In a move that further separates parent company Sinclair Broadcast Group from the Bally Sports regional sports channels it purchased three years ago, Diamond Sports Group, the subsidiary that oversees the 19 Bally-branded RSNs, has named former NBC Sports and ESPN executive David Preschlack as its new CEO. 

The move, according to the Sports Business Journal's John Ourand, comes as creditors have become increasingly "frustrated with the animosity that has developed" between Sinclair and Bally's major sports-league partners, specifically Major League Baseball. 

To date, only five of the 14 MLB teams licensed by Bally Sports participate in the RSNs new direct-to-consumer streaming service, Bally Sports Plus. 

Extrapolating for Next TV in a Monday morning email exchange, Ourand said these relationships have been "strained for years." 

Diamond's board hopes that Preschlack, a 25-year sports-media veteran who most recently served as president of NBC Regional Sports Networks, will provide the league partners with more confidence that their TV audiences can still grow as linear pay TV erodes and direct-to-consumer streaming is still in its nascent stages. 

"The creditors hope that new blood at Bally’s will start to turn that around," he added. 

Also read: Bally Sports Breaks Bad: With Subs Down 10% and Cash-Flow Half of 2022 Projections, Increasingly Desperate Sinclair Looks to 'Deleverage'

Sinclair and its Diamond subsidiary remain heavily in debt following the purchase of 21 Fox Sports regional sports networks three years ago for $9.6 billion. 

Servicing that debt has become an issue, with the RSN's distribution down 10% year over year and cash flow coming in at half of start-of-2022 projections. Diamond just took a $1.2 billion write-off on the value of its RSNs.

Meanwhile, Sinclair just reported "high engagement" on the Bally Sports Plus service launched over the summer. But the lack of any provided user metrics has left the market skeptical that the streaming service will provide meaningful replacement revenue for declining linear pay TV channels anytime soon.

Notably, it was MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred's comments while being interviewed by Ourand at the CAA World Congress event back in October of 2021 that revealed the lack of confidence MLB has in Sinclair. 

Yes, Manfred conceded, MLB's 14 teams licensing their content to Bally Sports channels needed more reach, but he wasn't sure at all that Bally Sports Plus was an effective way to achieve that goal. 

One thing Manfred was sure about: All that debt Sinclair took on to buy its RSNs was a problem. "There's excessive leverage on that business," he said

Since that time, five of those 14 MLB teams have signed onto the $20-a-month Bally Sports Plus service, as have all of the NBA and NHL franchises under the Bally Sports umbrella. 

But the 2023 MLB season just over 100 days away. It would be a major bummer for Bally Sports Plus to be constricted from carrying its MLB teams in nine of its markets. 

Meanwhile, according to analysts, the leagues have "sobered up" in terms of their attitude toward Bally Sports -- they need find a way to work with the RSNs to keep the revenue up ... and their mega-expensive player payrolls met. 

And that's not anywhere close to happening with their own DTC services.

Any solution is going to come from working with Bally and Diamond. And with Preschlack in place, they no longer have to worry about Sinclair. ■

NBC Sports Group has extended its national direct-to-consumer streaming sports strategy to the regional level with the creation of a 15-game over-the-top package involving the National Basketball Association’s Portland Trail Blazers.

Starting Monday, Dec. 11, the $39.99 Blazers Pass, available to viewers within the footprint of the Blazers' television market, will offer a package of 15 games to cord-cutters and cord-nevers, as well as subscribers of pay TV providers that don’t have a distribution deal for the RSN. Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead spoke with David Preschlack, president of NBC Sports Regional Sports Networks and Platform and Content Strategy, about Blazers Pass and if the company’s live sports streaming strategy would extend to other NBC-owned regional sports services. Here’s an edited transcript of their conversation.

MCN: Why did you choose the Trail Blazers and NBC Sports Northwest to launch an OTT service around?
David Preschlack: This was part of the recent rights deal we completed last year, where we procured all the games. Before that, there was a broadcast package of 20 games, so we wanted to buy a pay TV exclusive product to provide value to our distribution partners. Then, we wanted to work in this DTC [direct-to-consumer] concept as a way to experiment in the Portland marketplace. We have a series of products ranging from the English Premier League to track and field, cycling, rugby and motocross to [our] domestic and international products, so it’s not a new concept to NBC Sports.

MCN: Do you believe there’s enough fan interest in paying for an OTT service on the regional sports level?
DP: As consumer habits are changing at a national level, consumer habits are changing on a regional level, too, and we felt that it was important in the context of our rights deal to have the ability to experiment by taking a subset of the games and selling them direct-to-consumer. In this particular case, that’s what we’re doing with 15 Blazers games. As has been reported, those 15 games will co-exist with the network, so fans who receive NBC Sports Northwest through our multichannel provider partners will have access to the games as well. The world is changing and our feeling certainly is that you have to embrace that and try to serve our fans in a way that’s reflective of a changing marketplace.

Related: NBC Sports to Launch 'Premier League Pass' OTT Service

MCN: Does Blazers Pass become the template for what NBC Sports will look to do with its other RSNs?
DP: I think it’s too early to tell. Markets are different and rights deals are different, so I don’t think that we’re wedded to kind of any one approach going forward in terms of establishing direct relationships with fans. We’re certainly open-minded about how the industry and the regional sports landscape is evolving, and we want to continue to push the envelope to serve all different types of fans. We’re not living in an environment where one size fits all, and you’re seeing that in a variety of different ways.

The bundle is still a great product at a great price for a lot of consumers, but there are also fans and consumers gravitating towards digital [multichannel video programming distributors] MVPDs like Hulu or YouTube TV and that’s a great product for them. There are also some fans that are gravitating towards a product of 15 high-quality games for $34.99 — and by the way, we’ve already got some orders for the product. So we’re trying to provide the best value proposition that we can to as many fans as we can. How that evolves in other markets remains to be seen.

Related: NBC Sports Rebrands Comcast RSNs

MCN: Overall, how do you see the regional sports business evolving as it pertains to a changing content distribution environment?
DP: I really believe that these types of experiments/product offerings are really, really well situated for regional sports networks to take advantage of. We’re targeted towards the region and in order to scale something like this, it’s obviously a lot less work than if you wanted to scale a product nationally. It enables us to kind of come in and get our hands dirty in the market. We have a lot of boots on the ground in Portland running our network, so we can learn and figure out how this can influence serving our fans better going forward.

I’ve always viewed the regional sports networks as incredible opportunities to experiment as the [TV sports] business in the broadest possible sense continues to evolve, and this is an example of that. We’re obviously going to watch this closely, and while we do not have any other plans right now to do anything like this in other markets, we’re going to be testing other things. It could be new ad technologies; it could be how we partner with different content companies; it could be a lot of different things.

The good news is, when you’re focused on experimenting in a market as opposed to nationally, you can do it quickly and efficiently, and then to the extent that things work, it’s completely scalable.

NBC Regional Sports Networks has jumped into the direct-to-consumer market by launching NBC Sports Gold’s Blazers Pass, a streaming product that lets fan buy 15 telecasts of the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers games without subscribing to cable.

The Blazer Pass costs $34.99 for all 15 games, with a 10% discount if purchased by Dec. 1.

NBC Sports Northwest will continue to offer Trailblazer games on traditional TV and streaming via its TV Everywhere app,

“When we set out to renew our rights last year, distribution was a top priority,” said David Preschlack, president, NBC Sports Regional Networks and Platform and Content Strategy. “In today’s media environment, fans have the ability to follow their favorite teams in a variety of ways. We’re pleased to offer Rip City this new DTC product, so that fans can follow Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Jusuf Nurkic, and the team during key games. In addition, we’re pleased to offer NBC Sports Northwest customers access to more games than ever before.”

NBC Sports has gotten into the direct-to-consumer game by offering Gold Passes to sports including Premier League Soccer, rugby and cycling.

“NBC Sports Regional Networks has worked hard to make our games accessible to our passionate fan base,” said Chris McGowan, president and CEO of the Trail Blazers. “This DTC offering is another example of our two organizations working together to provide a way for all fans in the region to watch across any platform. We continue to make access to our games a top priority."

NBC Sports Gold is available on Apple iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Chromecast platforms and online at NBCSportsGold.com. NBC Sports Gold is powered by Playmaker Media, NBC Sports Digital’s technology service.

Blazers Pass subscribers will also receive a complimentary gift package, and will be entered into a monthly drawing for a chance to win a pair of tickets for a courtside experience to a home game. Fans can also enter at http://www.nbcsports.com/blazerspass.

NBC Sports is renaming its regional sports networks, replacing their Comcast Sports Net and TCN titles with NBC Sports, effective Oct. 2.

For example, CSN Chicago will become NBC Sports Chicago, and TCN Philadelphia will become NBC Sports Philadelphia.

Comcast’s NBCUniversal unit has been pushing the Peacock logo on the regional sports networks since 2012 to make them more clearly associated with NBC Sports.

“We’re excited to complete the brand evolution of our remaining RSNs, which will now include the iconic NBC Sports name on all of our networks,” said David Preschlack, president, NBC Sports Regional Networks and NBC Sports Group Platform and Content Strategy. “This development is a reaffirmation of our continued commitment to provide the best, most compelling local sports coverage to our fans across the country.”

Related > Sports Gave TV Advertising a Boost in July: SMI

The brand change is separate from programming changes that have been happening at the networks over the past year. Schedule game broadcasts will not change.

Comcast's West Coast RSNs changed their names in April to NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California. Other network name changes include CSN Mid-Atlantic becoming NBC Sports Washington, TCN Mid-Atlantic becoming NBC Sports Washington+ and CSN New England becoming NBC Sports Boston.

ESPN named Justin Connolly, who has headed up college networks (including the SEC Network), as new head of distribution at ESPN and Disney networks, following the recently announced plans by Sean Bratches and David Preschlack to leave at year's end. Before overseeing the successfully launched SEC Network, Connolly spent a decade in ESPN affiliate sales and he had been speculated as a possible successor to Preschlack. Connolly's new title is the one Preschlack held, executive vice president, Disney & ESPN Affiliate Sales and Marketing.

ESPN also elevated Ed Erhardt to president, global sales & marketing, enhancing his portfolio with consumer marketing, ad sales and research. Bratches, who was the longtime head of ESPN distribution efforts, had seen his role expand over the years to include ad sales and other roles, and Preschlack rose to oversee distribution. Pictured: Erhardt left, Connolly right.

Here is the ESPN release:

Two company veterans, Ed Erhardt and Justin Connolly, have been elevated to key positions within ESPN and Disney Media Networks, respectively.

Erhardt, now President, Global Sales & Marketing, will broaden his role to include oversight of consumer marketing, research and advertising sales business operations. In addition to leading an award-winning sales team that provides marketers the widest array of premier multimedia and marketing platforms across the ESPN umbrella, he will be responsible for developing an insights-driven marketing and data organization supporting one of the company’s most important revenue streams: advertising sales. Erhardt will report to John Skipper, ESPN President and Co-Chairman, Disney Media Networks.

Connolly has been promoted to EVP, Disney & ESPN Affiliate Sales and Marketing. In this role, Connolly will oversee all aspects of domestic distribution and affiliate marketing including affiliate-related business operations for Disney and ESPN Media Networks including ABC Family, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Fusion, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, ESPNU, ESPN Classic, ESPN Goal Line, ESPN Buzzer Beater, ESPN Bases Loaded, Longhorn Network, SEC ESPN Network, and related Watch, HDTV, video-on-demand, interactive television and retransmission consent agreements for The Walt Disney Company’s eight-owned ABC stations. Based in Bristol and New York, Connolly will report to Skipper and Ben Sherwood, President, Disney/ABC Television Group and Co-Chairman, Disney Media Networks, working closely with Ben Pyne, President, Global Distribution, Disney Media Networks.

Skipper said: “Ed and Justin have been at the forefront in developing industry-shaping sales initiatives during some of the most exciting times in our company’s history. They are best-suited to create new opportunities for ESPN in the most dynamic media landscape ever.”

Sherwood said: “An outstanding and strategic executive, Justin has a long track record of developing and executing innovative revenue opportunities for Disney/ABC Television, elevating not only our strong brands and services, but those of our distributors. His extensive understanding of our industry from both a distribution and programming perspective is tremendously valuable as we work with distribution partners to create new opportunities that better serve our consumers. I look forward to working with him.”

Erhardt said: “Connecting marketing, data, research and sales more closely is the next step in responding to the changing advertising landscape, and it will position ESPN at the center of where the business is going. Providing our customers with insights that drive their business is critical. The special relationship sports fans have with the ESPN brand provides us with a unique opportunity to innovate with data and creativity, in order to connect our customers’ brands with our fans at scale.”

Connolly said: “I grew up in affiliate sales and appreciate all the work they do, especially after getting SEC Network in more households at launch than any other new network. I’m looking forward to pressing ahead and working with the team on distribution strategies that will meet the growing demands of viewers and their desire to watch the industry’s best news, sports and kids content in entertainment across all screens.”

Erhardt’s leadership at ESPN – spanning 16 years – has been defined by continued innovation in serving advertisers. He worked with Skipper in establishing the industry’s first integrated sales organization across media platforms, widely hailed as the model for future media marketing and selling. His sales and marketing group is ranked at the top of the industry by Myers Reports and Beta Research year after year in innovation and integrated marketing success. Erhardt previously worked at Advertising Age, where he served in a variety of roles which culminated as Vice President/Group Publisher, responsible for all content and business operations. During that time, he was inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement.

Connolly was formerly Senior Vice President of College Networks, which included the oversight of the SEC Network, the most successful new network ever launched in cable history. Prior to that, he spent 10 years in affiliate sales and marketing for Disney and ESPN Media Networks, most recently as Senior Vice President of National Accounts. In that capacity, he played a central role in developing the company’s long-term distribution strategy. He recently was selected to the Sports Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Hall of Fame. Prior to joining ESPN, Connolly worked in the corporate finance group for The Walt Disney Company’s corporate treasury department in Burbank, Calif.