Regional Sports Networks Going Bankrupt

[maumann]

HAHAHAHAHA .... (breath) .... HAHAHAHAHA

Sinclair accused of driving regional-sports subsidiary into bankruptcy

Screw the lot of them. The faster Sinclair dissolves, the better it will be to relegate them to the dust bin of communications history.

 

[dixiehack]

accused its parent company of a "nefarious strategy" that sent it "careening toward bankruptcy."

Shouldn't this go on the malort thread?

 

[wicked]

Shouldn't this go on the malort thread?

There's a malort thread?

 

[dixiehack]

There's a malort thread?

Feel like fighting your dad tonight?

 

[LanceyHoward]

HAHAHAHAHA .... (breath) .... HAHAHAHAHA

Sinclair accused of driving regional-sports subsidiary into bankruptcy

Screw the lot of them. The faster Sinclair dissolves, the better it will be to relegate them to the dust bin of communications history.

No such luck. Sinclair has set up the regional sports subsidy as a separate legal entity. The debt is attached to that subsidy, not the company as a whole. The rest of the company is unaffected.

The Big Ragu can now post about the negative effect that the loose money, low interest rate policies of the Fed crated an environment that lead to a lot of capital destruction through foolish loans. I can think of no better example.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

No such luck. Sinclair has set up the regional sports subsidy as a separate legal entity. The debt is attached to that subsidy, not the company as a whole. The rest of the company is unaffected.

The Big Ragu can now post about the negative effect that the loose money, low interest rate policies of the Fed crated an environment that lead to a lot of capital destruction through foolish loans. I can think of no better example.

Speaking of, where's that guy been?

 

[Twirling Time]

Feel like fighting your dad tonight?

You forgot the umlaut, thereby stacking more pancakes on the poor bunny.

 

[Readallover]

https://nypost.com/2023/12/18/media/amazon-in-talks-to-invest-in-diamond-sports-report/

 

[Roscablo]

Got an email from my TV provider that four sports TV stations are going belly up and aren't going to be broadcast anymore after Sunday. One is the local regional sports channel that showed the Rockies and basically nothing else (knew it was happening), and the other three are on a sports package. Only get the latter for Red Zone, so not a huge deal and I cancel it after the season anyway.

The thing is, how are the providers handling this? Are they cutting bills? We pay stupid fees for regional sports networks, and now I have a total of one on my service. I know that is part of this whole situation, but how is that sustainable in any way? For the provider, user, network, any of it?

 

[Liut]

Mentioned the possibility a few months ago, but did Arizona Coyotes' telecasts move to ASU's student station?

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Mentioned the possibility a few months ago, but did Arizona Coyotes' telecasts move to ASU's student station?

Nope. Local ABC affiliate and a second station owned by Scripps.

 

[baddecision]

There's this paragraph, which comes up short of explaining a key factor in this mess:

Regional sports networks have been bleeding money in recent years, as viewers have dropped their cable TV subscriptions in favor of streaming. That has led to slumping revenue and shortfalls against the massive, long-term broadcasting deals networks have made with pro sports leagues.

That is FAR from the whole story. Truth is that five or six years ago, Diamond's RSNs stubbornly and short-sightedly priced themselves out of carriage on top streaming services YouTubeTV and SlingTV. Can you imagine how much revenue they would have brought in at say, $2 a month ($24 a year) in carriage fees from the millions of YTTV and Sling viewers all these years? Instead, they told YouTube and Sling to pound sand.

The two have more than 9 million subscribers between them. Under my made-up fee number, that'd be $18 million a month or $216 million a year -- more than $1 billion over five years, with pretty much zero added expense to the RSNs. Plus, ad rates (maybe even subscriber numbers) would have gone up.

That makes this one of the most boneheaded decisions in TV history. The people who ran Fox regionals and now Diamond might even be stupid enough to be newspaper publishers.