Pohlads Bidding to Buy FSN

[Seth Stohs]

Bloomberg is reporting that Jim Pohlad, along with the owners of the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Braves, may be making a bid to buy FSN and some other Fox Sports regional networks. 

 

 

The networks are currently owned by 21st Century Fox, but as the company is subject to a $71 billion takeover by Walt Disney Co. – which owns ESPN – regulators want it to be sold as part of the deal.

 

Bring Me the News wrote much more about it here:

 

https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-sports/report-twins-owner-jim-pohlad-bidding-to-buy-fox-sports-north

 

 

There are 21 regional stations that 21st Century Fox is trying to sell and want to sell them in bulk.

 

Should be interesting. 

[nicksaviking]

That should make it easier for the Twins to negotiate a more favorable TV deal. Or a much worse one I guess. 

[Loosey]

 

That should make it easier for the Twins to negotiate a more favorable TV deal. Or a much worse one I guess. 

Yeah, I agree.

 

This will come down to who does he like more his TV company or his Baseball company.  

[RatherBeGolfing]

 

Yeah, I agree.

 

This will come down to who does he like more his TV company or his Baseball company.  

 

Whichever is more financially beneficial

[Doomtints]

Now we know why he won't spend any money on the team this year.

[notoriousgod71]

Gotta do something with the Mauer money.

[jctwins]

So much for the Pohlads, or any of the owners for that matter, arguing for improving pace of play.

[Thrylos]

I suspect that Disney reached out to baseball team owners, because it makes sense for them to do what the Yankees and Red Sox do and be at least partial owners of the networks that cover the teams.

 

This was not initiated by the owners for sure.  It was initiated by the take over of Fox by Disney and the anti-trust laws that indicate that the Fox Sports stations should be spun off, since Disney owns ESPN.

 

Very logical thing to do for all parties involved and has absolutely nothing to do with the Twins on-field performance in 2019

[darin617]

Can't wait for this. We all may recall how great Victory sports turned out for the Pohlads.

[jctwins]

 

Can't wait for this. We all may recall how great Victory sports turned out for the Pohlads.

 

I would hope they acquire the existing provider relationships along with the network, so it's different in that they aren't starting from scratch. 

 

But yeah, I'm not looking forward to the Pohlads directly owning yet another entity that is Twins related.

 

 

[Richie the Rally Goat]

Can't wait for this. We all may recall how great Victory sports turned out for the Pohlads.

go 96 was also a testament to Pohlad’s expertise with media ownership as well

[darin617]

 

I would hope they acquire the existing provider relationships along with the network, so it's different in that they aren't starting from scratch. 

 

But yeah, I'm not looking forward to the Pohlads directly owning yet another entity that is Twins related.

Once they get control they could demand more money from cable & satellite companies once their current agreement can be changed.

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

Yeah, I agree.

 

This will come down to who does he like more his TV company or his Baseball company.  

A crappy TV deal means more revenue sharing so....

[Riverbrian]

 

Once they get control they could demand more money from cable & satellite companies once their current agreement can be changed.

 

Squeezing the cable companies, while the cable companies are bleeding would be counter productive to what they are probably trying to do here. 

 

Cable is bleeding while that cable bill is getting higher, keep in mind that no content costs more than sports.

 

About 20 bucks of each cable bill goes to ESPN and Fox. Have you ever met that person who could care less about sports. That person pays 20 bucks a month for ESPN and Fox and never watches it. This makes it vulnerable. As the price of cable goes up... the cords get cut and eventually the cable companies are going to say to Fox... "We're out" and baseball (all sports) will lose access to this (getting smaller) yet still large and important audience. 

 

There is no guarantee that digital is going to be there with a check to pick up the pieces when Fox and ESPN kills the traditional model with pure greed. The way people consume content is changing, behavior is changing and with that... the economic models must change along with it. 

 

This is a smart move for Pohlad. It gives him control of his content. The landscape is changing fast and it's going to be tricky navigation ahead. WIth control they can help prop up cable while working simultaneously with increased digital. 

 

The future is here and baseball will need to be everywhere... everybody is... just to roll with the changes.  

[DocBauer]

Squeezing the cable companies, while the cable companies are bleeding would be counter productive to what they are probably trying to do here. 

 

Cable is bleeding while that cable bill is getting higher, keep in mind that no content costs more than sports.

 

About 20 bucks of each cable bill goes to ESPN and Fox. Have you ever met that person who could care less about sports. That person pays 20 bucks a month for ESPN and Fox and never watches it. This makes it vulnerable. As the price of cable goes up... the cords get cut and eventually the cable companies are going to say to Fox... "We're out" and baseball (all sports) will lose access to this (getting smaller) yet still large and important audience. 

 

There is no guarantee that digital is going to be there with a check to pick up the pieces when Fox and ESPN kills the traditional model with pure greed. The way people consume content is changing, behavior is changing and with that... the economic models must change along with it. 

 

This is a smart move for Pohlad. It gives him control of his content. The landscape is changing fast and it's going to be tricky navigation ahead. WIth control they can help prop up cable while working simultaneously with increased digital. 

 

The future is here and baseball will need to be everywhere... everybody is... just to roll with the changes.

 

I work for a communications company. I see first hand what is going on. For the third year in a row, the FCC is raising taxes on a "sports" addendum. This is a promotion/bailout, however you want to describe it for ESPN and Disney and the huge contracts they have with various sports contracts. If you've paid any attention at all to ESPN, you've seen changes in some programming, but mostly what you have seen, or read about, is changing their leadership and hosts to cut costs. And Brian is absolutely correct when he talks about the costs to TV providers regarding sports channels. For most channels, there is a fixed rate. But for ESPN, there has always been an escalated rate based on leadership that far exceeds the cost of any other channel. The "Mothership" is broken, and Disney is looking for help via taxation.

 

First of all, and I don't care if the Pohlad's are billionaires or not...ALL sports owners are so get over it...this is a business situation.

 

Secondly, anyone who can continue to bring sports broadcasting to the public without a single monopoly owning everything is a pretty good thing.

 

Thirdly this is NOT about the Twins directly. In the multi-billion dollar industry that is tele-communications, a Mauer contract not being spent is NOTHING. However, controlling interest in the wide expanse of the Fox market could open financial dollars for the Twins and their network. A network that has long been described as poor from a financial aspect.

 

If this comes to pass, it will have NO affect on the Twins whatsoever, other than possibly, a positive one.

[beckmt]

At some point in time we will all be in an al carte type of system.  Most users are going to be able to get their local channels one way or another fairly cheap.  Then it's a question of do you add on a DVR type system and/or buy whatever packages you want for streaming.  Buying the individual packages for each channel will be too expensive, so it will be mix and match.  But if you are not interested in buying a lot of the secondary channel of TV content, sports packages might be the way to go.  

I know their are other semi - legal ways to do this, but the future in murky and this is probably the Pohlad's best chance to control their future.  

 

[Brock Beauchamp]

Cool. I’m a big fan of content providers also owning the content. That has worked really well for American audiences over the past 20 years.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

Squeezing the cable companies, while the cable companies are bleeding would be counter productive to what they are probably trying to do here.

 

Cable is bleeding while that cable bill is getting higher, keep in mind that no content costs more than sports.

 

About 20 bucks of each cable bill goes to ESPN and Fox. Have you ever met that person who could care less about sports. That person pays 20 bucks a month for ESPN and Fox and never watches it. This makes it vulnerable. As the price of cable goes up... the cords get cut and eventually the cable companies are going to say to Fox... "We're out" and baseball (all sports) will lose access to this (getting smaller) yet still large and important audience.

 

There is no guarantee that digital is going to be there with a check to pick up the pieces when Fox and ESPN kills the traditional model with pure greed. The way people consume content is changing, behavior is changing and with that... the economic models must change along with it.

 

This is a smart move for Pohlad. It gives him control of his content. The landscape is changing fast and it's going to be tricky navigation ahead. WIth control they can help prop up cable while working simultaneously with increased digital.

 

The future is here and baseball will need to be everywhere... everybody is... just to roll with the changes.

while every other program gets fast forwarded through the commercials, sports are watched live. The add revenue for sports is climbing while other TV add revenue shrinks. Until MLB cuts out cable co, owning the regional sports networks is a boon.

 

If the team owners succeed, the current model is likely to continue for quite some time.

 

If the MLB succeed in their bid for all 21(I think) networks together, it could hasten the move to only streaming.