Talks for MLB, the NBA and NHL to acquire the nation’s dominant owner of regional sports networks are faltering — raising the likelihood of a bankruptcy filing that could hasten a nationwide migration of sports fans away from cable TV.
The Bally sports app is now available on millions of Samsung devices.
The former NBC Sports exec will oversee the troubled Bally Sports regional sports networks.
Struggling regional sports network operator Diamond Sports Group is set to name a CEO Monday, making it more independent from Sinclair Broadcast Group, which has been running the chain of Bally Sports Networks. Sinclair bought the RSNs from The Walt Disney Co., taking on about $9 billion in debit. Since the acquisition, the RSN have lost subscribers and the cost of sports rights has climbed, putting Sinclair in a financial bind. Earlier this year, Sinclair refinanced Diamond’s debt and separated its financials from Diamond’s.
Sinclair’s Diamond RCNs Hit By Subscriber Churn
Third quarter media revenues were down 10% to $684 million. Distribution revenues dropped 11% to $565 million and advertising revenues declined 5% to $112 million. However, Sinclair COO Robert Weisbord had some good news: “On a per-game basis, ad revenues were up by a mid-teens percent, driven by healthy demand in many categories — with the largest gains in service, retail, food and entertainment,” he reported. “Looking forward, we see some positive signs for advertising demand.”
MLB, the NBA and the NHL may orchestrate a buyout of the nation’s dominant owner of regional sports TV networks, whose shaky finances pose an increasing threat to their teams. The trio of pro-sports leagues are expected to soon begin talks with Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Diamond Sports, which operates 21 regional Bally Sports networks that account for more than half the local broadcast markets around the country, sources close to the situation say.
Exclusives
Sinclair Touts Early 74% Conversion Rate For Bally Sports Plus Trial Users, But Additional MLB Rights Cloud DTC Service’s Future
Seventy-four percent of those who sign up for a free seven-day trial of Bally Sports Plus end up with a paid subscription, and users of the DTC streaming service spend, on average, 33% more time on the platform than they do for the respective TV Everywhere platforms of the 19 Bally Sports regional sports network. Oh, and usage of Bally Sports Plus interactive features has been “better than expected.” Those were the early takeaways from the first quarterly earnings report for Diamond Sports Group, the wholly owned subsidiary that runs the Bally Sports channels, which was spun off from Sinclair Broadcast Group on March 1.
In this newly created role, Schneider will have operational oversight over the Bally Sports+ participatory DTC sports platform, anchored by Bally Sports’ live event programming.
The broadcaster makes a number of big moves ahead of the big DTC launch it says is happening “later this quarter.”
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.
The sports channels still lack YouTube TV, Hulu, fuboTV carriage. Dish negotiations are expected in August.
Sinclair Broadcast Group’s regional sports business and its creditors are preparing for a possible restructuring of its roughly $8 billion debt load, a sign of the pressure on the sports industry from COVID-19, according to people familiar with the matter. Sinclair subsidiary Diamond Sports Group’s bondholders have hired legal and financial advisers as it deals with the dearth of live sports during the coronavirus pandemic and the loss of some carriage deals with pay TV distributors.
