Comcast subscribers around the United States woke up on Wednesday morning to discover that they no longer receive the Bally Sports-branded regional sports network through their cable packages. This occurred as a result of fruitless negotiations between Diamond Sports Group and Comcast in an attempt to reach a new carriage agreement. Both companies issued statements regarding the situation that resulted in the sports channels being removed from these subscription services. Nonetheless, the decision was a talking point that led off Wednesday morning’s edition of Fescoe in the Morning on 610 Sports Kansas City.
Show host Bob Fescoe, who has discussed Bally Sports and the situation surrounding Diamond Sports Group on several occasions, did not realize the program was beginning because he was caught up with the carriage agreement news. The putative impasse that is impeding both sides from reaching a deal has underscored the sentiment of consumers to cut the cord, which has taken place at record rates in the country over the last several years. The Leichtman Research Group recently estimated that major pay television providers lost approximately 5 million subscribers last year alone, which leads cable companies, other satellite/telecommunications services and vMVPDs to equate to about 71.3 million total subscribers.
“I go, ‘This is the problem with big cable right now,’” Fescoe emphasized after his co-host, Josh Klingler, asked if Diamond ultimately wanted Amazon to pick up all of its channels. “If it’s on Amazon, it’s your choice whether or not you want to watch this. With cable companies and satellite providers, you don’t get a say in their disputes; you don’t get a say in what you get [and] you don’t get a say in anything other than to pay money and more of it for what they may or may not be offering at this point in time.”
Although Fescoe is a DirecTV subscriber himself, a company with whom Diamond Sports Group reached a carriage renewal earlier this week, he understands the inconvenience that the hindrance is causing. After all, the Kansas City Royals, who are locally broadcast on television by Bally Sports Kansas City, are coming off the best April performance in franchise history and currently sit second in the American League Central division. While Fescoe remarked that many people are likely acquiescing and paying to stream games direct-to-consumer on the Bally Sports app, he also connected a recent sale for two months to a potential breakdown in these negotiations.
“I think there’s a danger of the TV world just going, ‘Well, will Amazon just pick it up?,’” Klingler said. “At some point they’re not going to buy everything [and] they’re not going to stream everything, and so I think there’s a danger in that too.”
Klingler conveyed that these decisions ultimately have to make business sense for OTT streaming providers such as Amazon-owned Prime Video. Even though he acknowledged that sports generally are met favorably in this scenario, he does not like leaning on it as a business proposition. Fescoe also made mention that if these networks ultimately become available through Amazon, it would likely be as an add-on service. Regardless of what happens though, he stated that the Bally Sports app is an alternative to view the events and that he was informed that they are working on the technology after numerous customer complaints.
Fescoe is cognizant of the fact that consumers do not like being “nickel and dimed” as it pertains to the television viewing experience. Additionally, he expressed his own observations that DirecTV always has an upsell and charges extra for niche packages. In the end, he thinks that it makes fiscal sense for consumers to forsake these companies and make the decisions for themselves as to what they want to watch and the services necessary to render it possible.
“That’s just the world we’re living in right now, and I know people get frustrated, and I’m frustrated with it, but I think ultimately at the end of the day, it may be just best just to get rid of cable altogether,” Fescoe said. “Just go straight to streaming; just purchase what you want and legitimately pay for what you are going to be watching, and I think that’s probably how you have to look at it now…. You almost have to have everything that’s out there to get everything that you want, but if you offer it á la carte, then I can just kind of go pick and choose what I want.”
Later in the show, Fescoe and Klingler read messages from listeners about alternative programming they would place on the Bally Sports-branded networks. One listener suggested that the Florida-based regional sports networks within the cluster should televise meth races and alligator wrestling. One listener was curious what would happen if the Bally Sports app and Audacy app were to get in a fight.
“Ours is free, so lay off,” Klingler replied. “…If an app is iffy but it’s free, I can give you some leeway, including ours. I’ll give you leeway, not just because it’s ours, but because it’s free. If I pay for one, it better sure as hell work. That to me is a definite distinction.”
Fescoe was amused by a suggestion to have 610 Sports Kansas City host Jay Binkley on Bally Sports Kansas City making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It resulted in Klingler revealing that they had offered things to the regional sports network within the overall programming.
“Because Bally’s Kansas City is unlike some of the other ones – they don’t do their own programming,” Klingler said. “Basically, they carry the games and then they become [Bally Sports] Midwest or whatever and they carry some other stuff, so we offered like, ‘Hey, what about we do some stuff – the fun stuff.’ They were never interested.”
