- This topic has 464 replies, 48 voices, and was last updated 3 months, 4 weeks ago by
.
-
Posts
-
The latest out of the Bally Sports Bankruptcy trial …
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2024/10/02/diamond-sports-mlb-baseball-bally-sports-regional-networks.html
Will be interesting to see how the Cardinals will play this out.
Just looking at this roughly:
Cardinal TV is currently broadcast in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Oklahoma, Arkansas, parts of Kansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi….
They would have two revenue streams with this model, (1) the subscriptions and (2) the advertisements they sell for the TV games broadcast.
They would probably have some more overhead costs to start with.
I would think it would be 29.99 a month and they would probably have a lesser yearly rate….that looks to be the rate on MLB.tv.
The hard part to gauge is how much TV advertising dollars do they make/would they make on the games …this would include advertising b/w innings, any advertising on the score bug and if there is an official advertiser for the Games there may be some other areas here.
I think I read Bally/DSG paid them $75 million a year so that would be the amount they would be trying to hit…that will be a task to start I would think.
One problem will be that they will lose older viewers that will not be able to understand the technology to be able to sign up to the service, who have just relied on it being there on cable tv.
Even if they got $150 per yearly subscription, they’d be looking at needing to get 300,000 subscribers to get to $45M. Would ad revenue make up the other $28M? It seems risky, which is probably why teams went the RSN route as long as they could. Being dependent on subscriptions is like being dependent on fans in the seats…you’ve got to put a good product on the field to earn that dough from folks.
If there would be no blackouts, I would have no problem with $200 for a year of all the Cardinal games. That is less than what I will spend going to a single game in person. At a 4 hour drive, one way, I am not going to more than 2 games a year no matter what.
A model where some/most teams go the subscription route would exacerbate revenue inequality, wouldn’t it?
In a new twist, the Bally Sports channels will soon be no more. Still in Chapter 11, Diamond (owned by Sinclair) has sold the former Bally Sports naming rights to FanDuel. So place your bets on the new FanDuel Sports Midwest (assuming it survives for 2025)!
The name change is effective in three days – October 21.
Well that is a very unappealing buyer. I for one do not look forward to being bombarded with betting information on the game broadcasts.
A few opinions …
1. Not sure the Cardinals will be able to attain $75M in revenue. Bally was paying that amount to the Cards and were not able to make money. Assuming that is why they dropped the Cardinals.
2. A solution must include both local broadcast and streaming options. The fan base is divided as to how they currently get the games – cable package versus streaming.
3. Cable option has to be offered at a reasonable price to avoid being locked out of some TV markets.
Would like to see blackout policy go away. I am sure it will be part of the negotiation with cable providers.
Brian, you are correct. It is bring rumored that Bally will drop the Cardinals unless they get a new deal.
I received more detail from JoinWallStreet in a subscription email just this morning. Depending on the team and their agreement with Diamond, the 2025 plan will be different. Here is where the Cardinals are:
“And the company has contracts in place, as part of joint venture arrangements, with five others; none of which are included in the bankruptcy process (Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins, and St. Louis Cardinals). So, unless there is a renegotiation, Diamond will remain obligated to pay those teams and handle production and distribution for their games.”
Ran across this the other day. A small update, but potentially good news …
https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2024/10/25/st-louis-cardinals-tv
With ever more people cutting the cord on cable, that revenue source seems destined to keep shrinking. But if you are wanting people to make a buying decision on a streaming package, you have to do something to ramp up interest in the product. It seems hard to sell this winter, so I wonder what the marketing strategy would be? You can’t just offer a cheap ticket to get them on site where you can sell them $15 cups of beer.
I will always buy whatever the Cardinals are selling but I have been a fan for a long, long time.
Like many of you will remember ‘back in the day’ there were no packages to buy. No internet, no ESPN game tracker, etc. If the Cards weren’t on network TV (free if you owned television set) then you either listened on the radio or had to actually attend the games.
You might catch the score on the 10 o’clock news – just the score mind you.
Generally you had to wait for the paper the next morning to read the box score and if it was a late game you’d wait two days. Maybe also get a one paragraph summary of the game.
The price gouging and financial arms race is pretty ridiculous and has escalated out of control when pitchers are making $10,000 per pitch and your star players make 30 million+ a year – increasing almost every year. The situation has become: “No matter how much money a team makes its never enough.”
At some point after I retire I’ll have to let it (paying a separate fee to watch MLB) go and that’s pretty sad. The average family of 4 has pretty much been priced out of going to the ballpark outside of a few special promotion nights.
Maybe, in this case, the old days WERE better.
Yep, up until the mid 80’s Stl. had two newspapers. The Globe was the morning paper and the Post was the evening paper. When the Cardinals played a night game in LA, SF, or SD you had to wait for an afternoon edition of the PD to get a box score and recap. At any rate, I’m a little surprised that baseball fans can still listen to a game on the car radio without having to pay a fee.
Sounds like from reading 1964’s link that it’s could go to what I’ve said all along unless the renegotiated deal with FanDuel is to the ownerships liking.
The Padres are the ones we are looking at as the guinea pig here if we go with the league. In market streaming for $20 a month. Out of market would be the same MLB package you would buy and people with cable would be able to watch on certain channels. My question is how MLB will handle and what would be considered in market streaming territory and how much the Padres made going this route? The Padres drew a shade under 500K more fans and had 19 sellouts than we did and got playoff revenue stream. We only had a couple sellouts and no playoffs. The only outlier is that fan base in San Diego is I would say about 90% in market or within the state of California. Ours is not.
You would really be banking on your fanbase who either have to stream or would be willing to stream for $20+ to whatever price MLB is out of market for a product that is being looked at as unsatisfactory in it’s current form. The team even at 83 wins was not well attended or represented by the fan base at gomes last season. You didn’t get that walk up crown like they used to and fans who did have tickets or corporate seats seemed to stay home a bit more. Seems like a heck of a risk to have MLB run it. If the loss of revenue is indeed about 20% from it’s current contract of $78 million then I can see the team just eating the $15.6 million and sticking with whatever it’s being rebranded to IMO.
Cardinals & FanDuel Sports Network Reach TV Agreement
Diamond Sports Group and St. Louis Cardinals Reach Multi-Year Renewal of Local Television Rights
Diamond Sports Group and the St. Louis Cardinals today announced a new, multi-year linear and digital rights agreement through which Diamond will continue as the Cardinals’ exclusive local media partner.
Under the agreement, FanDuel Sports Network Midwest will remain the home of the Cardinals, broadcasting all games that are not exclusively televised nationally, as well as pre and postgame shows and original programming. For the first time, subscribers to FanDuel Sports Network on a direct-to-consumer (“DTC”) basis will have access to games in the extensive Cardinals TV territory. Additionally, pay TV customers will be able to stream games and other programming on the FanDuel Sports Network app by authenticating with their pay TV credentials. More information regarding DTC subscriptions, including pricing, will be announced at a later date.
David Preschlack, CEO of Diamond, stated: “We are excited about deepening our relationship with the Cardinals and expanding our reach by delivering games to fans on a DTC basis. As we progress towards emergence from bankruptcy, we remain committed to providing fans in the Midwest region with high quality broadcasts through our linear and digital offerings and meeting fans where they are in the evolving viewership model.”
Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III stated: “We are pleased to enhance and expand our long-term partnership with Diamond and FanDuel Sports Network Midwest. We valued the continuity for our fans of staying on the same network as the Blues, and we are excited that we will now be able to expand access to our games
Pricing for the package is to be announced at a later date. The current deal to stream the Blues through FDSN is $20/month (ht @jmjones)
The big item of note though: If you are willing to pay for Cardinals baseball, you will be able to watch it, regardless of where you live. https://t.co/S3zy9IHdBg
— Katie Woo (@katiejwoo) November 7, 2024
I predicted this is where it was going last year.
Now the question is what will be considered the Cardinals TV Territory?
Hallelujah!!!
Direct streaming with no blackouts. As long as the price isn’t outrageous I will be watching Cardinals baseball for the first time in 10 years.We don’t know for sure, but I haven’t read anything about territories changing. How outrageous the price will be could be a personal decision. Call it the “puke point,” to reuse an old Girsch quote. For grins, what is the most folks would pay monthly?
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.