The saga of Diamond Sports’ bankruptcy and the fate of the AT&T RSNs may make it seem like the sky is falling in terms of baseball airing locally on television. But one executive who deals closely with RSNs all over the country said there’s no sense of panic.
Craig Sloan is the COO of Playfly Sports, a sports marketing and media company which deals with multimedia rights and management of high school and college properties.
Its sales division Home Team Sports represents all RSNs, and Sloan said there has been constant contact with the MLB office and work has been done to try to get out ahead of any issues that may arise.
“We’ve done a lot of contingency planning on the team level as well as the league level,” Sloan told Sports Business Journal. “The mechanism of how the fan will get the game might evolve, but the games will be available to fans. They won’t be shortchanged. And we’ll continue to bring brands in to ensure they have an advertising and marketing mechanism to still market across the country.”
Ratings for Opening Day in MLB were up 7% on RSNs compared to 2022 according to Sports Business Journal. Teams like Cincinnati, Baltimore and Pittsburgh saw incredible jumps in average audience.
Sloan said that the new pitch clock in baseball and other rule changes for 2023 had a lot to do with the increased interest.
“The athleticism of baseball is now matched to the rules, to a level where you’re going to see the type of play that’s going to match what viewers want,” he said.
MLB has also been proactive in making sure if Bally Sports goes away for any of its clubs, games will air on TV locally.
