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The Bally Sports Thread


Georgie56

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On 3/6/2020 at 1:29 AM, channel2 said:

Sinclair just doesn't have the leverage with MVPDs that Fox did. They don't have a Fox News or even an FX to use as a cudgel. WUCW is not KMSP-WFTC, for instance, and I don't know what kind of cachet the Tennis Channel has.

Negative leverage - nobody wants to pay for their $100/year price for the Plus package for #374 vs #685 in the world preliminary matches, and you have to pay a monthly fee even for TVE access; and consolidating a website and magazine into the same company is asking for disaster (Google Justin Gimmelstob about how this triple threat marketing is a disaster when a personality gets into hot water). Even Willow, the cricket channel running on a small budget, has a sane carriage fee and free TVE to the systems that have taken them on. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

So since all sporting events are on pause and most likely won't resume until June, could the FSN's officially be renamed on the day that the NBA, NHL, and MLB seasons officially resume? I'm hearing that Sinclair is pushing to drop the Fox Sports name as soon as they have a new name ready.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/30/2020 at 6:01 PM, CTrey98 said:

So since all sporting events are on pause and most likely won't resume until June, could the FSN's officially be renamed on the day that the NBA, NHL, and MLB seasons officially resume? I'm hearing that Sinclair is pushing to drop the Fox Sports name as soon as they have a new name ready.

I thought they already had a name. Weird people run that company

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  • 3 months later...
On 4/10/2020 at 12:17 AM, Yankees4life said:

I thought they already had a name. Weird people run that company

Sinclair had four months to rebrand the RSNs as MLB is now underway and NBA & NHL comeback next weekend. I wonder whether a rebrand is in the works or if the pandemic delayed any action on Sinclair's part. Also, Sinclair could've used the time to negotiate new deals with MPVDs who've dropped them in recent years.

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  • 3 months later...
3 hours ago, Spring Rubber said:

Wow, that's ridiculous. Honestly, sports betting is a huge turn off for me. When SportsCenter started running full segments based around betting a few years ago, I tuned out.

 

Watch ESPN News and most of the screen is covered with sports betting info. The main program is in a box to the right.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The presentation on this partnership was released today. Saw this on the 506 forums and honestly it is to be expected with regards to the emphasis on betting, etc. Graphics and ticker looks interesting too. It'll be interesting to see what the final product looks like.

https://sbgi.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Ballys-Sinclair-Inv-Deck_FINAL.pdf

 

Meanwhile Sinclair also announced that the DTC plans will complement the existing pay-tv services and go more of a hybrid approach https://thestreamable.com/news/sinclair-ceo-says-upcoming-direct-to-consumer-offering-will-complement-to-pay-tv-business

 

 

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3 hours ago, dman748 said:

 

 

Meanwhile Sinclair also announced that the DTC plans will complement the existing pay-tv services and go more of a hybrid approach https://thestreamable.com/news/sinclair-ceo-says-upcoming-direct-to-consumer-offering-will-complement-to-pay-tv-business

 

 

 

This just a bad idea all around. I can only imagine what the sport teams who had no say in this decision are thinking (especially the Cubs since they jumped in late).

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11 minutes ago, Mrtraveler01 said:

 

This just a bad idea all around. I can only imagine what the sport teams who had no say in this decision are thinking (especially the Cubs since they jumped in late).

At what point do you have to start wondering when the leagues and the teams who's games air on Sinclair-owned RSNs walk away from Sinclair?

 

It feels as if Sinclair has botched this deal from the word go. It took them over a year to put together a plan to rebrand the FSNs, pretty much pissed off all of the streammers (somewhat unreleated, they lost the Tennis Channel on YTTV so there goes what little leverage Sinclair had left to get the RSNs back on YTTV)

 

Honestly this feels like the Astros/Rockets situation on a much bigger level.

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26 minutes ago, Mrtraveler01 said:

 

This just a bad idea all around. I can only imagine what the sport teams who had no say in this decision are thinking (especially the Cubs since they jumped in late).

The Brewers current FSN deal apparently just ran out, but they're in a rock and a hard place (Sinclair also owns the WVTV CW/MyNet feeds, and Weigel's WMLW is on a low-power stick). Their literal only other move would be to the local Spectrum News 1, so I would expect the deal to be renewed by default. But since the team's major sponsor is an area Native American casino and there's no sports betting in the state, they will push back hard against branding with some out-of-state entity Wisconsinites still associate more with pinball and fitness centers in the past than gambling.

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4 minutes ago, mrschimpf said:

The Brewers current FSN deal apparently just ran out, but they're in a rock and a hard place (Sinclair also owns the WVTV CW/MyNet feeds, and Weigel's WMLW is on a low-power stick). Their literal only other move would be to the local Spectrum News 1, so I would expect the deal to be renewed by default. But since the team's major sponsor is an area Native American casino and there's no sports betting in the state, they will push back hard against branding with some out-of-state entity Wisconsinites still associate more with pinball and fitness centers in the past than gambling.

Did the deal with the Bucks also ran out to or no?

 

Honestly Sinclair not able to get the Brewers on board (while isn't necessarily the end of the world for Sinclair) is not a good start for them if they want to get all of the teams they have rights to on board.

 

Although to be fair I'm sure Sinclair losing out on all of the streaming services (and others) with no sign of those services bringing them back anytime soon probably left the Brew Crew a bit of a sour taste in their mouth.

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16 hours ago, mrschimpf said:

The Brewers current FSN deal apparently just ran out, but they're in a rock and a hard place (Sinclair also owns the WVTV CW/MyNet feeds, and Weigel's WMLW is on a low-power stick). Their literal only other move would be to the local Spectrum News 1, so I would expect the deal to be renewed by default. But since the team's major sponsor is an area Native American casino and there's no sports betting in the state, they will push back hard against branding with some out-of-state entity Wisconsinites still associate more with pinball and fitness centers in the past than gambling.

It's not just the Brewers who are stuck, many of the other Sinclair RSN teams are stuck as well as the only options they have are the expense of starting their own RSN, migrating to D2C streaming, or signing with an OTA station. The only teams I can see moving to another RSN are the LA teams who can possibly move to Spectrum SportsNet or SportsNet LA, and the Texas and Oklahoma teams moving to AT&T Sports Net SW.

 

As for the Brewers, they can also try WPXE, who'll most likely be a Scripps station by the time the 2021 season starts, while WMLW should move to the WDJT stick.

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1 hour ago, JCB4TV said:

while WMLW should move to the WDJT stick.

They've been on the same tower for years, and WDJT relays them on 58.3. Problem is Weigel has so many channels relaying on WDJT's main signal that none of them have a decent picture quality.

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In the scheme of things, DTC sports is long overdue.  So much of the price of cable/satellite TV has been driven up by the cost of live sports, as well as the added "RSN Fees" that have been tacked on to virutally every cable/satellite bundle in existence.  Let the fans pay for it, and if they can't, then it's time for the sports leagues to come back down to reality.

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2 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

In the scheme of things, DTC sports is long overdue.  So much of the price of cable/satellite TV has been driven up by the cost of live sports, as well as the added "RSN Fees" that have been tacked on to virutally every cable/satellite bundle in existence.  Let the fans pay for it, and if they can't, then it's time for the sports leagues to come back down to reality.

 

Agreed. I wonder how many viewers RSN'S actually get?

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3 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

In the scheme of things, DTC sports is long overdue.  So much of the price of cable/satellite TV has been driven up by the cost of live sports, as well as the added "RSN Fees" that have been tacked on to virutally every cable/satellite bundle in existence.  Let the fans pay for it, and if they can't, then it's time for the sports leagues to come back down to reality.

While I do agree with those points however, here's the problem.

 

Ripley said something to the effect of "still wanting DTC tied to cable/satellite". What Ripley doesn't realize is that it actually defeats the purpose of truly going DTC, a real DTC service in general wouldn't be tied in with the cable/satelitte bundle (e.g. Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock) heck even ESPN+ isn't tied into that pay TV bubble.

 

I think that to me as it's been the case all along since Sinclair bought the RSNs it's been.. missteps after missteps after missteps and it's costing them dearly. It's not Sinclair's past rhetorics on the news side that's costing them, it's the RSNs and their constant missteps is what's hurting them right now.

Edited by dman748
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  • 1 month later...

Well, SBJ's got the scoop, Sinclair will announce the rebranding today (free account required to read). Biggest changes are "shuttering" the Tennessee and Carolinas channels and folding them back into South (for the Predators) and Southeast (Hornets and Hurricanes) Prime Ticket becomes Bally Sports SoCal and SportsTime Ohio becomes Bally Sports Great Lakes. Rebrand takes effect "sometime before MLB season."

buzz Ballys map NEW.jpg

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1 hour ago, mightynine said:

I think this is the first time we've seen the "local" versions of the Bally Sports logo. Pretty basic.

Which makes sense. I'm sure Bally's wants its name front and center in the logos and to stand out from the rest of the words since the company is paying for the naming rights.

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  • Georgie56 changed the title to The Bally Sports Thread

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