Just in time for the 2024-25 NBA season, and early enough in the NHL and college seasons to be forgiven, sports TV is getting yet another rebrand. USA TODAY’s media reporter Mark Giannoto broke the news to his handful of readers last week:
Bally Sports is no more. Diamond Sports Group announced that it will be rebranded as FanDuel Sports Network starting Monday as part of “a broad, long-term commercial partnership.” Terms of the naming rights agreement were not disclosed.
Ironically, this is the second time FanDuel has rebranded an entity once run by FOX Sports personnel. Their national network usurped the TVG brand two years ago by expanding the scope and resources of what was initially a horse racing-centric entity that, per Wikipedia, began 25 years ago as as a joint venture of TV Guide Inc. (which at the time was owned by both Liberty Media and News Corp.), the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, and AT&T Broadband. Despite some ambitious additions to its portfolio, including content from Bill Simmons’ THE RINGER and international professional basketball leagues, all indications are that any significant movement in audience or subscribers has yet to occur.
And in these RSNs, they are arguably getting even more damaged goods than they took over with TVG. As Giannoto articulated:
Diamond Sports Group, the largest owner of regional sports networks in the country, filed for bankruptcy in March 2023. Its instability put the future of local broadcasting rights in doubt for dozens of pro teams and led to the involvement of the leagues. The company, formed in 2019 to facilitate the sale of a portfolio that then included 22 regional FOX Sports Networks and local television rights for 42 major professional teams, has been forced to shed contracts to stay afloat. Diamond Sports Group submitted a reorganization plan in court earlier this month that included the possibility of only broadcasting the games of one MLB team (Atlanta Braves) moving forward, putting 11 MLB teams at risk of losing their regional sports network contracts for the 2025 season. Diamond Sports Group also recently dropped its contracts with the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans as part of its bankruptcy case.
So what remains are a panoply of mid-sized markets and, for the most part, less competitive teams. Even in Los Angeles, the limited appeal of the Kings, the Kawhi Leonard-less Clippers and the woeful Angels makes their offering an afterthought to all but the most ardent fans. They’re gonna find the team no matter what the channel they’re on is called. And as for the FanDuel loyalists, one suspects they’re far more interested in the results than the action. So it’s difficult for me to grasp exactly what upside FanDuel believes they’re getting by expanding their “reach” to these dinosaur entities.
What’s even harder for me to comprehend is what upside aside from a few sponsorship dollars the RSNs are getting from aligning once again with a brand that is promoting and encouraging compulsive gambling among a vulnerable younger sector of its market. The association with Bally’s didn’t help these networks one iota and in fact may have tarnished their brands with the providers and its more discerning local fans. I happen to know what associations help and hinder these entities fairly well.
I participated in an extensive internal come-to-Jesus study that attempted to ascertain what the impact of the FOX Sports nomenclature was having on the group of RSNs that they cobbled together at a time when opportunities for expansion via satellite were robust. These networks originally were rolled out under a host of mostly locally-known names such as PASS (Detroit), Midwest Sports Network (Minneapolis and Milwaukee), and Prime Ticket (Los Angeles), among others. We studied these perceptions with both heavier and lighter-frequency viewers, and with exception of Los Angeles, which had the Lakers and Dodgers at the time, the connection with what was perceived as an “attitudinal” brand that was especially embraced by younger viewers was a halo effect that resonated with local advertisers. So all but Prime Ticket was dismissed as an option, and the FOX Sports branding continued for two decades.
Knowing this, I can’t imagine there’s anything but a negative halo effect for such advertisers and sponsors for something like FanDuel. Nor do I see those who do fall into that generation any more likely to reverse their cord-cutting behavior. And given the long-term intent of MLB and what the NBA has already said they will emulate in pursuing an all-encompassing local component to future streaming deals, I highly doubt there’s anything but a short-term modest infusion at stake here on both parties’ parts.
The motivation from the teams’ parts, of course, is to keep as much of the revenue they’ve received from RSNs in house. Those that have already made the move from this one-stop model to the model of over-the-air and streaming have seen an approximately 40% drop in media revenue, despite the theoretical increase in reach they’re getting. That, in turn, is impacting many of these teams’ abilities to compete for top-tier free agents that are used to promote subscriptions. Or, at least, that’s what they’re saying.
The truth is, intelligently run teams that put together the most competitive rosters with what they have to work with more often than not yield the best results. Three of the FanDuel baseball teams, including two on the way to being dropped, were playoff teams this year; two others, including last year’s champions, were in the mix in 2023. Last year’s runners-ups were forced to make the move and prospered nonethless. Last year’s NBA Western Conference regular season champions are still in the FanDuel family; the finals representative among those who again were forced to make the move to the hybrid model. So, too, were last year’s Stanley Cup champions.
They are proof one doesn’t need either the revenue–or the baggage–to be successful. And they aren’t showing any immediate signs of getting worse.
So you tell me–what are the odds that the association with FanDuel is going to make a material difference?
Maybe if those prop bets go up on the site it might draw enough traffic to matter?
And maybe, just maybe, such bets wouldn’t be made by folks who might otherwise have enough success to have enough to continue to subscribe to the network instead of losing them to the temptation of almost non-stop teases that is FanDuel’s addictive model?
I sure wouldn’t want to put up anything of consequence against those odds. Even if I could.
Until next time…