MLS TV Rights

Yes.

 

Dropping in from the MLS News & Analysis section. You're correct in fact the Athletic after spending so much time talking about how much production cost might cost with MLS going in house with productions did some investigating and said most teams on average spent $1.5-2m on Production cost and stated only a had of teams had paid deals. They were the teams upset about the Apple Deals.

For the vast majority of the 28 teams last year the Apple Deal is a positive net. Also it looks like MLS has decided against going in house with studio productions of games instead using IMG. That's likely a far cheaper option than the initial word of building a in house production operation.

 

Apple had mentioned that they are going to try some new things with the MLS broadcast deal. Made me think about how much integration of Apple products we’ll see during games. We’ve already seen coaches using some tech on the sidelines, like CANMNT and USMNT.
I decided to look up one of the on demand MLB games from this year, and lo and behold, you’ve got a a sideline reporter rocking a pair of AirPod Max down on the field.

 

I also noticed while watching the MLB game that there was in option for PIP. Will be interesting to see if this is available during MLS games, for those times two games are on that you want to watch simultaneously on one device. I do believe this is an Apple TV (device not app) specific function.

 

The ESPN app can do 4 games at once. It’s just a matter of the app allowing it. As much as I love the Crew, I also like to watch other MLS games. Hopefully replays will be available all season. also would be nice to watch some preseason games now and then. I remember when I used to get excited about this team before the first week of the season.

 

My guess is that they haven't jettisoned the in-house production plan, just put it on a back burner for now.

At the time they solicited bids, most media people were saying that it would be next to impossible - and grossly expensive - to get an entire production company up and running in the very short window they had, which was IIRC six.or seven months.

Most production experts said a minimum of two years would be necessary, and perhaps more.

I suspect that the league took a hard look at the obstacles and decided that rather than toss something together that would almost surely be half assed, they'd farm it out, get the streaming deal going and revisit the idea a couple years down the road.

 

Mark McCullers in March 2014: "There is no blackout."

He forgot to mention the part about "as long as you have the magical provider."

MLS in 2023: "No blackouts."


What's old is new again. I'm just gonna sit here with low expectations and prepare for gnashing of teeth.

 

Have they announced any additional PBP or color commentary talent?

 

I saw an article a day or two ago that reiterated the opinion that biased announcers (when watching RSN broadcasts) were awful.

I wouldn't be surprised if they get announcers that don't have prior MLS experience if they don't want people who may show favoritism, even if they don't work games of the teams they used to. (Example: Jordan Angeli doing a Miami vs Orlando match.)

 

Ballys is about to file for bankruptcy

New: America's largest owner of local sports channels is heading toward bankruptcy court, putting at risk its payments to MLB, NBA and NHL teams. Story w/ @EK_Hudson @rachel_butt https://t.co/t0I8Bz01iA

— Gerry Smith (@gerryfsmith) January 25, 2023

 

Sinclair, but yeah, not surprising.

I should probably be prepared for the people who think their bills will go down if the channels fold. (It's happening now on another site I'm on with another channel.)

 

What other channel's about to fold?

 

Why should you, personally, be prepared?

 

Eh, that was probably not the best wording, but here's an example from the present:

NewsMax is apparently available for free via their app and website. From my understanding, they now want money to be carried on DirecTV and U-Verse despite not wanting money previously. A lot of people are unhappy they can no longer watch via their TV.

Some are asking if their bills will go down because of the lack of one channel. (No they won't go down automatically. You gotta call in to see if you can save more money than if you would by one channel not being there.)

And if the channel sunsets, such as NBC SN, Audience, Cloo or any other channel that ceased existing...fees for other channels go up.

 

This happens all the time.

 

The problem here is that they're talking about getting out of paying rights fees as part of the bankruptcy.

 

Yeah, Sinclair dramatically overpaid for rights fees to have content for their regional networks. The leagues can either renegotiate terms directly with Sinclair or become creditors and negotiate via the court appointed process. Normally in court all the creditors are treated pari passu, equally, but I'd imagine direct negotiations would see different discount % for different sports.

 

The Bloomberg article said some creditors would have greater rights while a lot of other creditors would likely get little unless someone (MLB and NBA) buy the restructured Diamond Sports.

 

Their app flat out sucks. I had to re-login every time I went to use it last season. I’ve seen similar complaints elsewhere. It just made it difficult to use. That’s on them. ******** around and find out is what happened.

 

Prepping to watch a Crew game live the last 2 seasons (until combining my ESPN+ login with Hulu to bypass blackouts) was a freaking nightmare. It is no surprise they are failing.

 

Depends on how they file.

If they file for Chapter 7, the entire business is liquidated down to the desk chairs, copiers and coffee makers, all contracts are voided, the money is split up amongst those they owe money to (normally pennies on the dollar) and the company ceases operation.

Chapter 11 - which is more normal - is more correctly referred to as a reorganization. If the judge feels that it's a viable business that simply got in over their heads with debt, he can essentially cancel the debt or restructure it, changing payment terms to something that's more manageable.

The judge (or actually the appointed bankruptcy trustee) will sit down with all concerned parties and try to work out a way to keep the lights on. Maybe existing contracts get cancelled, maybe not, it depends on whether the concerned party is interested in the deal on reduced terms.

It's extremely complex, the only real winners are the lawyers, who make a killing, but the bottom line is whether the party who sold the rights is interested in working something out or if they figure they can do better elsewhere.

(And as a further complication, a company can file for Chapter 11 reorganization, but the judge, after looking at the Financials and seeing if the suppliers want to work something out, may conclude that it's all hopeless and convert it to a Chapter 7)

 

And who is your TV provider?

How much of this overall issue can be blamed on Sinclair not signing with the providers?

I haven't had NFL Network for a few years now and need to do this, that and the other thing for RedZone. Yet, if they wanted to sign a deal, it could easily be done.

Sinclair needs to realize that the RSN ratings spike at certain hours each day. Nobody is watching 18 Holes or the various fishing shows. Their channel isn't ESPN that gets eyeballs almost 24/7. Heck, they're not even FS1. But also, those channels are lumped in with other channels. IIRC, all Sinclair offers is some RSNs, the freaking Tennis Channel and various local affiliates. That's hardly a portfolio to write home about. I do find it interesting that Sinclair recently signed a deal with some service that included the affiliates but not the RSNs.

(The point that companies like Disney and Google make are that Sinclair wants money based off these sort of misleading ratings. Naturally, they want to pay less. Oddly enough, they're signing with every other channel, thus raising bills. Many of the streaming services started around $35-40/mo for only the major channels. Those days are largely gone unless you're FreeCast or Philo...neither of which have sports channels.)

 

I'll be honest, I've watched a few episodes of 18 Holes. Mostly because I was too lazy/inebriated to find the remote and sometimes there is some nice scenery.