Hoping Bally goes bankrupt…

[TaterTot]

I am sure that everyone here has heard about the commotion between Bally sports and MLB. If Bally doesn’t pay every single one of the teams on time, Rob Manfred says that all of the teams that have contracts with Bally will get rid of them, and MLB will remove blackouts. Some people are grumbling over this, but I think it could be a good thing. For starters, it costs way less in the MLB app. MLB tv costs 150$ a year, while Directv has a high price of 900 a year. I could get everything but Bally on a much cheaper streaming service if I wanted and still pay for MLB and it would be 3x less that Directv. The MLB app is also designed better, as Directv has been know to crash. I think it would be a very positive move if MLB started broadcasting the games on their own.

[ashbury]

MLB.tv is priced so low because it it blacked out wherever a service like Bally has exclusive rights.  Someone out-of-town like me gets to see the Twins for cheap this way, because nobody here in the west has exclusive rights on the Twins (however I can't watch the A's or Giants except through Comcast, and everywhere is in at least one team's exclusive area).  If MLB uses this bankruptcy to elbow out Bally, expect their own price to go up once the competition is out of the way.

[jimmyc]

Who really expects MLB to not cash in huge on this?  $$$  Currently, because BSN is bundled in with my cable, the cost is spread across lots of subscribers, many of whom pay for it without using it.  I now expect to have to pay for whatever MLB comes up with and do not expect my cable bill to drop because of the loss of BSN.  Greed will, of course, be the big winner.

[Mike Sixel]

Projections are for teams to lose about 50-70% of their local tv revenue, even after going to on demand local market streaming! Not to mention ESPN losing money like a sieve.

It is possible that for the first time in decades, teams will make less money than they used to on tv.

[Bigfork Twins Guy]

I have been using ATT and then Direct streaming to get BSN after starting with Sling and then YouTube TV.  I just switched to FuboTV as it is cheaper than Direct streaming.  I keep chasing the Twins and Wild around.

If BSN goes BK then I will investigate the MLB and NHL packages as long as I can receive it without blackouts from out in the sticks.  In a way I hope that does not occur as I am kind of a channel jumper during commercials and hate having an app for each tv channel as it is much more difficult to channel surf.  Is anybody aware of an app/device that allows channel surfing between different apps (e.g. Sling, BSN, NHL or MLB, etc.?

[Trov]

For the first year, it may be a good deal for local games, mainly because MLB would be scrambling to not lose fans.  However, as pointed out, when you take away an local providers, keeping in mind only about half the teams use Balley, some have private networks like Yankees, doubt they will agree to give up their local money to not have blackouts for Yankee games.  

This is a much bigger deal than many fans have really thought about it.  There was a post on here over the winter, well before this whole Bally thing, that Padres get so much more money from local TV deal than the Twins do.  I am sure MLB would love to end all local broadcast deals, and only have national and their TV rights.  If you think they would offer the same low price for every game, when they exclusive control, you are lying to yourself. 

Look at NFL, they charge hundreds to watch out of market games, and only offer 18 weeks of games, with 6 games a week being able to be watched not on their exclusive streaming.  MLB has so much more.  As one commenter said, they offer it cheaper because all they are doing is piggy backing off the broadcasts already done via local.  

If Bally fully goes under, and MLB stripes those broadcasts, there are so many questions left to be answered.  One, how would money be doled out for those teams?  If Padres made much more on a local deal, do you think they would agree to split the money even with say the Twins, or Rays, who no one attends games?  No they will demand they keep getting those same local TV right money, or be allowed to sell their rights as they did before to someone else.  What about broadcasters?  

Do you think MLB will pay for a home broadcast team for each team to follow around?  Doubtful.  It will most likely have to come from the team if they want, else there will be just a 1 team per game like a national broadcast.  Personally, I like the homer broadcast aspect of sports. 

The teams will not give up the money from TV broadcasts unless they have to. Manfred said the last option was to have games on streaming, not the first option.  He did say they do want to get away from the blackouts, but with that goes away local rights.  I cannot see the teams with private networks giving up their money.  I cannot see teams in big markets giving up their fatter contracts, to share money with lower market teams.  

Do not be surprised if they have different viewing packages, one being a pay per view option.  I can say with great confidence the price will go up either way. Right now people pay for the service because they want to see out of market games, or watch them when traveling.  There are cord cutters looking to save money to watch without cable, which is why Bally going under anyways, because they are not getting as much money from advertising as they expected.  However, there are still plenty of non cord cutters that will not buy the package if they have an option to watch local as well at current price. 

[Trov]

6 minutes ago, Bigfork Twins Guy said:

I have been using ATT and then Direct streaming to get BSN after starting with Sling and then YouTube TV.  I just switched to FuboTV as it is cheaper than Direct streaming.  I keep chasing the Twins and Wild around.

If BSN goes BK then I will investigate the MLB and NHL packages as long as I can receive it without blackouts from out in the sticks.  In a way I hope that does not occur as I am kind of a channel jumper during commercials and hate having an app for each tv channel as it is much more difficult to channel surf.  Is anybody aware of an app/device that allows channel surfing between different apps (e.g. Sling, BSN, NHL or MLB, etc.?

I do not think it is as easy a channel surf, but Amanzon is trying to be a one stop hub for all apps.  Rokue tv/devises allows for quick swapping of streamer, some remotes have the button the remote, but still have to have it logged in and pick what going to watch on the service. 

[Bigfork Twins Guy]

3 hours ago, Trov said:

I do not think it is as easy a channel surf, but Amanzon is trying to be a one stop hub for all apps.  Rokue tv/devises allows for quick swapping of streamer, some remotes have the button the remote, but still have to have it logged in and pick what going to watch on the service. 

Thanks.  I use Roku as my primary app/remote for all apps so I will check into that.