Diamond Sports Group Pilots The End Of Current RSN Model

Wednesday’s news that Diamond Sports Group could largely be done with Major League Baseball. So it feels like the dam is about to break for the beleaguered company… and perhaps the RSN model, in general.

DSG will no longer carry broadcast rights for 11 of its 12 remaining MLB teams in 2025, with the Atlanta Braves (arguably THE team of the entire Southeast) being the lone remaining team under contract for next season. While DSG has submitted proposals to the rest, nothing is confirmed as of yet, so for now, its Bally Sports networks handle one team until we hear otherwise.

Truly losing all of those teams would effectively remove Diamond Sports from the MLB regional sports business. That, in and of itself, is notable because of baseball’s particular reliance on that model in recent years. DSG, once in control of nearly half of the league’s 30 teams’ rights, was also a key player propping up that system before it started shedding rights for teams like the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks. Now, there’s no telling how many teams they’ll be left with beyond Atlanta by the end of this offseason.

Adding to that, this isn’t even unexpected. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has been vocal about his dissatisfaction with DSG, as have other league heads. And Manfred already started retaking control of team rights when DSG cut them loose in recent years. MLB could, conceivably, retake the rest and roll out streaming plans to pair with local broadcast, as seems to be the model for many of the clubs leaving the RSN model behind.

Here on TVREV, Tim Hanlon has detailed how the Chicago White Sox (and Bulls and Blackhawks) are moving on from NBC Sports Chicago to rethink RSNs in that city.

The approach has an uphill battle, but the idea of a service that’s uniquely local is likely the right one. And the bundled approach with several teams on one network/service and multiple ways to watch is the best way to get a sports network to consumers today. After the drawn-out SportsNet LA debacle with the Los Angeles Dodgers a decade ago, most have made adjustments.

But many of those were also facilitated by the failures of Diamond Sports Group in the wake of being spun off from Fox and sold to Sinclair. NBA teams like the Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Clippers largely got out of the regional sports network game ahead of the potential 2025 RSN apocalypse, to offer local combined streaming and broadcast options. The NHL’s arguably furthest along of any league in terms of getting around RSN issues nationally, with non-national games bundled into Hulu/ESPN+ already. Though that still excludes local-market contests.

This is probably where Amazon jumps in. Sort of.

After agreeing to be a digital home for the embattled Ballys Sports RSNs earlier this year, that seemed to dematerialize over the summer. The New York Post reported in September that talks were still alive, albeit in non-exclusive fashion. So for now, Amazon potentially becomes a stopgap here, versus a long-term savior.

Ultimately, whether it’s Amazon, the leagues or both, the next few years probably kill off DSG’s regional sports model, leaving a handful of large-metro behemoths as the holdouts.

Those networks, like SNY, MSG, YES, NESN and the SportsNets in LA are arguably the biggest hurdles toward league control of rights, since those teams are among the leagues’ biggest draws. So any MLB/NHL/NBA streaming creations without those teams would be hampered from the start, though partnerships could still be reached that conceivably allow those teams’ games to be offered even while still attached to current cable networks.

There’s also the question of what happens to these bigger RSNs once the majority of other teams are available to watch/stream in their respective local markets for little or no cost? Between local broadcast deals popping back up, and low-cost/free streaming services (Victory+, for instance, will cost Anaheim Ducks fans zero dollars this season), the math has clearly changed toward wider availability bringing in more money from ads — instead of a subscriber fee-focused model.

RSNs aren’t dead, but they are entering a new phase. And now it’s almost certain that phase will not include DSG to any significant extent as teams have taken its stumbles as an opportunity to outthink them, to the benefit of fans.