More free nationally televised Twins games!

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

MLB has recently filed in bankruptcy court that the loss of comcast will be "insurmountable" for Diamond. They are using the court to try to get Diamond to reveal exactly how they can survive this and MLB doesn't believe they can. 

Comcast is a competitor to Diamond with its own channels providing sports programming. Killing their competitor (and damaging their future prospects with Amazon Prime) might be the primary goal of this standoff.

[Riverbrian]

7 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Comcast is a competitor to Diamond with its own channels providing sports programming. Killing their competitor (and damaging their future prospects with Amazon Prime) might be the primary goal of this standoff.

I assume each entity will probably have their own personal motivations in this mess. Including the entity of me(us) as viewers. 

However... I have to assume that Diamond doesn't have the power to kill Comcast. The loss of a single network won't kill Comcast.  

A company in bankruptcy proceedings attacking Comcast in this fashion would be like charging a castle with one guy who is ramming the gate with a tree branch while 200 soldiers are above on the ramparts shooting arrows and pouring hot oil on him. 

Comcast's biggest issue is probably that the King in that Castle is 110 years old and so is everybody else. 

Baseball appears to be targeting Diamond in their complaints in the filing... not Comcast.

What Diamond is thinking right now is beyond me.   

 

[howeda7]

31 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Comcast is a competitor to Diamond with its own channels providing sports programming. Killing their competitor (and damaging their future prospects with Amazon Prime) might be the primary goal of this standoff.

Not really. Yes Comcast has a handful of RSN's but I seriously doubt they're looking to expand them. Theirs will also be dead eventually. They make their $$ off internet services and secondarily cable. The sports networks are an afterthought that probably lose $$.

[howeda7]

On 5/15/2024 at 9:48 AM, DJL44 said:

I do remember that now. Forgive me for not paying that much attention to the NFL. Did people have to pay for Peacock or did they show them for free on the app?

Do I remember correctly that Gopher basketball games were split between Peacock and Big Ten Network this year?

You had to pay. And 60 days later, like 70% of the people who signed up for Peacock were still subscribed. That's exactly why they did it. It worked. The NFL just sold exclusive Christmas Day games to Netflix. This isn't going away. They only thing they haven't changed (for now) is that all local games air on an over-the-air affiliate. But that's only MSP for the Vikings. Not Duluth, Rochester, Sioux Falls etc.

[DJL44]

2 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

However... I have to assume that Diamond doesn't have the power to kill Comcast. The loss of a single network won't kill Comcast.  

No, the other way around. Comcast has the power to kill Diamond and eliminate a competitor. I am guessing Comcast's terms for carrying Diamond Sports are bad enough that Diamond would still go bankrupt if they accept.

[Riverbrian]

12 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

No, the other way around. Comcast has the power to kill Diamond and eliminate a competitor. I am guessing Comcast's terms for carrying Diamond Sports are bad enough that Diamond would still go bankrupt if they accept.

[DJL44]

2 hours ago, howeda7 said:

Not really. Yes Comcast has a handful of RSN's but I seriously doubt they're looking to expand them. Theirs will also be dead eventually. They make their $$ off internet services and secondarily cable. The sports networks are an afterthought that probably lose $$.

MLB was negotiating with Peacock to show the Sunday baseball games before they decided to go with Roku. The streaming wars are pretty fierce with the Paramount merger looming, the proposed Diamond sports buyout by Amazon Prime and the Venu sports streaming service announcement.

[Riverbrian]

13 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

No, the other way around. Comcast has the power to kill Diamond and eliminate a competitor. I am guessing Comcast's terms for carrying Diamond Sports are bad enough that Diamond would still go bankrupt if they accept.

[howeda7]

1 hour ago, DJL44 said:

MLB was negotiating with Peacock to show the Sunday baseball games before they decided to go with Roku. The streaming wars are pretty fierce with the Paramount merger looming, the proposed Diamond sports buyout by Amazon Prime and the Venu sports streaming service announcement.

Sure but is Comcast involved with any of the above? My point was, I don't think they are  trying to kill Diamond so they an swoop and and launch Comcast SportsNet Minnesota etc. I don't believe they have any intention of launching any new regular RSN's.

[lecroy24fan]

If Comcast wanted to they could offer pennies on the dollar and Diamond would seel them to them.

[DJL44]

15 hours ago, howeda7 said:

Sure but is Comcast involved with any of the above? My point was, I don't think they are  trying to kill Diamond so they an swoop and and launch Comcast SportsNet Minnesota etc. I don't believe they have any intention of launching any new regular RSN's.

Comcast is Peacock.

[Brock Beauchamp]

18 hours ago, DJL44 said:

No, the other way around. Comcast has the power to kill Diamond and eliminate a competitor. I am guessing Comcast's terms for carrying Diamond Sports are bad enough that Diamond would still go bankrupt if they accept.

Yeah, both of these entities will suffer from this standoff but Comcast has much more power. Diamond is already battling bankruptcy and Comcast just has to wait them out. Either Diamond goes belly up or are forced to accept a "sports tier" bundling package for less money (and still probably go belly up), either way Comcast wins.

[Linus]

On 5/14/2024 at 8:39 AM, Old Twins Cap said:

Pretty hard to watch a full baseball game on TV on a regular basis.  This is what MLB needs to understand.  They have a product that can't hold an audience fully. 

How do they respond?

They make it harder to find games on any platform?

That's what you call a critically awful decision.

If they don't address that quickly, they will lose a full generation of fans and maybe more.

I’m afraid they already have - maybe two generations. 

[Linus]

On 5/16/2024 at 7:25 AM, Riverbrian said:

When the Bally sales team hits the streets to sell those Twins ad packages. The ratings, number of viewers determine how much they can charge. 

Kinetico pays X amount based upon X amount of households. Comcast has the majority of households. 

Kinetico isn't getting what they paid for and therefore most likely... not paying. 

Most of us don't know what new excuse Travis is going to use to get some water from his neighbors. 

If Kinetico doesn't pay and they shouldn't... Bally can't pay the Twins.

Diamond can't survive this... Yet those blackouts remain while Diamond/Bally delays the inevitable and sets us all free. 

The first step is going to court just to put pressure on Diamond. Getting Diamond to admit they can't survive. 

It's going to take a long time just to get that answer just so MLB can move to the next step toward the eventual goal of getting every single team out of all contracts with Diamond. 

I'm really getting screwed here and I'm really going to be screwed for awhile. Because I'm guessing Diamond is going to take their time. 

Which of course goes back to the insanity of jumping back in bed with Ballys. The Twins sold their souls and crapped on their fans for money. They spent the last several years telling us how bad Ballys was and then fell all over themselves to take their money. 

[Riverbrian]

8 minutes ago, Linus said:

Which of course goes back to the insanity of jumping back in bed with Ballys. The Twins sold their souls and crapped on their fans for money. They spent the last several years telling us how bad Ballys was and then fell all over themselves to take their money. 

And I'm betting they won't get that money because there is that bankruptcy thing. 

[Linus]

3 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

And I'm betting they won't get that money because there is that bankruptcy thing. 

That would be the ultimate irony. The old saying of you can have 50% of something or 100% of nothing might apply here. 

[bean5302]

On 5/15/2024 at 8:12 AM, Brock Beauchamp said:

I literally coded over half of the website that you're calling me stupid on. Technological issues aren't the problem. Increased fragmentation, device-strangled apps, and jumping through more and more hoops every year to watch a ****ing Twins game is the problem, all the while MLB's viewership is swirling down the drain.

Reminds me a little of early Android. Fragmentation issues might have killed Android if there was a little more competition... and there's plenty of competition for baseball out there. Soccer is absolutely eating it's lunch right now.

[USAFChief]

4 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

And I'm betting they won't get that money because there is that bankruptcy thing. 

As I said when the 1 year BSN deal was announced...better get the cash in advance, Mr St Peter.

[MABB1959]

On 5/14/2024 at 7:24 AM, Riverbrian said:

I'm not going to beg for scraps. 

If the Twins don't care if I'm able to see all games... eventually I'll stop caring. 

You don't sound bitter.  Eventually most without access will stop caring.   Hard to love a team when you don't know what they look like.  You can't see the fake players run the bases and the excitement of a homerun or great play in the field.

[MABB1959]

MLB announced free MLB.TV on Mothers Day weekend and then had the nerve to black them out.  Probably part of their agreements with Bally's etc.

[howeda7]

7 hours ago, DJL44 said:

Comcast is Peacock.

True I guess. But Peacock isn't really competing with Diamond. They're competing with Apple/Roku on packages of national games. I haven't seen any indication they would get into the regional broadcasting of games.

[howeda7]

5 hours ago, bean5302 said:

 Soccer is absolutely eating it's lunch right now.

By what metric exactly? MLB's TV situation is a mess, but I'm not convinced that taking all games exclusively to a streaming service like Apple, as MLS did, is the way to grow the game with the masses. Only hardcore fans are paying to watch those games now.

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, howeda7 said:

I haven't seen any indication they would get into the regional broadcasting of games.

This could easily be the last season for regional broadcasting of games.