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Whether his tone is condescending doesn't change the fact that the old RSN-based sports broadcasting model and the price points are incompatible with the present.

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On 6/12/2022 at 7:46 AM, Marcos Flamengo said:

I sincerely don't understand why the NHL prevent the U.S. RSNs to do the rest of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, including the Final, since 1995, in order to protect U.S. national broadcasters.

If I recall, the NHL might be the only league that allows the RSN's to have any round in the playoffs (first round).  NFL is all national broadcasts, and NBA and MLB are all national level.

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On 6/10/2022 at 4:57 PM, DG_ThenNowForever said:

Gen Z is drowning in student loan debt, unaffordable housing, and a poor job market.

 

Millennials have dealt with all the same things.

 

Every generation has consumed sports differently than the one before it. People probably thought cable tv was going to be the end of people buying tickets. Sports eventually adapted by building more downtown venues surrounded by entertainment districts to enhance fan experiences.

 

Kids might be on their phones while a game is on tv (and I'm sure plenty of Boomers do the same thing), but who's to say they aren't consuming/sharing sports content. Cable is expensive, but this is the most technologically proficient generation to-date. Finding ways to stream games for free isn't hard.

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1 hour ago, spartacat_12 said:

Cable is expensive, but this is the most technologically proficient generation to-date. Finding ways to stream games for free isn't hard.

 

That old Washington Post column suggests the problem is that Gen Z isn't engaging at all, but what you're saying is that they're not ignoring sports, they're just consuming it on their terms and finding ways to not pay for it.

 

If I'm a sports executive, I'd see this as the much bigger problem. Because it suggests that even if they're capturing some of this audience, they have yet to find a way to meet them on their terms in a way that also provides a sustainable stream of revenue. 

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2 hours ago, gosioux76 said:

If I'm a sports executive, I'd see this as the much bigger problem. Because it suggests that even if they're capturing some of this audience, they have yet to find a way to meet them on their terms in a way that also provides a sustainable stream of revenue. 

 

The RSN model was dated fifteen years ago. Now, it comes off as a relic from the days of 90s cable television.

 

There are teams blacked out in markets that are hundreds of miles away from where they play. I've yet to hear anyone explain how that makes a lick of sense from either the consumer's or the sports league's perspective; whatever small amount of logic behind the designated market rule went out the window when people stopped buying satellite dishes.

 

The only outlet still doing gangbusters on traditional television is the 24-hour news networks because their audience is too decrepit to learn new viewing habits. Everyone else has more or less gotten with the program, except for sports, which still operates under the same model they had 20 years ago.

 

Don't feel bad for them. They made up these rules, and they have the power to change them. They're just unwilling to take the short-term profit hit that comes with it, so they keep kicking the can down the road.

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2 hours ago, gosioux76 said:

That old Washington Post column suggests the problem is that Gen Z isn't engaging at all, but what you're saying is that they're not ignoring sports, they're just consuming it on their terms and finding ways to not pay for it.

 

If I'm a sports executive, I'd see this as the much bigger problem. Because it suggests that even if they're capturing some of this audience, they have yet to find a way to meet them on their terms in a way that also provides a sustainable stream of revenue. 

 

I'd prefer having consumers who want to engage with my product but don't want to pay in the traditional sense over having an entire generation lose interest altogether. You at least know there is still some form of demand, you just have to pivot and find a new way to offer it. It took the music business a little while to figure it out, but they were able to get people paying for music again, which 15 years ago seemed impossible.

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5 hours ago, TBGKon said:

If I recall, the NHL might be the only league that allows the RSN's to have any round in the playoffs (first round).  NFL is all national broadcasts, and NBA and MLB are all national level.

I remember watching the Magic's 2020 playoff games on (what was then) Fox Sports Florida. That might've been a pandemic only thing, though.

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NBA still has local telecasts for the first two rounds, but you have your choice of national or local feeds with no local market blackouts. NHL only has local telecasts first round and then goes national exclusive 2nd round onward since the 2012 NBC contract, and as of about 3 or 4 years ago national broadcasts are no longer blacked out in the local market for the first round which has carried over to the ESPN/TNT deal. NFL and MLB are national exclusive the whole way through.

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On 6/12/2022 at 6:46 AM, Marcos Flamengo said:

I sincerely don't understand why the NHL prevent the U.S. RSNs to do the rest of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, including the Final, since 1995, in order to protect U.S. national broadcasters.

It looks like you thought about this for two seconds. Try thinking about it for three seconds and report back.

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1 hour ago, spartacat_12 said:

 

I'd prefer having consumers who want to engage with my product but don't want to pay in the traditional sense over having an entire generation lose interest altogether. You at least know there is still some form of demand, you just have to pivot and find a new way to offer it. It took the music business a little while to figure it out, but they were able to get people paying for music again, which 15 years ago seemed impossible.

 

The RSNs really throw a wrench into it. Spotify offers great value for $15/month; there's no corresponding value in television and movies; certainly not with all American sports (though ESPN+ is great if you like baseball, soccer and hockey).

 

But $50/month for NBA and NFL? GTFO.

1 hour ago, ShutUpLutz! said:

and the drunken doodoobags jumping off the tops of SUV's/vans/RV's onto tables because, oh yeah, they are drunken drug abusing doodoobags

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21 minutes ago, Digby said:

The MLS plus Apple TV deal is happening. No more local broadcasts (nor blackouts), all on Apple TV (enjoy another subscription fee folks!). Centralized production studio. https://www.si.com/soccer/2022/06/14/mls-apple-partner-broadcast-tv-rights-media-deal 

 

Great. We just won the fight to get FC Cincinnati games on local TV without a blackout and now they're going back behind another paywall. I'll probably subscribe to this because I have another $5 each month and I've grown fond of watching our beloved FCC's, but grrrrr I can't count the number of streaming services I subscribe to on two hands. 

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It seems to me sports these days have more of an issue drawing casual fans rather than one specific generation of fans (although this probably effects younger generations more since younger fans aren't as established in their viewing habits). Part of it is just the fact the media landscape is more fragmented and there are more entertainment options now so everyone isn't gathering to watch sporting events as much as they used to. As a result, there's less incentive for people who don't follow the sport as closely to go out of their way to watch, never mind pay for whatever cable/streaming package they need, since it's less of a communal thing people are talking about.

 

The other issue is the way the games are distributed and the high pricing of anything related to pro sports. New fans these days aren't flipping channels and happening upon games and organically becoming fans like they used since no one has cable. They also aren't going to pay $30 a month for the new NESN or whatever RSN streaming service just to follow a team or sport they don't already. Something like this new MLS deal (or the NHL's current situation with ESPN+ but without local blackouts) could be the future as it helps put the games in front of viewers who might not typically watch through apps they have anyways.

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1 hour ago, Stu-BallsOmnicorp said:

Something like this new MLS deal (or the NHL's current situation with ESPN+ but without local blackouts) could be the future as it helps put the games in front of viewers who might not typically watch through apps they have anyways.

 

I was surprised that the NHL/ESPN+ deal still had local blackouts, but -- I guess they needed to work around the local deals already in place (MLS apparently made all the teams ensure that their local deals would expire this season), and I'd also imagine few, if any, MLS team owners have stakes in their local RSN the way NHL and MLB teams do, so there's less shortsighted protectionism of that particular revenue stream.

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