I remember watching Sports Time Ohio as a kid. Those days were so much fun with a lot of great personalities, fans, and broadcasts. It was by Cleveland fans for Cleveland fans. It wasn’t until 10 years ago when Fox took over and ruined it, and it wouldn’t be until eight years later when Bally killed it. It’s a crying shame that we’ll never get to have a local sports network quite like STO ever again
@@jluchette yeah. I grew up to be friends with Chuck Galetti’s son. We still talk with each other even though he goes to Ohio University and I go to BW
That sounds amazing. You guys have an awesome fan culture for your teams. Being able to get it in television if you can't make the game must have been wonderful. We used to have TBS and SportSouth for baseball but Fox and Bally happened.
One thing to keep in mind about the NHL is that almost a quarter (seven) of the franchises are in Canada, and an eighth is Colorado (Altitude Sports). The Canada market will largely be unscathed, because regional rights are owned by Sportsnet or TSN, and Sportsnet is the national provider up here. I believe that consistency will help the league somewhat.
Yeah but their streaming solution is a nightmare up there. Go through r/nhl or r/hockey I guarantee you will find one or more posts saying how they’re blacked out from watching their team on SN Now because of some BS reason.
hold your horses...u can see Rogers got problems..they didn't use their number one crew last night in Edmonton. And next season is the last season for HNIC on CBC,
The Mariners own ROOT Sports. Which also carries the NHL's Kraken and NBA's Blazers. I wonder if the Kraken and Blazers will team up to take up the stake that AT&T will be relinquishing.
I hate that Bally Sports removes & relegate pro sports broadcasts to an app that's barely functional while airing poker on their cable feed. The TV listings on cable rarely reflect what's actually airing. This is especially bad when I want watch Kings/Ducks live but instead get Poker Night or infomercials.
Tree, this is why you’re one of the best on TH-cam. This whole situation is utterly fascinating yet startling yet you nailed it all in a concise manner.
Makes me wonder how the Bally casino and resort in Vegas is still alive? Also, here at work, we have Bally gaming and those machines almost always go down.
@@djtrankilo231 the casino gaming division of Bally changed names a couple times. Now they’re called Light & Wonder. Before that they were Scientific Games.
Fox Sports Detroit baseball will still forever be extremely nostalgic for me, especially during the late 2000s and early to mid 2010s when my Tigers were fun to watch and I was getting into baseball 😔
I was just about to comment something similar to this. Those late 2000s-early 2010s Tigers were what got me into baseball as a whole, and where the Tigers went the Fox Sports Detroit jingle would follow. Good times.
Update: Amazon had bought the remaining rights to the Ballys Sports RSNs for a hefty price. Hell, even WWE’s flagship program RAW is moving to Netflix as of January 2025.
@@davidford3968 Yes, they have everything to do with it. All the NHL has to do is get on cheap streaming services like how the MLS got on Apple, but without blackouts.
I remember the days when I could watch the Bulls, Blackhawks, White Sox and Cubs on WGN for free when they didn’t air on RSNs. Those were simple times, and I miss those days. The fall of RSNs was bound to happen, given that not a single person wants to waste money just to watch their favorite teams’ games on cable TV nowadays
@@seand1011 Not only that, myself growing into my teens and my dad were able to watch Bulls (the 2nd three-peat 96-98) games from Barbados. Back then it was a BIG deal with WGN broadcasting to countries outside the U.S.
Bally is quite annoying out here like they have so many teams under their belt (which might harm the Kings and Ducks for a few years and possibly damage the Angels and Clippers even further)
@@gbalph4 I wonder if Spectrum could somehow swoop in to expand their Sportsnet LA to include all the Bally teams. It might be worth it to them if the rights are much cheaper off the Bally collapse
I've come to realize that I have taken growing up with the New York sports market very much for granted, in terms of the sheer market size and the real inability to truly "fail". Like it took me until college to even understand what a smaller sports market looked like, like Kansas City or Green Bay, for example.
That's the thing.. The leagues need to be greatly retracted if they want any chance of the whole thing not going bankrupt. The rich teams have been forced to subsidize the small markets, despite objection, to prop up the league and project the image of strength/growth to keep their franchise value constantly rising via speculation. That's the scam and being unable to show financial weakness has lead the underlying problem of insufficient revenue for most markets getting to the point we're at now where the support structure is rapidly collapsing. The NHL is the closest to collapse, MLB not far behind, NBA and NFL may survive if they address it in time. I'm not super optimistic that player unions will be reasonable enough to accept huge cuts to save the leagues, but extended lockouts may have to force it.
Man I remember the 90s when we had The Sunshine Network in Florida. It was the only local provider for our basketball and hockey teams. Other than live sports they showed a lot of fishing shows, golf content, high school football and basketball games, and even the local college teams sometimes. All the content was about stuff going on in Florida and felt very personal in retrospect. The RSNs had a good run but they will be replaced eventually by something better. Hopefully there isn't too much pain in the meantime.
I fondly remember Marlins games on Sunshine Fox Sports Florida. I've always loved the Maroone Call to the Bullpen and the horrible acting of Marlins players in Tobacco Free Florida commercials
@@RatedRMario21 I love the Maroonie Call to the Bullpen! 😂 I would hear it whenever I saw a Marlins game anytime the MLB Extra Innings package had a free trial.
When I was in college, me and four other guys rented a house. We ordered Primestar satellite services and it had about all the re gional sports networks. NESN, MSG, and many others. We also got to watch local news from other cities, too.
Being a Braves fan, TBS (and later TunerSouth) was great. You could tell time and care was put into the broadcasts. It felt unique and you had great commentators. Once the Braves left TBS I knew it would never be the same and now here we are, with the corporate stooges killing themselves one by one
Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren announced my childhood. I died inside when the Braves left TBS and my local market dared to try and make me a Nationals fan.
Perhaps Liberty Media, who owns the Braves, will pick up the broadcasting duties. Hence they will own the franchise, the ballpark, the surrounding commercial businesses and the parking along with broadcasting rights.
@@ThugShiTzu Just like Rogers does with the Blue Jays. They own the team, the ballpark, the broadcaster, the mobile services, and the Internet backbone for much of their viewers. If people cut cable Rogers still has them.
@@Pensfan5919I wouldn’t hold your breath on that happening, especially with Fenway deciding they need to go cheap as well. Maybe selling Liverpool will help.
As my two preferred sports teams are both on Bally, I know I’m fucked. Thank you Tree for an even headed analysis looking at the multiple sides of this debacle. Even in a serious and sad topic, you put a positive note in my day.
Dropped cable years ago and ever since then I have been patiently waiting for the Blues and Cardinals to offer me a way to stream their stuff without blackouts. Looked into Bally plus but from what i read it was trash and didn't work well at all.
I honestly wish the Cards and Blues can either buy some shares of Bally Sports Midwest or start their own network. Maybe involve St. Louis City, too so no one subscribes to Apple TV.
@@djtrankilo231 I fucking hated the idea of all MLS games on Apple TV. As an Android user, how am I supposed to watch my Quakes tank for the number 1 pick.
@@djtrankilo231 Blues and Cardinals will start their own RSN, likely. Blues in particular got screwed on their RSN deal so they may be a team that makes more on streaming in connection with the Cardinals. I fully expect that RSN to be available online.
This is interesting and didn’t know the struggles a lot of regional broadcasts have. As someone in NY I feel the local networks here aren’t really struggling at all
Cord cutting. Every time someone cancels cable that is lost revenue. SNY, MSG and YES make living of taking money from people who don't care about sports. Only 100 or 200 thousand people really watch out of millions
I used to work in Master Control for the Fox/Bally RSNs. I thought this was a very good summation of the situation. Only one additional piece of info is a change that happened when they left Fox and went to Sinclair. When they were with Fox they had extra leverage that when negotiating carriage deals they would be bundled with other properties such as Fox News, FS1, FX, Nat Geo and maybe the local affiliate as well. Sinclair never had that leverage which explains why the decline has been so sharp imo.
Might be worth noting that the Boston and New York teams are pretty alright. The Red Sox and Bruins own a share of NESN, and that’s a stable local network in a sports obsessed area. The Yankees own YES while the Mets are tied in with SNY. MSG also has the Rangers and Devils in fine enough position. These teams are fortunate to operate in big enough and sports obsessed enough areas that they’ll be ok on their own local networks, but it seems like they may be relics of a bygone era.
But what happens with the Celtics? They could go the team-run broadcast route, but if they wanted to still be regional, WSBK would be the only option without spending much and even then that seems like a short term fix from a financial perspective
Watching CSN Bay Area a decade ago when the Giants were making all their WS runs was some of the most fun sports broadcasting i've ever seen. They would hire all the retired Giants and A's players so you knew they knew what they were talking about even if they didn't have HoF careers. They'd regularly shout out the 49ers whose games they weren't even broadcasting and hilariously, on slower news days, they would occassionally show some love to the Sacramento Kings out of a sense of NorCal unity.
NBC Bay Area and NBC California (Who were once CSN a while back) are still my favorite RSN's, mostly due to local bias haha. You got iconic voices (e.g. Hahn, Fitz, the Kuiper brothers) and a whole host of former players who show a lot of passion for the teams in The Bay. So glad that NBC RSN's have been relatively unscathed, with the exception of NBC Washington which was purchased by Ted Leonsis. The Bay Area, Chicago, and Philadelphia are relatively lucky compared to those under Bally and AT&T
As a Detroiter it feels like this is something that was a long time coming. Things especially came to a head when Sinclair bought out Fox Sports Network and turned it into Bally as well as our local Fox affiliate which led to a lot of attrition of talent from that station and network. It really feels like it's gonna hurt our local teams more than a lot of other markets because of how tied to Bally the Tigers, Red Wings and Pistons are.
On one hand, all three teams have low salaries compared to the rest of the league and one owner is among the richest in both of his leagues. The bad news is that owner is Chris Ilitch.
Leagues should have their own streaming apps, and all the games on them for a season price. Cut out the middle man. No blackouts. And at a price where everyone will get their app. You'll get more people if you keep the price good.
I’ve always thought one app all games whenever they are on. Monthly subscription priced at like $7.99 would be incredible. The price seems low, but with all these streaming services people don’t want to pay a ton for one sport and with a smaller price more people would subscribe. They could add older games to watch and a no ads for a higher price
@@ninjasavage9875 It's a little bit more expensive than that, but that's essentially what the NFL has done on top of their normal broadcasting. It can't be *that* difficult for teams to be able to sell a stream of all their games as a portion of an available package where you can stream each and every game. To me, it only makes sense. If you want to see your favorite team play, buy your team's package, nice and easy! It makes too much sense compared to the addled brains of cable executives
YES is really difficult to get without cable, the Amazon buy-in changed nothing except 20 or so Yankee games. Bally Sports' parent company is also a huge stakeholder in that network.
There was nothing like seeing the Cubs, Sox, and Bulls all on WGN growing up. (Before the Hawks joined that station, they wouldn'teven show home games.) NBC Sports Chicago's good, but it just isn't the same. Turning on channel 9 and catching a weekend game felt like a big event! Good times!
the olden days of going to a family house on a weekend for a aunt's birthday and the tv have the cubs, harry carry singing "take me out to the ball game" will always be the golden era of the 7th inning strech, and no celeb guest or recording can replace it.
@@Knightblade87 Until the Brewers got on an RSN, the Cubs and White Sox are what I would watch, and I still have a deep love for the Sox. So many summers with the Hawk or Harry and just taking in that atmosphere on channel 9...it was the best.
As a broadcaster of three teams ranging from U18 and major junior hockey, it’s a shame to see our industry taking such a large nosedive. TV and radio are so integral for fans who can’t afford to attend games or straight up can’t. While radio isn’t as strong as it once was, it’s still large for certain markets and hopefully goes untouched. While I enjoy my dream job, I fear for the future of broadcasting in the future for myself and colleagues. I hope that leagues see the value in broadcasting and will keep fans connected to the sport(s) they love affordably and properly.
I actually prefer to listening to games on the radio. You get to use your imagination about what the announcers are describing and very little to no "woke" stuff to look at or listen to.
@@jamesbednar8625 And that’s why I feel us radio commentators do things best. Broadcasting is like an art: you’re painting a picture for your audience and you have to pay attention to every detail. Radio is far more important than people think it is.
My only hope is that the Astros broadcast team is still able to call games. Geoff Blum, Todd Kalas and Julia Morales have been absolutely amazing to have call this era of Astros baseball and it would suck to not have them in this new landscape.
I still remember when Comcast screwed up the launch of that network so badly it had to be rescued after a year...funny that it's back in the same boat it was in 2013.
The fascinating thing with RSNs is that when you look at Canadian franchises, they seem relatively protected. Rogers might be a monopolistic, borderline-Succession-esque nightmare of a company, but they're major shareholders owning MLSE, which owns the Raptors and Maple Leafs, with RSN protection for the Flames, Oilers, and Canucks, as well as nationally televised Blue Jays games. The sister network TSN (owned by Labatt) has RSN protection for the Leafs as well, as well as the Senators, Jets, and Canadiens. In both cases, Canadian sports are so backed by massive corps adjacent to sports (or are outright owned by them) that they can weather the sting of RSN contraction, as well as have so much of the internal infrastructure to run their own broadcasts. It's surprising when you see the hodgepodge in the US... but then you also remember that Canadian sports audiences are on average smaller than certain US markets outside of Toronto, and higher covid restrictions put a serious dent in revenue the past few years. So a built in disadvantage but longer-term organizational stability? Would you take that instead of the overleveraged nightmare of buyouts stateside?
@@marcus813 serves me right for relying on an outdated wiki. But the point stands in being protected by telecom megacorps rather than overleveraged providers
MSLE is also owned by Bell (who owns TSN) Bell and Rogers actually have equal shares in MSLE but Rogers gets the majority of the games for the leafs and raptors and of course all games for Blue Jays. It’s honestly rather interesting to see how the monopoly Bell and Rogers have up here for TV Sports Broadcasting is actually helping us avoid this problem.
Even in Canada they died a while ago. TSN was the first and only network in the 80's until the late 90's when CTV (Bell) formed Sportsnet with SN Pacific, West, Ontario, and East. Each had their own studios in each time zone, with dedicated anchors and personalities. Then a decade later Rogers buys them, consolidates them in Toronto, and essentially just creates another National network where the only split is each individual team's rights. It'd be like if both ESPN and Fox Sports (unless there's a larger network that's slipping my mind) were both in NYC and spent 50% of their time talking only NYC sports. Wish there was an Altitude/MSG in every city.
It also means our teams don't get much personality when it comes to commentating. For example, Toronto has Joe Bowen who most of us fans have wanted to do the TV broadcasts for a while but because Toronto uses a National feed, he's stuck doing the local radio (and still does great at it) I'm sure it's similar for other cities too, though I will say gord Miller does a great job especially when split between Leafs and Sens games
@@ppolow man, that would be cool... but Canada has some market limitations that the US doesn't have. Amount of major markets. And I don't know if canadian law allow for that kind of thing.
Dude, streaming is getting out of hand too. TH-cam TV hits us with an increase, then we lose the Mets network SNY here in NYC starting today. Streaming just picked up cable's slack.
@@mbdeuceduece4451 It's no wonder why my Phoenix Suns left Bally Sports Arizona to the more widely known Arizona's Family network of channels in 3TV, CBS5, and even a new channel created in Channel 44. Of course, they also got Kiswe doing an app thing for streaming purposes...
I had no idea that RSN was struggling like crazy in recent years. I thought Bally Sports just started back in 2020, broadcasting NBA games and NHL games for the 2020-21 season. I had no idea they were bleeding cash to the extent that Tree explained in the video. Quite sad honestly. I await the chaos that will come in the near future.
The only way for a regional broadcast to survive is for it to have the support of the teams it broadcasts(NESN) or be under a massive media umbrella(Sportsnet and TSN/RDS) otherwise they’re doomed. In essence, either be an extension of the teams or be an extension of the national broadcast. They can no longer survive on their own merits For the Canadian teams, they won’t even feel this shift, their rights are owned by either Bell or Rogers. This applies to all major sports. The collapse will only impact them indirectly through the pain and suffering of the American teams.
Am I the only one who thinks the MLS model is the future? For the NHL, it seems so obvious, especially given that Amazon wants to get in to live sports.
@@tehbeernerd What _is_ the MLS broadcast model? A quick mention of that (and reference to the NFL's "model") is the only thing lacking in this vid. Tree wouldn't even need to explain how it would carry over to the other league; let us figure that out for ourselves. But we have to know _what_ that model is to know how (or whether) it could apply.
This is why me as an Auto Racing fan appreciates the fact that our big series have One Contract, and that the smaller series can be on streaming sites. We used to have tracks negotiate deals, but in 2001, NASCAR ended that mistake, and now all the races are on the same network week to week.
My sentiments exactly. Even as someone who didn't take an interest in anything that wasn't motorsports until recently, I can still feel the pain of those who rely on RSNs (example: my dad whose a lifelong Braves fan) but at the same time, can't say they were something I paid too much attention to. Unlike NASCAR & IndyCar, baseball & basketball weren't something I'd go outta my way to watch, but they'd almost always be on the living room TV during dinner (open concept ftw) which is why I still have fond memories of those like Skip Caray and the final season at Turner Field, and headaches from that damn Truist advertisement. Until recently when I gave hockey a try and developed a passion for the Maple Leafs, I never had to worry about blackouts or begging my parents to subscribe to a premium sports package because hey, NASCAR is always on some sort of basic cable channel, right? Now, if I'll be gone on game night, I always gotta double check to see if I can watch the my team's VOD replay on ESPN+ after a long, boring night of working retail.
The way Comcast vs. Altitude has sabotaged The Colorado Avalanche during their cup win and beyond deserves a whole video tbh. A perfect case study of how the NHL squanders it’s potential for growth through brand recognition of its stars and markets
As an Avs fan who had xfinity and could only watch the playoff games that season, it sucked. I got directv so that I could watch all their games but now altitude might not be around anyways but who knows.
As a long-time NHL fan, I am concerned about what this does for them longterm. They have struggled to grow the game under Bettman and this makes it worse
Because nothing says your league is strong like most of the teams losing money, falling further and further behind the other major leagues and nearly getting killed by covid.
@@ElmerFudd16 Ironically the same reason they were so badly hit by covid is the one thing they have going for them with the RSN issues: their revenue is more gate-driven than the NFL/MLB/NBA. The TV money is only maybe 25%-35% of revenue, and the national and Canadian TV money should be fine for now.
Old school FSN Pittsburgh and STO are my jam. I miss the Sports Report and Final Score. Got me into hockey and college sports more than the national coverage ever did.
You called it. "Diamond Sports Group, the Sinclair subsidiary that controls the regional sports networks for 42 teams across Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association, announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday night, three days before the end of a 30-day grace period it entered into with creditors." - ESPN
If I’m not mistaken, those have been a thing since the MLB first went on TV in the 1950’s. Back then, channels were probably granted exclusive rights so there would be a game on that specific station in a market I’m guessing.
MLB blackout restrictions are insane. I straddle the markets of Atlanta and Houston. There's been times both teams are blacked out, even on local broadcast like someone in South Mississippi is supposed to drive to Atlanta or Houston to see the game. This used to happen frequently with the Saints, but the NFL changed blackout rules IIRC and the Saints haven't failed to pretty much fill the Dome in years.
MLB isn't going to do anything on that front until they get out of their existing contracts. It's not that they are refusing to, it is that they can't while the contracts are still in place.
@@fortynights1513 You’re partially correct-back then a network (usually CBS) would get the All-Star Game, the World Series, and the national Game of the Week. Individual teams didn’t get their own contracts with the networks. On the other hand, the MLB has a strong streaming service that the teams can jump over to. In the long term this is just another nail in the coffin for cable television.
When I was a kid living in Minnesota, almost every week I would get a Minnesota Wild or Timberwolves game on channel 45. When I grew older and learned that those games had been moved to cable/ppv, I was quite disappointed.
I remember watching Raycom/Jefferson Pilot Sports as a kid for Duke basketball. It was nice to just turn on your standard over the air TV, flip to your local cbs fox or nbc affiliate, and they would switch over for the game. Great for me, who never had cable growing up.
The fact that Root Sports NW has team ownership (Mariners, Trail Blazers, possibly even Kraken) might cushion the blow when dealt by Warner Discovery (blame the Discovery part), but still, it does put perspective on why streaming services require cable providers. But my question still lingers: Isn't the whole point of going to a streaming service BECAUSE you ditched your cable provider?
I would love legislation to come into play that removes all possibility on regional viewing restrictions. Let fans tune into the games that they want and stop forcing streaming packages down their throats. Not that anyone actually pays for those anyway.
Man, I miss the old days of SportsChannel America, the various regional SportsChannel networks, and Prime Sports. They had some solid, syndicated sports programming, as well as the major sports leagues and various minor sports leagues.
I remember when teams would show their games on local stations. Like my Rockets and Astros would play what was then UPN now the My Network. And when the Braves would play all their games on TBS. And when WGN would show all the Bulls, Cubs and White Sox games. And you didn’t even need to be in Atlanta or Chicago to watch them.
SportsChannel America was good for the hockey fan in a market where it was available. You basically got every team that was on one of the SCA channels, like the Islanders, Devils, Hartford Whalers, Black Hawks, etc. I even remember the San Jose Sharks being one of their teams when the Sharks first came into the league.But their range was very limited and it wasn't available in most of the US, so if you were in a non-SCA market, you didn't get to watch hockey.
@@CatholicTraditional When I had Dish Network back in the day, KWGN was a superstation as well and showed the Rockies games as well. Back then you could get all of the "superstations" on satellite tv since they were the first one (before DirecTV) to offer your local stations on the dish. DirecTV did offer the national (NY/LA affiliate feeds) before letting one get their local affiliates.
@@frankg.2949 Yes, pre-smart TVs, 📡 providers had several local abc, CBS, NBC, & FOX affiliates on them, so you could watch local news from another city.
Keep up the great work. You have help me get into football basketball and baseball over the past 4 years I have been watching you. You never miss on a video and are a one of a kind no one can replicate. I hope you are going nowhere and can keep on making videos we all love watching
I’m an Iowan and for years it was very difficult to be able to watch Cubs games because of blackouts. But thanks to streaming, its 1000x easier to watch my favorite teams. And for teams out of my market anyways, since I’m a Broncos and Golden Knights fan, too.
Great analysis tree!!! This has been a long time coming and the public will be seeing only the tip of the iceberg. I do see this affecting national rights as much as local rights. The days of the media paying huge sums of money to broadcast sports is coming to an end, even the NFL (due to other more concerning problems such as loss of quality of play.) The big question is how players are going to accept the end of the mega salaries because the economics are no longer going to support them.
I think that for short term, national rights will get more value, specially they will get more games than before I wouldnt be suprised if MLB had got another right for more National games instead of local games alongside the end of lockout
I remember when FSN Bay Area switched to CSN back in 2008, and it seemed like an immediate improvement in production value. My prediction is that we will see something like what MLS and Apple TV have done--the leagues (or in some cases, individual teams) will produce the broadcasts like what Tree was saying at 7:01.
I think that's how they'll do it once Bally and AT&T go belly-up. Methinks CSN (now NBC) will still remain unscathed for a while, even tho they lost Washington. So The Bay Area, Philadelphia, and Chicago will be ok. NY and Boston-based RSN's (NESN, YES, MSG, SNY) will be ok as well, especially since they're mostly owned by the teams IIRC. We'll also see a lot more team-owned networks. Denver and Washington seem to be doing that rn.
I don’t know if I mentioned this earlier, but I think they need to start airing games on local independent stations again. I used to live in the Bay Area and Giants games used to air on KTVU channel 2, which is now a Fox owned and operated station. And I used to get mad when they preempted Animaniacs and Power Rangers for it. They also need to bring back cartoons after school and on Saturday mornings, but that’s another story.
Bally sports has been a bane on the ACC because often my friends can’t watch the game because most college students don’t have cable and just some streaming platform. I think they overestimated people wanting to subscribe to see their local teams rather than just watching something else or finding different ways to watch it.
When Bally Sports bought out Fox Sports, was praying they would introduce a streaming plan which gave you access to all Bally Sports channels. Don't know what goes through these board members' heads. Hell just give me the option to watch two or three other Bally Sports channels.
The only way out for the NHL is to renegotiate the CBA. I'm pretty sure the owners will argue to lower the salary cap. There are only so many digital ads you can plaster on-screen until it becomes overwhelming. It's already drove many fans away. Major league sports have been overvalued for years, it's time it reflects the actual viewership numbers. There will be short term pain and possibly another lockout. But its the only way.
I cut the cord a decade ago and this debacle with RSNs pushed me squarely away from baseball and hockey into the arms of football. This change has been long coming and is sorely needed. Please get rid of the middle man leaches that are RSNs and let these leagues sell to me directly. Although, as a St. Louis fan whos teams relied heavily on the revenue from Bally Sports... I guess I'm going to have to deal with at least a few years of pain. The Blues are giving me a preview of what that's going to look like already...
In my life time, I've seen Phillies, Flyers and 76ers games locally on WTXF-29, WPHL-17, WPSG-57, PRISM, Sports Channel Philadelphia, Comcast Sports Net, and NBC Sports Philly (sure the last two are one and the same), and looking back it's amazing to see how some things evolved
Stars fan in Colorado ESPN+ unless DAL-CO on the schedule or Stars are playing on NHL, then it’s blacked out. I can watch DAL-CO w/Stars broadcast if I toggle my VPN Yeah, it’s criminal that the Avs & Nuggets are blacked out locally. They give the locals a respite from the Rockies and Broncos
An interesting video for sure. Growing up in Baltimore, MASN for the Orioles/Nats and NBC Sports Washington for the DC teams were the two local RSNs I've had the most experience with. We'll see how this plays out in the near future.
Tree, I love all your videos for the uniqueness it brings to the sports world but the thing that makes me smile the most is the OSTs you add in the background. A Walk In The Woods is my favorite song from Halo and it made me so unexplainably happy to hear that in a video talking about regional sports channels dying. Never stop adding them, they're fantastic.
one of the only issues with everything going to streaming (which I'm in favor of) is that so many services have a higher aggregate price compared to cable, so it's a dilemma deciding between cable being cheaper but not having all the channels that sports fans need to watch all their teams.
To be fair, in the early to mid 1990’s what’s known today as an RSN was sold by the cable company as an a la carte, premium add-on channel which was optional. That is the way it should always have been, and should be today. The only reason it came to this is because FOX had the leverage to hold their News and Entertainment programming hostage in order to extract high fees for the RSN channels they operated. Now that Bally Sports is basically an independent broadcaster, they have no other properties to hold hostage when it comes to the cable and satellite providers who are no longer willing to pay the high fees they were forced to accept when FOX was the ownership.
I love your use of the Sonic CD soundtrack late in this video. I'm so glad that MLS took the deal it did, I was a bit worried initially but it was nearly impossible for me to watch my team on Bally Sports Kansas City (through legal means) in the past few years, and the resulting product on Apple TV has been very good so far. Whatever happens, I hope it's just easier to watch the Royals going forward than it has been on such a restrictive deal.
While this will be a major loss to local broadcasters and A/V jobs (breaking that gateway into TV is going to hurt the industry from that standpoint), I am still pretty excited to get rid of some of these institutions that have behind the times for way too long. As a cord cutter watching local sports has been a major pain, and a major reason my family held on to cable as long as they did. A future were I can watch live sports online will be a big boon to me and others. That said, I live in MASN territory, so I figure I will be the absolute last one to get a affordable, accessible way to watch my local teams. :(
The 6 clubs here in Florida that are in MLB, the NBA and the NHL are aligned with Bally Sports Florida and Bally Sports Sun. I'm most worried about the Rays and Marlins because they're gonna start their regular seasons soon and I'm not sure how their broadcasts will be handled by the 2nd quarter of 2023.
Given that Bally Sports’ parent company is good buddies with the FL Gov, perhaps they could work out some sort of sweetheart deal as a way to “own the libs”?
I Loved watching the Rangers and Mavs on Fox Sports Southwest with my dad as a kid. Great moments caught with those networks with great personalities and moments from when the rangers were actually good (2009-2014) and when the mavs were on their 2011 run.
I don’t care that they’re a local company to my area. Anything sports related Sinclair Broadcasting Group touches and handles is left to be neglected and die. See the short-lived American Sports Network (ASN) as a prime example.
I remember being so excited when NESN would do free promo months on cable as a kid, so I could watch the Sox on channel 51. We really do live in a completely different world now.
I grew up in New England and I’ve just now realized I’m so lucky that the teams have had shares of NESN and NBC Sports Boston for years now the Red Sox especially own a majority of NESN
Player salaries, ticket prices, franchise values, commercial time, broadcast rights, stadium construction, and cable prices have all been in lockstep moving exponentially upward for the past 20+ years. One of these was bound to hit a brick wall at some point. It turns out the weak link was cable. Non-sports viewers have been subsidizing sports through cable fees and the jig is up. What happens when RSN money disappears from team ledgers and teams cannot pay player salaries?
Weak teams that don't draw at the gate will die. I don't think too many people in many markets will pay a monthly streaming fee. Other than the NFL, the other leagues are in for a lot of pain. The cable bundle is dying
@@msisles6278 Even strong teams will be in trouble if the product is not available to a wide audience. Broadcasts are by definition, well... broad. If your audience can only see a product if they pay x dollars a month, you won't get any new eyeballs. Kids will never see your sport and the fan base will continue to grow older and fade away. Streaming may be a stop gap solution to recover some lost RSN revenue, but there needs to be a better effort to get free games out into the world.
Now the first domino has fallen. The Padres have told Bally Sports to fuck off, and the MLB will be making their own broadcast for the indefinite future.
I cannot help but feel bad about the possible end of what used to be KBL. KBL started out as having a broadcast day of only six or seven hours. Man, I loved SportsBeat with Stan Savran and Guy Junker. I remember the Porch Tours. There was Talkin' Bucs and the Penguins had a similar call in show aftet games. SportsBeat on Monday nights after a Steeler game with Tunch Ilkin were not to be missed. Tunch was fantastic. KBL started doing the WPIAL football championship games after Thanksgiving. Side note - in Portage County, Ohio, well within the Cleveland media market, the TCI cable system carried KBL, but not Sports Channel Ohio. The viewer resopne to KBL there was phenomenal. Briefly. KBL was taken off and the phones rang off the hook complaining about it.
Fun story; my mom called in while she was in college the night before the expansion draft for Anaheim and Florida. She called in front of Stan and Guy that Florida's first pick would be Beezer. Saying that he was too old for the Rags to keep in order to hang on in the Patrick Division.
As a person who has worked in broadcast sports (cameraman and Graphics operator for WNBA and NCAA), the best course of action for the teams is to take over in stadium production and sell their broadcast rights to whoever wants it, most likely streaming services. Most Stadiums and Arenas have dedicated broadcast crews for in stadium work (the stuff you see on jumbotrons). The NCAA already does this in most instances (large schools and especially Football usually have separate crews) but without RSNs there's no reason to double up the crew just have a single feed sent to 2 places.
I'll say this. During the pandemic for every game, the Golden Knights had a stream of the jumbotron feed on their team Twitch channel that you could watch to follow along with on radio. Why not just do that if you're someone who shows the game on the jumbotron like the Penguins or Panthers?
I have felt sports networks were dying ever since The Mountain Network back in mid-to-late 2000s. It was a network for MWC teams, but it was a channel that almost no one had. It affected me, a Utes fan, the most. I used to be able to watch some Utes games on KJZZ, which the Jazz used to play on. Then the Mtn Network came, and it went to hell. One of the more important Utah-BYU game was aired on this network, and at that time, I hadn’t heard of streaming. So I had to go to someone’s house to watch the game. This was between 11-0 Utah and 10-1 BYU. And they couldn’t even get a good network. That is when I felt sports networks were going to fall. Now the Pac-12 network sucks, but it is only slightly better than Mtn network, and this time, at least I know about streaming. I’m not lucky with the Jazz, though. I love them, but I am too busy to stream 82 Jazz games.
Times like these I’m glad I’m watching from Europe. Yes, watching the west coast live is terrible if you try to sleep on a healthy schedule. But than again, most all of the NHL is covered under one, admittedly expensive, license with the ability to rewatch
When I was a CSR for Dish Network, RSNs were pushed heavily as our answer for not offering some of the major sports services like NFL Network. You can imagine as an NFL fan my dignity slowly die pitching college football to the likes of Packers or Steelers fans.
It makes complete sense. I don't see how you can pay so much to players in the other sports leagues that isn't the NHL (despite its lower overall revenues, I think the NHL's player wages are about right).
Very good explainer video Tree! I'm a camera guy in sports video production, and this has been on my boss' radar since October. The quickest solution for leagues to make sure their sports are seen is to pay for everything for a year and broadcast games on their league owned websites. They'll probably outsource individual game production to whatever broadcast production unions/companies will bite; while they negotiate with various streaming platforms for a deal. There's way too much competition on streaming for leagues to think they'll get the same RSN type money; but it'll ensure their sports will survive.
RSN's are why I've had to turn to unsavory means just to watch baseball/hockey as I'm a cord cutter, but MLB/NHL just want to refuse me giving them money directly to watch my local teams.
"everything will be done to make sure you can watch their games"....unless you're a hockey fan. We're already dealing with blackouts, terrible scheduling, the least user friendly interface on streaming platforms I've ever seen and regional rights issues that mean your account is useless when you travel. That could be its own video
this is a bit weird, cause as an avs fan this is where im happy we have kronke. He created and owns altitude and im so thankful for that channel. it has our own character and personalities. the death of peter mcnabb crushed me. and i miss him every time i turn on an avs game. it just isnt the same w/o him. yes there is the blackouts (go to school in oregon so im not affected and if you are get a vpn its not that hard) but we dont have to deal with the bull shit of bally sports
Even with all the blackouts and such, I'm happy to have a regional channel instead of NBC Sports Denver or Bally or Sportsnet or something. Comcast is continuing the blackout because they're practically trying to force Altitude into becoming part of NBC. I need Chris Marlowe and Scott Hastings when I watch Nuggets games. Basically none of this would be a problem if comcast wasn't basically the only show in town, and if teams could do direct to consumer streaming.
Peter McNabb was on when I was a kid, and the Avs were on RSN Rocky Mountain before Kroenke even owned the team. Altitude is a great example of why team ownership doesn't work. I believe it's close to 90% of the Denver metrro area does not have access to Altitude. Kroenke owning Altitude has actually been worse than an RSN, although it's not all Korenke's fault.
As someone who still has a cable box in his household and for whom the sounds of the YES Network are a near-nightly occurrence during the baseball season (my dad and I are Yankees fans), this is an interesting topic from my perspective. The Yankees themselves have the majority stake in the Network, and it makes me wonder if, were the cable version to go under, would a YES Network streaming service develop? And if so, what would that mean for the smaller teams that air their games on the Network, like New York FC and the WNBA's New York Liberty? The marching on of technology into the future causes the ripple effects no one seems to comprehend until they're swamped by the tidal wave.
I think another interesting question to ask is that if RSNs do get replaced by other alternatives, what happens to the broadcasting crews for these networks? Do they commentate for whatever alternative is given to their team or do they just have to find a job with one of the National networks?
Something about seeing games that you couldn't in other places outside your house felt somewhat more "connected" and special. Even with the hurdles of trying to watch other games outside your market it always felt right seeing your local team playing with finding the time in your local newspaper. Even if I never got to experience the FULL ON raw experience of it since I grew up with modern technology, that felt like you were truly there watching your favorite team(s) or felt a bigger connection with them.
It's a deadly tightrope: Keep doing the same thing over and over and risk becoming stale or work on the topics you want to do and risk people wanting you to go back to what you were doing. There are so many ideas I want to get to, but you get caught in the grind of things like Sportsball. I really enjoyed doing this one, to be quite honest. Refreshing change of pace.
As a Hab fan living in Northern Ontario, regional games piss me off to no end. Especially when they are the only canadian team playing on a given night.
![ร้อยพ่อพันแม่ - WanMai [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XY2pNYASEbg/mqdefault.jpg)
I remember watching Sports Time Ohio as a kid. Those days were so much fun with a lot of great personalities, fans, and broadcasts. It was by Cleveland fans for Cleveland fans. It wasn’t until 10 years ago when Fox took over and ruined it, and it wouldn’t be until eight years later when Bally killed it. It’s a crying shame that we’ll never get to have a local sports network quite like STO ever again
I know! I have fond memories of STO as well
@@jluchette yeah. I grew up to be friends with Chuck Galetti’s son. We still talk with each other even though he goes to Ohio University and I go to BW
That sounds amazing. You guys have an awesome fan culture for your teams. Being able to get it in television if you can't make the game must have been wonderful. We used to have TBS and SportSouth for baseball but Fox and Bally happened.
@@spookyskeptic4978 yeah. We here in Cleveland feel your pain. The only problem with STO was that the Cavs weren’t on it
Did Cleveland leave Fox?
One thing to keep in mind about the NHL is that almost a quarter (seven) of the franchises are in Canada, and an eighth is Colorado (Altitude Sports). The Canada market will largely be unscathed, because regional rights are owned by Sportsnet or TSN, and Sportsnet is the national provider up here. I believe that consistency will help the league somewhat.
Yeah but their streaming solution is a nightmare up there. Go through r/nhl or r/hockey I guarantee you will find one or more posts saying how they’re blacked out from watching their team on SN Now because of some BS reason.
Washington will be just fine with NBC/Comcast selling to Ted so the teams will own the network
hold your horses...u can see Rogers got problems..they didn't use their number one crew last night in Edmonton. And next season is the last season for HNIC on CBC,
@@red6605 as a Caps fan, that's comforting.
The Mariners own ROOT Sports. Which also carries the NHL's Kraken and NBA's Blazers. I wonder if the Kraken and Blazers will team up to take up the stake that AT&T will be relinquishing.
I hate that Bally Sports removes & relegate pro sports broadcasts to an app that's barely functional while airing poker on their cable feed. The TV listings on cable rarely reflect what's actually airing. This is especially bad when I want watch Kings/Ducks live but instead get Poker Night or infomercials.
Tree, this is why you’re one of the best on TH-cam. This whole situation is utterly fascinating yet startling yet you nailed it all
in a concise manner.
Exactly why we love when he does these commentaries. He doesn't pull his punches, though in this case, RSNs are getting punched plenty as it is.
@@AngusArtEntertainment I think he doesn't even need to do so anymore, he's now doing more analyzing than that
Anyone that ever worked in gaming knew that anything Bally touches dies.
Ironically the OG Bally Pinball and Midway weren't their fault.
Makes me wonder how the Bally casino and resort in Vegas is still alive? Also, here at work, we have Bally gaming and those machines almost always go down.
And if you didn't know that, you're learning. The hard way.
They’re kinda like the American version of Konami.
@@djtrankilo231 the casino gaming division of Bally changed names a couple times. Now they’re called Light & Wonder. Before that they were Scientific Games.
TBS and WGN were such a gift for baseball and the Braves and Cubs
fx sports carried the reds oddly enough
WPIX still has the Mets tho.
I remember watching bruins games on WBSK
The Superstation days. WTBS & WGN. Talk about a blast from the past.
@@metsandjetsfan5174 grew up watching the Mets on WOR
Fox Sports Detroit baseball will still forever be extremely nostalgic for me, especially during the late 2000s and early to mid 2010s when my Tigers were fun to watch and I was getting into baseball 😔
Same. I didn’t know they got bought out by Ballsack until I saw it on a preseason game.
Those were the days with Mario and Rod, shame how it all ended
I was just about to comment something similar to this. Those late 2000s-early 2010s Tigers were what got me into baseball as a whole, and where the Tigers went the Fox Sports Detroit jingle would follow. Good times.
Same… except with Fox Sports KC for me
@@MPHtails yeah and their replacements definitely don't make me want to watch the broadcast lol
Update: Amazon had bought the remaining rights to the Ballys Sports RSNs for a hefty price.
Hell, even WWE’s flagship program RAW is moving to Netflix as of January 2025.
Didn't know about Amazon, interesting, reality has truly changed, USA Network is screwed
The NHL needs to get it together. So sick of this crap happening during the Avs' Cup contention window.
The league has nothing to do with this this is a Warner Brothers thing
@@davidford3968 Yes, they have everything to do with it. All the NHL has to do is get on cheap streaming services like how the MLS got on Apple, but without blackouts.
That or it’s Kroenke. When I’m doubt, blame Kroenke.
@@austinemms9772 I blame Kroenke, but I also blame the league for not mediating an agreement.
@Lelouch vi Britannia this why so many people illegal stream games now.
I remember the days when I could watch the Bulls, Blackhawks, White Sox and Cubs on WGN for free when they didn’t air on RSNs. Those were simple times, and I miss those days. The fall of RSNs was bound to happen, given that not a single person wants to waste money just to watch their favorite teams’ games on cable TV nowadays
As a kid from Kansas City, watching the Bulls on WGN were the days
WGN carried those games NATIONWIDE, too - I remember when I was a kid watching Cubs games almost on the regular.
@@seand1011 Not only that, myself growing into my teens and my dad were able to watch Bulls (the 2nd three-peat 96-98) games from Barbados. Back then it was a BIG deal with WGN broadcasting to countries outside the U.S.
💯
I’m guessing this may be a factor in why MJ was such a star. You didn’t have to be in Chicago to watch him nightly.
So glad you are talking about RSN.
Hated their new format to begin with and now they are paying the price.
Bally is quite annoying out here like they have so many teams under their belt (which might harm the Kings and Ducks for a few years and possibly damage the Angels and Clippers even further)
@@gbalph4 I wonder if Spectrum could somehow swoop in to expand their Sportsnet LA to include all the Bally teams. It might be worth it to them if the rights are much cheaper off the Bally collapse
@@scrub_jay I’m sure they probably are just waiting to basically complete the major leagues that aren’t the NFL or MLS. We shall see then.
Bally really shot themselves in the foot when they tried to overplay their hand with all the streaming platforms, they got yanked, and then very few
I've come to realize that I have taken growing up with the New York sports market very much for granted, in terms of the sheer market size and the real inability to truly "fail". Like it took me until college to even understand what a smaller sports market looked like, like Kansas City or Green Bay, for example.
That's the thing.. The leagues need to be greatly retracted if they want any chance of the whole thing not going bankrupt. The rich teams have been forced to subsidize the small markets, despite objection, to prop up the league and project the image of strength/growth to keep their franchise value constantly rising via speculation. That's the scam and being unable to show financial weakness has lead the underlying problem of insufficient revenue for most markets getting to the point we're at now where the support structure is rapidly collapsing. The NHL is the closest to collapse, MLB not far behind, NBA and NFL may survive if they address it in time. I'm not super optimistic that player unions will be reasonable enough to accept huge cuts to save the leagues, but extended lockouts may have to force it.
Man I remember the 90s when we had The Sunshine Network in Florida. It was the only local provider for our basketball and hockey teams. Other than live sports they showed a lot of fishing shows, golf content, high school football and basketball games, and even the local college teams sometimes. All the content was about stuff going on in Florida and felt very personal in retrospect. The RSNs had a good run but they will be replaced eventually by something better. Hopefully there isn't too much pain in the meantime.
I fondly remember Marlins games on Sunshine Fox Sports Florida. I've always loved the Maroone Call to the Bullpen and the horrible acting of Marlins players in Tobacco Free Florida commercials
@@RatedRMario21 I love the Maroonie Call to the Bullpen! 😂 I would hear it whenever I saw a Marlins game anytime the MLB Extra Innings package had a free trial.
When I was in college, me and four other guys rented a house. We ordered Primestar satellite services and it had about all the re gional sports networks.
NESN, MSG, and many others. We also got to watch local news from other cities, too.
Sunshine may be under the Diamond/Bally banner these days, but its still going. Florida fishing shows and everything.
Being a Braves fan, TBS (and later TunerSouth) was great. You could tell time and care was put into the broadcasts. It felt unique and you had great commentators. Once the Braves left TBS I knew it would never be the same and now here we are, with the corporate stooges killing themselves one by one
Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren announced my childhood. I died inside when the Braves left TBS and my local market dared to try and make me a Nationals fan.
Ironic, considering Ted Turner was among the first corporate owners
Perhaps Liberty Media, who owns the Braves, will pick up the broadcasting duties. Hence they will own the franchise, the ballpark, the surrounding commercial businesses and the parking along with broadcasting rights.
@@ThugShiTzu Just like Rogers does with the Blue Jays. They own the team, the ballpark, the broadcaster, the mobile services, and the Internet backbone for much of their viewers. If people cut cable Rogers still has them.
@@ThugShiTzu They could technically do it since Liberty Media also owns Formula One and F1 has its own subscription base service called F1TV
Growing up in Massachusetts we have NESN which covers a lot of the Bruins and Red Sox games. Moving away to another region entirely I really miss it
It is important to note that NESN is owned by both the Red Sox and Bruins.
@@SkiingBubo NESN will probably be how the Penguins get out of this too (same owners).
@@SkiingBubo didn't know that. I just figured it was a normal RSN that survived because of how big the market it
@@lorddalek Possibly, but that would mean FSG buying out AT&T Pittsburgh.
@@Pensfan5919I wouldn’t hold your breath on that happening, especially with Fenway deciding they need to go cheap as well. Maybe selling Liverpool will help.
As my two preferred sports teams are both on Bally, I know I’m fucked. Thank you Tree for an even headed analysis looking at the multiple sides of this debacle. Even in a serious and sad topic, you put a positive note in my day.
Dropped cable years ago and ever since then I have been patiently waiting for the Blues and Cardinals to offer me a way to stream their stuff without blackouts. Looked into Bally plus but from what i read it was trash and didn't work well at all.
Same here. Have to either use illegal streams or a VPN on a legit site to circumvent blackouts since bally took over for Fox here in Missouri.
I honestly wish the Cards and Blues can either buy some shares of Bally Sports Midwest or start their own network. Maybe involve St. Louis City, too so no one subscribes to Apple TV.
@@djtrankilo231 I fucking hated the idea of all MLS games on Apple TV. As an Android user, how am I supposed to watch my Quakes tank for the number 1 pick.
@@djtrankilo231 Blues and Cardinals will start their own RSN, likely. Blues in particular got screwed on their RSN deal so they may be a team that makes more on streaming in connection with the Cardinals. I fully expect that RSN to be available online.
This is interesting and didn’t know the struggles a lot of regional broadcasts have. As someone in NY I feel the local networks here aren’t really struggling at all
Same for me in New England
Well duh it's New York, you don't even know what a small market in sports is
Cord cutting. Every time someone cancels cable that is lost revenue. SNY, MSG and YES make living of taking money from people who don't care about sports. Only 100 or 200 thousand people really watch out of millions
same here in Baltimore with Masn i don't think masn isn't struggling since the orioles own masn
We'll all need Seat Geek in the future if the Regional TV sports goes belly up
Bought Rams tickets with SeatGeek worked pretty well
Or should you say Bally up? I'll see myself out.
@@sirekumasutra7022 I don't know whether to laugh or cringe
I used to work in Master Control for the Fox/Bally RSNs. I thought this was a very good summation of the situation. Only one additional piece of info is a change that happened when they left Fox and went to Sinclair. When they were with Fox they had extra leverage that when negotiating carriage deals they would be bundled with other properties such as Fox News, FS1, FX, Nat Geo and maybe the local affiliate as well. Sinclair never had that leverage which explains why the decline has been so sharp imo.
Might be worth noting that the Boston and New York teams are pretty alright. The Red Sox and Bruins own a share of NESN, and that’s a stable local network in a sports obsessed area. The Yankees own YES while the Mets are tied in with SNY. MSG also has the Rangers and Devils in fine enough position. These teams are fortunate to operate in big enough and sports obsessed enough areas that they’ll be ok on their own local networks, but it seems like they may be relics of a bygone era.
I actually was going to ask about NESN, so thanks for the info!
@@tonymuskrat1086 yeah, the Red Sox’ ownership group has an 80% share of NESN while the Bruins’ ownership group has a 20% share.
Don't forget MSG also having the Islanders and Sabers as well
But what happens with the Celtics? They could go the team-run broadcast route, but if they wanted to still be regional, WSBK would be the only option without spending much and even then that seems like a short term fix from a financial perspective
@@SpikeShooter92 Celtics have a 20% stake in NBC Sports Boston. So I think they’re fine in the short term
Watching CSN Bay Area a decade ago when the Giants were making all their WS runs was some of the most fun sports broadcasting i've ever seen. They would hire all the retired Giants and A's players so you knew they knew what they were talking about even if they didn't have HoF careers. They'd regularly shout out the 49ers whose games they weren't even broadcasting and hilariously, on slower news days, they would occassionally show some love to the Sacramento Kings out of a sense of NorCal unity.
NBC Bay Area and NBC California (Who were once CSN a while back) are still my favorite RSN's, mostly due to local bias haha.
You got iconic voices (e.g. Hahn, Fitz, the Kuiper brothers) and a whole host of former players who show a lot of passion for the teams in The Bay.
So glad that NBC RSN's have been relatively unscathed, with the exception of NBC Washington which was purchased by Ted Leonsis. The Bay Area, Chicago, and Philadelphia are relatively lucky compared to those under Bally and AT&T
The good ol days
Dish dropped both NBC sports channels due to the cost. Now it is an add on. Why pay for 3 hours of games and 21 hours of infomercials.
@@johnharris6655 And that's why I don't use Dish.
TH-cam TV thankfully has both NBC Channels
@@Pokemonmaster150b I will probably switch from Dish to TH-cam TV in the future.
As a Detroiter it feels like this is something that was a long time coming. Things especially came to a head when Sinclair bought out Fox Sports Network and turned it into Bally as well as our local Fox affiliate which led to a lot of attrition of talent from that station and network. It really feels like it's gonna hurt our local teams more than a lot of other markets because of how tied to Bally the Tigers, Red Wings and Pistons are.
On one hand, all three teams have low salaries compared to the rest of the league and one owner is among the richest in both of his leagues. The bad news is that owner is Chris Ilitch.
Remember fox had to sell the rsns because of their ill gotten deal with disney
Ik!! I Don’t wanna loose Ken or Mickey!
The programming was on a slow decline even before it changed to Bally
Leagues should have their own streaming apps, and all the games on them for a season price. Cut out the middle man. No blackouts. And at a price where everyone will get their app. You'll get more people if you keep the price good.
I've been wanting this for years. A la carte sports. I don't watch anything else on TV.
@@anthonysmela9975 neither do I. About the last genuine thing to watch. Escape from reality.
I’ve always thought one app all games whenever they are on. Monthly subscription priced at like $7.99 would be incredible. The price seems low, but with all these streaming services people don’t want to pay a ton for one sport and with a smaller price more people would subscribe. They could add older games to watch and a no ads for a higher price
@@ninjasavage9875 It's a little bit more expensive than that, but that's essentially what the NFL has done on top of their normal broadcasting. It can't be *that* difficult for teams to be able to sell a stream of all their games as a portion of an available package where you can stream each and every game. To me, it only makes sense. If you want to see your favorite team play, buy your team's package, nice and easy! It makes too much sense compared to the addled brains of cable executives
Major League Soccer did this with Apple TV
I’m glad I live in New York which has 3 great regional networks in MSG, SNY, and YES.
As an Islanders fan, I don’t even have to turn on the TV, I can just go on my computer or Phone to MSG GO sand just watch there
Same here.
YES is really difficult to get without cable, the Amazon buy-in changed nothing except 20 or so Yankee games. Bally Sports' parent company is also a huge stakeholder in that network.
GKR are the best in baseball
GKR are the best in baseball
There was nothing like seeing the Cubs, Sox, and Bulls all on WGN growing up. (Before the Hawks joined that station, they wouldn'teven show home games.) NBC Sports Chicago's good, but it just isn't the same. Turning on channel 9 and catching a weekend game felt like a big event! Good times!
the olden days of going to a family house on a weekend for a aunt's birthday and the tv have the cubs, harry carry singing "take me out to the ball game" will always be the golden era of the 7th inning strech, and no celeb guest or recording can replace it.
@@Knightblade87 Until the Brewers got on an RSN, the Cubs and White Sox are what I would watch, and I still have a deep love for the Sox. So many summers with the Hawk or Harry and just taking in that atmosphere on channel 9...it was the best.
As a broadcaster of three teams ranging from U18 and major junior hockey, it’s a shame to see our industry taking such a large nosedive.
TV and radio are so integral for fans who can’t afford to attend games or straight up can’t. While radio isn’t as strong as it once was, it’s still large for certain markets and hopefully goes untouched. While I enjoy my dream job, I fear for the future of broadcasting in the future for myself and colleagues.
I hope that leagues see the value in broadcasting and will keep fans connected to the sport(s) they love affordably and properly.
Radio's still convenient for when you're driving around or at home trying to get classwork done, but don't want a visual distraction.
All they need to do is put the games back on local TV like they used to be and they'd gain a lot more fans
I actually prefer to listening to games on the radio. You get to use your imagination about what the announcers are describing and very little to no "woke" stuff to look at or listen to.
@@jamesbednar8625 And that’s why I feel us radio commentators do things best. Broadcasting is like an art: you’re painting a picture for your audience and you have to pay attention to every detail.
Radio is far more important than people think it is.
@@TJM_PlayByPlay Agreed, and well typed.
It’s happening. Diamond just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Amazon saved the day
My only hope is that the Astros broadcast team is still able to call games. Geoff Blum, Todd Kalas and Julia Morales have been absolutely amazing to have call this era of Astros baseball and it would suck to not have them in this new landscape.
I still remember when Comcast screwed up the launch of that network so badly it had to be rescued after a year...funny that it's back in the same boat it was in 2013.
Their broadcast team is boring.
Todd kalas has been a god send. That clown they had calling games before with Geoff was unbearable, using the games as a time to talk the glory days
love todd kalas....miss him on rays games....we always knew he wasnt going to be here forever unless dwayne staats retired....
The fascinating thing with RSNs is that when you look at Canadian franchises, they seem relatively protected. Rogers might be a monopolistic, borderline-Succession-esque nightmare of a company, but they're major shareholders owning MLSE, which owns the Raptors and Maple Leafs, with RSN protection for the Flames, Oilers, and Canucks, as well as nationally televised Blue Jays games. The sister network TSN (owned by Labatt) has RSN protection for the Leafs as well, as well as the Senators, Jets, and Canadiens.
In both cases, Canadian sports are so backed by massive corps adjacent to sports (or are outright owned by them) that they can weather the sting of RSN contraction, as well as have so much of the internal infrastructure to run their own broadcasts. It's surprising when you see the hodgepodge in the US... but then you also remember that Canadian sports audiences are on average smaller than certain US markets outside of Toronto, and higher covid restrictions put a serious dent in revenue the past few years.
So a built in disadvantage but longer-term organizational stability? Would you take that instead of the overleveraged nightmare of buyouts stateside?
Bell (70%) and ESPN (30%) own TSN via their joint venture CTV Specialty Television. Labatt hasn't owned it in ages.
@@marcus813 serves me right for relying on an outdated wiki. But the point stands in being protected by telecom megacorps rather than overleveraged providers
MSLE is also owned by Bell (who owns TSN) Bell and Rogers actually have equal shares in MSLE but Rogers gets the majority of the games for the leafs and raptors and of course all games for Blue Jays.
It’s honestly rather interesting to see how the monopoly Bell and Rogers have up here for TV Sports Broadcasting is actually helping us avoid this problem.
Even in Canada they died a while ago. TSN was the first and only network in the 80's until the late 90's when CTV (Bell) formed Sportsnet with SN Pacific, West, Ontario, and East. Each had their own studios in each time zone, with dedicated anchors and personalities. Then a decade later Rogers buys them, consolidates them in Toronto, and essentially just creates another National network where the only split is each individual team's rights. It'd be like if both ESPN and Fox Sports (unless there's a larger network that's slipping my mind) were both in NYC and spent 50% of their time talking only NYC sports. Wish there was an Altitude/MSG in every city.
It also means our teams don't get much personality when it comes to commentating. For example, Toronto has Joe Bowen who most of us fans have wanted to do the TV broadcasts for a while but because Toronto uses a National feed, he's stuck doing the local radio (and still does great at it) I'm sure it's similar for other cities too, though I will say gord Miller does a great job especially when split between Leafs and Sens games
@@ppolow man, that would be cool... but Canada has some market limitations that the US doesn't have. Amount of major markets. And I don't know if canadian law allow for that kind of thing.
Dude, streaming is getting out of hand too. TH-cam TV hits us with an increase, then we lose the Mets network SNY here in NYC starting today. Streaming just picked up cable's slack.
Yeah corporate greed
@@mbdeuceduece4451 It's no wonder why my Phoenix Suns left Bally Sports Arizona to the more widely known Arizona's Family network of channels in 3TV, CBS5, and even a new channel created in Channel 44. Of course, they also got Kiswe doing an app thing for streaming purposes...
Living in CO and not being able to see the two most successful teams the last 5-6 years is terrible.
I had no idea that RSN was struggling like crazy in recent years. I thought Bally Sports just started back in 2020, broadcasting NBA games and NHL games for the 2020-21 season. I had no idea they were bleeding cash to the extent that Tree explained in the video. Quite sad honestly. I await the chaos that will come in the near future.
Bally Sports took over on very late March 2021
@@BadgerFromOz and before that I think the regional Fox Sports channels were cut off from TH-cam TV and Hulu.
The only way for a regional broadcast to survive is for it to have the support of the teams it broadcasts(NESN) or be under a massive media umbrella(Sportsnet and TSN/RDS) otherwise they’re doomed. In essence, either be an extension of the teams or be an extension of the national broadcast. They can no longer survive on their own merits
For the Canadian teams, they won’t even feel this shift, their rights are owned by either Bell or Rogers. This applies to all major sports. The collapse will only impact them indirectly through the pain and suffering of the American teams.
Am I the only one who thinks the MLS model is the future? For the NHL, it seems so obvious, especially given that Amazon wants to get in to live sports.
@@tehbeernerd What _is_ the MLS broadcast model? A quick mention of that (and reference to the NFL's "model") is the only thing lacking in this vid. Tree wouldn't even need to explain how it would carry over to the other league; let us figure that out for ourselves. But we have to know _what_ that model is to know how (or whether) it could apply.
@@Donald_the_Potholer MLS is National TV and Apple+
Yeah, basically the only way RSNs will survive it if they become heavily team controlled or just flat out own by the teams themselves.
This is why me as an Auto Racing fan appreciates the fact that our big series have One Contract, and that the smaller series can be on streaming sites. We used to have tracks negotiate deals, but in 2001, NASCAR ended that mistake, and now all the races are on the same network week to week.
They are driving in a circle...my God...
My sentiments exactly. Even as someone who didn't take an interest in anything that wasn't motorsports until recently, I can still feel the pain of those who rely on RSNs (example: my dad whose a lifelong Braves fan) but at the same time, can't say they were something I paid too much attention to. Unlike NASCAR & IndyCar, baseball & basketball weren't something I'd go outta my way to watch, but they'd almost always be on the living room TV during dinner (open concept ftw) which is why I still have fond memories of those like Skip Caray and the final season at Turner Field, and headaches from that damn Truist advertisement.
Until recently when I gave hockey a try and developed a passion for the Maple Leafs, I never had to worry about blackouts or begging my parents to subscribe to a premium sports package because hey, NASCAR is always on some sort of basic cable channel, right? Now, if I'll be gone on game night, I always gotta double check to see if I can watch the my team's VOD replay on ESPN+ after a long, boring night of working retail.
@@Franciscasieri Loser.
@@Franciscasieri profound commentary. thank you for sharing
@mona_cam oh...sorry...add the word "Counterclockwise."
The way Comcast vs. Altitude has sabotaged The Colorado Avalanche during their cup win and beyond deserves a whole video tbh. A perfect case study of how the NHL squanders it’s potential for growth through brand recognition of its stars and markets
NHL is its own worst enemy.
What did the NHL have to do with it? Kroenke's just a greedy bastard
As an Avs fan who had xfinity and could only watch the playoff games that season, it sucked. I got directv so that I could watch all their games but now altitude might not be around anyways but who knows.
Wonder if they sabotaged the Rockies and Rapids too
@Ademir Segura I heard that people could not watch rapids games at all
As a long-time NHL fan, I am concerned about what this does for them longterm. They have struggled to grow the game under Bettman and this makes it worse
Because nothing says your league is strong like most of the teams losing money, falling further and further behind the other major leagues and nearly getting killed by covid.
@@ElmerFudd16 Ironically the same reason they were so badly hit by covid is the one thing they have going for them with the RSN issues: their revenue is more gate-driven than the NFL/MLB/NBA. The TV money is only maybe 25%-35% of revenue, and the national and Canadian TV money should be fine for now.
@@ElmerFudd16 Yet the NHL is like the 5th highest revenue generating league in the world.
Old school FSN Pittsburgh and STO are my jam. I miss the Sports Report and Final Score. Got me into hockey and college sports more than the national coverage ever did.
You called it. "Diamond Sports Group, the Sinclair subsidiary that controls the regional sports networks for 42 teams across Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association, announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday night, three days before the end of a 30-day grace period it entered into with creditors." - ESPN
Meanwhile the MLB still hasn't budged on their blackout restrictions, causing the sport to continue stagnating...
If I’m not mistaken, those have been a thing since the MLB first went on TV in the 1950’s.
Back then, channels were probably granted exclusive rights so there would be a game on that specific station in a market I’m guessing.
MLB blackout restrictions are insane. I straddle the markets of Atlanta and Houston. There's been times both teams are blacked out, even on local broadcast like someone in South Mississippi is supposed to drive to Atlanta or Houston to see the game. This used to happen frequently with the Saints, but the NFL changed blackout rules IIRC and the Saints haven't failed to pretty much fill the Dome in years.
With this, I wouldn't be surprised to see an outright decline in overall interest in MLB if we're not seeing it already.
MLB isn't going to do anything on that front until they get out of their existing contracts. It's not that they are refusing to, it is that they can't while the contracts are still in place.
@@fortynights1513
You’re partially correct-back then a network (usually CBS) would get the All-Star Game, the World Series, and the national Game of the Week. Individual teams didn’t get their own contracts with the networks.
On the other hand, the MLB has a strong streaming service that the teams can jump over to. In the long term this is just another nail in the coffin for cable television.
I'm in a sports writing class and Trey Wingo was a guest speaker TODAY and talked ab this
When I was a kid living in Minnesota, almost every week I would get a Minnesota Wild or Timberwolves game on channel 45. When I grew older and learned that those games had been moved to cable/ppv, I was quite disappointed.
This is no doubt your best and most informative video yet IMO
The good old days of Fox Sports South/SportsSouth, TBS Superstation, and a few others I’m forgetting…man simpler and better times😞
I remember watching Raycom/Jefferson Pilot Sports as a kid for Duke basketball. It was nice to just turn on your standard over the air TV, flip to your local cbs fox or nbc affiliate, and they would switch over for the game. Great for me, who never had cable growing up.
The fact that Root Sports NW has team ownership (Mariners, Trail Blazers, possibly even Kraken) might cushion the blow when dealt by Warner Discovery (blame the Discovery part), but still, it does put perspective on why streaming services require cable providers.
But my question still lingers: Isn't the whole point of going to a streaming service BECAUSE you ditched your cable provider?
I heard another youtuber talk about this as well. Glad to see more sports TH-camrs trying to spread the news to the public. Good work tree 👍
I would love legislation to come into play that removes all possibility on regional viewing restrictions. Let fans tune into the games that they want and stop forcing streaming packages down their throats. Not that anyone actually pays for those anyway.
The FCC would never let that happen.........
Man, I miss the old days of SportsChannel America, the various regional SportsChannel networks, and Prime Sports. They had some solid, syndicated sports programming, as well as the major sports leagues and various minor sports leagues.
I remember when teams would show their games on local stations. Like my Rockets and Astros would play what was then UPN now the My Network. And when the Braves would play all their games on TBS. And when WGN would show all the Bulls, Cubs and White Sox games. And you didn’t even need to be in Atlanta or Chicago to watch them.
SportsChannel America was good for the hockey fan in a market where it was available. You basically got every team that was on one of the SCA channels, like the Islanders, Devils, Hartford Whalers, Black Hawks, etc. I even remember the San Jose Sharks being one of their teams when the Sharks first came into the league.But their range was very limited and it wasn't available in most of the US, so if you were in a non-SCA market, you didn't get to watch hockey.
@@bjnt922 When the Red Sox & Bruins were on WSBK-TV 38 (another superstation), many cable companies carried it in the ‘80’s.
@@CatholicTraditional When I had Dish Network back in the day, KWGN was a superstation as well and showed the Rockies games as well. Back then you could get all of the "superstations" on satellite tv since they were the first one (before DirecTV) to offer your local stations on the dish. DirecTV did offer the national (NY/LA affiliate feeds) before letting one get their local affiliates.
@@frankg.2949 Yes, pre-smart TVs, 📡 providers had several local abc, CBS, NBC, & FOX affiliates on them, so you could watch local news from another city.
Keep up the great work. You have help me get into football basketball and baseball over the past 4 years I have been watching you. You never miss on a video and are a one of a kind no one can replicate. I hope you are going nowhere and can keep on making videos we all love watching
What about hockey?
I’m an Iowan and for years it was very difficult to be able to watch Cubs games because of blackouts. But thanks to streaming, its 1000x easier to watch my favorite teams. And for teams out of my market anyways, since I’m a Broncos and Golden Knights fan, too.
Great analysis tree!!! This has been a long time coming and the public will be seeing only the tip of the iceberg. I do see this affecting national rights as much as local rights. The days of the media paying huge sums of money to broadcast sports is coming to an end, even the NFL (due to other more concerning problems such as loss of quality of play.) The big question is how players are going to accept the end of the mega salaries because the economics are no longer going to support them.
I think that for short term, national rights will get more value, specially they will get more games than before
I wouldnt be suprised if MLB had got another right for more National games instead of local games alongside the end of lockout
I remember when FSN Bay Area switched to CSN back in 2008, and it seemed like an immediate improvement in production value. My prediction is that we will see something like what MLS and Apple TV have done--the leagues (or in some cases, individual teams) will produce the broadcasts like what Tree was saying at 7:01.
I think that's how they'll do it once Bally and AT&T go belly-up.
Methinks CSN (now NBC) will still remain unscathed for a while, even tho they lost Washington. So The Bay Area, Philadelphia, and Chicago will be ok.
NY and Boston-based RSN's (NESN, YES, MSG, SNY) will be ok as well, especially since they're mostly owned by the teams IIRC.
We'll also see a lot more team-owned networks. Denver and Washington seem to be doing that rn.
@@Pokemonmaster150b I agree with that.
or what is happening right now, many teams owning the networks.
I don’t know if I mentioned this earlier, but I think they need to start airing games on local independent stations again. I used to live in the Bay Area and Giants games used to air on KTVU channel 2, which is now a Fox owned and operated station. And I used to get mad when they preempted Animaniacs and Power Rangers for it. They also need to bring back cartoons after school and on Saturday mornings, but that’s another story.
Bally sports has been a bane on the ACC because often my friends can’t watch the game because most college students don’t have cable and just some streaming platform. I think they overestimated people wanting to subscribe to see their local teams rather than just watching something else or finding different ways to watch it.
When Bally Sports bought out Fox Sports, was praying they would introduce a streaming plan which gave you access to all Bally Sports channels. Don't know what goes through these board members' heads. Hell just give me the option to watch two or three other Bally Sports channels.
They can't do that because of the deals they have with the leagues.
That’s what they should’ve done at the start. Even then I’m not sure it would’ve saved them when Covid screwed everything up.
Yea they blow big time 😑
The only way out for the NHL is to renegotiate the CBA. I'm pretty sure the owners will argue to lower the salary cap. There are only so many digital ads you can plaster on-screen until it becomes overwhelming. It's already drove many fans away.
Major league sports have been overvalued for years, it's time it reflects the actual viewership numbers. There will be short term pain and possibly another lockout. But its the only way.
I cut the cord a decade ago and this debacle with RSNs pushed me squarely away from baseball and hockey into the arms of football. This change has been long coming and is sorely needed. Please get rid of the middle man leaches that are RSNs and let these leagues sell to me directly.
Although, as a St. Louis fan whos teams relied heavily on the revenue from Bally Sports... I guess I'm going to have to deal with at least a few years of pain. The Blues are giving me a preview of what that's going to look like already...
In my life time, I've seen Phillies, Flyers and 76ers games locally on WTXF-29, WPHL-17, WPSG-57, PRISM, Sports Channel Philadelphia, Comcast Sports Net, and NBC Sports Philly (sure the last two are one and the same), and looking back it's amazing to see how some things evolved
Another fun fact: the Celtics’ first cable channel in 1981 with Mike Gorman and Tommy Heinsohn (RIP) announcing was PRISM.
The old adage remains: the value of an item remains what buyers are willing to pay. Ask Warner and Paramount what they got for their sale of the CW.
It's absolutely insane that I can watch the Avs in Texas, but my fellow Avs fans in Colorado struggle to
Stars fan in Colorado
ESPN+ unless DAL-CO on the schedule or Stars are playing on NHL, then it’s blacked out. I can watch DAL-CO w/Stars broadcast if I toggle my VPN
Yeah, it’s criminal that the Avs & Nuggets are blacked out locally. They give the locals a respite from the Rockies and Broncos
I’m just fed up with the ridiculous blackout restrictions
An interesting video for sure. Growing up in Baltimore, MASN for the Orioles/Nats and NBC Sports Washington for the DC teams were the two local RSNs I've had the most experience with. We'll see how this plays out in the near future.
yep
Tree, I love all your videos for the uniqueness it brings to the sports world but the thing that makes me smile the most is the OSTs you add in the background. A Walk In The Woods is my favorite song from Halo and it made me so unexplainably happy to hear that in a video talking about regional sports channels dying. Never stop adding them, they're fantastic.
It's a testament to how good the soundtrack from the Halo games really are. I knew it was a song from Halo as soon as I heard the song.
one of the only issues with everything going to streaming (which I'm in favor of) is that so many services have a higher aggregate price compared to cable, so it's a dilemma deciding between cable being cheaper but not having all the channels that sports fans need to watch all their teams.
And now Diamond Sports filed for Chapter 11. Just 12 days after this video was uploaded.
To be fair, in the early to mid 1990’s what’s known today as an RSN was sold by the cable company as an a la carte, premium add-on channel which was optional.
That is the way it should always have been, and should be today.
The only reason it came to this is because FOX had the leverage to hold their News and Entertainment programming hostage in order to extract high fees for the RSN channels they operated.
Now that Bally Sports is basically an independent broadcaster, they have no other properties to hold hostage when it comes to the cable and satellite providers who are no longer willing to pay the high fees they were forced to accept when FOX was the ownership.
I love your use of the Sonic CD soundtrack late in this video. I'm so glad that MLS took the deal it did, I was a bit worried initially but it was nearly impossible for me to watch my team on Bally Sports Kansas City (through legal means) in the past few years, and the resulting product on Apple TV has been very good so far. Whatever happens, I hope it's just easier to watch the Royals going forward than it has been on such a restrictive deal.
While this will be a major loss to local broadcasters and A/V jobs (breaking that gateway into TV is going to hurt the industry from that standpoint), I am still pretty excited to get rid of some of these institutions that have behind the times for way too long. As a cord cutter watching local sports has been a major pain, and a major reason my family held on to cable as long as they did. A future were I can watch live sports online will be a big boon to me and others.
That said, I live in MASN territory, so I figure I will be the absolute last one to get a affordable, accessible way to watch my local teams. :(
The 6 clubs here in Florida that are in MLB, the NBA and the NHL are aligned with Bally Sports Florida and Bally Sports Sun. I'm most worried about the Rays and Marlins because they're gonna start their regular seasons soon and I'm not sure how their broadcasts will be handled by the 2nd quarter of 2023.
Given that Bally Sports’ parent company is good buddies with the FL Gov, perhaps they could work out some sort of sweetheart deal as a way to “own the libs”?
@@TimmyTickle I doubt that Ron DeSantis is even gonna get involved. This is gonna be between the Diamond Sports Group and its MLB partners.
I Loved watching the Rangers and Mavs on Fox Sports Southwest with my dad as a kid. Great moments caught with those networks with great personalities and moments from when the rangers were actually good (2009-2014) and when the mavs were on their 2011 run.
The days of KBL Pittsburgh (what AT&T sportsnet was back in the early 90's) are long gone. It's one of the draw backs of watching sports on streaming.
I don’t care that they’re a local company to my area. Anything sports related Sinclair Broadcasting Group touches and handles is left to be neglected and die. See the short-lived American Sports Network (ASN) as a prime example.
I remember being so excited when NESN would do free promo months on cable as a kid, so I could watch the Sox on channel 51. We really do live in a completely different world now.
Yes, until 2001, we had to pay extra for NESN.
I grew up in New England and I’ve just now realized I’m so lucky that the teams have had shares of NESN and NBC Sports Boston for years now the Red Sox especially own a majority of NESN
Player salaries, ticket prices, franchise values, commercial time, broadcast rights, stadium construction, and cable prices have all been in lockstep moving exponentially upward for the past 20+ years. One of these was bound to hit a brick wall at some point. It turns out the weak link was cable. Non-sports viewers have been subsidizing sports through cable fees and the jig is up. What happens when RSN money disappears from team ledgers and teams cannot pay player salaries?
Weak teams that don't draw at the gate will die. I don't think too many people in many markets will pay a monthly streaming fee. Other than the NFL, the other leagues are in for a lot of pain. The cable bundle is dying
@@msisles6278 Even strong teams will be in trouble if the product is not available to a wide audience. Broadcasts are by definition, well... broad. If your audience can only see a product if they pay x dollars a month, you won't get any new eyeballs. Kids will never see your sport and the fan base will continue to grow older and fade away. Streaming may be a stop gap solution to recover some lost RSN revenue, but there needs to be a better effort to get free games out into the world.
Now the first domino has fallen. The Padres have told Bally Sports to fuck off, and the MLB will be making their own broadcast for the indefinite future.
Technically, the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury did that first...
I cannot help but feel bad about the possible end of what used to be KBL. KBL started out as having a broadcast day of only six or seven hours. Man, I loved SportsBeat with Stan Savran and Guy Junker. I remember the Porch Tours. There was Talkin' Bucs and the Penguins had a similar call in show aftet games. SportsBeat on Monday nights after a Steeler game with Tunch Ilkin were not to be missed. Tunch was fantastic. KBL started doing the WPIAL football championship games after Thanksgiving.
Side note - in Portage County, Ohio, well within the Cleveland media market, the TCI cable system carried KBL, but not Sports Channel Ohio. The viewer resopne to KBL there was phenomenal. Briefly. KBL was taken off and the phones rang off the hook complaining about it.
Fun story; my mom called in while she was in college the night before the expansion draft for Anaheim and Florida. She called in front of Stan and Guy that Florida's first pick would be Beezer. Saying that he was too old for the Rags to keep in order to hang on in the Patrick Division.
As a person who has worked in broadcast sports (cameraman and Graphics operator for WNBA and NCAA), the best course of action for the teams is to take over in stadium production and sell their broadcast rights to whoever wants it, most likely streaming services. Most Stadiums and Arenas have dedicated broadcast crews for in stadium work (the stuff you see on jumbotrons). The NCAA already does this in most instances (large schools and especially Football usually have separate crews) but without RSNs there's no reason to double up the crew just have a single feed sent to 2 places.
I'll say this. During the pandemic for every game, the Golden Knights had a stream of the jumbotron feed on their team Twitch channel that you could watch to follow along with on radio. Why not just do that if you're someone who shows the game on the jumbotron like the Penguins or Panthers?
I have felt sports networks were dying ever since The Mountain Network back in mid-to-late 2000s. It was a network for MWC teams, but it was a channel that almost no one had.
It affected me, a Utes fan, the most. I used to be able to watch some Utes games on KJZZ, which the Jazz used to play on. Then the Mtn Network came, and it went to hell. One of the more important Utah-BYU game was aired on this network, and at that time, I hadn’t heard of streaming. So I had to go to someone’s house to watch the game. This was between 11-0 Utah and 10-1 BYU. And they couldn’t even get a good network. That is when I felt sports networks were going to fall.
Now the Pac-12 network sucks, but it is only slightly better than Mtn network, and this time, at least I know about streaming. I’m not lucky with the Jazz, though. I love them, but I am too busy to stream 82 Jazz games.
Forsake PAC12. Join the Big 12.
You’re the only sports channel on TH-cam that talks about the business of sports. This is invaluable to fans
Times like these I’m glad I’m watching from Europe. Yes, watching the west coast live is terrible if you try to sleep on a healthy schedule. But than again, most all of the NHL is covered under one, admittedly expensive, license with the ability to rewatch
When I was a CSR for Dish Network, RSNs were pushed heavily as our answer for not offering some of the major sports services like NFL Network. You can imagine as an NFL fan my dignity slowly die pitching college football to the likes of Packers or Steelers fans.
It makes complete sense. I don't see how you can pay so much to players in the other sports leagues that isn't the NHL (despite its lower overall revenues, I think the NHL's player wages are about right).
Very good explainer video Tree! I'm a camera guy in sports video production, and this has been on my boss' radar since October.
The quickest solution for leagues to make sure their sports are seen is to pay for everything for a year and broadcast games on their league owned websites. They'll probably outsource individual game production to whatever broadcast production unions/companies will bite; while they negotiate with various streaming platforms for a deal. There's way too much competition on streaming for leagues to think they'll get the same RSN type money; but it'll ensure their sports will survive.
Old enough to remember when the local teams away games were all shown for free on local stations
Oh my gosh. Not only is this a wonderful breakdown, but the Donkey Kong ost at the end flooded me with beautiful nostalgia.
RSN's are why I've had to turn to unsavory means just to watch baseball/hockey as I'm a cord cutter, but MLB/NHL just want to refuse me giving them money directly to watch my local teams.
"everything will be done to make sure you can watch their games"....unless you're a hockey fan. We're already dealing with blackouts, terrible scheduling, the least user friendly interface on streaming platforms I've ever seen and regional rights issues that mean your account is useless when you travel. That could be its own video
MLS definitely has at least some games broadcasted on RSN. The Minnesota United are broadcasted on Bally Sports North
...They used to. Thankfully they got out of the RSN ship before it started sinking bad thanks to their deal with Apple.
Not anymore. ALL matches are offered on AppleTV.
The Mariners purchased their RSN years back. I just wish they had a streaming option.
Sinclair Broadcasting is the same people who shut down ring of honor
That promotion was a money pit. You don't keep something open that was basically irrelevant.
12:02 the chromatic descend here is just 👌
this is a bit weird, cause as an avs fan this is where im happy we have kronke.
He created and owns altitude and im so thankful for that channel. it has our own character and personalities. the death of peter mcnabb crushed me. and i miss him every time i turn on an avs game. it just isnt the same w/o him. yes there is the blackouts (go to school in oregon so im not affected and if you are get a vpn its not that hard) but we dont have to deal with the bull shit of bally sports
Even with all the blackouts and such, I'm happy to have a regional channel instead of NBC Sports Denver or Bally or Sportsnet or something. Comcast is continuing the blackout because they're practically trying to force Altitude into becoming part of NBC. I need Chris Marlowe and Scott Hastings when I watch Nuggets games.
Basically none of this would be a problem if comcast wasn't basically the only show in town, and if teams could do direct to consumer streaming.
Kronke is okay, I just wish that we could watch Nuggets and Avs games at all... 😂
The problem with Altitude is no streaming availability except through Fubo or DirecTV Stream.
Peter McNabb was on when I was a kid, and the Avs were on RSN Rocky Mountain before Kroenke even owned the team. Altitude is a great example of why team ownership doesn't work. I believe it's close to 90% of the Denver metrro area does not have access to Altitude. Kroenke owning Altitude has actually been worse than an RSN, although it's not all Korenke's fault.
As someone who still has a cable box in his household and for whom the sounds of the YES Network are a near-nightly occurrence during the baseball season (my dad and I are Yankees fans), this is an interesting topic from my perspective. The Yankees themselves have the majority stake in the Network, and it makes me wonder if, were the cable version to go under, would a YES Network streaming service develop? And if so, what would that mean for the smaller teams that air their games on the Network, like New York FC and the WNBA's New York Liberty? The marching on of technology into the future causes the ripple effects no one seems to comprehend until they're swamped by the tidal wave.
NYCFC is not on YES Network anymore. All MLS teams had to end their deals in 2022 with the RSNs. Now all games are on Apple TV MLS Package.
Apple TV will take over NYCFC broadcasting since it’s a league deal
I think another interesting question to ask is that if RSNs do get replaced by other alternatives, what happens to the broadcasting crews for these networks? Do they commentate for whatever alternative is given to their team or do they just have to find a job with one of the National networks?
some of crews are team owned so they will just move to where the team is broadcasting now
I'm going to guess that the leagues themselves will keep them on for continuity's sake.
New York Red Bulls imported their whole game crew when MLS moved to Apple
Something about seeing games that you couldn't in other places outside your house felt somewhat more "connected" and special. Even with the hurdles of trying to watch other games outside your market it always felt right seeing your local team playing with finding the time in your local newspaper. Even if I never got to experience the FULL ON raw experience of it since I grew up with modern technology, that felt like you were truly there watching your favorite team(s) or felt a bigger connection with them.
I still remember when games were on Local TV Channels
Example: Here in DFW
Stars & Rangers - KDFI Ch. 27
Mavericks - UPN/TXA Ch. 21, KSTR Ch. 49
anpanman television!
More videos like this please. I don't realize how formulaic your weekly NFL vids have gotten until you drop some inspired content like this.
It's a deadly tightrope: Keep doing the same thing over and over and risk becoming stale or work on the topics you want to do and risk people wanting you to go back to what you were doing.
There are so many ideas I want to get to, but you get caught in the grind of things like Sportsball. I really enjoyed doing this one, to be quite honest. Refreshing change of pace.
As a Hab fan living in Northern Ontario, regional games piss me off to no end. Especially when they are the only canadian team playing on a given night.