[dman748 1255]

On 3/3/2020 at 2:48 PM, A3N said:

So it seems like they're very slowly de-emphasizing the FOX Sports brand on air. Some of the graphics (Top/Bottom inning recap/L3's) are not showing FOX [team logo] on them.

 

Also heard a promo for college basketball but the voiceover did not say FOX Sports San Diego at the end, even though the Fox Sports logo appeared on screen.

I've noticed that the FOX (insert team name) has started to be scrubbed off slowly during the Oklahoma City Thunder game tonight on Fox Sports Oklahoma, I fully expect to see refrences to Fox Sports get removed more and more.

 

If I were a betting man I imagine that Sinclair will drop the Fox Sports name in time for the NBA/NHL Playoffs and if not then they likely will by the MLB All-Star Break

[Georgie56 3176]

Still seeing full Fox branding for the Mavericks on Fox Sports Southwest.

Edited March 5, 2020 by Georgie56

[ScottJ 134]

After a short-term extension, YouTube TV has dropped at least some of the Sinclair RSNs, including YES -- which tweeted a pretty angry statement, even throwing Sinclair under the bus.

Edited March 5, 2020 by ScottJ

[CubsFan79 57]

Dish, You Tube TV, Sling, Fubo, all dropping SINCLAIR RSNs. Hulu might be next who knows. SAD.

[Georgie56 3176]

29 minutes ago, CubsFan79 said:

Dish, You Tube TV, Sling, Fubo, all dropping SINCLAIR RSNs. Hulu might be next who knows. SAD.

Youtube TV has reached a temp deal with Sinclair to keep them on for now.

Edited March 5, 2020 by Georgie56

[ScottJ 134]

22 minutes ago, Georgie56 said:

Youtube TV has reached a temp deal with Sinclair to keep them on for now.

That article was from last week. See the links in my post above the one you quoted. YTTV dropped YES and Fox Sports West/Prime Ticket (maybe others too) overnight last night. From tweets I've seen, YTTV is dropping some of the Sinclair-owned RSNs but has not released a full list of which ones are being dropped.

Edited March 5, 2020 by ScottJ

[CubsFan79 57]

Hurts a lot of Regional teams, like MLB, NHL, NBA teams.   I have Fubo TV, Hopefully the Tv services have other nets to rely on.

[CubsFan79 57]

50 minutes ago, ScottJ said:

That article was from last week. See the links in my post above the one you quoted. YTTV dropped YES and Fox Sports West/Prime Ticket (maybe others too) overnight last night. From tweets I've seen, YTTV is dropping some of the Sinclair-owned RSNs but has not released a full list of which ones are being dropped.

Could Sinclair's RSN be pay per view only?

[mrschimpf 2184]

3 minutes ago, CubsFan79 said:

Could Sinclair's RSN be pay per view only?

Every single contract with every single entity under their purview would be breached, and it would be a death sentence. The filler shows they run outside their main sports would absolutely eviscerate them in court if they switched to that model, and the entire traditional pay-per-view industry is dead. Outside of dish services that still have to maintain it and grumpy diehards that require it through a cable box, PPV movies are no longer a thing, nearly every ring sports event now has an IPTV option (which they love because only the most tech-savvy could record the event for forever viewing), and most systems only have three PPV channels overall, at most.

[CubsFan79 57]

1 minute ago, mrschimpf said:

Every single contract with every single entity under their purview would be breached, and it would be a death sentence. The filler shows they run outside their main sports would absolutely eviscerate them in court if they switched to that model, and the entire traditional pay-per-view industry is dead. Outside of dish services that still have to maintain it and grumpy diehards that require it through a cable box, PPV movies are no longer a thing, nearly every ring sports event now has an IPTV option (which they love because only the most tech-savvy could record the event for forever viewing), and most systems only have three PPV channels overall, at most.

okay

[ScottJ 134]

Here's Sinclair's statement. FS West and Prime Ticket were dropped, along with YES. The other 19 FS-branded RSNs will remain on YouTube TV.

[Lucas Welter 26]

My favorite TV companies are: Gray Television and Nexstar Media Group Inc.

[dman748 1255]

3 hours ago, CubsFan79 said:

Could Sinclair's RSN be pay per view only?

The RSNs going to PPV only is a bad idea. That would people like me out of reach from watching live sporting events (and it doesn't help that leagues like MLB have these blackout policies that would prevent us baseball fans from watching games on channels like MLB Network)

 

If anything I cant see Sinclair making the RSNs a direct-to-consumer option (which sounds more feasible than making the RSNs PPV-only)

[ehatt493 31]

Doesn’t appear even after the deal that the RSNs reach the same coverage area as before. FSNs seem almost entirely unavailable in the state of Kentucky. Checked several KY zip codes (Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green and Paducah etc. DMAs) and no FSNs appear to be available. Check a Cincinnati zip code (appears to work anywhere inside the Cincinnati DMA) and lo and behold FSOhio pops back up.

[tyrannical bastard 3675]

11 minutes ago, ehatt493 said:

Doesn’t appear even after the deal that the RSNs reach the same coverage area as before. FSNs seem almost entirely unavailable in the state of Kentucky. Checked several KY zip codes (Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green and Paducah etc. DMAs) and no FSNs appear to be available. Check a Cincinnati zip code (appears to work anywhere inside the Cincinnati DMA) and lo and behold FSOhio pops back up.

PBS seems to be the same way, more zip-code based rather than DMA.

I had access to Fox Sports South and Southeast, and now both are gone.  

What kind of rhyme and reason is dictating what RSN's are going away?  Are the teams involved along with the Sinclair/Byron Allen arrangement?

[dman748 1255]

35 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

PBS seems to be the same way, more zip-code based rather than DMA.

I had access to Fox Sports South and Southeast, and now both are gone.  

What kind of rhyme and reason is dictating what RSN's are going away?  Are the teams involved along with the Sinclair/Byron Allen arrangement?

I feel like Rupert walking away from the RSN business had some to do with this. I think though it's on Sinclair's stubborness, Chris Ripley's arrogance and most of all Sinclair wanting to overcharge for these RSNs (prime example Sinclair is asking distributors $6.50 for Marquee. No that's not a typo that's what Sinclair is asking these distributors in the Chicagoland region to carry Marquee) and at the end of the day I can't blame Comcast for wanting to say no to that and I don't think that lowering the costs of carrying these RSNs is going to help things either for Sinclair because remember, companies like Sinclair are in the business of making money not lose money.

 

Now that I think about it Sinclair is lucky this year is an election year because unless they get their act together they're in deep and I mean DEEP trouble for 2021 and beyond and there could very well be consequences for more than just the RSNs.

 

P.S. I'm surprised no one has even asked this question but how much is Sinclair asking these distributors to pay for these FSNs compared to when Fox owned the RSNs?

Edited March 6, 2020 by oknewsguy

[channel2 918]

Sinclair just doesn't have the leverage with MVPDs that Fox did. They don't have a Fox News or even an FX to use as a cudgel. WUCW is not KMSP-WFTC, for instance, and I don't know what kind of cachet the Tennis Channel has.

[TheRyan 556]

2 hours ago, oknewsguy said:

I feel like Rupert walking away from the RSN business had some to do with this. I think though it's on Sinclair's stubborness, Chris Ripley's arrogance and most of all Sinclair wanting to overcharge for these RSNs (prime example Sinclair is asking distributors $6.50 for Marquee. No that's not a typo that's what Sinclair is asking these distributors in the Chicagoland region to carry Marquee) and at the end of the day I can't blame Comcast for wanting to say no to that and I don't think that lowering the costs of carrying these RSNs is going to help things either for Sinclair because remember, companies like Sinclair are in the business of making money not lose money.

 

Now that I think about it Sinclair is lucky this year is an election year because unless they get their act together they're in deep and I mean DEEP trouble for 2021 and beyond and there could very well be consequences for more than just the RSNs.

 

P.S. I'm surprised no one has even asked this question but how much is Sinclair asking these distributors to pay for these FSNs compared to when Fox owned the RSNs?

 

Let's also remember that Sinclair doesn't own the RSNs outright.  It's basically a consortium with Entertainment Studios, with Entertainment Studios holding something called an "equity stake".  To a point Sinclair is probably obligated to charge a minimum to offset the massive debt they have incurred with buying the RSNs.  How much those minimums are to offset any loss is not something I'm an expert at, but there most surely is a minimum amount.

 

Also, I'm not familiar with the legal verbiage of the papers that were signed when Sinclair/Entertainment Studios closed on the purchase, but I would imagine that any major decision would require both Sinclair and Entertainment Studios to agree (whether that's the amount charged or branding decisions).  Sinclair is probably not able to make as robust of decisions since there is a second party involved.  Just a guess there.

 

That's not to say Sinclair is in any kind of financial trouble, but as a business they do have to ask a certain amount to avoid a net loss while also accomplishing their goals with the RSNs.

Edited March 6, 2020 by TheRyan

[channel2 918]

Sinclair is massively in debt. Something like $14 billion? Their financial statements are a bit opaque and confusing.

 

Evidently they don't know how to do a leveraged buyout properly, since they didn't seem to put any of that debt onto Diamond. Not sure that would have been responsible per se, but it would have sheltered Sinclair proper from a lot of the seemingly-inevitable fallout.

[dman748 1255]

17 minutes ago, channel2 said:

Sinclair is massively in debt. Something like $14 billion? Their financial statements are a bit opaque and confusing.

 

Evidently they don't know how to do a leveraged buyout properly, since they didn't seem to put any of that debt onto Diamond. Not sure that would have been responsible per se, but it would have sheltered Sinclair proper from a lot of the seemingly-inevitable fallout.

If Sinclair was smart to have done this they would've been able to protect more than just the RSNs they would've protected other non-sports assets (such as local TV stations as well)

 

But of course, we're dealing with an incompetant CEO in Chris Ripley who seems to have no idea what the heck he's doing here.

[TheRyan 556]

Well if things keep going in this trajectory, I would personally recommend Sinclair does something to offload its debt (whether that's selling some of their ownership stake or something else). 

 

But my gut feeling is that all will work out fine for Sinclair once the dust settles on the rebranding strategy and what happens to the programming at-large on the RSNs.  Restoring certainty on the exact form of the RSNs will have going forward will go a long way to restoring confidence.

Edited March 6, 2020 by TheRyan

[dman748 1255]

4 minutes ago, TheRyan said:

Well if things keep going in this trajectory, I would personally recommend Sinclair does something to offload its debt (whether that's selling some of their ownership stake or something else). 

 

But my gut feeling is that all will work out fine for Sinclair once the dust settles on the rebranding strategy and what happens to the programming at-large on the RSNs.

As I've been saying for the last month on other platforms outside of here, Sinclair can survive this storm if they want to and have a plan in place for a rebrand on the RSNs and things like that if they can cut out their incompetancy that they currently have (which they can do IF they choose to do so)

Edited March 6, 2020 by oknewsguy

[tyrannical bastard 3675]

Sooner or later, this bubble is going to burst.  The escalating cost of sports on TV coupled with the people dropping traditional pay tv in droves is coming to a tipping point.  At some point it will hit the leagues themselves when the TV coverage falls when people either can't access the programming or they don't want to pay for it.

[dman748 1255]

6 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Sooner or later, this bubble is going to burst.  The escalating cost of sports on TV coupled with the people dropping traditional pay tv in droves is coming to a tipping point.  At some point it will hit the leagues themselves when the TV coverage falls when people either can't access the programming or they don't want to pay for it.

The day the RSN business model collapses is going to have people like myself laughing at Sinclair not for their politics but because of the things I've said more than once and what @channel2 said last night on here about the lack of TV stations Sinclair can bundle the RSNs with (e.g. Sinclair doesn't have any TV stations in places like LA, Chicago, Atlanta and Miami that Sinclair can bundle the RSNs with) sure Sinclair can bundle Fox Sports Oklahoma with KOKH/KOCB but you're not going to bundle Fox Sports Wisconsin with WVTV.

 

There are lots of factors that are playing a role in the demise of the RSNs I just think Cord Cutting is not the only issue here.