Author Topic: WP: Nats MASN deal renegotations will have a huge impact  (Read 203531 times)

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Offline HalfSmokes

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The most equitable solution would be for the dc city council to find a way to tax the hell out of MASN and funnel some of the money back to the team since they helped botch the initial deal

Offline Lintyfresh85

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Guess we'd go to Fox Sports or Comcast if the O's intentionally bankrupt MASN.

Online PowerBoater69

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The most equitable solution would be for the dc city council to find a way to tax the hell out of MASN and funnel some of the money back to the team since they helped botch the initial deal

How much cash did Selig and crew hand over to the mayor and city council to make that deal happen?  They're mostly out of office now but I'm sure they've all got nice big nest eggs.

Offline OldChelsea

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Why should the O's get the same as the Nats? Bawlmer is a smaller market with less income.[...]

They're even falling quite some distance behind the Nats in attendance - 3,400/fixture behind the Nats as of right now (link to full list: http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance). Preparation H Park at Camden Yards is no longer a drawing card...Josh Hamilton's night to remember took place in front of a rollicking announced crowd of 11,263...even the Yankees and Red Sox visits aren't the guaranteed crowd-pullers they once were.

Offline OldChelsea

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Guess we'd go to Fox Sports or Comcast if the O's intentionally bankrupt MASN.

What does CSN carry during the summer anyway, besides DC United (a maximum of 30 fixtures, not counting playoffs) and ten Mystics home matches? With the exception of early season (tail end of Caps and Wizards seasons - and at least for the Caps that would end with the regular season, since all NHL playoff matches are on national networks) and possibly late season (do they have significant college football commitments?) I csn't see them having much difficulty fitting the Nats schedule into their repertoire - the Orioles certainly weren't a problem for them back in pre-MASN days.

Online PowerBoater69

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What does CSN carry during the summer anyway, besides DC United (a maximum of 30 fixtures, not counting playoffs) and ten Mystics home matches? With the exception of early season (tail end of Caps and Wizards seasons - and at least for the Caps that would end with the regular season, since all NHL playoff matches are on national networks) and possibly late season (do they have significant college football commitments?) I csn't see them having much difficulty fitting the Nats schedule into their repertoire - the Orioles certainly weren't a problem for them back in pre-MASN days.

Pre MASN if the Caps, Wizards, and Os played on the same day, two of them got bumped.  Seems like the distant past when large numbers of games weren't on Tv but it wasn't too long ago.  I'm still pissed that the Nats first win was not televised.

Online PowerBoater69

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MASN has lost a big case against the FCC in a bid to force Time-Warner Cable in North Carolina to carry Nats and Os games.  MLB has NC in the Nats/Os broadcast area but the FCC has ruled that the local cable companies cannot be forced to carry the network.  A survey of the state found that less than one percent of the fans follow the Os (despite their having been assigned broadcast rights for the state all the way back to HTS days in 1985) and that exactly zero percent follow the Nats.  For Time Warner subscribers who want to watch the Nats/Os they can't even get them on the MLB package as those games are blacked out in NC, their only option is to subscribe to DirectTV in order to get MASN.

Obviously this ruling severely hurts MASN, while the Maryland and Virginia subscribers certainly consist of at least 80 percent of the revenue base, North Carolina is no small territory.  That's millions of dollars a year not flowing into the network.

The obvious solution is for MASN to sell the rights to North Carolina to the Braves, getting some payout from an area where they are getting next to nothing now, and allowing the fans down there to see their preferred team.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/28/court-shuts-out-nationals-orioles-fans-viewing-in-/

Offline Obed_Marsh

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I prefer the O's are renamed the Buff-breasted Sandpipers and subsequently relocated to a stadium adjacent to Cape Lookout National Seashore to foster interest.

Offline OldChelsea

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[...]Obviously this ruling severely hurts MASN[...]

Any enemy of MASN is a friend of mine.

Offline Kevrock

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  • That’s gonna be a no from me, doge.
lol @ "exactly zero percent".

I'd hang onto the territory. No way would I sell a television territory to a rival.

Offline MarquisDeSade

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I prefer the O's are renamed the Buff-breasted Sandpipers and subsequently relocated to a stadium adjacent to Cape Lookout National Seashore to foster interest.

If my weekend in Baltimore is any indication I think the Os and Angelos aren't going to go quietly into the night.

Offline NatsDad14

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lol @ "exactly zero percent".

I'd hang onto the territory. No way would I sell a television territory to a rival.

a few million dollars is worth it. The Braves are already NC's team

Offline Kevrock

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Would an expanded territory net additional television dollars for the Braves? If so, it's a bad move.

Sports are all about television territories now. Allowing the Braves long-term control over a new territory is not worth a few million dollars.

Offline NatsDad14

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Would an expanded territory net additional television dollars for the Braves? If so, it's a bad move.

Sports are all about television territories now. Allowing the Braves long-term control over a new territory is not worth a few million dollars.

So you sell it based on what the Braves could be expected to get. Use a NPV analysis and get your money.

Offline MarquisDeSade

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All of this is predicated on these contracts lasting forever and the RSN house of cards staying propped up by lobbyists and politicos. 

Offline HalfSmokes

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Sports are all about television territories now. Allowing the Braves long-term control over a new territory is not worth a few million dollars.

only if you can foist the station on people who don't want it. Like MDS said, it a house of cards- RSNs are expensive stations with relatively low ratings especially near the edges of a 'territory'

Offline MarquisDeSade

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Does anyone know what the current MASN cost is for cable subscribers?  I thought it was around $2/month last year.

Offline HalfSmokes

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depends of the provider

Offline NatsDad14

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I don't get where MASN is getting all this money from when our team has the worst ratings in baseball and no one watches any non-baseball MASN programming.

Offline Lintyfresh85

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Ad revenue.

Offline OldChelsea

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I don't get where MASN is getting all this money from when our team has the worst ratings in baseball and no one watches any non-baseball MASN programming.

It's from their cut of one's monthly cable fees, per MASN's contract with one's local cable provider - the money comes in no matter how frequently one watches.

Offline tomterp

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Ad revenue.

No

It's from their cut of one's monthly cable fees, per MASN's contract with one's local cable provider - the money comes in no matter how frequently one watches.

Yes

Offline MarquisDeSade

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They, along with all of the other RSN, have a perpetual annuity stream with the cable providers that carry their station and charge all subscribers a specific amount each month.  I doubt MASN makes enough in ad revenue to stay a night at the Americana Hotel.

Offline comish4lif

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lol @ "exactly zero percent".

I'd hang onto the territory. No way would I sell a television territory to a rival.

You also wouldn't sell something that you don't own. MLB assigns the TV territories to MLB clubs. Per the franchise agreements that MLB clubs sign, they "own" the county/city their team is located in and any city/county that the location county/city touches. For example, the Nats have precedence in DC, PG and Montgomery County, MD and Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax, VA. Everything else is at the whim of MLB. Which makes the MLB deal with Angelos even more egregious. 

Offline JCA-CrystalCity

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The Americana Hotel has sign "where fleas stay free!"