That sound you hear is #### hitting the fan.

Remember all those times people said we were in the middle of a sports rights bubble that would pop eventually.

Well, we are no longer in the middle of that bubble...

Discovery since the merger has seemed like they really don't want to spend money. Kind of makes you wonder why it happened.

Kind of makes you wonder why it happened.

Ben Clemens explained it all very well over at Fangraphs a couple weeks ago.

Discovery since the merger has seemed like they really don't want to spend money. Kind of makes you wonder why it happened.

here you go.

WarnerBros Discovery wasn't a leveraged buyout

while the average penetration for the segment hovers around 69%.

Oh come on.


In regards to Sinclair, doesn't seem like a good idea to have 2/3 of your league relying on payments from one company! If Sinclair and WBD sell off these RSNs - would MLB be interested in scooping them up and what would they do with them? Is there the possibility of taking them all in house and what would that entail?

WarnerBros Discovery wasn't a leveraged buyout

but they did saddle themselves with crushingly large amounts of debt, and they are run by executives who disdain their own customers, employees and business model.

An executive with direct knowledge of the RSNs’ financial dealings confirmed to Sportico that the AT&T outlets in Denver, Houston and Pittsburgh submitted their most recent rights payments to their MLB clubs in a timely fashion, although the disbursements were not commensurate with the contracted rates. The teams impacted by the shortfall are the Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros and Pittsburgh Pirates.

I'm really glad they added that last sentence or I wouldn't have been able to figure that out.

I suppose this will just exacerbate the massive financial differences between the mid market teams (ie the central divisions mostly) and the coastal teams. If the mid market teams major revenue stream is now in a bankruptcy mode we'll see no big free agent signings from them until they understand their situation (which may also explain this previous winters' skew as well).

The teams impacted by the shortfall are the Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros and Pittsburgh Pirates.

Not sure how old their current deal is, but given their on-field success in recent years, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Astros couldn’t do as well, or perhaps better, in a new deal with another RSN operator or their own cable channel. The Pirates & Rockies might be a tougher sell.

Remember all those times people said we were in the middle of a sports rights bubble that would pop eventually.

(RMc jumps up and down, furiously waving his hands)

The Astros are the Last of the Mid-Market Dynasties.

Well, we are no longer in the middle of that bubble...

* pop *

The Astros are the Last of the Mid-Market Dynasties.

Houston is a huge market. It's the 5th largest MSA in the country. #1-3 are shared by two teams.

Well, we are no longer in the middle of that bubble...

* pop *

Is it popping? These two companies are waaaaaay overleveraged. From that Clemens article, he says Diamond was profitable. Just not profitable enough. MLB still got a huge deal from Fox and TBS as recently as 2020 and a nice deal from Apple last year.

I'm actually excited to see this bubble pop. I'd like to see MLB trying to maximize their audience to gain revenue through advertising rather than maximizing the money from paid subscriptions. There are already easily available pirate broadcasts of every MLB game. There's also a ton of local over-the-air air time available if they want to go back to that model plus streaming. Every local outlet of a major network has a 2nd digital channel (or 3rd or 4th) that is showing nothing but syndicated reruns all day.

Increase the size of the audience and bring in the ad revenue.

I'd like to see MLB trying to maximize their audience to gain revenue through advertising rather than maximizing the money from paid subscriptions.

Bring back the Spiderman bases! This pitching change brought to you by DraftKings!

Spiderman bases aren't going to maximize the size of the audience.

As a Jays fan I can't help but wonder if this means some of those teams counting on that RSN money who won't get it now will need to dump some salary. Jays have the ability to absorb more if they want (owned by the same company that owns a Canada wide sports network that gets over 1 million viewers nearly every game, a 500k viewership is a poor game nowadays for them but would be 'wow' for any other MLB team). It'll be interesting to see how this affects free agents in the 2023/24 offseason.

The teams impacted by the shortfall are the Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros and Pittsburgh Pirates.

I'm really glad they added that last sentence or I wouldn't have been able to figure that out.

I dunno, you never know when the Orioles might somehow own broadcast rights in Denver or something like that.

Spiderman bases aren't going to maximize the size of the audience.

Not with the old small bases, but now?

The kids are all about the thicc new bases.