Which MLB Teams Should Feel Best and Worst About Their RSN Situations 

In case you haven’t heard, regional sports networks (RSNs) across the country aren’t in great shape. Warner Bros. Discovery decided in February to pull out of local sports, which will eventually result in the closure of three RSNs. The Diamond Sports Group, operator of the Bally Sports RSNs, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month.

Because of the timing of these decisions, and how much more they rely on local media rights agreements rather than national ones, MLB teams and fans are sweating.

However, not all RSNs are created equal. Some teams and their fans should be very nervous. Others shouldn’t even bat an eye. So, which teams fall into the former category, which fall into the latter, and which are somewhere in between? Let’s break it down.

Not at all nervous: Blue Jays, Cubs, Dodgers, Red Sox, Mariners, Mets, Yankees

This one is easy. These seven teams own, or their ownership groups own, the RSNs their games air on. The Cubs and Sinclair split the ownership of Marquee Sports Network. The Blue Jays are owned by Rogers Communications, which also owns Sportsnet. Mets owner Steve Cohen doesn’t own SNY, but former owner Fred Wilpon and his Sterling Enterprises joint venture does. Guggenheim, the ownership group of the Dodgers, owns half of SportsNet LA. Fenway Sports Group, the Red Sox ownership group, owns 80% of NESN. The Yankees’ ownership group owns the largest share of YES Network. The Mariners own 60% of Root Sports Northwest, with the other 40% held by Warner Bros. Discovery (for now, at least).

In short, these teams are fine. Their RSNs aren’t going under unless the teams want them to go under (for whatever reason). NESN, Sportsnet, and YES also have launched direct to consumer (DTC) services through their RSNs, potentially protecting them from future subscriber churn or carriage disputes.

Only a tiny bit nervous: Athletics, Giants, Phillies, White Sox

Grouping the A’s in with these three teams is weird, but that’s the power of being on an NBC RSN. The company has shown no signs of pulling out of the RSN business, and while the RSNs aren’t available on DTC service Peacock quite yet, the service has been live for years and wouldn’t need time to get off the ground.

The Giants, Phillies, and White Sox all also have minority stakes in their RSNs.

It all depends on the courts: Nationals, Orioles

As BSL readers are quite aware, MASN, the RSN airing the Nationals, Orioles, and little else of value, is a complete mess. The Orioles are the majority owner of the network, with the Nationals as the minority owner, and the two teams have been embroiled in a legal dispute that has lasted years regarding rights fees owed to the Nationals. An unfavorable ruling in the case could cause the network to completely collapse, leaving both teams up a creek without a paddle. If there’s a favorable ruling, maybe things will get better in the future.

Fans of these two teams will have to do what they’ve done for years – just keep on waiting.

Nervous, but calm: Brewers, Marlins, Rays, Royals, Tigers

These are the first five Bally Sports teams on our list, and what separates them from their brethren is something that pisses MLB off – these five teams renewed their rights deals with the Diamond Sports Group in recent years, and also sold their streaming rights to the company. This means that Diamond can make their games available on the Bally Sports+ DTC package, a key negotiating point going forward for Bally.

Because those streaming rights were included, Diamond has another way to monetize these teams’ games. With cord cutting and carriage disputes giving Diamond body blow after body blow, availability on the DTC service is a must-have going forward.

Nervous due to silence, but still moving forward: Angels, Braves, Cardinals, Twins

These four teams are in no man’s land in Diamond’s bankruptcy for the sole reason that they’ve never been mentioned as either safe or on the chopping block. All four teams kept their streaming rights, meaning their games can’t be monetized through Bally Sports+, but their contracts aren’t so onerous and unprofitable that they could be cut loose. It’s admittedly not the best position to be in, but at least they’re not getting talked about as being dumped any day now.

The Twins stand out in this group because their media rights deal expires after this season. Will the organization jump up a level by selling their streaming rights to Diamond in a new deal? Or will they attempt to launch their own RSN as they did 20 years ago? Given that Victory Sports One shut down just a month into its first and only Twins season, maybe the franchise won’t want to repeat that mistake and will stick with their Bally Sports affiliate.

Pretty damn nervous: Diamondbacks, Guardians, Padres, Rangers, Reds

Four teams have consistently been mentioned as being on the chopping block for Diamond Sports: the Diamondbacks, Guardians, Padres, and Reds. The Rangers have not, though the franchise has done some saber rattling regarding leaving Bally (despite making nine figures a year), so I figured I’d throw them into this category too.

Of these five, the Padres are probably the safest, given that Diamond Sports made a payment to the team this week after missing a deadline and entering a grace period. If that payment wasn’t made, the Padres likely would have been cut loose sooner rather than later.

The Diamondbacks weren’t so lucky in either regard. Diamond missed a payment to them, and also didn’t make that payment before the end of the grace period. However, that original missed payment came before Diamond’s bankruptcy, meaning reclaiming the team’s rights would have been a more complicated proposition for MLB.

Attention now turns to the Guardians and Reds, who have payments due in the near future. If those payments are missed, both teams are thrown into a questionable situation for the rest of this season and beyond.

As for the Rangers, they’d normally be in the category before this along with the Angels, Braves, Cardinals, and Twins. If they are able to get out of their long-term deal with Diamond, it’s still quite unclear as to where they’ll end up.

Sweating, but they’ve been here before: Astros

Ten years ago, the Astros and Rockets launched an RSN called CSN Houston in partnership with Comcast. It was a complete disaster, leading to the RSN’s collapse, a bankruptcy filing, and its purchase by AT&T and DirecTV. Numerous carriage deals were struck, the RSN was rebranded as Root Sports Southwest (and later AT&T SportsNet Southwest), and everything was fine.

Until last month, of course, when Warner Bros. Discovery decided to get out of local sports. That put the Astros and Rockets (along with all of the other AT&T SportsNet teams) on course for disaster. However, the two teams are negotiating to take over the RSN, bringing back memories of the CSN Houston days. But because of the long-term deals already in place, the Houston teams will be in a better position now assuming the deal to acquire the RSN is closed.

Drenched: Pirates, Rockies

The lack of chatter surrounding these two teams following Warner Bros. Discovery’s exit announcement seems ominous. The Rockies have another RSN in town in the Kroenke-owned Altitude, which has its own issues, possibly allowing for a soft landing. Altitude’s primary live rights are the Avalanche and Nuggets, leaving a wide-open summer for the Rockies. Adding live Rockies games could also ail Altitude’s carriage woes in both the near and long-term future.

As for the Pirates, there are far fewer positives. AT&T SportsNet’s primary teams are the Penguins and Pirates, and since the Pens are majority-owned by the Fenway Sports Group, NESN could give them a somewhat logical landing point. The Pirates have no such option. The team’s frugality makes a takeover of the RSN seem unlikely. The closest other RSNs are over the border in Ohio, and I already discussed how Diamond Sports could cut bait on both the Guardians and Reds.

Pittsburgh seems like an opportunity for Scripps to jump in and strike a local deal, given their ownership of the city’s ION affiliate. Cincinnati and Cleveland could follow the same path if the Reds and Guardians are dropped by Bally, but the situations in those two cities seems far less pressing than the one in Pittsburgh.