The ice continues to melt under the regional sports network business as the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League have made a long-term deal to broadcast its games on stations owned by Tegna and stream them on Amazon Prime Video in the Northwest.

Root Sports Northwest had televised the Kraken during the team’s previous three seasons.

Tegna stations KING and KONG in Seattle, KGW in Portland and KREM in Spokane will broadcast all 70-plus non-nationally televised Kraken games starting next season.

KING will be the official television partner of the Kraken.

Tegna said it will work with other broadcasters to televise Kraken games in other markets in Washington, Oregon and Alaska.

The Kraken also become the first NHL team to work directly with a streaming service. 

Prime Video will stream all non-nationally televised games to Prime members in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. Prime will also have preseason games and the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

“Root has been a terrific partner for us; we have appreciated their support as we determined our broadcast plans moving forward,” Kraken owner Sam Holloway said. “Today’s announcement is a game-changer for our fans. Our goal is to increase the ways they can watch our games — whether they’re cheering us on at home or on the go. To have both Tegna and Prime Video as trusted partners is a dream come true. I can’t wait for more fans to fall in love with Kraken hockey.”

With cord-cutting impacting the cable industry, fewer fans are pay TV subscribers, limiting the number of people who can watch games.

Cord-cutting also puts financial pressure on the RSNs, which lose subscription and advertising revenue while programming rights costs stay high.

Last year, Diamond Sports, the largest RSN operator, declared bankruptcy and dropped its contract with a number of teams.

The Arizona Coyotes (which last week announced a move to Salt Lake City, Utah) and Vegas Golden Knights have also taken the bulk of their local game telecasts to broadcast.

“Our collaboration with the Seattle Kraken marks a significant milestone in our commitment to celebrating the essence of local sports on local broadcast television,” Tegna president Dave Lougee said. “We look forward to bringing every thrilling moment of Kraken hockey to all viewers in the Pacific Northwest as we build on our long-standing commitment to the region.”

KING ,Tegna and the Kraken will lead advertising and sponsorship sales for all local games.

John Forslund, JT Brown, Eddie Olczyk, Alison Lukan and Nick Olczyk will continue broadcasting the games next season.

“Seattle Kraken hockey is synonymous with the Pacific Northwest, and we're thrilled to bring Prime members in Washington, Oregon and Alaska access to Kraken games on Prime Video,” said Charlie Neiman, head of sports partnerships, Prime Video. “Live Kraken games add to our growing selection of premium live sports and deliver additional value for Prime members throughout the Kraken home footprint.”

The implosion of the regional sports network business has allowed local broadcasters to step into the breach with live local pro-sports telecasts. The question now is: Can stations keep and even grow their sports stature, or will they get stuck on the bench once direct-to-consumer operations hit their stride?

The bankruptcy plight of Diamond Sports Group and its lineup of Bally Sports-branded regional sports networks — as well as Warner Bros. Discovery’s 2023 decision to walk away from its regional sports networks in Denver, Houston, Pittsburgh and Seattle — opened the door for several major-market stations to distribute games over the air that for decades had been available only to pay TV subscribers. 

Yet as the RSN business shakes out and streaming becomes a more viable revenue-generating distribution platform, it’s unclear if the current momentum for over-the-air local sports telecasts is sustainable or short-lived.   

“Broadcast right now is a near-term solution for the teams, but eventually sports will follow the money and play on the most lucrative platforms,” television analyst John Mansell said.

Lineup Shifts

In the past year, several pro sports teams have moved their in-market games from regional sports networks to broadcast stations, providing a wide and broad television audience for valuable live sports programming. Much of that was due to the March 2023 Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy filing, which allowed Sinclair-owned RSN subsidiary to renegotiate some rights deals in an effort to salvage a viable business model.

The most recent movement has come from NBA teams taking advantage of the Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy filing by purchasing games on the back end of the 2023-24 NBA regular-season schedule:

• The Milwaukee Bucks in February teamed with Tegna and Weigel Broadcasting to air 10 games on a group of stations including WMLW Milwaukee and WISC Madison. “Over-the-air is an easy and affordable way for Bucks fans to watch our games, and we’re excited to work with Weigel and broadcasters like Tegna to make them widely available,” Milwaukee Bucks president Peter Feigin said in a statement.

• Tegna in January also partnered with the Dallas Mavericks to air 10 games on WFAA in March and April. “Providing access to games has always been our top priority,” Dallas Mavericks CEO Cynt Marshall said at the time of the deal. “We are thrilled to work with WFAA.”

• Gray Television-owned WVUE in New Orleans, along with 10 other Gray stations in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, is currently airing 10 New Orleans Pelicans games under a distribution deal reached in January. “The Pelicans welcome the opportunity to partner with Gray Television in this 10-game deal that will provide over-the-air viewing access to Pelicans games for more than 3 million households and over seven million people across the Gulf South region,” New Orleans Pelicans president Dennis Lauscha said in a statement.

• Gray TV also teamed with the Cleveland Cavaliers to air five games on local station WUAB. Cavaliers CEO Nic Barlage told NBA.com at the time of the deal that the partnership allowed the team to “test out a new model of distribution” that could reach more fans across its local footprint. 

Those teams joined the Phoenix Suns and the Utah Jazz, which have been using broadcast stations as their primary local TV outlets since the season began.

The Suns and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury reached distribution deals with Gray Television in mid-2023 after an agreement with Bally Sports Arizona expired. The Utah Jazz began airing games on Sinclair-owned KJZZ Salt Lake City in October, after the team’s deal with the now-shuttered RSN AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain expired. There’s also a Jazz Plus streaming service that offers access to every game for $125 per year. 

It’s not just NBA teams moving to local broadcast. The Vegas Golden Knights of the NHL last summer inked a deal with E.W. Scripps to air games on KMCC Las Vegas and other stations in its TV territory during 2023-24. The Golden Knights also had a local TV deal with AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain. 

Sports analyst Lee Berke said he believes the regional sports network business will continue to melt down. 

“The traditional [regional sports network] model is failing — companies are in bankruptcy, and the rest are facing a substantial drop off in pay TV penetration from 8% to 12% a year,” he said. “When you have a network model that’s dependent in large part on affiliate fees, then these networks are suffering. As a result you’re going to see more reduced RSNs and shutdowns in the offering.” 

Even as Diamond fights its way out of bankruptcy, Berke said RSNs will increasingly be pushed onto pay tiers as MVPDs look to generate more revenue for high-priced sports channels from fewer subscribers. He pointed to two recent moves by Comcast — it moved MASN, local TV home of baseball’s Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals, and SportsNet Pittsburgh, local rightsholder for MLB’s Pirates and the NHL’s Penguins, from basic to premium tiers. 

Such moves leave broadcast as an attractive option for teams looking to maximize their television reach. “There are two main categories that still generate substantial audiences and substantial profitability [on broadcast stations], and that is news and sports,” Berke said. “News is certainly maxing out, so I think you’re seeing more sports on broadcast right now, and I think those trends are going to continue.” 

But not all industry observers are betting on a resurgence of local pro sports on broadcast TV. While some teams have turned to over-the-air for a select number of games, Mansell doesn’t see a mass migration of local rights back to stations, especially given the continued movement of viewers from linear television to streaming services. 

Mansell, a former senior analyst at Paul Kagan Associates, added that the lure of offering fans a subscription streaming service in local markets would be difficult to turn down as viewership continues to migrate from linear to digital platforms. 

“I think the more likely scenario is a streaming venture, potentially with Amazon or another company and the leagues,” he said. “When you look at how much money the Googles, Amazons and Facebooks have compared to any given cable operator or station owner, it pales in comparison. Sports rights are going to go where the money is.”

Baseball’s DTC Play

Indeed, Major League Baseball will offer local-market games of the San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks on a subscription direct-to-consumer streaming basis in 2024 as it looks to create a league-owned in-market DTC platform in 2025. Baseball already offers such a product to out-of-market viewers in MLB.tv. 

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in February during team owner meetings in Orlando, Florida, that he needs more than half of the MLB’s 30 clubs to make the service work. 

And Amazon will invest $115 million in Diamond Sports Group’s financial restructuring in an effort to set itself up to potentially gain streaming rights to live games in local markets.  

Mansell also pointed to the flexibility that the digital platforms can provide, including alternative feeds, player cameras and sports betting-themed feeds that would complement the telecasts. 

Berke acknowledged the revenue potential of streaming services, but believes teams will want to combine local telecasts with streaming options to give fans the ability to view the games on multiple platforms. Teams such as the Phoenix Suns offer both local game broadcasts for free as well as via the Suns Live direct-to-consumer streaming platform for $14.99 per month, he noted. 

“It’s a revamped approach to how these games are being distributed — you have increased viewership and increased value for your ad inventory with the [broadcast] business model,” Berke said. “Then you add streaming in to maintain your revenue growth and the value of the franchise going forward.” 

On opening day Major League Baseball said it has taken over production and distribution of all local Colorado Rockies games this season, following the shutdown of AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain by Warner Bros. Discovery.

DirecTV, Comcast’s Xfinity, Charter Communications’ Spectrum and Fubo have all set up channels where subscribers can watch Rockies games on Rockies.tv.

“Colorado sports fans have made DirecTV the top destination to get all their favorite local teams,” said Rob Thun, chief content officer of DirecTV. “We will continue to work with MLB, the NBA, NHL, and other top leagues and their local franchises so the most avid fans can get the games they want while other customers have more choice over the content they want to pay to have in their homes.”

MLB is also enabling fans to stream all games in market and on demand for $19.99 a month or $99.99 for the season.  Fan have to sign up at MLB.TV Single Team subscriptions.

Last season MLB made similar arrangements for the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks following the bankruptcy of RSN owner Diamond Sports Group, a subsidiary of Sinclair. 

MLB has set up a channel locator to help pay-TV subscribers find Rockies, Padres and Diamonbacks games.

Sinclair and its bankrupt Diamond Sports Group unit reached a deal that could keep Diamond’s ailing Bally Sports regional networks alive beyond 2024.

Sinclair will initially give Diamond $495 million to settle their lawsuits. Sinclair expects to get more than $200 million of that back from a richer management service agreement, substantial tax benefits and receiving other assets.

Combined with a $115 million minority investment from Amazon, disclosed in the deal's term sheet, Diamond should be able to pay $350 million to senior creditors who wanted to liquidate Diamond after next year, emerge from bankruptcy and continue to run the RSNs as an independent company.

Amazon and its Amazon Channels store will become the primary place to access the Bally Sports Plus direct-to-consumer apps, bolstering its presence in the sports business.

Amazon has an option to invest another $50 million in the new company, according to the term sheet distributed by Diamond.

The regional sports business has been under pressure as cord-cutting has reduced the number of pay TV viewers, slicing distribution and advertising revenue.

Sinclair went heavily into debt when it paid $9.5 billion for 19 Fox regional sports networks. The seller was The Walt Disney Co., which acquired the RSNs when it bought 21st Century Fox, but was forced by regulators to shed them because it also owned ESPN.

Diamond was unable to pay both its creditors and the teams whose games it televised. It sought bankruptcy court protection in March and has been able to shed money-losing deals with some teams.

Diamond sued Sinclair, trying to claw back $1.5 billion in management fees it paid to the broadcaster as it was going under.

The new restructuring support agreement will end the rhubarb and enable Diamond to operate a hybrid business.

“Diamond was paying over $2 billion indeed to the leagues. The RSNs can’t generate enough revenue for the teams only being on cable,” one source familiar with the talks said. “They definitely can’t [by] going exclusively DTC. Diamond will be able to make money on cable, make money on DTC with streaming and put a number of games on broadcast, some on Sinclair stations.”

On top of that, the deal is important to Sinclair because preserving the RSNs is important to maintaining the cable bundle that generates millions in retransmission payments to Sinclair and other station groups.  

“The RSNs are really one of the backbones of the cable package,” said a source familiar with the talks. “The RSNs shutting down would not have been good for anybody. This is good for the industry.”

Without the RSNs, cord-cutting would accelerate, leaving Sinclair’s stations with far fewer pay-TV subscribers.

The deal will have to be approved by the court. 

"We are thrilled to have reached a comprehensive restructuring agreement that provides a detailed framework for a reorganization plan and substantial new financing that will enable Diamond to operate and thrive beyond 2024," Diamond CEO David Preschlack said. 

“We are grateful for the support from Amazon and a group of our largest creditors who clearly believe in the value-creating potential of this business,“ Preschlack said. “Diamond’s near-term focus will be on implementing the RSA and emerging from bankruptcy as a going concern for the benefit of our investors, our employees, our team, league and distribution partners, and the millions of fans who will continue to enjoy our broadcasts.”

A new deal will have to be worked out between Sinclair and Bally and new, long-term deals will have to be reached with pay-TV distributors, including Comcast, which currently carry the RSNs under short-term deals.

The National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League gave Diamond one-year deals with reduced rights fees in order to stay on the air in the short-term, but are open to longer-term deals, according to a source.

Some NBA and NHL teams have already moved a handful of games to broadcast TV and others like the Phoenix Suns and the Las Vegas Golden Knights have moved all their games to broadcast.

Sinclair had a more adversarial relationship with Major League Baseball.  

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred noisily balked at giving streaming rights to Sinclair and the RSNs. In bankruptcy, Diamond opted to reject its deal with several teams, including the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks, because Diamond claimed it was losing money televising games.

Bally Sports currently has nine MLB teams under contract for the 2024 season, including the Los Angeles Angels, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, Detroit Tigers, Florida Marlins, Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays. Those teams are expected will be paid the rates agreed to before the bankruptcy filing for the 2024 season. It is less clear what will happen to several other teams on Bally sports, including the Texas Rangers, the Cleveland Guardians and the Minnesota Twins.

Manfred also initially balked at Amazon’s attempt to get streaming rights to MLB teams by investing in Diamond, saying that if Amazon wanted those rights, it would have to negotiate with MLB, which has designs on creating its own streaming packages.

Also Read: MLB Hires Regional Sports Net Execs To Start Local Media Unit

Baseball would find it difficult to launch its own local streaming product because some of the most attractive teams have already done streaming deals including the New York Yankees (via YES Network), Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers, one observer noted. And Diamond will be retaining its rights to the Atlanta Braves.

Although Sinclair took the RSNs off its books last year, the bankruptcy and lawsuits created an issue that hung over the company. “This deal allows Sinclair to move forward,” an observer noted.

"Overall, the settlement does clear the decks for Sinclair to focus on Broadcast and Ventures, and refinancing debt,” Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall said. 

"Diamond has been a dark cloud over Sinclair for years now,“ Cahall said. “While this marks the end to the legal liability, we think Sinclair’s broadcast retrans rates suffered from deals that include the RSNs historically. Sinclair is now trying to get those rates closer to market at a time when MVPDs are fighting back harder, and more broadcast content is moving to streaming (especially sports).”

Sources said Sinclair could get a piece of the RSN business if the deal fuels a recovery in the business.

Sinclair stock rose 17% to close at $16.05 a share Wednesday.

The Arizona Coyotes have reached a deal to have their National Hockey League games broadcast by Scripps Sports, the latest example of a team moving from a cable sports network to broadcast.

A direct-to-consumer offering of Coyotes games is also planned by the team.

Coyotes games had been televised by Bally Sports Arizona, which is being closed by Diamond Sports Group, the Sinclair subsidiary currently under bankruptcy court protection. The bankruptcy filing allowed Diamond to walk away from its Coyotes rights deal, which Diamond claimed was a money loser.

Bally Sports Arizona previously lost the NBA Phoenix Suns, the WNBA Phoenix Mercury and Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks.. 

The Suns and Mercury made a deal to be broadcast by Gray Television. Major league baseball set up a new cable channel that has carried Diamondback games since July. 

Next season 81 of 82 Coyotes games will appear on a digital signal from Scripps’ KNXV-TV, channel 15.2 in Phoenix. The channel carries Antenna TV network programming. (One Coyote game is scheduled to appear on ESPN Plus.)

KNXV channel 15.2 is also carried by Cox Cable on channel 95.

Scripps stations also will broadcast all Coyotes games in Tucson (games will be on KGUN channel 9.2 (Cox channel 85 on cable and Comcast channel 1179) and Salt Lake City (games will alternate between KUPX-TV on channel 16 and KSTU-TV on channel 13.2).

Financial terms were not disclosed.

“Scripps Sports looks forward to working with the Arizona Coyotes to showcase their exciting young team,” said Brian Lawlor, president of Scripps Sports. “We believe the future of this team is bright, and we look forward to making the games available for all fans to enjoy.”

KNXV, is the ABC affiliate in Phoenix on its primary channels, and Scripps said the station will provide a strong marketing platform for the Coyotes games in the market.

The Coyotes will be producing the games. Play-by-play announcer Matt McConnell, color analyst Tyson Nash and hosts Todd Walsh and Jody Jackson will be back for all Coyotes broadcasts, the team said..

“This is an innovative collaboration that will ensure that all our great fans can watch Coyotes hockey on television for free and allows us to better connect with our incredible fans and fans-in-waiting,” said Coyotes President & CEO Xavier A. Gutierrez.

Scripps stations also will broadcast all Coyotes games in Tucson (games will be on KGUN 9.2 – Cox channel 85 and Comcast channel 1179) and Salt Lake City (games will alternate between KUPX Utah 16 and KSTU 13.2 Antenna TV).

Broadcasts will include pregame and postgame coverage for every game.

Scripps, as the official broadcast partner of the team, and the Coyotes will co-produce a monthly 30-minute Club Insider program that showcases the team, its players and the organization on and off the ice. The show will air on KASW in Phoenix and KWBA-TV in Tucson.

The move is the latest sign of the deep troubles of the regional sports business. 

In addition to Diamond Sports activities in bankruptcy court, Time Warner Discovery has opted to get out of the RSN business, and sold its AT&T SportsNet Southwest to the Houston Astros and Rockets last week.

Major League Baseball, facing the collapse of the regional sports networks that carry its games locally, is starting up a new local media department and has hired three regional sports networks executives to staff it.

“These new hires are an important step in our preparation to address the changing landscape of MLB game distribution in light of the increasing challenges and pressure facing regional sports networks,” MLB chief revenue officer Noah Garden said.

Doug Johnson was named senior VP and executive producer, local media, for MLB. Johnson had been with AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh. He will be responsible for overseeing all games produced locally by MLB.

Greg Pennell joins MLB as senior VP, local media, from Bally Sports. He will be responsible for the production operations of all local MLB telecasts.

Kendall Burgess will start as VP of local media technical operations. She was VP of technical operations at Bally Sports. She will oversee technical operations for local MLB telecasts.

Also: MSG Networks Jumps Into Streaming With DTC App, FAST Channel

“The decades of experience and expertise in game production and operations that Doug, Greg, and Kendall bring to Major League Baseball reinforces our commitment to deliver the highest quality game telecasts to our fans,” Garden said.

MLB is making the moves because the future of local broadcast is a big question mark as the opening day approaches.

Bally Sports’s parent, Diamond Sports Group, missed an interest payment on its debt and could be heading for bankruptcy. In a bankruptcy, Bally could try to reduce the payments it makes to teams for games, but MLB has said it will reclaim rights rather than take less than the contracted fees.

Warner Bros. Discovery has also told teams and leagues that it wants to get out of the regional sports network business and wants to return the rights it holds.

The regional sports networks business has been squeezed by cord-cutting, which erodes the number of people who can watch — and pay to watch — games. At the same time, sports rights fees have been rising.  

The situation could lead to lower revenue for teams and leagues. ■

Nexstar Media Group CEO Perry Sook says his company is having a lot of conversations with sports team owners about putting games on stations and The CW as regional sports networks face an uncertain future.

“I can tell you that the number of inbound inquiries, as well as discussions that are going on with team owners … the activity is frenetic around here. There are lots of discussions,” said Sook, speaking on Nexstar’s fourth-quarter earnings call Tuesday.

Last week, E.W. Scripps. Co. said its phones were ringing with teams looking into opportunities to put games on broadcast. Scripps last year launched Scripps Sports to take advantage of opportunities arising as RSNs implode.

Sook noted that Nexstar’s agreement to put a group of Los Angeles Clippers NBA basketball games exclusively on Nexstar stations in California, including KTLA Los Angeles, “broke the seal” on returning games to broadcast.

“Other team owners have taken notice of that,” he said. ”We have a receptive audience, certainly among NBA owners and NHL owners that see the value of broadcast TV in exposing and distributing their product to a much larger audience than is available in the pay TV universe.” Sook said.

But he noted that people want to see how the RSN situation plays out and what that means to them. 

Diamond Sports, which runs the Bally Sports RSNs, missed an interest payment earlier this month and appears to be heading towards a restructuring or bankruptcy. Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association have said that if their teams aren’t paid the contractual fees for broadcast rights, they’ll find alternative ways of television games.

Warner Bros. Discovery is also looking to get out of the regional sports network business and has told the leagues it wants to return TV rights to the teams.

Sook said Nexstar was also interested in putting more sports on The CW Network, which it acquired last year.

The CW acquired the rights to the controversial LIV Golf tour, which is bankrolled by Saudi Arabia.

“We’re very pleased with our first weekend of LIV Golf,” Sook said. 

Across the first three days, LIV Golf was viewed by more than 1.4 million total viewers across both the CW linear TV network and the CW app, Sook said. He said that was 24% higher than the average golf telecast so far this year.

“The linear broadcast ratings increased 21% from Saturday to Sunday,” he added. “Those numbers exceeded our expectations.”

Sook said advertising on LIV Golf was selling “very well” and that Nexstar stations were generating three times the revenue from LIV Golf than from other network programming.

“I think we’ll continue to grow as we get more into the season,” he said.

He said he would be interested in putting more sports on The CW, either on weekends or potentially moving into primetime. ■

As Sinclair continues to play bankruptcy chicken with its creditors and league partners in an attempt to restructure more than $9 billion in debt tied to its Bally Sports channels, Warner Bros. Discovery has reportedly told teams tied to its four regional sports networks that they have until March 31 to buy back their TV rights.

According to Sports Business Journal, WBD told 10 teams affiliated with Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League they have until March 31 to negotiate a buyback of their rights. If an agreement can’t be made, WBD will conduct a Chapter 7 liquidation filing. 

Also read: Is WBD Cool to the RSN Biz, Too? Light AT&T SportsNet Envelopes Stir Concerns Among Sports Media Watchers

WBD’s declaration means that currently, key revenue streams from TV rights for a collective 52 teams across three major sports leagues are in limbo, factoring in the 42 teams impacted by the Bally Sports issue.

And things are tough all over for regional sports networks, which routinely generated profit margins of 50% or more just four years ago. 

Earlier this month, for instance, The Walt Disney Co. disclosed that its SEC Network ended 2022 with 51 million subscribers, down 14% since 2019. (See page 7 on Disney's 10K filing.) 

NBCUniversal, meanwhile, said it has only 15 million remaining customers for its five NBC Sports RSNs, down from 21 million in 2021. (That's page 8 on Comcast's 2022 10K. Some of that loss can be attributed to NBCU selling its share of its Washington/Baltimore RSN back to its partner teams a year ago.)

And the moribund Pac-12 Networks might, according to a published report, sign a distribution deal with Apple “because no one else will give them money,” a individual familiar with the negotiation told Next TV. 

“The RSNs are definitely the hot-house flowers of pay TV,” Patrick Crakes, a former Fox executive turned sports media consultant also told Next TV. 

The “decade-long phenomenon that is cord-cutting“ is taking are particularly acute toll on programming networks with narrowly focused content, Crakes explained, but this shouldn’t fool anyone to believe the leagues will suddenly shift their rights to streaming. 

”Nobody has been able to make that work yet, including Netflix,” Crakes said, noting the more than decade — and billions of dollars — of deficit spending it took the streaming giant to get to a place where it could report a profit. 

Also read: Scripps Sports: Phones ‘Already Ringing’ as Regional Sports Nets Implode

On Friday morning during an earnings call, E.W. Scripps CEO Adam Symson said his phone has been ”ringing off the hook” with those seeking to discuss moving live sports programming on RSNs to local broadcast, as the RSN business experiences what he called an ”implosion.” 

Crakes bristles at that hyperbolic word choice — there’s simply too much tread left on the RSN business, he said, and the OTT ”plus” business simply can't generate replacement revenue yet. 

To Crakes’s thinking, the RSN business has indeed peaked, but channels can still yield margins of 10% to 20% for those such as NBCU who aren’t carrying any debt on them. 

And he believes that once the dust settles with the current Sinclair and WBD restructurings, that’s exactly the kind of mature business RSNs will settle into — one that will let both media companies and pro sports team partners bide their time until digital models do generate enough revenue to support the lifestyles in which they’ve all become accustomed. 

Sinclair Has 'Very Effectively Used Bankruptcy'

While MLB commissioner Rob Manfred seemed to issued a stern ultimatum when he suggested nearly two weeks ago that pro baseball was prepared to replace TV distribution for 14 of its teams should a bankruptcy filing by Sinclair’s Diamond Sports Group disrupt TV rights revenue, Crakes doesn't think the MLB really has any such alternatives. 

Digital distribution can’t replace the 10% to 30% of overall revenue teams receive from their RSN deals with Diamond. It’s still overwhelmingly in their best interest to find a way for Sinclair, Diamond and Bally Sports to go on. 

Diamond, Crakes also said, isn’t actually as cash-strapped as many have been led to believe. But the cost of maintaining all the debt on the Bally Sports channels has reduced margins to razor-thin levels. Sinclair, he explained, has “very effectively used bankruptcy” to move forward with a reshuffling of the deck, hoping to trade equity in the 19 Bally Sports channels for its debt. 

Sinclair hopes to come out of all this as a minority owner of an RSN group that generates around 15% margins, debt-free, with a new ownership group — perhaps private equity — in control. 

Meanwhile, some of the 19 Bally Sports channels might be offloaded to other RSN groups, such as NBC Sports, that could provide a better fit for them, Crakes said, noting the networks’ origins under Fox Sports ownership. 

”That portfolio was designed for us at Fox in a different era, where they would be bundled with news channels and FX and local affiliates,” Crakes said. 

As for the AT&T SportsNet channels serving Denver, Houston and Pittsburgh, they were inherited by AT&T amid its DirecTV purchase in 2015, and then spun off with WarnerMedia and tied up into the $43 billion merger with Discovery. 

Crakes called this AT&T SportsNet portfolio — which also includes a minority stake in Root Sports Seattle — an ”orphan,“ a poor fit for an indebted WBD that’s conducted around $4 billion in synergy cuts recently. 

In fact, AT&T itself tried to sell the channels to Sinclair, before Sinclair paid $10.6 billion for the Fox Sports networks in 2019, later rebranding them as “Bally Sports.”

AT&T, too, is leveraging the bankruptcy threat to push its debt and team partners to help restructure the AT&T SportsNet business. 

“The teams are going to work with the distributors to keep the value chain intact,” Crakes predicted. The RSN business is “never going to be a growth business again,” but it will reemerge after the Sinclair and WBD restructurings as still viable, at least in the near term. ■

Warner Bros. Discovery, which operates three regional sports networks and has a stake in a fourth, has sent letters to teams and leagues saying it plans to get out of the troubled local sports business, according to a published report.

The alarm from Warner Bros. Discovery echoes the situation with the Bally Sports RSNs, whose owner recently missed an interest payment.

Sports Business Journal said WBD has told teams it wants to negotiate agreements for the teams to take back the rights to broadcast games. If a deal can't be reached, the RSNs would head toward a bankruptcy filing.

“AT&T SportsNet is not immune to the well-known challenges that the entire RSN industry is facing,” Warner Bros. Discovery said in a statement sent to SBJ. “We will continue to engage in private conversations with our partners as we seek to identify reasonable and constructive solutions.”

WBD operates AT&T SportsNet channels in Denver, Houston and Pittsburgh. It also has a minority stake in Root Sports in Seattle. The company acquired the RSN business when Discovery bought WarnerMedia from AT&T.

 According to The Wall Street Journal, AT&T SportsNet’s letter to the teams said that “the business will not have sufficient cash to pay the upcoming rights fees.” The teams were also told parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, which is cutting costs to cut debt, will not bail out its RSNs.

The letter states that “unless we can reach a deal to transfer ownership of the network . . . our only realistic option is to file for Chapter 7 liquidation,”

Also Read: Scripps Sports: Phones ‘Already Ringing’ as Regional Sports Nets Implode

A source familiar with the situation said Warner Bros. Discovery’s talks with the teams and the leagues have been productive at this point. The source also indicated that the AT&T SportsNet talks are not nearly as contentious as the discussions with Diamond Sports Group, which was turned into an independently operated subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, with its own executive team, in order to rebuild working relationships.

The RSN business, once a cash cow, has been squeezed lately as cord-cutting erodes pay TV subscribers and the cost of sports rights escalates.

Diamond Sports, which runs the 19 Bally Sports RSNs bought by Sinclair in 2019, earlier this month missed a payment on part of its $8 billion in debt resulting from the purchase. 

Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association have been keeping an eye on the situation and have started to make plans to ensure that games are televised even if the RSN’s go bankrupt. 

With baseball’s spring training in full swing, the teams carried by the AT&T SportsNet RSNs are the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Houston Astros and the Colorado Rockies. The networks also carry NBA and NHL teams including the Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz and Pittsburgh Penguins. ■

With the clock running on the grace period started when regional sports network operator Diamond Sports Group skipped a payment on its debt, “the phone has already been ringing off the hook” at Scripps Sports, according to E.W. Scripps CEO Adam Symson.

“I gotta say as we sit here today witnessing the implosion of the RSN business model . . . Scripps Sports has been getting a very warm reception in the marketplace,” Symson said on Scripps’s fourth-quarter earnings call Friday.

Unlike RSNs, which mainly reach the shirking number of subscribers to cable, satellite and telcos, Symson said Scripps can reach viewers over the air, on pay TV and connected TV.

“Our ubiquitous over-the-air pay-TV and connected-TV reach through Ion and the Scripps Networks has immense appeal for leagues looking to build new and consistent franchise viewing events across the national footprint,” Symson said.

Scripps set up Scripps Sports as a new unit in December

Also: Scripps Sees Opportunity in 'Broken' RSN Business

“We see the right live sports as an unparalleled opportunity to drive the value of our linear television streams even higher,” Symson said. LIve sports has been proven as drawing the latest audiences to linear TV. It also attracts more advertising dollars per programming hour, he said.

“Live sports will draw young new audiences to our brand as fervent fans employ digital antennas to watch their favorite local team for free again,” Symson added.

Scripps has talked about being able to replace an RSN in markets where it had a duopoly, with the station that does not have a Big Four network affiliate airing games and other team programming.

Symson added that because Scripps also owns Ion, which is broadcast but doesn’t have local feeds, a league could find a home on Ion nationally, or a team could reach local fans through Ion in a single market.

“The interesting thing about Ion is we not only control all of the programming decisions, we also control all of the affiliates,” Symson said. “And so we have the ability to bring sports onto our platform on the weekends, in prime, what every way we think makes sense for both the league’s benefit and for our benefit.”

He noted that in many markets, “we have a tremendous amount of distribution real estate and that gives us tremendous optionality.”

Symson said sports still need the kind of distribution broadcast offers in order to create value in the form of sports betting, ticket sales, merchandise sale and direct-to-consumer subscriptions.

“That’s exactly why we’re getting such a good reception in the marketplace because the leagues realize that going to a direct-to-consumer-only strategy isn’t necessarily going to serve them well over the long haul,” Symson said. 

With pay TV declines, the RSN model simply doesn’t work, Symson argues. “There just not enough subs to sustain the kind of revenue that the teams have gotten in the past,” he said. “What we’re  bringing to the market is a new model that the leagues and the teams can get behind because they understand it’s about balancing both the revenue that they bring in as well as reach.”

Going back to the future and putting sports on free TV is a winning idea, Symson said.

“It's in everybody's best interest, including the American people and the fans, that we don't allow live sports to become a pure D-to-C product,” he said. “It won't work for the economics of the leagues, It won't work for the economics of the teams and it definitely won't work for the economics of the American people.” ■

In a pitch to investors, executives from Nexstar Media Group talked up the virtues of broadcast, saying high-profile sports programming draws bigger audiences on traditional TV than streaming.

“The world has begun to wake up again to the benefits of the broadcast business model,” Nexstar president and chief operating officer Tom Carter said. “As they say, what’s old is new again.”

In particular, Carter asserted, “broadcast has again proved to be the most important medium for engaging valuable live sports audiences.”

He noted that overall NFL audiences on broadcast networks were up substantially in 2022, but not on Amazon Prime Video, which for the first time had exclusive national TV rights to the league’s Thursday Night Football package.

Also: Streaming Off a Cliff: 'Thursday Night Football' Audience Dropped a Whopping 41% For the Season on Amazon

“We see this acutely head-to-head in the local markets where the Thursday-night football games aired both on broadcast but also on Amazon Prime,” Carter said. 

“In markets where audiences had a choice of where to watch the game, 67% of the NFL viewers chose to watch their in-market game on their local broadcast stations rather than on Amazon Prime,” he said. “Audiences prefer local broadcast delivery, where they can avoid technical challenges and they have a local station they know and trust with the shoulder programming that they prefer.”

Broadcast is not only stronger than streaming, it beat cable — particularly regional sports networks that are under pressure from cord-cutting.

“We saw it with owners of sports teams outside of football looking to maximize their local audience and franchise value by returning to broadcast TV,” Carter said. 

Nexstar made a deal to carry 15 Los Angeles Clippers NBA games on KTLA Los Angeles and some of its other stations in California.

“What is interesting is that in the over eight games so far, KTLA has delivered a total audience that is 55% larger than the 29 games previously aired in the RSNs,” he said.

Compared to streaming, broadcast is a better business proposition, he told the investors. The big streamers have been paying billions for content and losing money to attract subscribers. Recently those losses have become less palatable to investors.

“There is an appropriate, heightened investor focus on free cash flow generation as the primary method of creating shareholder value, which favors the broadcast models,” Carter said.

Despite the losses being piled up as traditional media companies attempt to pivot to streaming, some investors are wary about investing in old-fashioned TV, Nexstar chief financial officer Lee Ann Gliha said. 

Gliha pointed to projects that indicated that at least 50% of the adult population is unlkely to drop their traditional pay TV service. “There is no expectation for subscribers to fall off a cliff,” she said, pointing to data from SNL Kagan.

Also: Virtual MVPDs Added Over 1 Million Users in Q3, Offset Huge Linear Pay TV Losses

“Investors are worried that there is not much of a future for our broadcasting business model,” Gliha said. “But the truth is, if you look at long-term industry projections, they imply that Nexstar’s business should generate long-term revenue growth and that the market perception surrounding the decline of advertising and distribution revenue is over exaggerated.”

Nexstar stock rose 1.63% to $204.77 a share in trading Tuesday (January 31), at one point hitting a 52-week high of $204.89. ■

What will people be talking about and adjusting to throughout the year? 

The new year is ushering in fresh opportunities and carryover challenges in the media landscape. Many are continued trends from the past couple of years around data privacy and measurement. Others are newer trends as viewership changes continue to shift and more emphasis is put on profitability for media companies. Here are some expectations we see on the near horizon: 

Measurement and Data Privacy Shifts: As rules and regulations around consumer data privacy continue to grow, advertisers will continue to explore alternatives to cookie-based and multi-touch attribution (MTA) solutions for targeting, measurement and attribution, including data clean rooms, media mix modeling and geographic-based media experimentation. Additional alternatives will include survey and zero-party data (data a user shares intentionally with a company). 

Media mix modeling is the highest in demand right now in terms of emerging alternatives followed by experimentation. Clean rooms and zero-party data are supplemental at this point. 

The media industry, unfortunately, remains no closer to establishing standards of measurement and attribution. As far as digital tracking, targeting and measurement, everyone is still very cookie-dependent and will remain so until forced to do something else. These solutions will be additive to the measurement and data-tracking arsenal. As long as cookies are viable, cookies will remain the preferred tracking, measurement and targeting option.

Media Consumption Continues to Shift to Influencer-Based Content: Media consumption continues to shift to growth and value in the creator economy. YouTube, TikTok, and Meta have given independent creators a platform to develop large and loyal audiences that brands can connect with. TikTok, especially, will grow exponentially compared to the other “legacy” digital platforms, according to findings in the EMarketer Influencer Marketing 2022 report.

Media Consolidation Among Streaming Platforms: Some companies lack the scale to compete in streaming (AMC, Paramount, etc.,) as the new streaming bundles from the likes of The Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros. Discovery begin to look a lot more like siloed cable-TV bundles. But pressure is on the big players as well with an increased focus on profitability. A swift change in leadership atop Disney at the end of last year put share price in the spotlight as well as weaknesses in Disney’s various businesses — such as streaming platform Disney Plus likely not becoming profitable until 2024.  Given the challenges in continued growth and pressure on profitability, streamers will look for ways to cut costs or find new areas for growth, which could include further consolidation (buying other streaming services) and bundling.

Sports Rights Deals: A lot will happen in terms of sports rights deals in 2023 as more value is put on individual league deals, exclusive deals like “NFL Sunday Ticket” and the future of the regional sports networks given their current ties to limited cable TV bundles. Players like Apple, Google and Amazon have the ability to use their cash to make large jumps in the streaming space very quickly by purchasing streaming sports rights deals, as Google just did with NFL Sunday Ticket for YouTube. There is also talk of the sports leagues themselves (Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League in particular) buying back some of the sports rights deals to distribute through their own streaming services. 

Audience Measurement with Alternative Currencies: Now approaching the one-year mark in which many agencies and advertisers began dipping a toe in the water of alternative currencies to Nielsen (iSpot TV, VideoAmp, and Comscore primarily), it remains to be seen how advertisers will react to the multiple tools available for measurement of cross-screen TV and video campaigns. The most likely scenario is that each network group will begin to provide preferred deals to advertisers, as we have already seen with NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery,  while Nielsen continues to remain the most preferred currency across partners.

Social Trends with a Focus on AI and Privacy: Twitter continues to shed advertisers and users as it struggles with brand safety, content moderation, and executive departures following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform. TikTok continues to increase its share of video time spent, providing consumers with an effective quick hit of entertainment dopamine. Meanwhile, a bill to ban the platform is gaining steam in Congress. 

Will TikTok eat our brains in 2023? Is the metaverse a bucket of hogwash? Those questions will fade into the background as more people adopt the next generation of social media with ChatGPT and the real question will become, what do the new advancements in AI mean for how machines will play a role in our daily lives? ▪️

Major League Baseball said it hired Sinclair Broadcast Group regional sports network executive Billy Chambers as executive VP, media and business development.

In his newly created role, Chambers will oversee the management and distribution of MLB’s local media rights, working closely with the league’s 30 teams.

The move comes as MLB and Sinclair’s Bally Sports Networks have wrestled over local streaming and direct-to-consumer rights.

With cord-cutting eroding cable and satellite subscribers, regional sports networks have been getting squeezed and are seen as unlikely to be able to continue to pay the big bucks they’ve been spending on local TV rights to baseball games.

Sinclair ran up about $9 billion in debt buying the 21 Fox Sports RSNs from The Walt Disney Co. The RSNs -- rebranded as Bally Sports Network -- are now operated by Sinclair’s Diamond Sports Group unit, which has been separated from the main company financially.

Diamond Sports also last year named a new CEO, former ESPN and NBC Sports executive David Preschlack, in a bid to build better relationships with rights holders including MLB.

Chambers was chief financial officer and chief operations officer for the Bally Sports RSNs. He was with them when they were acquired by Sinclair and assisted Disney in making the sale. (Disney acquired the Fox RSNs when it acquired 21st Century Fox.)

Chambers spent 20 years with Fox Sports Media Group, where he was CFO, overseeing Fox Sports, the RSNs, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network and Fox Deportes. He negotiated rights deals with MLB, the NBA and the NHL, as well as team rights.

“Billy is an important addition to Major League Baseball and will play an integral role in how we navigate the rapidly evolving local media landscape in the future,” baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said. “Billy’s extensive knowledge and experience in all areas of regional sports network operations will help us maximize the reach of our game in the clubs’ local markets.”

MLB also promoted Kenny Gersh to executive VP, media and business development.

Chambers will work closely with Gersh, whose role has expanded to include oversight of all of MLB’s national and international media rights, distribution, and production.

Gersh joined MLB in 2006 as an executive at MLB Advanced Media, the interactive media company of MLB.

Chambers and Gersh report to MLB CRO Noah Garden. ■

With the regional sports network business model broken, the E.W. Scripps Co. sees an opportunity to step up and play hardball with the big boys.

Brian Lawlor, who was named president of the new Scripps Sports division, told Broadcasting+Cable that cord-cutting has become a "massive problem" for teams and leagues. That makes his company's broadcast stations and linear networks attractive to rights holders looking to reach a bigger share of fans and potential fans.

TV sports started on broadcast. Now, "what's old is new again," Lawlor said.

Before launching its sports division, Scripps consolidated its news assets into a Scripps News unit, focusing its efforts on two key forms of content that still drive linear viewing.

"Probably 95% of all the revenue inside of our company is attached to linear," Lawlor said. "There are no better assets on linear television than sports. I believe we have an expertise in local and an expertise in sports. We’re bringing an acute focus to maybe our two most valuable areas."

Two-Pronged Strategy

Scripps has a two-pronged sports strategy as it takes its swings at the sports business. It will seek national deals with leagues to turn Ion network into a channel that looks like TNT, with a combination of entertainment and sports. Ion, though, will aim to showcase the leagues it does business with, rather than simply programming different sports on different nights, Lawlor said.

Scripps focused on sports after acquiring Ion Media for $2.65 million last year. "We own the fifth-largest broadcast network in America," he said. "The first four have a lot of sports rights. There are a lot of other sports rights out there. ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox can only absorb so much of it."

Scripps will also look to make local deals, particularly in markets where it has two stations, like Detroit, Phoenix and Denver.

Also: Fubo TV Deal with Altitude Sports Makes Denver One of the Nation's Most Interesting RSN Regions

"Big markets with big sports and RSNs with problems provide an opportunity for us," he said. "I think our portfolio is unique. I think our proposition is unique."

Costly Rights

Lawlor said Scripps would be "interested in looking at everything" when it comes to national and local sports rights, including the NBA, and that it has "been engaged in many conversations with leagues and teams over the past year."

Blitzing costly sports rights will put a scare into Wall Street — Scripps stock fell 8.1% to $13.50 on (a selloff day overall) Thursday — so the company "will be very selective and figure out where we can create the most value for a league and for ourselves," Lawlor said.

Lawlor said Scripps doesn’t have a specific budget for sports rights. "It will all be case-by-case and we will run models and develop P&Ls and ROIs and figure out what make sense and what doesn’t," he said. "And again, every deal isn’t going to be right for us."

The problems Sinclair Broadcast Group in particular has been having with its Bally Sports RSNs have been well-chronicled. It paid more than $9 billion to The Walt Disney Co. for what were then known as the Fox RSNs, and now is burdened with debt as sports rights costs rise and subscribers fall.

Rights for regional sports networks will be coming up for renewal and "I would certainly expect in the next couple of months that we’ll start chipping away at some deals," he said.

In the current environment, Scripps won’t be trying to pay more than the RSNs are currently paying.

"The RSNs aren’t going to pay what they used to pay," Lawlor said. "Their next deals are going to look completely different than the last ones. It’s more of a conversation about what is the value to their franchise and brand if they’re reaching 100% of the audience versus 40%."

The new strategy might put Scripps in competition with the networks its local stations are affiliated with — networks that Scripps pays "reverse compensation" fees that help the networks pay for sports rights. 

"We have great relationships with our networks and we’re very comfortable with what we pay," he said. "I think live sports is the primary foundational part of the network-affiliate model."

On the local level, having both live news and live sports would demonstrate that its stations are local community stations.

The shrinkage of RSN distribution means that "teams can’t even reach 50% of all the households in their home viewing market," Lawlor said. "That’s not a good business model if you can’t reach half of your potential customers" and that people who aren’t hard-core fans can’t stumble onto games, either by flipping through available channels or through search.

New Model

Lawlor said a new local sports business model might entail having a broadcaster work with a streamer, with a station’s broad reach helping to funnel direct-to-consumer opportunities. Deals with teams and leagues would take advantage of revenue streams from merchandise, ticket sales generated and sports betting, he added.

The company will be looking at deals that involve full seasons worth of games, partial seasons, or even a handful of games, as Nexstar Media Group did in Los Angeles with the Clippers.

Scripps already does some sports business. It has the right to the college Big Sky Conference. Some of its stations show NFL Monday Night Football or Thursday Night Football when a local team is involved. Scripps stations also have preseason partnerships with NFL teams and air coaches’ shows.

"Now there’s an opportunity to just go a little deeper with more elaborate rights," Lawlor said. "The RSNs are in trouble and I think linear television will be the savior and the solution for many teams and leagues." ■

Bally Sports SoCal said it signed a multi-year extension of its media rights deal with the Los Angeles Clippers just weeks before the start of the regular season.

Bally Sports, which has televised Clippers games for 27 years, will produce, televise and stream 63 Clippers games during the regular season.

Bally Sports SoCal is one of the regional sports networks owned by debt-laden Diamond Sports, part of Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

The team previously announced that 11 regular season games will appear free over-the-air on Nexstar Media’s KTLA-TV. Those games will be produced by Bally Sports SoCal, with Bally Sports' returning announcers, Brian Sieman, Jim Jackson and Mike Fratello at the microphone. KTLA is also airing four pre-season games.

"We're proud to continue growing our long-term partnership with the Clippers organization," said Rebecca Schulte, senior VP and general manager of Bally Sports West, SoCal, and San Diego. "We look forward to furthering our commitment to innovation and are thrilled to be bringing Clippers basketball to as many fans as possible across cable, satellite, streaming TV, and new this season, Bally Sports+, our direct-to-consumer streaming service."

The network will continue to air Clippers Live prior to and immediately following all home and road telecasts. Led by Jeanne Zelasko, Don MacLean, Corey Maggette, and Noah Eagle, the half-hour show will offer in-depth analysis and exclusive interviews. 

Clippers games on Bally Sports SoCal will be available to fans in the San Diego market on Bally Sports San Diego. Clippers games have aired live on Bally Sports SoCal, previously Prime Ticket, since 1997. ■

FuboTV said it reached a carriage deal with Altitude Sports which will enable it to stream games of the Denver Nuggets and the Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche.

Altitude Sports has been blacked out on Comcast Cable since 2019.

The regional sports network will be available on FuboTV in 10 Rocky Mountain states just before the starts of the NBA and NHL seasons. 

Altitude will have 74 regular-season games from the NBA’s Nuggets and 69 regular-season Avalanche NHL games. It also will have Colorado Mammoth lacrosse games.

Financial terms were not disclosed. 

“We’re thrilled to expand FuboTV’s leading sports coverage with the addition of Altitude Sports and bring fans of the Colorado Avalanche, Denver Nuggets and Colorado Mammoth an affordable streaming option in the seasons ahead,” said Todd Mathers, senior VP, content strategy and acquisition, FuboTV. “FuboTV is a leading choice for hometown sports, alongside our national and international sports coverage. Today’s distribution partnership means fans across the Rockies will be able to stream all available home games for some of the most loved teams in the region.”

FuboTV now carries a dozen regional sports networks in its base package. It streams more than 50,000 live sporting events annually. 

“We couldn’t be more excited that Altitude Sports will be added to FuboTV’s Pro Package,” said Matt Hutchings, president and CEO of KSE Media Ventures. “FuboTV becomes the newest streaming option for our fans as we continue to expand Altitude’s distribution throughout the Rocky Mountain Region. Best of all, FuboTV values those fans and provides them a great option for following their hometown teams.” ■

Distributors of live sports programming need to be willing to play on both linear and digital TV platforms in an effort to effectively reach sports fans and maximize revenue opportunities, according to executives speaking at the Next TV Summit.

With live sports programming continuing to drive ratings for linear broadcast and cable channels, executives speaking at the “Live Sports: The Last Unbundle?” panel Tuesday — part of NYC TV Week — said that high-profile sports events will not aggressively migrate to streaming services in the near future. That doesn’t mean that streaming services aren’t a suitable and lucrative destination for live sports programming in an effort to reach cord-cutting sports fans.

“There will continue to be this hybrid; there’s not going to be a single solution for any league or broadcaster,” FIFA Plus head of audience Laura Andriani said. “I think there’s going to be a figuring out process of what’s best for each proposition.”

Also: More Coverage from the 10th Anniversary NYC TV Week

Indeed, Bally Sports chief product officer Michael Allen said that while the company offers live, compelling pro sports programming through its 19 linear-based regional sports networks, later this month it will launch Bally Sports Plus, a subscription digital service that will allow consumers to purchase content from their respective regional networks outside of traditional MVPDs and satellite distributors.

“We see Bally Plus as complementary to what’s already in the market,” he said. “If [customers] are cord-cutters or cord-nevers, we now provide a new way in which they can consume this content.”

The recently launched free FIFA Plus digital service will offer more than 40,000 live soccer matches from around the world this year as a complement to the World Cup TV rights deal FIFA has with Fox Sports through 2026. Andriani says the streaming service allows the organization to superserve rabid fans with both live and originally produced content that’s translated into 10 different languages.

“Fans want to see different things, so [FIFA Plus] is really a test-and-learn [service],” she said. “There’s a need for FIFA to have a more constant touchpoint with fans, not just every four years [for the World Cup].”

Ultimately, big-ticket sports properties like the NFL, NBA and MLB will continue to have a major presence on broadcast television, but for second-tier sports like rugby, track and field or bowling, the digital platform can provide opportunities for fans to consume content from their favorite sports, according to FloSports VP of global operations Michael Levy. The FloSports subscription streaming service offers more than 200,000 live sports events across more than 25 sports.

“I see an ongoing conversion of tier-1 sports-TV rights going to the biggest players in the market, and I see more and more of that tier-2 sports-league rights being underserved and set aside,“ he said. ”Someone is going to have to fill that void.” ■ 

Sinclair Broadcast Group’s long-awaited direct-to-consumer regional sports streaming service will emerge from the dugout on June 23.

Bally Sports Plus will initially be available in five markets where the company’s Diamond Sports Group’s regional Bally Sports networks carry Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays.

The app will cost $19.99 a month, or $189.99 a year, and enable fans to watch games without subscribing to a multichannel pay TV cable, satellite or streaming service. 

Rob Weisbord, Sinclair’s chief operating officer and president of broadcast, told Broadcasting+Cable that Bally Sports Plus would have a soft rollout at first, with additional marketing support coming after Major League Baseball’s All-Star break (July 18-21). 

The direct-to-consumer service will be introduced in the other markets where the company has RSNs during the third quarter.

Bally Sports Plus is designed to reach the growing number of viewers who have dropped traditional pay TV or chosen less-expensive bundles that don’t include regional sports networks. The cord-cutting trend has threatened the revenue streams for the 19 regional sports networks Sinclair borrowed about $9 billion to buy in 2019.

“We still think our distribution partners are very, very important to us,” Weisbord said. “But what the leagues and we have to solve for is the next-gen viewer and be able to give them the apps and allow them to subscribe on the platform they want to watch. We’re looking at DTC to bridge the gap.”

Initially, the app will be available for mobile devices and is expected to show up on Roku around baseball‘s All-Star Game.

“The first thing we’re focused on is the quality of the video,” Weisbord said. “The games themselves are our tent poles so there’s a heightened level of scrutiny. We have to be on par with the Netflixes and the Disney Pluses.”

Eventually, the app users will be able to play fantasy and predictive games for prizes, get advanced statistics and buy tickets and merchandise.

“We want to entice the Xbox generation,” Weisbord said. “That’s who we envision as being the heavy app user and they’re used to interactivity. If we build up the interactivity, they’ll stay with the games longer, even if it’s a blowout.”

There will be virtual prizes, real prizes and, in some cases, cash prizes. “We want them to stay with the games and give them a component that makes them lean forward," he said.

Each added feature must be approved by the teams and leagues, so it might take some time to get them all activated.

The app will not have betting, but when activated it will be pretty easy for users to shift to the interactive Bally’s Sportsbook app wherever gambling is legal and the team approves.

Sinclair declared that it would have its direct-to-consumer product available in the second quarter, but the product has faced questions. For a while, it wasn’t clear if Sinclair had the rights it needed to stream games. Last year MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said Sinclair didn’t have enough digital rights to stream games and there were reports that MLB, along with other leagues, were considering launching their own streaming service.

Sinclair and the Bally Sports Plus app should just barely beat the deadline, satisfying Wall Street, but Weisbord said it was more important to make sure that the product worked well coming out of the gate. 

Second Player in the Game

As it turned out, NESN beat Sinclair to market with its NESN 360 DTC app, which launched June 1 and carries Boston Red Sox games. NESN 360 costs $29.99 a month, making Bally Sports Plus look like a bargain.

Earlier users of NESN gave it mixed reviews, complaining about its price, its lack of connectivity with some devices and the inability to watch outside of the Boston area.

Weisbord said he expects Bally Sports Plus to improve as it iterates and adds features. “If our 1.0 is the best that we could do, we’ll be in big trouble,” he said. “It’s similar to a restaurant opening. Each month we expect to get more refined as we move along.” 

To develop the app, Sinclair worked with tech company Deltatre. Bally Sports’ development team was headed by Mike Allen, who was with the NBA’s product team before being hired away by the broadcaster a year ago. 

The Bally Sports app will enable pay TV subscribers to authenticate and watch games, and allow non-pay TV subscribers to join the direct-to-consumer service. 

Advertising will be the same on the broadcasts and the apps. Weisbord is counting on that generating bigger audiences and more reach for advertisers.

Going into the direct-to-consumer product business, Sinclair is setting up an 800 number and a fully-staffed customer service team to help subscribers with any struggles they might have with the app, Weisbord said.

Weisbord declined to say how much Sinclair paid to develop the direct-to-consumer service, but when Diamond Sports got $600 million in new financing earlier this year, Sinclair laid out its projections for the service in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The filing laid out worst-case, middle-case and best-case projections for the DTC. In the best case, Bally Sports Plus would grow from 6.7 million free subscribers in 2022 to 9.6 million in 2027. By 2027 EBITDA could reach $1.03 billion, according to the filing.

Weisbord said Sinclair expected the DTC product to break even in year three.

Many observers have warned that sports moving to streaming would be strike three for the traditional pay-TV bundle. Weisbord said he didn’t think Bally Sports Plus would induce cable subscribers to cut the cord.

Striving for ‘Viewer Optionality’

“I think those people [pay TV subscribers] are comfortable and most people hate change,“ he said. ”The people that have consciously cut the cord or shaved it, that’s really the target market. And I think there’s certain demographics that cut the core and certain demographics that will never cut the cord. Our whole focus is viewer optionality.”

Weisbord declined to say whether Sinclair’s cable and satellite distributors would get a payment for customers who sign up for Bally Sports Plus.

Sinclairis tipping off Bally Sports Plus during Major League Baseball season, when there are plenty of live games to air over a 162-game campaign. Fans get fewer games to watch when they root for their teams during basketball and hockey season. Weisbord think the app will be attractive year-round.

“Our thesis is this will have 12 months of sports on a contiguous basis,“ he said. “There’s that potential that if one team falls out of the race early, you might have some churn. But the value proposition at $19.99 a month, we think, is attractive, especially with how 4K HDR is coming about to really enhance viewers‘ enjoyment of the game. … We think where we have a three-team offering, it buffers that churn.”

When Sinclair starts marketing Bally Sports Plus, the advertising will be aimed at those cord-cutters and cord-shavers. Sinclair is in the process of hiring an ad agency that specializes in DTC products. “The focus will be on those that are unable to get the games,” he said. There might be some chatter about the app during the game broadcasts, but not many ads for it.

“The people getting the RSNs have traditional distribution, so that’s not really going to reach the audience that we’re looking to get to subscribe,” Weisbord said.

Sports is just the first area in which Sinclair is considering going direct to consumers. “You have to have unique content,“ Weisbord said. “And so today, you cannot go with hard news because it is kind of ubiquitous. But we’re always exploring. We believe the subscription business long term is a healthy business for us to be in, and our goal is to be in the e-commerce business.” ■

New England Sports Network, the RSN home to the Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins, will become the first regional sports network in America to offer its service outside the pay TV bundle as a direct-to-consumer streaming service. 

Starting Wednesday, NESN 360 will be available in the home market for $29.99 a month, with the first month promotionally priced at $1. An annual subscription is priced at $329.99 and includes eight tickets to see the Red Sox, currently a middling fourth place in the American League East and watching the Yankees run away with the division. 

Subscribers can stream NESN’s live feeds and VOD library directly to their computer, iOS and Android mobile devices, and Apple TV or Roku connected TV gadgets and enabled smart TVs. A page outlining the service can be found here. 

Those who already subscribe to NESN through a linear pay TV operator will be able to authenticate and view NESN 360 the ol’ TV Everywhere way. (The service appears based on the legacy NESN app and NESN TV platform, which has long provided pay TV subscribers TVE streaming rights to the channel.)

NESN is only available in the New England region, with Major League Baseball and its MLB TV product controlling national OTT rights. 

“We believe the direct subscription option will build on NESN’s reach in the region,” said Sean McGrail, NESN’s president and chief executive officer, in a statement.

NESN is majority-owned by Fenway Sports Group, which also owns the Red Sox. Its linear channel is currently available across New England, save for Fairfield County, Connecticut, via pay TV bundlers including Comcast, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, DirecTV, Verizon Communications and fuboTV. 

NESN 360 beat Sinclair Broadcast Group to market, with the station owner planning to launch its own DTC service later this summer for its Bally Sports Group RSNs. 

Sinclair has tied up local OTT rights for teams NBA and NHL teams covered by its 19 Bally Sports channels. Sinclair also has DTC rights to Major League Baseball's Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays. ■

Sinclair Broadcast Group said it signed a new distribution deal with Charter Communications that includes carriage of its regional sports networks.

In addition to 19 Bally Sports regional sports networks, the deal covers Marquee Sports Network in Chicago and the YES Network in New York. Sinclair owns a piece of Marquee and YES.

Sinclair’s broadcast stations and the Tennis Channel are also going to get continued carriage as part of the agreement.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Sinclair’s agreement with Charter Communications expired at the end of the month, but the channels and stations have remained available to cable subscribers under short term extensions.

The agreement was crucial to Sinclair because buying the RSNs from Disney left it carrying about $9 billion in debt. It would have been difficult to pay that money back without carriage fees from Charter, a major carrier.

Some distributors, including Dish Network and most of the streaming MVPDs have balked at carrying regional sports networks, because they generally have high carriage fees and require all subscribers, whether they are sports fans or not, to pay for them, raising the cost of service at a time when many consumers are cutting the cord to save money. 

Sinclair is planning to launch direct-to-consumer streaming services in some markets where it has RSNs. It was unclear how that plan is dealt with in the agreement with Charter. ■

NBCUniversal said its regional sports networks plan to debut their own direct-to-consumer products later this year.

The regional sports network business has been under pressure between cord cutting by consumers and a growing number of traditional and virtual distributor deciding not to carry RSNs because of their high fees.

Sinclair Broadcast Group, which bought the 19 Fox regional sports networks, also seeks to launch a direct-to-consumer business. Its plans have been hamstrung as it negotiates to assemble rights from teams and leagues in order to stream games.

NBC’s plans for a DTC RSN product emerged Monday when Valari Dobson Staab was named chairman of NBCUniversal Local. The RSNs were integrated with the NBC/Telemundo owned stations last year.

NBC later said the information about the DTC product in the announcement was inadvertent and misleading.

" At this stage in the process, our DTC strategy is evolving as we assess options in each of the unique sports markets we serve. At this time, we don’t have any further details about launch plans including timing or markets. More information will be announced when available," an NBCU Local spokesperson said.

Last month, NBC stations announced the launch of streaming news channels on Peacock. Telemundo stations in key markets are preparing to launch their own streaming news channels later this year. ■

Sinclair Broadcast Group‘s regional sports network unit Diamond Sports Group has signed a new deal with the National Basketball Association that gives its Bally Sports networks permission to offer streaming content including live games on an authenticated and direct-to-consumer basis.

The deal covers 16 NBA teams in their local territories.

Diamond Sports also said it made deals to raise $600 million in new capital from existing borrowers. The new funds are expected to be used to help build the DTC platform.

Sinclair has been looking to launch a direct-to-consumer service this year to bolster its RSN business, which has been under strain from cord-cutting and heavy debt.

Questions have surrounded Sinclair’s plan since Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred suggested that Sinclair did not have sufficient rights to mount a DTC service.

Sinclair stock rose 2% Thursday morning after the NBA deal was announced.

Sinclair in December announced a renewal of its deal with the National Hockey League, that included direct-to-consumer streaming for 12 teams. 

“We are excited about our continued partnership with the NBA which allows us to bring the league’s in-demand and exciting basketball content to local fans across multiple platforms,” said Chris Ripley, Sinclair’s president and CEO. “Sinclair places the highest importance on connecting sports fans with live games and other sports content. We are looking forward to the launch of our DTC platform in 2022, ushering in a new era of local sports viewing with a more personalized and dynamic viewing experience.”

Also: Sinclair’s Bally Sports RSNs Set To Launch ‘The Rally’ on Jan. 24

Teams included in the agreement are the Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dallas Mavericks, Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Pelicans, Oklahoma City Thunder, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs. ■ 

Sinclair Broadcast Group, which plans to build a streaming, direct-to-consumer app to shore up its struggling regional sports network business, is close to a deal with the National Basketball Association, according to a published report.

Diamond Sports Group, the Sinclair RSN unit, is also lining up $600 million in loans to build the direct-to-consumer business, Bloomberg reports. 

Sinclair had no comment on the report.

Sinclair bought the 21 Fox regional sports networks from the Walt Disney Co. in 2019, borrowing $9 billion to finance the transaction. Since the cord-cutting by consumers and cost-cutting by distributors have cut into the RSNs’ subscriber base. 

Also: Sinclair, Bally’s Rebrand Regional Sports Networks

Part of Sinclair’s strategy for its sports business is going direct-to-consumer to reach cord-cutters and younger sports fans, but there have been questions about whether or not Sinclair has the right to launch a streaming business.

Also: It‘s ‘#GameOver’ for Sinclair’s RSN Streaming Plan, Analyst Says

Baseball commissioner Rob Mandred said that the rights Sinclair has were not sufficient to launch a DTC product. There were also reports Major League Baseball and other leagues were considering launching their own streaming service.

Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley defended the DTC plan and said deals with the National Hockey League and NBA would be announced soon. 

Sinclair in December announced a renewal of its deal with the National Hockey League, that included direct-to-consumer streaming for 12 teams. 

According to Bloomberg the new NBA deal will give Diamond regional digital rights in addition to the broadcast rights the RSNs already have.

Bloomberg also said the new streaming app will be financed with a new “super-priority first-lien loan” for a group of Sinclair’s current creditors. ■ 

Sinclair Broadcast Group said its Diamond Sports Group unit reached a renewal of its rights deal with the National Hockey League that covers 12 teams whose games are carried by Sinclair’s Bally regional sports networks.

Sinclair, whose plans to launch a direct-to-consumer sports product have been questioned, said the new agreement gives its Bally RSNs permission to offer streaming content, including live games, on an authenticated and direct-to-consumer basis to the local territories of the 12 teams.

The agreement was expanded to allow post-game highlights on Sinclair’s digital news platforms, alternative feeds and the use of the NHL’s puck and player tracking data in game broadcasts.

“We are incredibly proud to continue to partner with the NHL, with which we have had a long and successful relationship, to bring the fast pace and excitement of hockey to local fans across the country,” said Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley. “Our announcement today signifies the importance that both parties place on the ability for sports viewers to consume content whenever and however they choose. The advent of a DTC model will further enhance flexibility for viewers, as well as offer them a highly-personalized and engaging experience, with functionality and interactivity well beyond what is offered today.”

At an investor conference on Nov. 30, Ripley said that rights deals enabling DTC services with the NHL and the National Basketball Association could be announced soon.

Ripley comments follow statements by Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred that indicated that the rights that Sinclair had were not sufficient to launch a DTC product. There were also reports MLB and other leagues might develop their own streaming service.

Going direct to consumer is urgent for Sinclair because it owes about $9 billion it borrowed to buy the former Fox RSNs from the Walt Disney Co. Cord-cutting is 

The 12 teams covered by the new agreement are the Anaheim Ducks, Arizona Coyotes, Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, Detroit Red Wings, Florida Panthers, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators, St. Louis Blues, and Tampa Bay Lightning. ■

Despite taking shots from the commissioners of Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association, Sinclair Broadcast Group intends to go forward with its plans for a direct-to-consumer sports business connected to its debt-laden regional sports network business.

Speaking on Sinclair’s third-quarter earnings call Wednesday, CEO Chris Ripley provided more information on the streaming rights the company has — or expects to get — while insisting  that the company’s plan to launch its direct to consumer product in time for next year’s baseball season remain intact.

“We do think we have a critical mass in terms of rights to launch a product and that's what we intend to do,” Ripley said. 

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred last month stated that Sinclair does not have the rights to launch a streaming product. There were also reports that MLB was considering its own local streaming product, possibly working with the NBA and the National Hockey League.

Also read: Sinclair’s Ripley on RSNs: Believe It or Not

“What's important to note is that we have exclusive local rights for our teams and those rights cannot be infringed upon by any other party to launch a direct consumer product, without significant ramifications,” Ripley said.

Pressed by analysts, Ripley provided more details on the rights Sinclair has and is negotiating to get.

“For MLB, we have linear and authenticate streaming right for all teams,” he said. “And we have direct-to-consumer rights now for four teams, which are all the teams we’ve renewed” since acquiring the former Fox regional sports networks from The Walt Disney Co. Those RSNs now carry the Bally Sports brand. 

Ripley said that as Sinclair renewed its deal with the other 10 MLB teams whose game it televises, it will also accumulate their direct-to-consumer rights.

“For NHL and NBA, we have always had linear, authenticated streaming and D-to-C rights and those are under current renewal discussions as a part of a larger deal which includes market expansion, authenticated streaming and direct to consumer rights,” Ripley said. Completed NBA and NHL teams would put 30 teams on Sinclair’s roster.

Ripley said it was important to have scale and for a successful direct-to-consumer product to reach beyond any single league.

“That’s why a multi-sport offering makes a lot of sense,” he said. ”That’s why we’ve always said this direct-to-consumer is an extension, and what we’re planning on launching is just the start in terms of where we would go. We’re going to be a market leader in the U.S. in direct-to-consumer sports and thinking that you could do that with only one league, we think, that doesn’t make sense.”

Ripley also said that at some point in the future, Sinclair would consider bringing in other RSNs — those owned now by Comcast and AT&T specifically — into its DTC product. That could be accomplished through a transaction, partnerships, contract or consortiums, he said.

Ripley also said that talks about financing expansion into DTC were continuing, as were discussions with the creditors of Diamond Sports, the unit that owns Sinclair’s RSNs.

It’s been clear for some time that regional sports networks (RSNs) need help. Ownership changes, dwindling viewership and an outdated product, in many instances, have presented regional and team-focused sports networks with difficult prospects ahead if they don’t change their current business models.

In August, Sports Business Journal reported that RSNs are turning toward streaming to reverse declining revenues. But more is needed than simply expanding the accessibility of games via smartphones and connected TVs. They need a total overhaul of their product, with user engagement and monetization at the center of their strategies from here on.

Today, RSNs largely depend on carriage fees for revenue, but the sustainability of this source is rapidly declining. Distribution negotiations are increasingly contentious and cable and satellite providers are no longer willing to blindly pass these costs along to consumers looking for reasons to cut the cord.

Baseball, with an average viewer age near 60 years old, is at the center of this issue given its audience and reliance on RSNs. These networks must become more agile in their offerings, and do so with a heavy emphasis on attracting younger viewers. But that’s a tough job while at the same time trying to maintain current linear TV revenue.

Secondary viewing experiences are one way for RSNs to dip a toe in the audience engagement waters. Without completely scrapping the current TV product, it’s an opportunity for fan interaction and direct feedback on a device (phone) they’re likely to have already. 

These experiences can be as simple as features like stat overlays, trivia and polls, and as advanced as interactive games around the action, chat, video conferencing and live betting. If audiences see RSN broadcasts as immersive experiences that cater to fans in a unique fashion, it’s an immediate improvement on the status quo. YES Network incorporated some of these overlay features this summer as a simple way to create more interaction, and we’ll undoubtedly see more RSNs take similar steps in 2022 and beyond.

Fans also are attracted to RSNs because they’re looking for a customized experience involving their favorite team. It’s already a home-focused booth calling games, and streaming enhances those abilities even further with the option to integrate a variety of team-specific content and features directly into the live game broadcast.

One viewer may want to watch the action with the local radio call, while another may prefer a team-sponsored fan perspective from inside the stadium. Former players and local celebrities can also be integrated into this alternative commentary strategy, similar in many respects to what ESPN is doing now with the Manning brothers during Monday Night Football broadcasts.

Even before and after the game, RSNs can lean into pre-existing shows featuring the local team to continue to speak directly to diehard fans, while also implementing a twist for younger fan engagement. 

Sinclair pivoted the former Fox-owned RSNs into “Bally Sports” to more naturally integrate sports betting content, yet a good portion of the content on Fox Sports Southwest has little to do with the pro teams in the region. While you could take an existing show on the network like Mavericks Insider and build it into an immersive fan experience, there’s a case to be made for repurposing the hours of paid programming, local high school highlights and American Ninja Warrior rerun slots for specialized shows that connect directly with fans in real-time.

Turning RSNs into hubs that connect fans to this sort of hyper-personalized experience through streaming is a way to be a value-add that also avoids eliminating anything from the main broadcast, where the networks’ bread is still buttered. The fact that you’re seeing Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association push back on RSNs now (via recent statements and talks of launching a competitive service) shows that current approaches toward audience acquisition and retention just aren’t enough.

RSNs are at a crossroads, with a shrinking amount of time left to adapt their current models to the new opportunities in front of them. Integrating social commerce, in-game betting, alternative commentary and other fan-centric revenue-generating features directly into the broadcast experience is a way to engage streaming viewers and modernize their business. Change is always difficult, but there are big rewards ahead for those RSNs who move quickly and decisively along this path.

After throwing cold water on regional sports network owner Sinclair Broadcast Group’s plans for a direct-to-consumer service that would show games, Major League Baseball is reportedly in talks about launching a streaming service that would let fans watch their local teams without subscribing to cable.

The MLB over-the-top service would cost between $10 and $20 a month, depending on the market, and could be up to bat as early as the 2023 season, according to the New York Post.

Local games would also continue to be on cable, but the new service would be designed to appeal to younger fans who have already cut the cord.

Sinclair bought the Fox regional sports networks for $9 billion and rebranded them as Bally Sports. The deal left Sinclair with a lot of debt and shrinking subscriber numbers. The company has been talking about raising $250 million to build the new venture.

Speaking last week at a conference, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred disputed Sinclair’s contention that it has digital rights to launch a direct-to-consumer service. 

"We've been very clear with them from the beginning that we see both those sets of rights as extraordinarily valuable to baseball, and we're not just going to throw them in to help Sinclair out,” Manfred said.

“We believe those digital rights are crucial, “ the commissioner said. “And we want to own and control the platform on which they’re delivered, we may have partners in that process.”

Sinclair had no comment on Manfred’s comments.

The NBA and the NHL are considering working with MLB on the streaming service, the Post report said. 

MLB’s streaming service would pay individual teams based on viewership in their local markets, the report said. Meanwhile, without the streaming rights, the cable TV rights to games could drop in price, relieving some pressure on the RSNs, which are already being dropped by some distributors because of their big league price tags.

MSG Networks, embroiled in a blackout with Comcast, reached an agreement on a multi-year distribution agreement with Verizon Fios.

The deal means that some Comcast subscribers in New Jersey can switch to Fios if they want to avoid missing Knicks, Rangers, Devils and Islanders games on MSG and MSG Plus when the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League seasons start.

Also Read; AT&T SportsNet and Root Sports Removed From Dish Network

Financial terms were not disclosed.

“We are thrilled to have reached this multi-year agreement with Verizon Fios, who has been a long-time, valued partner. Live sports remains some of the most valuable programming on air, and all of our teams have passionate fan bases,” Adam Levine, executive VP of business affairs for MSG Networks, said. “We look forward to providing our lineup of sports programming to Fios subscribers for years to come.”

Last week, MSG warned viewers that Comcast subscribers in New Jersey and Connecticut could lose access to basketball and hockey matches if a new distribution deal couldn’t be reached. The agreement expired Thursday night and MSG and MSG Plus are currently blacked out in Comcast homes. 

Regional sports networks have been in the crosshairs of distributors concerned about cord-cutting by cost-conscious consumers. RSNs, which make large rights payments for games, demand high rights fees from distributors. Now some distributors, notably Dish Network, have largely stopped carrying them.

Comcast, which owns a string of NBC Sports-branded regional sports networks, cited high costs as a reason for MSG being blacked out.

“MSG Network was the first RSN when it launched in 1969. Back in those days, watching Knicks games was the main reason for getting cable. Now cable operators are saying the high cost of sports is a reason people are dropping pay TV.

"We don’t believe that our customers should have to pay the millions of dollars in fees that MSG is demanding for some of the most expensive sports content in the country with extremely low viewership in our markets,” Comcast said in a statement.

Dish Network said that AT&T SportsNet and Root Sports regional sports networks were removed from the Dish Network satellite TV service Thursday.

Dish customers can no longer watch AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, AT&T SportsNet PIttsburgh and Root Sports Northwest.

Dish previously stopped carrying other regional sports networks, including the Bally Sports networks owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Another end-of-the-month dispute has blacked out MSG Networks to Comcast subscribers in New Jersey and Connecticut.

“The current RSN model is fundamentally broken,” said Brian Neylon, group president, Dish. “This model requires nearly all customers to pay for RSNs when only a small percentage of customers actually watch them.”

Dish claimed the regional sports networks are demanding that all customers pay for the networks, whether they watch or not.

“Our proposal to offer sports fans access to RSNs is simple, and provides choice and value to all of our customers,” added Neylon. “It would allow Dish TV customers to choose to subscribe to the RSN channels they want — such as the regional AT&T SportsNet and Root Sports networks — on an a la carte basis, similar to premium subscription channels. With this updated RSN model, no customer would be forced to pay for content they don’t watch, and the RSNs would determine the price customers would pay for their channels.”

AT&T, which recently spun off Dish competitor DirecTV, noted that dropping sports networks has been a pattern for Dish and that AT&T SportsNet and Root Sports were among the last RSNs on Dish.

“We are not surprised Dish Network has chosen to deprive their customers of our regional sports networks” said Patrick Crumb, president of AT&T Sports Networks. 

“As each of the nation’s regional sports networks’ agreements with Dish have come up for renewal over the last several years, we have witnessed them remove each RSN from their channel lineup,” Crumb said. “It is unfortunate that Dish has decided to abandon local MLB, NBA and NHL games, but the vast majority of Dish subscribers will have multiple alternative options for TV and streaming providers that carry our networks and we expect that many will switch from DISH to those providers that value premium local sports content.”

AT&T said it is trying to keep the networks on Dish.

“For all three networks we proposed commonly accepted, marketplace terms to continue our relationship, which terms Dish itself has accepted previously, but Dish chose instead to drop our networks, forcing its customers to sacrifice access to their favorite regional sports teams,” said Nina Kinch, VP of affiliate relations and business affairs. “The terms proposed by Dish were not acceptable, and in fact have not been accepted by any RSN in the country.”

AT&T notes that the sports nets are available via cable and DirecTV. AT&T is also making the AT&T SportsNet’s available via DirecTV Stream.  Root Sports and AT&T Pittsburgh are available via fuboTV. 

Sinclair Broadcast Group CEO Chris Ripley said that the company’s planned direct-to-consumer app won’t cannibalize cable and satellite subscribers to the company’s regional sports networks.

Sinclair has said it plans to launch a DTC in the first half of 2022.

“There's no question. Video consumption habits have and are continuing to change with people opting to consume content outside of traditional linear channels. So, we need to be able to provide them with content, however, and wherever they want to receive it,” Ripley said during Sinclair’s second-quarter earnings call Wednesday morning. “Having said that, we believe that demand for sports content within the traditional cable, and satellite bundle will continue to be strong as is evidenced by the rating strength of local sports.“

Ripley also confirmed that Sinclair’s retransmission deal with Dish expires Aug. 15. Sinclair is expected to use retransmission to get Dish to resume carriage of Sinclair’s RSNs.

Ripley said that consumers will continue to want to watch games on linear RSNs, and that those RSNs will continue to be attractive to cable and satellite providers and to streaming distributors, which get the RSNs at a wholesale price that allows them to provide the consumer with a good value.

Ripley said that Sinclair did not expect its DTC product to appeal to everyone. But he said that if just 5% of the homes its RSNs reach, that would represent 4.4 million households. 

“While the subscription revenues alone would be meaningful, we would expect the total revenue to be around double that level due to the advertising and other monetization opportunities.”

The DTC product is expected to have the most appeal to younger consumers who are more likely to be cord cutters or cord nevers. Those consumers want more interactive, personalized and community driven experiences. 

Those consumers want to engage and talk to other fans, participate in contests and promotions and participate in legalized sports betting. 

“Watching the entire game is less important than being entertained by the experiences built around the games,” Ripley said.

Sinclair expects to be able to generate incremental revenue for many of those experiences, above and beyond the subscription fee for the DTC app.

Asked about potential consolidation in the local sports business, Ripley said Sinclair intends to be a leader in direct to consumer sports.

Ripley said Sinclair continues to engage with the advisors of various stakeholder groups on financing and exchange offers for the debut of  Diamond Sports, the Sinclair unit that owns the RSNs.

Moving into the second week of Major League Baseball’s 2021 regular season, Bally Sports Networks still hasn’t reached a carriage deal with three top streaming services. 

YouTube TV, Hulu Live Plus TV and FuboTV still refuse to carry the channels, which were purchased by Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2019. The former Fox Sports channels were rebranded as Bally Sports Networks on March 31, part of the 10-year, $88 million agreement between Sinclair and the casino owner. 

While the streamers have been without the networks for months — Hulu and FuboTV dropped the 21 channels in January 2020, with YouTube TV shedding the networks in October — the hope was that they could reach a deal by Opening Day, April 1.

That was not to be. As of press time, the channels were still dark to the streamers. FuboTV did reach an agreement with Marquee Sports Network, in which Sinclair has a minority interest, on April 1. 

Rob Weisbord, president of broadcast and chief revenue officer at Sinclair, told B+C/Multichannel News on April 1 Sinclair’s distribution team is in talks with MVPDs “trying to figure out how to get to a deal.”

Bally Sports has carriage deals with most of the traditional MVPDs across the country, except for RSN-averse Dish Network, which dropped the channels in 2019. But the lack of carriage from the streaming services, which have more younger viewers coveted by advertisers, has cast a pall on the channels.

Sports consultant Lee Berke, president and CEO of LHB Media & Entertainment, said it is possible the streamers are “trying to see if they can get by without the RSNs,” but added that the standoff highlights the growing need for RSNs to have a direct-to-consumer component to their offerings. 

Jon Lafayette contributed to this report.

Sinclair Broadcast Group’s regional sports networks relaunched under the Bally’s Sports Networks brand Thursday, but while a lot of work has been done, there are still many innings to go.

The rebrand coincides with the start of the baseball season and all 14 teams Sinclair has deals with will be in action on day one.

Getting ready for opening day meant, changing signage in stadiums, reskinning about 74 studios and creating new graphic packages.

Also Read: Bally Sports Networks Strike Out with Streamers on Opening Day

“We have a lot of dedicated employees and they’ve done a lot of hard work,” said Rob Weisbord, president of broadcast and chief revenue officer at Sinclair. But the work has only begun on what Weisbord calls the RSN 2.0, which means not just show games on cable, but having engaging, interactive programming 24 hours a day all year long on all platforms.

Sinclair acquired the 21 Fox-branded RSN from The Walt Disney Co. for $9.6 billion in 2019. That investment put the company under financial pressure when the pandemic cancelled games, wiping out viewership and ad revenue.

In 2020 it made a deal with Bally’s, getting Bally’s stock while agreeing to integrate Bally’s programming into its stations and RSN as more states approve legalized sports betting.

Also Read: CEO Chris Ripley Likes Sinclair’s Gamble on Local Content

New graphics during ballgames will be the first change most viewers will notice, Weisbord said. Sinclair’s priority is to strengthen the game broadcasts, which are the tentpoles around which the networks are built. Next Sinclair will launch shows in conjunction with Bally’s that will be interactive and bring a full programming lineup to its RSNs over the next 12 months.

A richer programming lineup would make the channels more attractive to distributors. Some distributors such as Dish Network and virtual multichannel video program distributors like YouTube TV and Hulu have decided RSNs are too expensive to carry.

With baseball season starting, Weisbord said Sinclair’s distribution team is in talks with MVPDs. “We’re trying to figure out how to get to a deal,” he said. Eventually, the RSNs will have some sort of direct-to-consumer offering, so fans who want to watch games will have access to them, he added.

Also Read: Dish Adds MASN to Potential RSN Chopping Block

“The apparent weakness of [RSNs] them was the fact that they have a tent pole, which is the live teams which deliver strong ratings--so does the pre- and post game--but after that, it basically became a non-watched channel,” he said. “And so the best way to build an audience and build programming is to have a tent pole--and we already have the tentpole. So we think we can build a programming lineup off of the live games.”

The new programming will have gaming elements, to attract younger viewers raised on XBox and Fortnite. Sinclair is talking to some of the teams it works with now to do some predictive games to get their fan bases participating by giving them chances to win merchandise or tickets.

Once viewers are used to the free-to-play games where they can win prizes, they’ll move on to fantasy sports and then to live gaming.

For now, some leagues and teams have restrictions that will keep the RSNs from putting point spread in news tickers, for example Eventually those rules will loosen and there will be shows about odds, discussions about propositions and inside information for people considering wagering on a team or game.

At some point the Bally’s Sports might produce two game telecasts, a traditional one plus one for people interested in gaming “You can’t take the game away from the purists,” he said.

Sinclair has other programming ideas. Some involve going inside the team’s training facilities to look at advances in health and data science, staging a three-on-three hockey tournament or a “Hockey University” show that would help teach viewers the sport’s rules.

Sinclair will take a crawl, walk, run approach to new programming, trying it out at one of its RSNs before rolling it out to the entire group.

A key to Sinclair’s new approach to the RSN’s is a new app that should be ready to go in a week or so, Weisbord said. The authenticated apps will let users watch games and other video and play interactive games. Users will have to shift to a Bally’s app to make bets.

Other gaming companies, such as FanDuel and DraftKings, will be able to advertise on the RSNs as well, Weisbord added.

In some ways, Sinclair plans to nationalize its RSN operations. “We are a company of scale. In the past, these have been treated as one-offs. We look at it as a whole ecosystem,” Weisbord said.

In addition to the RSNs, the sports programming Sinclair develops could also run on its CW and MyNetworkTV affiliated stations, he said.

Sinclair It is building a Network Operations Center in Atlanta to replace the Fox master control set up.

There may also be national programming on the RSNs. It has studios in Chicago and Santa Barbara, Calif. It owns the digital sports network Stadium, which also has studios in Chicago.

Weisbord mentioned Shams Charnania, Stadium’s NBA reporter, as possible talent for a national show.

The RSN’s sell ads on a local, regional and national basis. National ads are sold through HTS, the rep firm that handled the RSN when they were owned by Fox.

All together, Sinclair assets generate 12 billion sports impressions a year,” Weisbord said. “When advertisers are looking for that national scale and local reach, we’re able to activate them through our House of Brands sales group,” he said. “We will eventually go into the branded content world as well.”

Sinclair also owns pieces of YES Network, which carries the Yankees in New York, and Marquee Sports Network, the Chicago Cubs' new flagship. Those networks  will also be involved in program development and could participate in programming and advertising initiatives.

On opening day, Weisbord said he will be test-watching all of the games on Bally’s Sports app to see how close it is to going live.

“I’ve got to make sure everything's working properly before I think I could feel comfortable being out of pocket, he said. “Because if I go to a game, I really want to go enjoy the game.”

Dish Network said its satellite and Sling TV subscribers can no longer receive MASN and the NBC Regional Sports Networks because they were unable to renew their distribution agreements.

The announcement came on opening day of the Major League Baseball season.

Also Read: Changes at Sinclair's RSNs Just Start with Name Change

The dispute affects views in 10 states and the District of Columbia. 

MASN--Mid-Atlantic Sports Network--is owned by the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Nationals. NBC Sports Washington, NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California are the NBC RSNs impacted.

Also Read: Dish Dropping NBC RSNs as it Bets on Sports Wagering

Dish previously dropped NBC RSNs in Philadelphia, Boston and the Pacific Northwest in 2019 

Dish Network has been deciding not to renew regional sports networks, including those owned by Sinclair, which were rebranded as Bally’s Sports.

“The current RSN model is fundamentally broken,” said Brian Neylon, group president, Dish TV. “This model requires nearly all customers to pay for RSNs when only a small percentage of customers actually watch them. As the cost of these channels continues to escalate, we no longer think it makes sense to include them in our TV lineup.”

Dish said it is proposing an a la carte approach to the RSN, letting subscriber choose whether or not they want to pay to watch local sports.

“With this updated RSN model, no customer would be forced to pay for content they don’t watch, and the RSNs would determine the price customers would pay for their channels,” Neylon said.

A spokesperson for the NBC Regional Sports Network noted that distributors that continue to carry the RSNs are listed on their websites.

"The NBC Regional Sports Networks offered to continue distribution on fair market terms. DISH and Sling declined those terms and have dropped the networks," the spokesperson said.

fuboTV, the sports-oriented streaming service, said it made a deal to carry the Marquee Sports Network--the home of the Cubs--in the Chicago area.

Marquee Sports Network was launched before last season as a joint venture between the Cubs and Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns a string of other regional sports networks that are being rebranded as Bally’s starting April 1.

"We are thrilled to have fuboTV offering Marquee Sports Network to Cubs fans. fuboTV has prioritized live sports and we look forward to them carrying Cubs baseball all season long," said Marquee Sports Network General Manager, Mike McCarthy.

A key issue with Marquee’s launch last year was gaining a distribution deal with Comcast, which covers most of the Chicago area. A deal was worked out in time for opening day.

Also Read: RSNs Scramble for Streaming Deals as Opening Day Approaches

The fuboTV deal comes at a time when other virtual multichannel video programming distributors aren’t carrying regional sports networks. Dish Network, along with its Sling vMVPD are among those without RSN deals.

“As we kick off the hotly anticipated 2021 baseball season, fuboTV is thrilled to bring consumers Marquee Sports Network’s extensive coverage of the Chicago Cubs,” said Ben Grad, fuboTV’s senior VP, content strategy and acquisition. “The addition of Marquee Sports Network to our leading sports, news and entertainment portfolio makes fuboTV a great streaming choice for Cubs fans, as well as other Chicagoans looking to cut the cord.”

Also Read: Sinclair-Bally’s Deal Could Be a Sign of the RSN Times

fuboTV stock has gone on a wild ride over the past year. Some analysts have questioned the potential profitability of the vMVPD business, while others see promise in its strategy to get into the gaming and betting business. The company reported a $167.8 million loss in the fourth quarter.

“We’re excited to add Marquee Sports Network and their coverage of the Chicago Cubs to fuboTV,” said fuboTV’s co-founder and CEO David Gandler. “Our Fubo Gaming subsidiary is headquartered in Chicago, and the midwest market, particularly Indiana and Iowa where we recently closed market access agreements, will be a key cluster for our gaming strategy in the future.”

Dish Network has notified subscribers that they’re going to lose more regional sports networks on April 1 when its deal to carry the NBC Regional Sports Networks expires.

The timing is odd, coming days after Dish announced a deal with DraftKings, which wants viewers watching sports and betting on the outcomes.

Under poker player and chairman Charlie Ergen, Dish has been folding its relationships with RSNs, which he had deemed offering too low a return for too high a price. 

Dish, and its Sling TV virtual MVPD, dropped the Fox-branded RSNs last year. The Walt Disney Co. acquired those RSNs when it bought 21st Century Fox, but had to sell them to Sinclair to satisfy regulators.

Sinclair last year made a deal with Bally’s and is renaming the RSNs with the Bally’s brand and plans to launch a new app that will let viewers play interactive games and connected them to Bally’s sports book, where they can make bets.

As sports betting becomes legal in more states, most media companies are looking for ways to cash in on gambling money. In most cases the media companies bring the live sports.

That seems to be what DraftKings was counting on in its deal with Dish. 

“Dish TV and the technology behind it immerses customers within a next-generation viewership experience and reaches these fanbases in a completely new way," said Paul Liberman, president of product and technology and co-founder at DraftKings, when the deal was announced. "This is a unique opportunity for fans to watch games and engage with our real-money products while the technology also allows for further innovation ahead." 

Instead, Dish and Sling seem set to live without another group of RSNs. 

This is what Dish emailed its subscribers: “As of 4/1/2021, NBC Regional Sports Networks will no longer be on Sling. We are committed to providing the best value with the flexibility our customers deserve and, unfortunately, we were unable to come to an agreement on those terms.”

A spokesman for NBCU said, “The NBC Regional Sports Networks offered to continue distribution on fair market terms. Dish and Sling declined those terms and will be dropping the networks."

Other NBCU programming remains on Dish and the two companies are in talks over distribution of Peacock, NBCU's streaming service, which also carries some sports.

The NBC RSNs carry teams including the Golden State Warriors, Washington Wizards and Sacramento Kings in basketball; the Washington Capitals and San Jose Sharks in hockey and the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball.

They televise more than 1,500 live professional games and reach about 35 million homes.

That some of those viewers will join the subscribers leaving Dish not just for streaming but for distributors who carry the RSNs seems to be a pretty good bet.

Sinclair Broadcast Group and Bally’s Corp. moved forward with plans to rebrand the former Fox regional sports networks by unveiling the new logo and new network names that will start to be used in the coming  months.

Also Read: Sinclair Makes Big Bet on Gaming with Bally's

As part of the rebrand, Sinclair’s Prime Ticket will become Bally Sports SoCal, and Sports Time Ohio will become Bally Sports Great Lakes. 

Also, two limited part-time channels – Fox Sports Carolinas and Fox Sports Tennessee – will sunset. Nashville Predators and Carolina Hurricanes games and content that previously aired under those brands will move to Bally Sports South (previously Fox Sports South) and Bally Sports Southeast (previously Fox Sports Southeast).

Also Read: Sinclair-Bally’s Deal Could Be a Sign of the RSN Times

“We are extremely proud to unveil the Bally Sports logo as it signifies a new, transformative chapter in the regional sports business and is representative of our cohesive partnership with Bally’s,” said Steve Rosenberg, president of local sports at Sinclair. “The upcoming rebrand across our RSN footprint is incredibly exciting, not only for our entire portfolio, but for loyal sports fans across the country.”

Also Read: Peacock Already Getting a Boost from 'The Office'

The deal between Sinclair and Bally's called for Bally's to pay for naming rights for the RSN's and to buy a set amount of advertising on Sinclair outlets.

The new logo features the red Bally in script.

"Rolling out Bally’s iconic logo across Sinclair’s regional sports networks is a rewarding first step in a transformational partnership that is going to revolutionize the U.S. sports betting, gaming and media industries,” said George Papanier, president and CEO of Bally’s Corp. “We look forward to integrating Bally’s unique content, including the award-winning daily fantasy sports platform we are acquiring from Monkey Knife Fight, across Sinclair’s live game day coverage and providing unrivaled sports gamification on a national scale.”

After the rebrand the Sinclair-owned and operated RSN portfolio will include the following 19 network brands: Bally Sports Arizona, Bally Sports Detroit, Bally Sports Florida, Bally Sports Great Lakes, Bally Sports Kansas City, Bally Sports Indiana, Bally Sports Midwest, Bally Sports New Orleans, Bally Sports North, Bally Sports Ohio, Bally Sports Oklahoma, Bally Sports San Diego, Bally Sports SoCal, Bally Sports South, Bally Sports Southeast, Bally Sports Southwest, Bally Sports Sun, Bally Sports West, and Bally Sports Wisconsin.

Verizon Fios said it is adding credits to subscribers bills reflecting games that weren’t played and televised on regional sports networks because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Verizon said it has worked with regional sports networks and secured refunds from them.

Related: AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh in Deal to Return to Fios

“We at Verizon remain resolute in our plan to pass on the COVID-related refunds that we receive from Regional Sports Networks to impacted Fios TV customers. We are pleased to begin issuing bill credits to these customers next month,” the company said in a statement.

Verizon Fios customers who subscribe to regional sports networks wll get a credit in the December 2020 bills. 

The company added that its expats that there may be additional refunds coming to Verizon in 2021 and that customers will be notified when credits from those refunds are credited to their bills.

Other distributors have also made refunds based on the cancellation of games that would have been televised on RSNs.

In October Comcast customers in the Chicago area saw a $13.17 credit on their bills. Comcast charges customers a $14.45 regional sports fee monthly.

Verizon Fios said it reached a long-term deal that will return AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh to its customers, effective Tuesday. 

The regional sports network, which carries games of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Penguins, was dropped by Fios in October.

Regional Sports Networks have been under pressure because of their high prices at a time when subscribers are cutting the cord in search of cheaper streaming options. RSNs were also hurt when games were canceled or postponed because of the pandemic.

“Verizon is pleased to reach an agreement with AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh that enables us to offer the channel to Fios TV customers. We look forward to carrying AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh so Fios customers can focus on cheering for the Pirates and Penguins in the weeks and years to come,” the company said in a statement.

Financial terms were not disclosed. 

“We are very pleased that Verizon Fios customers who are fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Penguins will again have access to watch their favorite teams’ games,” AT&T SportsNet said.

Sinclair Broadcast Group has made a big move into gaming, reaching a long-term partnership with Bally’s.

The deal will give Sinclair warrants and options to own a minority stake in Bally’s while Bally’s will be able to integrate its content across Sinclair’s 190 TV stations and sports networks.

Sinclair’s regional sports networks, disrupted last season as COVID-19 canceled and postponed games, will be rebranded using the Bally's moniker. Over 10 years, Sinclair’s RSNs will receive naming rights fees and a committed percentage of Bally’s Interactive’s marketing spending.

Related: Sinclair Talks $4.2 Billion Writedown on Sports Nets

Sinclair is one of the largest TV station owners in the country. It has also been one of the most controversial for some of the conservative commentary it has inserted into its newscasts.

For the past few years, Sinclair has been making investments in sports, first buying The Tennis Channel, then acquiring the Fox Regional Sports networks from the Walt Disney Co., which had to divest them after buying 21st Century Fox.

Related: Sinclair RSNs: Timing Is Everything

While some investors have questioned the acquisition of the RSNs as they've been dropped by distributors, reducing their subscriber revenue, Sinclair has been saying that it had big plans for sports, and that those plans include gaming.

"Since acquiring Tennis Channel a few years ago and the RSNs last year, we have been working on developing an innovative experience that changes the way people think about and view live sports across all our platforms,” said Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley.

"Bally's, with its strong brand name, premier sportsbook technology platform and expansive market access, is the perfect partner to help us change the paradigm of sports viewing across all our assets," Ripley said. "By integrating gamification elements that allow audiences a more personalized and interactive game experience, consumers of live sports in the future can look forward to a more dynamic and engaging sports viewing experience. With the U.S. sports betting and iGaming market expected to ultimately reach $50 billion at maturity, this partnership perfectly positions our sports portfolio to fully capitalize on changing audience behavior."

Related: Sinclair Trying to Restructure Debt from RSNs: Report

The deal is designed to position Bally's as a premier omni-channel gaming company with physical casinos and online sports betting and iGaming solutions united under a single brand. They expect Bally's to capture a significant share of the fast-growing U.S. sports betting and iGaming market.

“This arrangement represents an opportunity to revolutionize the U.S. sports betting, gaming and media industries," said Soo Kim, chairman of Bally's Corporation's Board of Directors. 

"Sinclair, with its broad holdings of stations, channels and RSNs, provides immediate, national brand recognition that will support the development of Bally's player database for both our traditional casinos as well as our future online offerings, and ultimately deliver significant shareholder value,” he said. “We look forward to integrating our first-in-class, omni-channel sports betting and iGaming offerings with Sinclair's expansive broadcast network to create a more engaging and tailored experience for sports fans, positioning Bally's to become one of the top U.S. sports betting and iGaming operators."

Sinclair is holding a conference call with investors Thursday morning to discuss the deal.

Sinclair Broadcast Group said it hired John Zeigler as chief marketing officer, a new position.

Ziegler, who had been VP for the YES Network, will initially focus on brand marketing strategy for the Sinclair affiliate stations and its 21 regional sports networks.

He will also be responsible for Sinclair’s promotions, creative services and marketing departments and report to Rob Weisbord, president of broadcast and chief revenue officer at Sinclair.

"John has consistently developed strategic marketing campaigns that led to incredible brand growth across multiple networks," said Sinclair president and CRO Rob Weisbord. "As a pioneer of both creative and marketing strategy within the broadcast industry, Sinclair cannot wait to see what exceptional work John will bring to both our viewers and the Sinclair community."

At YES, Ziegler established an in-house creative and marketing agency. Before YES, he held posts at Z Living Network, WGN America and Turbo Dog Productions. 

"With Sinclair being the leader in both local sports and local news, I couldn't be more thrilled to join this talented executive team and refine the core brand strategy behind the company," said Zeigler. "I look forward to helping lead Sinclair to new heights and strategically positioning the brand in front of audiences throughout the country, bringing them a new way to enjoy local news and live sports."

 Sinclair Broadcast Group reported a bit third-quarter loss as it took a $4.2 billion writedown on the regional sports networks it acquired last year.

Sinclair’s net loss was $3.2 billion, or $42.91 cents a share, compared to a net loss of $60 million, or 64 cents a share, a year ago. Excluding adjustments, the company had net income of $161 million. 

Revenue rose 37% to $1.54 billion, thanks in part to record political ad spending..

The regional sports networks have been a problem for Sinclair, which was reportedly in discussions with lenders to restructure $8 billion of the debt it took on through Diamond Sports Group to buy them from The Walt Disney Co. in August 2019.

Because of the pandemic postponing games, Sinclair said it would have to pay distributors rebates of $128 million in the third quarter, and $371 million this year.

Sinclair will also be getting money back from the teams its RSNs cover because of games not played. CFO Lucy Rutishauser, speaking on the company’s conference call with analysts, noted that the company expects to get more in than it will pay out. “It will probably be about $200 million on a net basis,” she said, adding that doesn’t count the ad dollars the RSN’s lose by not televising games.

The RSN’s helped Sinclair boost its distribution in the quarter to $1 billion, up from $679 million a year ago. But Sinclair said that being dropped by Hulu and YouTube TV cost it about 10% of local gross distribution revenues for the month of September. 

In addition to the charge related to the RSNs, the company also took a charge of $13 million for non-recurring costs for transaction, COVID, legal, litigation, and regulatory costs.

“Driven by stronger than expected political and sports advertising revenue, and stringent cost control measures during the pandemic, Sinclair's results for the quarter, excluding the impairment, exceeded our expectations and guidance," Chris Ripley said. "While core advertising trends in our Broadcast segment continue to face challenges due to the pandemic, we did see improvement as we moved through the quarter, despite having to balance strong political demand that competed for inventory." 

Ad revenue was $500 million, up from $376 million. Broadcast ad revenue was $344, up from $302 million and sports ad revenue was $124 million. 

Core advertising revenues were down in the mid-to high single digit percentage, compared to a 36% drop in the second quarter when business closed because of the Coronavirus..Broadcast core ad revenue was down in the high single digit range.

On the company’s earnings call with analysts, Rob Weisbord, president of broadcast and CRO noted that since the beginning of the pandemic, “every month has picked up, which is encouraging, especially with the record political ad spending crowd out, the core had been able to strengthen.”

Weisboard said that  November appears to be the strongest month for ad revenue since the start of the pandemic, but held off on making a forecast because of the way COVID cases have been spiking.

Political ad revenue was $109 million in the third quarter, up from $6 million in the third quarter of 2019 and 30% above expectations that political spending would be in the $75 million to $80 million range. 

For the fourth quarter, CFO Rutishauser said Sinclair expects media revenue to be between $942 million and $961 million, up 16% to 19% from last year’s pro-forma $810 million. Adjusted EBITDA for Sinclair’s broadcast and other segment is expected to be between $351 million and $367 million, compared to a pro forma of $%272 million a year ago. 

Rutishauser said the increase in media revenue is driven by higher political and distribution revenue. She said that pro-forma core advertising is expected to be down in the mid to high teens. 

For local sports, fourth-quarter media revenue is expected to be between $557 million and $563 million, down 29% from last year’s $788 million, she said, adding that the projecting include  $119 million for the distributor rebates, the absence of the two virtual MVPDs and the impact from a later start to the NBA and NHL seasons.

Fourth quarter EBITDA for local sports is expected to be $235 million to $241 million.

Analysts on the company’s earnings call had questions about Sinclair’s commitment to the RSN business.

“We intend on reinventing the RSNs around gamification, around community-based fandom. and around direct to consumer. That’s going to be, we think incredibly exciting and rewarding for Sinclair and that’s where we’re focused,” Ripley said.

Ripley said Sinclair expects to launch a new sports app by the beginning of baseball season. The company is eyeing new revenues from gaming and eventually gambling.

“One of the core reasons we went for this transaction and it’s still true today is that we fundamentally believe that Sports rights will be worth more in the future than they are today, that this is a growth industry. It needs to change and needs to evolve,” Ripley said. 

In response to another question, Ripley acknowledged that the the Kansas City Royals had gotten equity in Fox Sports Midwest as part of a new rights deal. He noted that many teams own parts of the Sinclair RSNs. 

“Going forward, that is going to be a bigger part of the equation, as we move to a more variablized rights compensation structure,” he said.

Analysts were concerned that Sinclair’s stations were losing retransmission dollars in order to gain carriage for its RSNs. Ripley was asked if with Sinclair’s retransmission deal with Dish coming up, if the company would negotiate for carriage of both the stations and the RSNs, which have been off Dish for months.

“We have been very successful in negotiating package deals for all of our programming wth all the traditional MVPDs, and so I’d expect us to continue that strategy with Dish,” he said.

In addition to its plans to add gaming to its RSNs, Ripley said Sinclair had other initiatives in the works to grow the company, including, the continued roll-out of NextGen TV expected to be available in approximately 45 markets by the end of 2021, and the premier of The National Desk, a new headline news service launching in early 2021.  “We believe these initiatives, our free, over-the-top ad-supported digital platform STIRR, gamification and direct to consumer and legalized sports betting opportunities that the company is exploring, position Sinclair for continued success in the years ahead,” he said.

Sports oriented streaming service fuboTV has reached an agreement to carry AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh Region, the TV home of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Pittsburgh Pirates.

The regional sports network will be available ahead of the start of the 2020/21 NHL season.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

“As a sports-first live TV streaming platform, our goal is to offer consumers regional sports networks with leading local market position and full team coverage, at pricing customers can afford,” said Ben Grad, head of content strategy and acquisition for fuboTV. “Therefore, we are excited to bring full home coverage of Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Penguins to their fans with our new agreement with AT&T Sports Networks. fuboTV is now a great choice for sports fans in Pittsburgh and, with our leading live sports, news and entertainment content portfolio, there is something for everyone at home to watch and enjoy.”

AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh's coverage includes over 225 live regular season games of both the Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Penguins, as well as other ancillary programming and behind the scenes content. The RSN is available throughout the states of Pennsylvania and West Virginia and in portions of New York, Ohio and Maryland.

The agreement increases fuboTV’s local coverage in Pittsburgh, where it already carries CBS, Fox and NBC affiliates alongside national sports networks including ESPN, FS1, CBS Sports Network and the ACC Network.

“We are thrilled to announce this deal with fuboTV and give fans even more options to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Penguins in their home market,” said Nina Kinch, VP of affiliate relations for AT&T Sports Networks. “Both teams have enormous fan bases and we have had a lot of demand to bring these teams to OTT providers. We are very excited that customers will now have that option with fuboTV.”

FuboTV will carry AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh as part of its base fubo subscription package, fubo Standard.

Sinclair Broadcast Group is reportedly considering its options concerning its regional sports networks, including a possible bankruptcy, about a year after it paid $9.6 billion for 21 former Fox Sports RSNs. A lot of reasons have been given for the need for a restructuring. The pandemic, which has decimated sports teams and networks as seasons were shortened or canceled; the pressure to issue rebates to distributors for undelivered games; and the decline in overall linear programming viewership have all contributed to RSN declines. And while those reasons are certainly valid, one very important factor in the Sinclair RSN’s current dilemma is missing: timing.

Sinclair got into the RSN business at a time when regional sports networks were on the decline, but were still considered to be one of the few places left that encouraged live viewership, so-called “appointment TV.” Part of the concessions The Walt Disney Co. made in gaining approval for its purchase of certain 21st Century Fox assets -- the government ordered the divestiture of the Fox RSNs because Disney already owned a dominant sports network, ESPN -- bidding for the channels was intense. But pricing was not. Originally, Disney thought it could attract as much as $20 billion for the networks. And though there was a lot of interest, as the rounds progressed it became apparent that they wouldn’t get anywhere near that valuation. 

The problem: while sports was and is still considered one of the few things that TV viewers watch live, the cost of the channels was getting out of hand. At the same time, distributors were pushing back against sports channel affiliate fee increases, claiming that not enough subscribers watched the channels to justify the cost. Cord cutting made the idea of carrying expensive programming even less attractive. 

Now, that all appears to be coming home to roost. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal Wednesday,  creditors of the unit that holds the RSNs -- Diamond Sports Group -- are preparing to possibly restructure about $8 billion in debt. Sinclair, which set up Diamond Sports to bear most of the debt load of the Fox Sports acquisition -- the broadcaster is only on the hook for about $170 million of that obligation -- had earlier tried to restructure the debt through an exchange offer. Bondholders, who would have had to take a substantial haircut in that exchange, took a pass.

In a research note, Wells Fargo Securities media analyst Steven Cahall said bondholders will have to consider whether to keep Sinclair as the operating partner for the RSNs -- a service for which they take about $100 million in EBITDA annually -- or go with another partner. The analyst prefers a Sinclair exit.

“We think the RSNs have been Sinclair’s Achilles heel as it's a distraction for investors, an asset in decline and a potential drain on retrans to support RSN carriage fees,” Cahall wrote. “While there's no equity value in Diamond these factors also mean less equity value in TV. Ultimately we view a separation of the RSNs as the best case scenario for Sinclair as it removes a big overhang that's needed management's attention since the get go.

But others believe the RSNs current problems seem more tied to the pandemic and that isn’t going to last forever.      

“They definitely took a hit on baseball, you lost 100 games per team,” said one sports executive who requested anonymity, adding that the possibility remains that the 2021 NBA, NHL and MLB could start late and could be compressed. “...Nobody is saying they aren’t watching games. The ratings for baseball regionally were very strong. If there is a finite number of games lost, it’s not the end of the world. The content is still valuable.”

And the sports exec added that Sinclair is still doing RSN deals and hiring people, an indication that it still feels the business is moving forward.  

Related: Why Sinclair’s Sports Bet is a Risky Play 

In its last quarterly earnings conference call with analysts, Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley said that it had locked up about 85% of its RSNs total customers for two years and beyond. That figure included the carriage deal for its Marquee Sports Network with Comcast. Marquee Sports was not part of the Fox RSN buy, instead it is a separate partnership between Sinclair and Major League Baseball’s Chicago Cubs. 

Related: Worry Over Sinclair’s Sporting Chances 

While it has been able to strike long-term deals wit h traditional distributors, Sinclair has had a tougher go with virtual MVPDs. In the past year it has lost carriage with YouTube TV, fuboTV and Sling TV. On Oct. 22, Hulu Live + TV added its name to the list, telling its customers that the 21 Sinclair RSNs, Marquee Sports and the YES Network would go dark as of Oct. 23.  That leaves only AT&T TV Now among major vMVPDs that carry the networks.    

While those disputes, like most carriage fights, probably center around pricing, there are some in the sports industry that believe that Sinclair’s RSN problems are more tied to the rights fees the networks are paying the teams whose games they carry. 

“That is what it comes down to, are the RSNs covering their nut to the teams,” said one RSN executive who asked not to be named. “It doesn’t matter if the [LA] Clippers stink or not, they are still going to get top dollar from Fox Sports San Diego or Fox Sports West.”

Related: RSN Redux 

Others feel that while affiliate fees are still strong, the overall decline in pay TV customers means that the RSNs are getting less money as part of their deals. 

According to MoffettNathanson, traditional pay TV -- cable, satellite and telco -- has lost about 10 million customers since 2018. And the bleeding is expected to continue. Kagan, a unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence, estimates that by 2025 the pay TV universe will lose about 31 million customers.

That has some pundits wondering if the deterioration of the traditional model where linear networks pay fees to sports networks based on their total number of subscribers, is on the way out. 

But there is a danger in switching to a direct-to-consumer model, mainly that sports networks will have to rely on revenue from customers that want to watch them, not everyone with a pay TV subscription. That could be a big difference -- currently there are about 80 million TV homes, and some analysts estimate that only about 30% of those customers watch sports. That could mean that a D2C regional sports offering would have to charge about three times more per month just to make as much money as it was receiving under the old model. As a result, many in the industry are hoping for some kind of hybrid model. 

“At some point, you have to be thinking, ‘how do we offer this on a streaming basis as well,’” the sports exec said. “The pandemic, as awful as it is, is finite. But it’s accelerated the drop off in pay TV penetration. If you’re any network, you now have to figure out far more quickly than you thought how you’re going to handle streaming. It’s not abandoning pay TV, it’s a question of can you coexist on both.”

And then there is the question of ad revenue -- with less potential eyeballs, networks could be worth less to advertisers. And there is the threat that customers would drop the service after their favorite team’s season ends, meaning that the RSN could see a big drop off in revenue toward the end of the year. 

That could be especially hard for RSNs that basically only carry games in one professional sport, like SportsNet New York, home of the New York Mets. 

“From October until March, they could potentially have no income,” said the RSN exec who asked not to be named.   

In the meantime, some were hoping that legalized gambling would help the networks, both in terms of additional advertising and the potential of allowing actual wagering via the TV remote or online for everything from the final outcome to specific plays. That has not worked out to be the windfall it was expected to be. 

Related: Not Quite All In On Sports Betting 

So far, according to some reports, as of August only 18 states have passed legal gambling bills since the Supreme Court opened the door to sports wagering in 2018. Four states, -- Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Washington - have passed bills allowing sports gambling but are not yet operational. And there are active bills in another nine states, and 12 states have rejected legalized sports wagering. But save for a few ventures, sports gambling hasn’t been the savior most RSNs expected. 

Sinclair was also counting on sports gaming being a bigger part of the business, and hired former Poker Central & Estars Studios chief business officer JR McCabe to head up its D2C Gamification unit.

In a research note Wednesday, LightShed Partners analysts Rich Greenfield, Brandon Ross and Mark Kelley issued a report on the state of RSNs, noting that even if legal gambling were more widespread, it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference and could have negative effect on viewership of sports channels. 

The analysts said that although the leagues’ claims that gambling would boost viewership is “intuitive,” albeit hard to quantify, it could also “catalyze the loss of community around sports and could produce offsetting effects.” They also noted that illegal sports betting has been around for decades, and so far hasn’t moved the viewership needle as much as could be expected. 

But the sports exec said that could change as the pandemic winds down. States will be looking for new sources of revenue, and gambling could fit the bill. 

“They need revenue, and gambling is an easy way to get it,” the exec said. “In terms of looking forward, in the next three-to-five years, I think you will see a majority of states, two-thirds or more offering gambling.”

Again, it’s all a matter of timing. And timing is everything.  

Hulu has announced that its live TV service will no longer carry the Fox regional sports networks now owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, effective Friday.

In a post on its web site Hulu said it will “no longer have the rights” to distribute the channels.

The move comes after the end of the baseball season and follows the networks being dropped Oct. 1 by YouTube TV, another virtual MVPD aimed at sports fans. 

Hulu has been running TV spots proclaiming that it has live sports.

“Live TV subscribers will still have access to a wide variety of national and local networks depending on your location — like ESPN, TBS, TNT, FS1, FS2, Fox, CBS, NBC, ABC, and more — so you can continue watching your favorite live sports on our service,” Hulu said.

Sinclair bought 21 Regional Sports Networks for $9.6 billion through a subsidiary called Diamond Sports Group from the The Walt Disney Co. last year. Disney had acquired them when it bought 21st Century Fox, but had to sell them to satisfy antitrust regulators.

Sinclair also owns an interest in the YES Network in New York and the new Marquee Sports Network, a joint venture with the Chicago Cubs.

The RSN struggled when sports were suspended this spring because of the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier this week it was reported that Sinclair was trying to restructure $8 billion in debt that it took on to buy the RSNs.

The networks affected are FS Arizona, FS Detroit, FS Florida, FS Midwest (including FS Indiana and FS Kansas City), FS North (including FS Wisconsin), FS Ohio, FS Prime Ticket, FS San Diego, FS South (including FS Tennessee and FS Carolinas), FS Southeast, FS Southwest (including FS Oklahoma and FS New Orleans), FS Sun, FS West, Marquee Sports Network, SportsTime Ohio, and YES Network.

Sinclair Broadcast Group’s regional sports unit is reportedly trying to restructure $8 billion in debt, underscoring the pressure on the business after a season in which the coronavirus canceled games and viewers are cutting the cable cord.

Sinclair bought a 90% interest in 21 Fox regional sports networks for $9.6 billion through Diamond Sports Group from the Walt Disney Co. in August 2019. Disney, which owns ESPN, acquired the networks when it bought 21st Century Fox, but had to sell them to satisfy antitrust regulators.

According to The Wall Street Journal, bondholders have hired lawyers and financial advisors to deal with Sinclair’s bankers. 

Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall noted that Diamond Sports’ $3 billion in senior bonds are trading at 66 accents on the dollar and $1.8 billion in junior bonds traded at 50 cents.

Related: Sinclair Names Morgan VP of Sports

Cahall said that the way Sinclair structured the RSN purchase via Diamond Sports protects the broadcaster, which is on the hook for just $175 million in preferred equity. That means the debt situation should have limited impact on Sinclair stock, helping its negotiating position.

Bondholders might want to try to find someone to run the RSNs other than Sinclair, which collects fees from the RSNs of about about $100 million a year, according to the analyst.

Sinclair’s decision to buy the RSNs has been second guessed and Cahall said he’d like to see the broadcaster get out of the business. 

“It’s a distraction for investors, an asset in decline and a potential drain on retrans to support RSN carriage fees,” Cahall said. “Ultimately we view a separation of the RSNs as the best case scenario for Sinclair as it removes a big overhang that’s needed management’s attention since the get go.”

YouTube TV has notified its subscribers that the regional sports networks owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group will no longer be carried starting Oct. 1.

The note to subscribers explains that YouTube TV negotiated an extension earlier this year with Sinclair to continue carrying the RSNs, most of which continue to carry the Fox brand. The extension ran through the end of the Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League regular seasons.

“Unfortunately, now the seasons are over and that extension is expiring, YouTube TV said. 

“This was a difficult decision made after months of negotiations. We hope that we can bring Fox RSNs back in the future. Thank you for your membership as we work to make YouTube TV the best streaming experience,” the note said.

Sinclair said that despite a "good faith effort by both parties" to reach a distribution deal, Sinclair and YouTube TV could not come to a mutual agreement.

"While we are disappointed that YouTube will discontinue carriage of the RSNs, we remain in discussions in an effort to find a mutually acceptable path to returning the RSNs to YouTube TV," said arry Faber, Sinclair's President Distribution & Network Relations. "We intend to keep the public informed as to the progress of these discussions so that YouTube TV subscribers can make informed decisions regarding how to view the extremely popular programming carried on these RSNs."

Both companies noted that subscribers will no longer have access to recordings made of programs shown in the Fox RSNs.

The affected networks include Fox Sports Arizona, Fox Sports Carolinas, Fox Sports Detroit, Fox Sports Florida, Fox Sports Indiana, Fox Sports Kansas City, Fox Sports Midwest, Fox Sports New Orleans, Fox Sports North, Fox Sports Ohio, Fox Sports Oklahoma, Fox Sports San Diego, Fox Sports South, Fox Sports Southeast, Fox Sports Southwest, Fox Sports Sun, Fox Sports Tennessee, Fox Sports Wisconsin and SportsTime Ohio.

Sinclair bought the 21 Fox Regional Sports Networks from the Walt Disney Co. for $9.6 billion in a deal that closed in August 2019. Disney acquired them when it bought 21st Century Fox but had to divest them to satisfy government regulators concerned about concentration in the TV sports market because Disney also owns ESPN.

When YouTube TV agreed to an extension with Sinclair, it did not agree to carry some of the biggest RSNs, notable Prime Ticket, Fox Sports West and the YES Network. YouTube also never carried the Marquee Sports Network, Sinclair’s joint venture with the Chicago Cubs.

Sinclair Broadcast Group, looking to generate new revenue from its sports units, said it hired J.R. McCabe as chief business officer of D2C/Gamification, a new post.

Sinclair owns Tennis Channel and recently acquired a string of regional sports networks at a time when legalized  sports gambling is spreading, creating new business opportunities for media companies.

McCabe most recently was chief business officer for Poker Central & Estars Studios, which launched the subscription channel PokerGo. 

At Sinclair, he will oversee efforts around gamification and launch media assets that unlock new revenue streams and maximize consumer engagement, the company said. 

“Throughout his career, J.R. has excelled at staying ahead of consumer trends, bringing together highly-skilled innovators to create new, engaging digital and live experiences,” said Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley. “His skill at conceptualizing and launching new and innovative business models at the intersection of media, sports, and gaming will be an important component of Sinclair’s efforts to expand in a rapidly growing area. We look forward to his leadership in driving Sinclair’s direct-to-consumer growth opportunities in the years ahead.”

Before Poker Central, McCabe was with Time Inc., Meredith, Paramount and Universal Studios.

“As a leader in the media space, with an unparalleled portfolio of assets, Sinclair’s strong content base and history of innovation and strategic thinking is the ideal match for my passion to build high-performing, high growth businesses in gaming,” McCabe said. “I look forward to the challenge of taking the potential of this great organization and helping it monetize the myriad opportunities the company has to drive future growth.” 

Sinclair Broadcast Group, with its regional sports networks hammered by the postponement of live games, said it expects to get more from teams in reduced rights fees than it will pay out to distributors in rebates for under delivery.

In its second quarter earnings, Sinclair said it will be paying $124 million to distributors because it didn’t deliver the minimum number of Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League games specified in their contracts. 

But the company said those payments, to be made through the balance of the year, will be smaller than the amount by which rights fees will be reduced by the teams that didn’t play games as scheduled.

“There’s been a lot of misinformation on the street as it related to this,” said Sinclair CFO Lucy Rutishauser on the company’s earnings call. “So what I’m saying is the amount that we get in will be greater than the amount we pay out.”

Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley noted that the RSN business should be better now that games are being played. “It is very clear that viewers are excited as well, with ratings for the first day of the MLB season up 32% on our RSNs.

Ripley also noted that Sinclair in July signed a deal with Comcast that included carriage of Marquee Sports Network, the new RSN in Chicago that is a joint venture with the Cubs.

He said that speculation that getting carriage for Marquee would drag down revenue for Sinclair’s other business. “We’ve said we were confident that we would reach an agreement with Comcast that would be positive for us, and we are happy with the outcome in all regards,” he said. “This agreement is another example of the benefits that come from negotiating for a large, diverse set of very popular programming assets.”

Comcast even agreed to carry the Cubs in areas near Chicago where Comcast hadn’t carried Cubs games before--even though it owned, and still owns--a stake in NBC Sports Net.

With the Comcast deal, Ripley said Comcast has locked up almost 85% of its RSN subscribers for at least two years.

Ripley said Sinclair would be rolling out a new sports app that will give users the ability to interact content in numerous ways, including with advertisers and free-to-play games. In terms of gambling, he said Sinclair would disclose more of its plans later this year.

“As the exclusive provider of local sports content for more than half of the MLB, NBA and NHL teams, we believe there we are in a unique position to monetize the significant sports betting opportunity that exists,” he said.

For the second quarter, Sinclair reported net income of $252 million, or $3.12 a share, up from 42 million, or 46 cents a share, a year ago.

Revenue was up 66% to $1.3 billion. The increase was driven by the acquisition of 21 Regional Sports Networks and Fox College Sports last August.

Rutishauser noted that ad revenues were down 26% in June, which was an improvement over the 43% drop in April. The improvement continued in July with a decline of 20%, even as political ramps up in the third quarter,” she said. “We still expect to finish the third quarter down 15% to 2% in core advertising.

In its guidance for the third quarter, the company said it expected revenue to be between $1.477 billion and $1.514 billion, with core advertising revenue of $363 million to $388 million and political advertising being between $77 million and $83 million. It expects adjusted EBITDA to be between $589 million and $621 million.

Highlighting the risks involved in restarting live sports, Monday’s home opener for the Miami Marlins against the Baltimore Orioles has been postponed as Marlin players have tested positive for COVID-19, according to published reports.

Also postponed was the New York Yankees game in Philadelphia, where the Marlins played.

The Miami game was set to be broadcast by Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Fox Sports Florida.

The Marlins played Sunday in Philadelphia despite positive tests by some of the Marlins players. When more players tested positive, Monday’s game was canceled and the team stayed in its Philadelphia hotel.

That raised questions about whether tonight’s New York Yankees game in Philadelphia against the Phillies could be played because of concerns that the virus might still be active in the visiting team's facilities at the ballpark. The game was ultimately postpones so that lockers and other stadium venues could be cleaned.

Fox and ESPN, which carry baseball nationally, said that advertisers have returned to sponsor baseball games because they believed that the leagues could safely play games and complete the schedule. It was unclear what would happen to those ad dollars if MLB is forecast to cancel more games or curtail the season.

ESPN had a record 4 million viewers for its first baseball game on Thursday. 

Comcast and Sinclair Broadcast Group said they reached a multi-year renewal of their distribution agreement.

In addition to retransmission consent for 78 Sinclair stations in 51 markets, the new deal includes carriage of the new Marquee Network, which televises Chicago Cubs games, the YES Network, which has the New York Yankees, 18 Fox-branded regional sports networks and Tennis Channel.

Related: Comcast Makes Ninth-Inning Deal to Carry Marquee Sports

The deal comes as the baseball season is starting, enabling fans in those markets to watch games without disruption.

“With this agreement, Xfinity TV customers can continue to enjoy access to local news and sports content on Sinclair’s owned stations and networks across platforms, including on X1 – which delivers Xfinity customers an unmatched sports experience alongside on demand and streaming entertainment,” said Rebecca Heap, senior VP, Video and Entertainment, Comcast Cable.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

“We are pleased to continue and expand our partnership with Comcast under which we provide a broad array of valuable programming to its subscribers, including our award-winning local news and sports programming,” commented Barry Faber, Sinclair’s president of distribution & network relations. Faber continued, “Sports are an important part of Sinclair and we are pleased that Comcast’s greater Chicago customers can join the list of passionate fans that enjoy Sinclair’s local sports programming.”  

Carriage of the Marquee Network was a major concern in the Chicago market, where Comcast is the dominant cable operator.

“By including Marquee in the broader Sinclair agreement, we’re now able to give our customers access to Cubs baseball in time for the start of the season,” said John Crowley, senior VP, Comcast Cable Greater Chicago Region.

"We welcome Comcast to the Marquee family and look forward to providing their customers the very best viewing experience and commentary, as they join Len Kasper and Jim Deshaies in rooting on the Cubs pursuit of another World Series Championship,” said Mike McCarthy, VP, general manager of Marquee.