Diamond filed today to reject the Raycom contract for broadcasting ACC games effective as of today. Diamond says Raycom asked them to reject it so Raycom can seek other broadcast partners for next season. Diamond missed a payment to Raycom before filing for bankruptcy. pic.twitter.com/ETlZXB802K— Donavon (@Powergate92) June 15, 2023
Diamond owns Bally Sports and they filed bankruptcy earlier this year. Given that the vast majority of RSN games were on Bally, this pretty much kills what little was left of the Raycom package of the ACC deal.
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WSJ had a really good podcast about this. It's focused on RSNs/Baseball, but the parallels to CFB are pretty obvious to anyone who follows the business side of the sport.
This is good, right?
I don't think we know yet (at least I don't).
My not-that-informed (yet) guess is that short term it's bad/uncertain (I could see us not getting paid for some games and those games going to random places for cheap). Long term, it could mean that ACC games are going back on the market.
Even if the games go back on the market, we're talking about the ACC 3rd tier games that are passed over by ABC/ESPN and the ACCN. Probably the least attractive set of events that a P5 conference could put up for bidding, and wouldn't be shocked if there are no bidders.
Maybe we can crowdsource something if no one is buying. All tier 3 ACC games streamed live on a projector in lot 18.
Would this give the ACCN/ESPN+ rights to the games that were planned to be on RSN? How many times did VT or other ACC teams play while ACCN showed some documentary? It isn't as much for football but some other sports
ESPN already owns the rights. They were licensing the games out to Raycom for RSN.
Many of the games weren't really being passed over by ESPN or ACCN, but there was a minimum number of games that needed to be provided to the RSNs.
There could be a problem if Raycom holds on to that sublicense but doesn't have any place to air games.
Anybody out of the ACC region could watch the ACC regional network games on ESPN3. I'm guessing if no one else signs on, maybe it all just falls to ESPN.
If the Raycom deal completely disappears, then we'd see more ACC games on ACCN. (Worst case scenario, this happens in 2026 or so when the deal ends anyway.)
But I also think that Raycom does some production work for ACCN anyway.
I wouldn't be surprised to see some sort of monetary circlejerk where Raycom pays ESPN for the sublicense, produces the games, and then charges ESPN for airtime.
So is the Pac 12 not in the P5 anymore?
TBD
It'll prevent football, basketball. baseball, softball, etc from being shown exclusively on channels that are difficult to get for streamers. However, there is no easy way for this to go anywhere else. And even if this ends up with the RSN games being pulled into ESPN+, its likely that the money being paid to the ACC for these games will likely decrease.
More like Diamond is dead. There are a bunch of MLB teams that look like will be having their broadcast rights revert to the league because Diamond is missing payments.
In baseballs case, I think they want this to happen, as they have plans to build their own broadcast package (although they will never get the rights to teams likes the Yankees and Res Sox)
They're not dead yet. They're holding onto (and more importantly, paying out on) the IP that are profitable for them, and releasing under bankruptcy the ones that are costing them money. I don't know if they'll die completely, but I hope they do.
Damn. Honestly being in Florida with 2 Baileys networks meant I got almost every game between ESPN family and then.
Those of us in Virginia and some parts north don't have Bally networks anyway. We've been seeing the ACC games on Comcast Sports or MASN.
So Raycom must think they've got options to air the games in other markets.
So the problem here is there is a cost to broadcast these games..crew, travel, announcers..ect..
So the real question is when Bally/RSN dies, does ESPN see enough value to produce and broadcast lower-level ACC games?
I can certainly see a scenario where the least desirable games..particularly ACC vs. FCS games simply aren't available..and from a business standpoint I can't necessarily blame them for that.
There is alot left to sort through but I think this could end up not being beneficial to the ACC from an access and monetary standpoint.
It hasn't been that long since every game wasn't televised..I remember a few of us sitting in the Dorm in 2001? watching VT-Temple on a direct video feed with no commentary that was piped into the Dorm cable system....it was kind of sureaI and I'd love to know if anyone else remembers this too.
In any case, I feel like this is possibly part of the market starting to adjust itself to a lack of demand to watch these games.
Yes, I think they do. Especially considering that they're still producing ACC/FCS games for streaming-only platforms. There's still enough holes in the ACCN fall Saturday schedule that they can plug in with football.
Also keep in mind that part of the deal for ACCN was that each school had to invest in production facilities. ESPN has ways of keeping the costs down by having the schools provide at least some of the production.
It was 2002 that they put Hokie Vision on the dorm cable. I remember them announcing it, but I was at the game so it didn't matter. But what affected me more was the game at Temple in 2003 that wasn't televised in any capacity. I also remember in 2005 when ESPN announced that they would broadcast the Homecoming game, and that meant that every single game of the season was televised, which was the only year that happened while I was there.