Bally sucks. It's almost impossible to see the Rangers except on direct TV

That's your media provider doing that. Bally's owes $80 million per year to the Rangers in a 20 year deal starting in 2015:

https://www.chron.com/sports/astros/article/Rangers-Fox-Sports-Southwest-agree-to-1-6-1603662.php

This shows how various clubs monetize local tv:

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/lets-update-the-estimated-local-tv-revenue-for-mlb-teams/

Possibly the MLB will pull an SEC and offer over-the-top streaming if you don't have cable:

https://www.si.com/mlb/rangers/news/mlb-discussing-new-tv-streaming-service-2023

Article is from 2021 but a Sinclair / Diamond Group bankruptcy could accelerate it if it cancels a lot of team contracts.

Ag CPA said:

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I get the impression that nobody on this thread knows how Chapter 11 works.

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Well if you think this is a sign that Ballys is healthy, well run, and will continue to prosper, I get the impression you dont know how Ch 11 works. This is a death knell, no matter what kind of restructuring they might be able to do after they rid their unsecured creditors.

Not sure they'll even have a workable model that will pass muster absent some white knight.

Divining Rod said:

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Ag CPA said:

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I get the impression that nobody on this thread knows how Chapter 11 works.

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Well if you think this is a sign that Ballys is healthy, well run, and will continue to prosper, I get the impression you dont know how Ch 11 works. This is a death knell, no matter what kind of restructuring they might be able to do after they rid their unsecured creditors.

Not sure they'll even have a workable model that will pass muster absent some white knight.

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The point he's making is the same executive leadership often survives bankruptcy with lenders replacing current shareholders who are wiped out. In this case Diamond Sports Group, LLC current shareholders.

I just tied this paragraph on the si.com site to the 2021 report about the MLB extending its local market streaming service:

"For that reason, MLB has reportedly not given Diamond or any other providers any more local streaming rights, with the belief that MLB might use the situation as leverage to get all of the local broadcast rights back."

https://www.si.com/mlb/rangers/news/ballys-sports-channels-bankruptcy-texas-rangers-television-rights-fees

In effect that's the same okay as the SEC purchasing Tier 3 rights and liquidating previous contracts with third parties to form the SECN. The model would be an over the top alongside its current MLB.com ou-of-market service.

But Dodgers and others have huge current contracts but some local broadcast deals haven't fared well…and not all of that was Bally's Sports…the Bally's name is only a naming rights deal, btw…and is net revenue in to Diamond Sports so likely survives Chapter 11…unless Bally's has a clause regarding harming their brand (snicker, snicker).

All I care about is being able to watch the rangers. I don't care what happens to make that possible, it's beyond dumb how it's not possible.

Greg, point I was making is that Ch 11 usually signals your business midel aint workin'- and THAT'S why people are rejoicing on this thread.

I just want to watch my Rangers every game. I don't care what channel it's on. Bally was where I got them this year.

Divining Rod said:

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Greg, point I was making is that Ch 11 usually signals your business midel aint workin'- and THAT'S why people are rejoicing on this thread.

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That would be Fox's that wasn't working not necessarily Diamond Sports. The rejoicing is because most folks don't recognize baseball does poorly on local TV for both drawing eyeballs and the teams feel pressure to hold out for better deals. That's created the situation as much as Bally's continuing the Fox RSN contracts. Before you start rejoicing, expect to pay an over-the-top amount if at least $19.99 per month on an annual basis just for MLB. Then have fun chasing Stars and Mavs if they're leagues do something similar. Bally's is not the problem. For baseball it's the lack of an equitable revenue distribution model like the NFL has. Largely because there is NOT a national market for all baseball games which total about 162*30 two-team regular season contests or over 5,000 v. 544 NFL games that are arguably more interesting and less inventory to broadcast.

NBA is probably more valuable but NHL is less except mostly northern states. But Sinclair/Diamond can't service debt at discount purchase levels on deals mostly made by Fox RSN. Rejoicing on that is not recognizing the problem which is mostly due to cord-cutting from what I gather.

To be honest: streaming is more flexible, but isn't as reliable. And will cost as much or more than cable especially if it revolves into a la carte choices and more so if the market won't bear annual subscriptions. That's where aggregators like Sinclair/Diamond had hope the old model wouldn't die so fast.

I would pay Bally's out-of-market $20 per month if I couldn't get their SW media package. But you usually can't. What the MLB does should be watched carefully. But don't expect any of it to be free going forward. Or the costs to be paid by inclusion of shopping channels and other tripe to lower acreage per channel licensing.

Sinclair bought these RSNs for a huge discount. I don't remember the exact numbers, but when Fox had to divest of their RSNs, they were expected to fetch maybe $25 billion and Sinclair paid a little over $10 billion.

Their contracts with MLB, NBA, and the NHL are a complete mess. Fox kept paying more and more with every renewal, and the ratings never justified the increases. Most teams that started their own RSNs failed, but Fox still kept paying more.

What I don't understand is how a product that Sinclair bought at a savings of approx 60% can be bankrupt...


EDIT - According to this article, the savings was 30%. Less than I remember, but still seems like Sinclair knew what they were getting into.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2019/05/03/sinclair-pays-96-billion-for-disneys-21-rsns-and-fox-college-sports/?sh=33ca1cc56d66

And they likely will see their stake trimmed. But Fox wrote the contracts that will now be voided. I doubt Apple, Amazon, Disney bid.

The only salvation for the MLB teams is if they can form a national streaming offer and even better share revenue more equally. But baseball is local but national so I doubt it.

Greg,


No. They're rejoicing for the reason I said.

At some point there is going to be a correction in the RSN market. The lack of ratings is going to result in a revenue drop for the leagues. The NHL went through this about 15 years ago, and I don't follow that league enough to know if they kept their sanity in followup TV deals.

MLB clubs have a cold slap in the face coming. Some more than others. I live in Missouri where the Cardinals still put up very good numbers, ratings-wise.

dabo man said:

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Sinclair bought these RSNs for a huge discount. I don't remember the exact numbers, but when Fox had to divest of their RSNs, they were expected to fetch maybe $25 billion and Sinclair paid a little over $10 billion.

Their contracts with MLB, NBA, and the NHL are a complete mess. Fox kept paying more and more with every renewal, and the ratings never justified the increases. Most teams that started their own RSNs failed, but Fox still kept paying more.

What I don't understand is how a product that Sinclair bought at a savings of approx 60% can be bankrupt...


EDIT - According to this article, the savings was 30%. Less than I remember, but still seems like Sinclair knew what they were getting into.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2019/05/03/sinclair-pays-96-billion-for-disneys-21-rsns-and-fox-college-sports/?sh=33ca1cc56d66

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I believe Sinclair's failings was their weak negotiating position with Dish/Directv/YTTV/Hulu in a time when those services were trying to trim costs in the streaming wars. Sinclair lacked the negotiating power of ESPN/ABC or Time Warner/TNT as they were negotiating on 1 channel, not a package of channel or single channel.

I also think other competitors that sell sport content were not helping things.



My hope is that the leagues (NHL, NBA, MLB) purchase their content back, and expand the League Pass type settings so that a fan can buy the local team or national package or both.

I would be willing to pay a significant amount for the local team only, especially if it meant cutting YTTV or Comcast or whatever.

Quote:

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Good. I know more than a few people in smaller pro-sports markets who have been unable to watch their state's teams through a terrible Venn diagram of national blackout restrictions and Bally's ineptitude.

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Here.

Can't get the Rangers or Astros for the last 2 years here. Pro baseball is now mostly dead to me like the other pro sports for the most part.

I use mlb extra innings and can see any game I want except for the rangers, living 100 miles away from Arlington is evidently in market.

I had MLB Extra Innings from 2017 - 2021. I watched all of the Cardinals games right here in Missouri using VPN. I had CyberGhost VPN, but I suspect that most of them would work fine for you.

Last year I had DirecTV Stream, but I've had two price increases from them in 18 months. I'm seriously considering going back to MLBEI + VPN.

EDIT - And the Rangers market (which is identical to the Astros) is all of TX, OK, AR, LA and Eastern NM.

AggieBuck02 said:

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Didn't Fubo just pick up Bally's?

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I think that was FUBAR ...

Jarrin' Jay said:

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Did not know that and that is good for Houston. Here in D/FW there is only ONE tv provider that carries the Bally Fox Sports SW so many millions in D/FW don't get Rangers, Mavs and Stars games here. It is ridiculous.

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Don't Spectrum and DirecTV both carry Bally's? People always act like these games are impossible to watch, but those are two massive carriers.

Biggest issue is ballys isn't on one streaming service.

Spectrum carries all the Ranger games here and I very rarely miss one. The channel was Fox Sports Southwest for years... switched to Bally's. I sure hope still get them.

NBA kneecapping Sinclair by cutting the cost of League Pass by 60% this year was a finishing move.

MLB has said that if Diamond Sports Group/Bally's misses payments or declares bankruptcy, MLB and the clubs might broadcast through MLB Network Channel and could remove blackout restrictions.

Regional sports networks could soon be a thing of the past.

With Diamond Sports Group facing bankruptcy, MLB is preparing to take over the broadcast of local games across the country. pic.twitter.com/hDxhVSoKeB

— Front Office Sports (@FOS) February 17, 2023

Don't care about Rangers or Mavs but gotta have my Stars. Easy work around for that.

Wonder where high school football playoffs go if that happens.

Probably go in with what they do for all the other UIL sports. PPV on NFHS Network online

How would that give one access to local games? That probably allows anyone in Dallas to watch any NBA game they want except the one game they want to watch.

I'm not sure as the NBA season does not have much to go, and I am going to bet they will watch to see how MLB handles it. If Bally's/Diamond is done this week, I would guess NBA would do all the broadcasts and put the locals on NBA-TV or League Pass. I don't know how it will be done, but I think the leagues will use this to build their own network.

From this, it reads like a local fan will be able to subscribe to MLB.TV and get the game now, instead of a blackout. I don't know how much it would cost or if there would be an additional cost. I also don't know if the cable carriers of MLB Network/MLB TV will be able to carry a local game now or how it would be done when several areas of the country have overlapping team interests.

AggieBuck02 said:

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Didn't Fubo just pick up Bally's?

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Yup plus they had a $5 increase on top of those fees. I went back to Youtube TV as a result.

NBA League Pass still disallows blacked out local games as of five minutes ago. So I would offer that wasn't the killing blow for Bally's per se.

Fox southwest high school sports was great!

Ferg said:

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AggieBuck02 said:

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Didn't Fubo just pick up Bally's?

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Yup plus they had a $5 increase on top of those fees. I went back to Youtube TV as a result.

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And that $5 increase came with dropping AMC and some other stations. And not only that but if you read how they are pricing the RSNs....If you are in the region of an RSN you automatically get it - plus another $13 charge per month.

They aren't making it part of some sports add on package or even ala carte. It's just like the old days of cable tiers. If you have the package that includes it you pay for it and in this case it's on the basic package.

I was going to switch but I only want the RSN when I'm interested - after football is over and until my teams are out of the playoffs. I don't want to pay for it year round. So I am not switching to Fubo. I'll keep pirating games when I want them.

Sounds like you're still getting it subsidized by people who don't watch it at all. If they truly went a la cattle on these RSNs, the price would probably be quite high.

Amazon bailing them out, but some MLB teams not sticking around

Amazon's deal with Diamond Sports Group will provide a framework for DSG to emerge from bankruptcy.

It'll also allow customers to stream Bally Sports games on Prime Video — with pricing and availability details coming soon.

— Front Office Sports (@FOS) January 17, 2024

The lawyer for Diamond identified Feb. 1 as a deadline on their end re: Guardians, Rangers, Twins. The lawyer also said he expects at least one of those teams will be engaging Diamond on discussions for a deal *beyond* 2024. pic.twitter.com/kpYYKh3836

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) January 17, 2024