Collapse of Regional Sports Networks (Diamond Sports Group files bankruptcy, Warner-Discovery looking to leave business, Xfinity drops Bally)

[eddygee]

Tampa's Bally deal was only $15M as of 2021 (Calculating an NHL team's finances and plan for expanding revenue)

I'd assume the biggest deals out of the Bally teams would be the Red Wings, Kings and Wild. The other teams seem like they would be on par with Tampa or even lower (Coyotes....). The total could be closer to $200M than $300M.

Best I could find on the Red Wings was they were making $25m yr on a 10yr deal signed with FOX Sports in 2008. Most recently looks like after that they are receiving $30m yr according to this article I believe the Red Wings have one of the most lucrative RSN deals for US teams.
https://www.playmichigan.com/sports-betting/nhl/red-wings-value/

As for the Kings they signed a $21m yr deal in 2012 that ran through 2024.
Kings, Fox Sports reach agreement on $250-million TV deal

Interestingly enough just a few weeks ago the Kings agreed to what was worded as a multi year deal with Diamond but this time no price was disclosed.

Diamond Sports Group and Los Angeles Kings Reach Multi-Year Renewal of Local Television and Digital Rights Agreement

Diamond Sports Group, LLC (

www.businesswire.com

 

[rsteen]

Best I could find on the Red Wings was they were making $25m yr on a 10yr deal signed with FOX Sports in 2008. Most recently looks like after that they are receiving $30m yr according to this article I believe the Red Wings have one of the most lucrative RSN deals for US teams.
https://www.playmichigan.com/sports-betting/nhl/red-wings-value/

Not surprising for the Wings. Most of the other big-to-medium market USA teams (Boston, NYR, Chicago, Washington, Philly, Colorado) have RSNs where the team has an ownership stake (or in Philly's case, Comcast owns the team), so it's not going to be obvious what the revenue going to the team is.

Interesting that the Kings would sign a multi-year deal when there's a solid chance Bally will no longer exist in a year.


If we're talking 30M or 20M for those big deal teams, it wouldn't surprise me if the sad sacks like Coyotes and Ducks were 10M or less.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Best I could find on the Red Wings was they were making $25m yr on a 10yr deal signed with FOX Sports in 2008. Most recently looks like after that they are receiving $30m yr according to this article I believe the Red Wings have one of the most lucrative RSN deals for US teams.
https://www.playmichigan.com/sports-betting/nhl/red-wings-value/

As for the Kings they signed a $21m yr deal in 2012 that ran through 2024.
Kings, Fox Sports reach agreement on $250-million TV deal

Interestingly enough just a few weeks ago the Kings agreed to what was worded as a multi year deal with Diamond but this time no price was disclosed.

Diamond Sports Group and Los Angeles Kings Reach Multi-Year Renewal of Local Television and Digital Rights Agreement

Diamond Sports Group, LLC (

www.businesswire.com

Here are the top deals in 2014

NHL Local (Not National) TV Contracts By Value

Hi, guys. I'm trying to put together a list of how much each NHL team earns from its local TV contract, or at least find out the league average. There have been previous attempts to do this here (link) and there (link), but the info on the old threads is somewhat dated now. As most of you...

forums.hfboards.com

 

[jkrdevil]

Not surprising for the Wings. Most of the other big-to-medium market USA teams (Boston, NYR, Chicago, Washington, Philly, Colorado) have RSNs where the team has an ownership stake (or in Philly's case, Comcast owns the team), so it's not going to be obvious what the revenue going to the team is.

Interesting that the Kings would sign a multi-year deal when there's a solid chance Bally will no longer exist in a year.


If we're talking 30M or 20M for those big deal teams, it wouldn't surprise me if the sad sacks like Coyotes and Ducks were 10M or less.

Ducks could be more as they have negotiating options in the LA market (though I don’t know when they just signed).

However for a team like the Panthers I believe the number is just a couple of million.

 

[eddygee]

Ducks could be more as they have negotiating options in the LA market (though I don’t know when they just signed).

However for a team like the Panthers I believe the number is just a couple of million.

NHL Panthers get new media deal with Bally

The Florida Panthers have a lucrative new local media rights deal with Bally Sports Florida.

www.sportsbusinessjournal.com

"The NHL Panthers, who have the league's best record this season, signed a new deal with Bally Sports Florida that more than doubles the amount they have been getting from the company. Both Sinclair and the Panthers refer to the new deal as a “reset” rather than a renewal. That is because the previous deal -- a 10-year pact that averaged just $6M per year -- is among the smallest local rights fee for any MLB, NBA or NHL team in the U.S. The average annual value for the new deal is valued in the high teens.

When Vincent Viola bought the Panthers in ‘13 for $250M, he identified the media-rights deal as an area of growth, even though it still had eight years left on it. The problem is that Bally Sports Regional Networks and NBC Sports Regional Networks have been driving particularly hard deals because of the amount of cord cutting that has been affecting their business. When it comes to local media rights, teams are being told that flat is the new up.

The Panthers were able to convince Sinclair, though, that their rights fees should be more in line with NHL teams in similarly sized markets, like Nashville. Bally Sports Florida has carried Panthers games since the team debuted in ‘93; last season the Panthers posted their biggest ratings in nearly two decades."

The Panthers old deal was measly about $6m yr but there new deal paid them in the high teens as reported by John Ourand so almost $20m yr. Prime example of what caused the RSN issues. RSN and teams getting huge rights fees increases just cause. They just baked these increases in figured the gravy train would keep going. I don't blame NHL or any league for taking the money. But man the folks who ran Diamond or many of the other failed RSNs where not business savvy. It seems more than anything they relied on a seemingly reliable but very flawed model...getting people that didn't watch sports to continue to fund huge rights increases.

 

[KevFu]

The solution is ads. If you could have an app with 1 million people watching 82 games for free, or an app where 100,000 people are watching 82 games for $10/mo, the higher ad revenue can close that gap. The app itself should be the "loss leader" that gets people in the door and invested.

This is why I'm FASCINATED by what happens this MLB offseason with Juan Soto.

The Padres used to get $60m in TV rights. Ballys pulled the plug on them, but MLB took over, paid for production, gave the games to the local providers.... and SOLD THE ADS themselves. And sold streaming in market for the first time.

So if the Padres trade Soto, maybe that means the finances aren't there (but it could be just efficiency smarts, who knows; but Imma watch).

 

[Marc the Habs Fan]

So the new Penguins network has the exact same scorebug as NESN...

 

[TheLegend]

Looks like mutual agreement....

 

[mouser]

Not surprising, With the Suns and Diamondbacks gone it wasn’t worth it for Diamond to run an Arizona RSN with only the Coyotes.

 

[Marc the Habs Fan]

Friedman wrote about it in the just released 32 thoughts:

32 Thoughts: Bettman talks salary cap, expansion at Board of Governors

The biggest thing that came out of Wednesday’s Board of Governors meeting in New York City is that the NHL is looking at an $87-million-$88-million cap figure in 2024-25. Elliotte Friedman covers that and more in a new 32 Thoughts blog.

www.sportsnet.ca

1. Four hours after the meeting, sports business reporter Daniel Kaplan tweeted the news that embattled Bally Sports is terminating its local television contract with the Arizona Coyotes. Kaplan wrote “the Coyotes have consented to this,” adding the team and the NHL “have transition plans in place to facilitate the continued distribution of Coyotes games to fans.”

This is the latest development in Bally’s financial meltdown, and how it affects regional rights in different sports across the United States. Last July, Major League Baseball took over production and distribution for the Arizona Diamondbacks — weeks after it did the same for the San Diego Padres. The Pittsburgh Penguins bought and rebranded the sports network that televised their games, while the Vegas Golden Knights launched their own direct-to-consumer streaming platform. Details are sketchy as I publish, but the initial response is confidence the Coyotes can be made whole and that their games will be available to their fans. We will see the exact details. Their television contract is believed to be around $14 million per year.

 

[DaBadGuy7]

 

[TheLegend]

Coyotes will be giving up revenue but gain Utah and New Mexico as coverage areas with Scripps.

A DTC service is also in the works.

Very similar to what the Suns ae doing.

 

[SirJW]

Will the Yotes be on DirecTV?

 

[Shwan]

Will the Yotes be on DirecTV?

Doesn't look like it, unless your service can pick up OTA.

DIRECTV, DISH Network, and AT&T U-Verse have chosen not to add Antenna TV to their local channel packages but DIRECTV and DISH Network are making Antenna TV available through their over-the-air receivers with an antenna in some cities that have a local Antenna TV affiliate. Please contact DIRECTV or DISH Network for more information, or click here for more information about setting up your TV with an antenna.

FAQ - Antenna TV

antennatv.tv

 

[Dirty Old Man]

Will the Yotes be on DirecTV?

If I had to guess, right now I would say "somehow". When the Dbacks left Bally's and MLB produced their games, the games immediately started showing up under 686-2 or 3 (Ballys Az was 686). I can't imagine as part of the Center Ice package they won't come up with something similar.

 

[Llama19]

Arizona Coyotes land TV deal with Scripps Sports

To quote:

"Scripps owns ABC15 Arizona and will show 81 of the 82 games. One Coyotes game (Dec. 21 at San Jose) will be broadcast nationally on ESPN+. People can watch on Channel 15.2 (KNXV.2), the Antenna TV network, over the air (with an antenna). Antenna TV can also be found on channel 95 on COX.

Thursday marked the end of Bally Sports Arizona when Diamond Sports Group, the bankrupt parent of Bally Sports, received approval from a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Texas to reject the Coyotes' local rights on Thursday.

“The debtors have concluded that the Coyotes agreement is not necessary to [its] business and is unlikely to provide a net benefit,” Diamond Sports Group said in a statement, according to Front Office Sports."

Source: www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nhl/coyotes/2023/10/05/arizona-coyotes-bally-sports-tv-deal/71071505007/

BTW...Antenna TV is broadcast in SD...not HD...OTA...

 

[Shwan]

BTW...Antenna TV is broadcast in SD...not HD...OTA...

480i in 4:3 aspect to be exact.

 

[Golden_Jet]

480i in 4:3 aspect to be exact.

View attachment 749273

Oof, will it be in colour

 

[TheLegend]

Xavier Gutierrez on local radio explains the move to Scripps (5min)

-Coyotes not there yet but looking at New Mexico as a broadcast area.

-Scripps recently made similar deal with Vegas. And looking to expand further to other teams.

Wolf & Luke Show Audio Archives - Arizona Sports

arizonasports.com

 

[mouser]

Xavier Gutierrez on local radio explains the move to Scripps (5min)

-Coyotes not there yet but looking at New Mexico as a broadcast area.

-Scripps recently made similar deal with Vegas. And looking to expand further to other teams.

Wolf & Luke Show Audio Archives - Arizona Sports

arizonasports.com

I’ll have to find my copy of the old NHL media rights maps showing the Coyotes hold broadcast rights in Utah and New Mexico.

 

[Llama19]

More from the Phoenix Business Journal...

Arizona Coyotes switch broadcast partners due to Bally Sports Arizona bankruptcy

To quote:

"In a court filing, Diamond Sports Group said they paid the team “tens of millions of dollars annually,” for the exclusive rights to broadcast its games. While over-the-air TV partners do not typically pay as much as cable networks for local broadcast rights, Gutierrez said he sees a way it will be financially beneficial to the team.

The Coyotes did not disclose the financial terms of the deal but said that they signed a multi-year agreement to televise all locally broadcast Coyotes games over the air to residents of Arizona and surrounding states within the team's broadcast territory.

The deal between the Coyotes and Scripps will have Coyotes games broadcast not just in the Valley, but also on Scripps stations in Tucson and in Salt Lake City, Utah. Gutierrez said negotiations are ongoing to broadcast Coyotes games in New Mexico as well, but that part has not been finalized yet."

Source (Paywall): www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2023/10/05/arizona-coyotes-partners-scripps-tv-rights.html

 

[varsaku]

480i in 4:3 aspect to be exact.

View attachment 749273

I'm here hoping all broadcasts switch to 4K when most people at this point have a 4K TV, while the Yotes are moving to 480i.

 

[Shwan]

I'm here hoping all broadcasts switch to 4K when most people at this point have a 4K TV, while the Yotes are moving to 480i.

Rumor mill says Scripps is scrambling to get more 720p equipment for the channel this week so hopefully they succeed.

 

[TheLegend]

I'm here hoping all broadcasts switch to 4K when most people at this point have a 4K TV, while the Yotes are moving to 480i.

The channel they're going to use has run primarily old analog based content (like virtually ALL of it ). Installing the equipment to upscale is costly and the results aren't always that great.

 

[Major4Boarding]

I’ll have to find my copy of the old NHL media rights maps showing the Coyotes hold broadcast rights in Utah and New Mexico.

This is the 2015-2016 map I have. Is this it? (Utah, half of NM)