For the past two seasons, determining overall viewership trends on Major League Baseball’s regional sports networks has been chaotic due to the ongoing bankruptcy of Diamond Sports Group (DSG).
In March 2023, DSG, which manages the Bally Sports-branded collection of regional sports networks, filed for bankruptcy (Chapter 1). Supporting some of the MLB teams at the time and impacting NBA and NHL teams, this resolution threw the entire RSN bubble into disarray. Midway through last season, two DSG clubs were eliminated, the San Diago Padres and the Arizona Diamondbacks, followed by the Colorado Rockies leaving AT&T Sportsnet Rocky Mountain. All three transferred to MLB, handling production and executing their own transportation contracts.
Today, Diamond Sports Group still has 12 RSNs with the Bally Sports logo: Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, St. John’s S. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers.
In May, Comcast left Bally Sports’ regional sports networks after failing to close a new deal, creating a huge void in MLB’s local audience. While MLB is trending upward for the 2024 season, since the transportation dispute between Comcast and DSG, MLB RSNs are down 6% year-over-year compared to the same point last season. This figure can improve. At a prestigious court convention on Wednesday, Diamond said he had made “substantial progress” with Comcast, opening the door for games to return to the major retailer.
Craig Sloan, who recently named CEO of Playfly, a full-service incorporated sports marketing and media company that acquired Home Team Sports, Impression Sports and Entertainment and Fox Sports College Properties, three major arms of FOX Sports in 2021, told MLB Regional Sports. The network’s style remains as expected before the DSG/Comcast conflict, saying that at the highest level, sports are exceptionally consistent on television, like an annuity.
“When you look at MLB, or the NBA or the NHL in general, the portfolio is up there,” Sloan said in an interview with me for Forbes. “In general, it’s passing to pass up and passing to pass down. The only deviation historically noticed through our analytics team is that we’ll see the numbers pass a little above our average impressions across the country when the big market groups win and if the small markets win, we’ll see the numbers fall a little below the median. However, overall over the last 10 to 15 years it has been very consistent.
Although Comcast weighs heavily in MLB’s overall numbers, several clubs have seen promising signs.
In the designated Philadelphia market (DMA), the flaming Phillies have an HSTT of 6. 83, which equates to more than 217,000 TV households, up 46% from the same number of games last season.
The Baltimore Orioles, who have lacked a winning team for years, are seeing dividends on MASN. In the Baltimore DMA, their TV Household score has risen to an average of 4. 91, meaning the O’s offer more than 57,000 TV households each game. This represents a whopping 28% increase with the same number of games compared to last season.
The Cleveland Guardians are seeing a 7% increase from the same era last season, with an average rating of 4. 24 for TV families in the Cleveland DMA, which translates to over 65,000 TV families in game.
Other 2023 winners in their respective DMAs are the Dodgers, Royals, Brewers and Pirates.
While linear TV numbers for RSN are up in the air with Comcast’s dispute, streaming continues to gain traction as subscribers move away from classic TV. The average exclusive audience increases by up to 10%, while the average intake increases by up to 20% year-over-year.
According to Sloan, advertiser interest in MLB remains exceptionally strong given the large stock of games and how the season plays out in the summer. Even if they have retired in recent years, the corporate insurance channel is again on the rise. For the automotive sector, it relies on an OEM-to-OEM basis based on new car launches, but it remains strong for MLB. The main channel for advertising expansion is the video game industry. Even though MLB limits the number of classified ads for sports for betting corporations, it’s a highly competitive advertising area that has temporarily grown as a key advertiser. Other commodities remain the fast-food industry, mobile car manufacturers, and other tech corporations. One of the key changes is entertainment, as streaming corporations continue to grow.
“The disappearance of the entertainment audience on classic television screens has opened the door to systems like Amazon Prime and others,” Sloan said of streamers promoting it with Major League Baseball.
A key question is what RSN style will bring you in the short term. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said consolidating all of the clubs’ local media rights under one roof — to what the NFL has done for similar percentages of profits between clubs — is a forward-looking goal. The option of grouping the 30 clubs according to this style is remote. Clubs that maintain equity in a successful RSN are unlikely to see the price of joining the style. The big brands on the market, such as the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, and Astros would likely fall into this category.
At the same time, ESPN has the option to cancel its domestic broadcast deal with MLB in 2025. Although some have concluded that ESPN will negotiate down, information has also emerged about the global leader potentially seeking to capture certain local MLB media rights. Large Ligas. Es appropriate for them to bolster their new direct-to-consumer streaming service launching next year. If so, ESPN’s media earnings streams could remain at existing levels or increase depending on the number of shares gained.
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