Sinclair (Bally Sports) Facing Bankruptcy.

roadkill

roadkill

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GoJacketsInRaleigh said:
Good
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I know everyone ikes to hate on Bally, but don't see this as good news, at least in the short term.

They create a revenue stream for the leagues they carry. But they overpaid for broadcast rights. If they cannot pay the ACC the amounts they contracted for, how is that good for Tech?

I expect some other more deep-pocketed media will buy up their rights at a more favorable price, which will ultimately reduce revenue for the ACC.
 

gville_jacket

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roadkill said:
I know everyone ikes to hate on Bally, but don't see this as good news, at least in the short term.

They create a revenue stream for the leagues they carry. But they overpaid for broadcast rights. If they cannot pay the ACC the amounts they contracted for, how is that good for Tech?

I expect some other more deep-pocketed media will buy up their rights at a more favorable price, which will ultimately reduce revenue for the ACC.
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Creating a revenue stream and maximizing a revenue stream are two different things. They go under, those ACC games won't go un-aired. Someone else will pick them up and hopefully at a higher $$ amount.
 

GoJacketsInRaleigh

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roadkill said:
I know everyone ikes to hate on Bally, but don't see this as good news, at least in the short term.

They create a revenue stream for the leagues they carry. But they overpaid for broadcast rights. If they cannot pay the ACC the amounts they contracted for, how is that good for Tech?

I expect some other more deep-pocketed media will buy up their rights at a more favorable price, which will ultimately reduce revenue for the ACC.
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Most of their games are unable to be watched so I hope they go out of business. Quickly.
 
slugboy

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My understanding of rights and payments involved here
  1. In times past, Jefferson Pilot paid for the rights to various ACC games before the ACC Network existed.
  2. Regional Sports Networks of various stripes paid for Miami Heat games and Carolina Hurricanes, etc.
  3. Fox (Sports) bought up a lot of the RSNs
  4. Either an RSN or Fox bought the ACC rights from Jefferson Pilot. The ACC gets money based on that price schedule.
  5. Disney bought Fox, and had to spin off Fox Sports, or at least the RSN portions, because of anti-trust restrictions (Disney owns ESPN).
  6. Sinclair made the highest bid for the RSNs.
  7. The money that Fox spent on the RSNs didn’t affect the payments to the ACC or the NBA at all. Those were locked in. The same happened when Sinclair bought the RSNs from Disney—the payments to the property owners (the ACC, NHL, Fishing Shows) stayed the same.
  8. The RSNs made their money from Comcast, DirecTV, Dish, Verizon, etc. The agreements with those channels have been expiring, and Sinclair jacked the price up—and no one renewed, and no one new bought.
  9. Sinclair created a subsidiary/holding company called “Diamond Sports Group”, possibly so that bankruptcy wouldn’t pull the rest of their broadcast empire down.
  10. Diamond Sports Group sold the naming rights to Bally Enterprises, so the Bally name is tarnished by the Sinclair practices even though Bally has very little to do with any of it. Bally paid to get bad advertising :(
  11. On one hand, Diamond is losing the rights to MLS and some other properties, so it’s even harder for them to sell their product to cable providers.
  12. On the other hand, their behemoth loan is coming due and their business plan totally failed. They won’t be able to pay their creditors.
  13. I don’t think there’s much upside for us. If someone else buys the ACC rights, we get paid what was originally promised, or possibly less—we’re a creditor, and creditors don’t usually get 100% of what they’re owed.
  14. If someone buys our rights, we hopefully get paid close to what we were getting paid before.
  15. It’s unclear to me if the rights would revert back to the ACC to resell.
I know that, if I were a creditor, I’d be going after the income from the TV station in Iowa City or wherever. I don’t care that Sinclair put the property into a subsidiary—it’s Sinclair that owes me money, and my lawyers are gonna go after that.
 
LargeFO

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roadkill said:
I know everyone ikes to hate on Bally, but don't see this as good news, at least in the short term.

They create a revenue stream for the leagues they carry. But they overpaid for broadcast rights. If they cannot pay the ACC the amounts they contracted for, how is that good for Tech?

I expect some other more deep-pocketed media will buy up their rights at a more favorable price, which will ultimately reduce revenue for the ACC.
Click to expand...


It isn't just about GT to me. They made the Braves/Hawks a monumental headache the last few years.
 
roadkill

roadkill

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gville_jacket said:
Creating a revenue stream and maximizing a revenue stream are two different things. They go under, those ACC games won't go un-aired. Someone else will pick them up and hopefully at a higher $$ amount.
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as @slugboy said, "I don’t think there’s much upside for us. If someone else buys the ACC rights, we get paid what was originally promised, or possibly less—we’re a creditor, and creditors don’t usually get 100% of what they’re owed."

Logically, if a company pays too much for an asset and as a result goes bankrupt, by definition, the marketplace for their asset will value it less than what they paid. I realize the overall landscape of media rights/major networks/RSNs is complex, but where's the upside?
 

cpf2001

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To me, the only way this seems like it could go “well” for ACC schools is if it’s the harbinger of the college sports tv money bubble popping and the other conferences whose deals expire sooner get way less than they were hoping in the next round. But even that’s less “good” for us and more just “less bad than we currently expect.”

Sinclair borrowing too much to pay too much for sports rights and not being able to recoup it isn’t good for future bidding wars.
 
iceeater1969

iceeater1969

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roadkill said:
as @slugboy said, "I don’t think there’s much upside for us. If someone else buys the ACC rights, we get paid what was originally promised, or possibly less—we’re a creditor, and creditors don’t usually get 100% of what they’re owed."

Logically, if a company pays too much for an asset and as a result goes bankrupt, by definition, the marketplace for their asset will value it less than what they paid. I realize the overall landscape of media rights/major networks/RSNs is complex, but where's the upside?
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RSN seemed to be operating under the idea that there is large demand for average sports events

Whoops.

.So they over paid to broadcast these games

Some of which were gt games.

Whoops
.
This mean we are not valuable content ?

Lets go jackets!
 

Tundeballer

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Don’t think Sinclair/Ballys going bankrupt is some referendum on the ACC or college sports. Live in metro Atlanta and had to jump through multiple hoops to watch Ballys content via espn by using vpn… most fans understandably just don’t care to put in that level of effort. If the games were easier to access, Bally would be in a better financial position.

My worry is does Ballys going bankrupt impact the ACC grant of rights and allows Clemson/FSU/Miami/UNC to leave the conference?
 

Oakland

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Tundeballer said:
Don’t think Sinclair/Ballys going bankrupt is some referendum on the ACC or college sports. Live in metro Atlanta and had to jump through multiple hoops to watch Ballys content via espn by using vpn… most fans understandably just don’t care to put in that level of effort. If the games were easier to access, Bally would be in a better financial position.

My worry is does Ballys going bankrupt impact the ACC grant of rights and allows Clemson/FSU/Miami/UNC to leave the conference?
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I don't think you have to worry. They cover other conferences too and I don't believe they are the glue that holds conferences together. I think the best thing for them to do now is open up and let other providers carry their programming. This could be a good thing for us.
 
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