The end of regional sports networks is near, but the sky isn’t going to fall out immediately.
In an interview on Grant & Danny on 106.7 The Fan in D.C., Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand said the ongoing news with Diamond Sports Group – the owner of the Bally Sports RSNs – isn’t what all the other network proprietors are experiencing.
“The Bally Sports RSNs, that’s unique to Bally Sports,” Ourand said Friday. “That company – Diamond Sports – they have $8 billion in debt. Billion with a b. Warner Bros. Discovery, their RSNs, they couldn’t make any money off of it. They were in debt with those RSNs.”
Ourand pointed to others like YES Network, NESN and Marquee as RSNs that can turn a profit. He said ultimately the business model is crumbling because cable is hemorrhaging subscribers each year and the networks are losing money while rights fees to carry teams increases every season. But despite those glaring issues, some RSNs can make money still.
“They’re less profitable than they were a year ago and certainly a lot less profitable than they were five years ago,” Ourand said. “So you see where the trend line is going. The implosion is not going to happen all at once. It’s just happening all at once for the biggest purveyor of regional sports networks in the country.”
