Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred Pulls No Punches on State of RSN Market, Considers League's Direct-to-Consumer Future

18/10/2021

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred Pulls No Punches on State of RSN Market, Considers League's Direct-to-Consumer Future Why friction-less digital access to games is critical and where gambling entities fit in By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital

Monday, October 18, 2021 - 2:42 pm

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

With ratings up and matchups living up to their billing (see the epic Dodgers-Giants NLDS series), Major League Baseball is enjoying a prosperous postseason so far. But, in a rapidly evolving media landscape, what does the future of America's Pastime look like?

At SportsBusiness Journal's World Congress of Sports, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred discussed some of those topics, including where the sport stands on the regional-sports-network business, what he would like a direct-to-consumer MLB product to look like, and what production enhancements are making the game a more enjoyable watch?

On this MLB Postseason:

We were due for a little bit of good luck. The last couple of years have been a real challenge with the pandemic. We've been very fortunate this year with great teams and great rivalries early in the playoffs, which is important in terms of capturing people's interest. I think the east-west piece of it has been really good, too. Having Boston, Tampa, San Francisco, L.A. has made this really good for us.

On the future of regional sports networks:

The cord-cutting phenomenon has made the RSN business one that is declining, by definition. Fewer subs makes the business more difficult. I think that the negativity surrounding the RSNs has increased exponentially as a result of the situation with the Sinclair subsidiary, Diamond.

Part of their problem is cord-cutting. The other part of their problem is that there is excessive leverage on that business when you think about what they paid for it, how much debt they have on it. That leverage has produced headlines that are more negative. There are RSNs that may not be thriving or growing, but they are going to survive.

MLB's future as a result of the RSN decline:

I think the key for us is the development of direct-to-consumer products to increase our reach. The biggest problem for us on the RSN side is that, even within the cable bundle - particularly with the Diamond subsidiary - is that their reach, within the bundle, is not what it used to be. It's important for us to develop digital products that allow us to get to our fans in a friction-less way. That's really your future.

On whether MLB's future is with Sinclair:

Our view of digital rights is that they are our future and it's something that the league and the clubs should control. We do have a pretty good track record on the digital side. MLB.TV was one of the first over-the-top products and has continued to grow and at a really impressive rate. Who exactly the partners will be I'm not prepared to [discuss], but we see those digital rights as very valuable and crucial to our future.

On what a direct-to-consumer service looks like:

It has to be friction-less: easy for the consumer to get in and buy what they want. It also has to be flexible. I see that flexibility, in the context of baseball, as buying an out-of-market package, buying up into your local rights, buying just your local rights; the consumer gets to decide what he's buying.

On having an ownership stake in a future direct-to-consumer product:

I think ownership stake probably understates it. We believe those digital rights are crucial, and we want to own and control the platform on which they are delivered. We may have partners in that process. This idea that, late in the discussions, we somehow demanded an equity stake is just not accurate. We've told [Sinclair] that from day one.

On the remaining package of national games still available:

We re fortunate. We have multiple major entities that are interested in that package. That's great for creating competition from a financial standpoint. More important for us, we want that package to be forward-looking. What does the future look like? How are we going to deliver games digitally in a way that is friction-less. There are two big opportunities there: not only additional revenue but the opportunity to take a step forward in the way we're delivering games to fans.

On potentially selling those rights to a sports-gambling company:

Our thought, with respect to the gaming entities, is that there is a place for them in the media lineup for Major League Baseball. I think the important thing is that, whatever we do with a gaming company, we're always going to have that clean, family-friendly broadcast that isn't going to have a gambling overlay to it. We're going to have to find a gambling entity with the flexibility to adhere to that larger strategic thought.

I'm not saying you're never going to see odds on a national broadcast. I'm talking about a gambling-focused feed where it's not once or twice per game and it's every inning and every pitch where there's [betting] material. If we ever go that far, we're going to have a clean feed as well.

On production enhancements that can be expected in future MLB broadcasts:

I think you're going to see a continuation of some of the things that we've been doing. Microphones and in-game interviews are at the top of that list. We saw that at the All-Star Game, where you were having conversations with players in the field. Fans seemed to love that. We're going to do more and more of that. I think the opportunity for supplemental information as either a second-screen experience or integrates into the broadcast is really important to us. Statcast is the best example of that. It provides the fan the opportunity to understand the game in a way that they might not otherwise. We
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2021/10/18/mlb-commissioner-rob-manfred-pu...
See more stories from svg

North America Stories

18/07/2025

Realm of Satan Disturbs the Comfortable at 2024 Sundance Film Festival

Blanche Barton, Peter Gilmore, Scott Cummings, Sundance Institute Director of Programming Kim Yutani, and Peggy Nadramia throwing horns. (Stephen Lovekin/Shutte...

18/07/2025

Give Me the Backstory: Get to Know Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, the Directors of FOLKTALES

By Jessica Herndon One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Fest...

18/07/2025

NESN Unveils Enhanced NESN 360 App for iOS, Android Devices

BOSTON Sports network NESN today relaunched the NESN 360 app with a redesigned user experience and upgrades....

18/07/2025

Berklee Singers Wow the Competition on Netflixs Building the Band

Berklee Singers Wow the Competition on Netflixs Building the Band Netflixs new music competition show features two Berklee artists looking to make their pop b...

18/07/2025

Trump Expected to Sign Bill Defunding CPB After House Approves $1B Cuts

As the House of Representatives voted early Friday morning to eliminate federal funding for public broadcasting, advocates warned that the elimination of $1 bil...

18/07/2025

Imagine Communications Sharpens Focus on Sports, Live Events Market

DENVER Imagine Communications has announced that it is deepening its commitment to the North American sports and live events market with investments in its prod...

18/07/2025

Netflix Beats Revenue, Profit Expectations

LOS GATOS, Calif. Netflix once again reported strong financial growth, with revenue increasing 16% year-over-year to $11.079 billion in Q2 2025 as net income s...

18/07/2025

Live from the 153rd Open Championship: SMT Enhances Video Board Experience; Enables Practice Scheduling for Players

Live from the 153rd Open Championship: SMT Enhances Video Board Experience; Enab...

18/07/2025

ShotTracker's Davyeon Ross on Revolutionizing Basketball On the Court and Beyond Through Tracking Tech

ShotTracker's Davyeon Ross on Revolutionizing Basketball On the Court and ...

18/07/2025

Home Pitch: How the Danish League Brought Its Live Match Production In-House

Home Pitch: How the Danish League Brought Its Live Match Production In-House Matchday Production produced 800+ matches across Denmark in its first year By Geor...

18/07/2025

Live From the 153rd Open Championship: EMG Debuts Spidercam for Golf, Expands Support for NBC Sports

Live From the 153rd Open Championship: EMG Debuts Spidercam for Golf, Expands Su...

18/07/2025

Usyk vs Dubois II: Bringing the Fight to Life with State of the Art Cameras and Graphics from DAZN and Gravity Media

Usyk vs Dubois II: Bringing the fight to life with state of the art cameras and ...

18/07/2025

Usyk vs Dubois II: DAZN's Head of Boxing Chris Glanville Talks Helicopters, a Ringwalk Spectacular and Directing the Action

Usyk vs Dubois II: DAZN's head of boxing Chris Glanville talks helicopters, ...

18/07/2025

Live From the 153rd Open Championship: NBC Expands Unilateral Effort; Shared Studio Gives Live From,' NBC Sports a Great View

Live From the 153rd Open Championship: NBC Expands Unilateral Effort; Shared Stu...

18/07/2025

Warner Bros. Discovery's Anne Graham on Training New Professionals to Ensure the Future of the Business

Warner Bros. Discovery's Anne Graham on Training New Professionals to Ensure...

18/07/2025

Live From the 153rd Open Championship: How R&A Spidercam Became a Reality for Golf Coverage

Live From the 153rd Open Championship: How R&A Spidercam Became a Reality for Go...

18/07/2025

ESPN Bulks Up Onsite Studios, Cameras, Player Mics for WNBA All-Star Weekend

ESPN Bulks Up Onsite Studios, Cameras, Player Mics for WNBA All-Star Weekend Besides the game, four studio shows will be produced onsite By Jason Dachman, Edit...

17/07/2025

Realm of SatanDisturbs the Comfortable at 2024 Sundance Film Festival

Blanche Barton, Peter Gilmore, Scott Cummings, Sundance Institute Director of Programming Kim Yutani, and Peggy Nadramia throwing horns. (Stephen Lovekin/Shutte...

17/07/2025

L3Harris to Expand Solid Rocket Motor Production in Arkansas

An advanced large solid rocket motor hot fire test conducted at L3Harris' Camden, Arkansas, site....

17/07/2025

L3Harris Has the Future of PNT Ready Now

L3Harris payloads and components have been on board every U.S. GPS satellite-more than 70 missions since the 1970s. Our technology is at the core of GPS availab...

17/07/2025

L3Harris Introduces Launched Effects Vehicles to Increase US Multi-Domain Superiority

L3Harris' pack of launched effects is comprised of multi-role vehicles that ...

17/07/2025

Nielsen taps Ryan Moore as Chief Business Officer of Gracenote

NEW YORK - July 17, 2025 - Gracenote, the content data business unit of Nielsen, has announced the appointment of Ryan Moore to the new role of Chief Business O...

17/07/2025

David Cohen Joins Miri Technologies as VP, Sales and Business Development

READING, Pa. Network technology startup Miri Technologies has added David Cohen as vice president, business development. He'll be tasked with expanding the ...

17/07/2025

Berklee Wins CASE Award for Standout Digital Campaign

Berklee Wins CASE Award for Standout Digital Campaign The Alumni Affairs team's Variations Signature Series earned recognition for offering an authentic p...

17/07/2025

Senate Votes to Strip Federal Funds for Public Broadcasting

Early Thursday morning, the U.S. Senate voted to cut federal funding for PBS and NPR in a bill that also included cuts for foreign aid. In a 51-48 vote, the act...

17/07/2025

British Innovation Leads the Way at IBC2025

GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland Pavilions across IBC2025 (12 15 September, RAI Amsterdam) feature a remarkable 34 companies, each providing unique, innovativ...

17/07/2025

SMPTE Forms Study Group on Content Provenance and Authenticity In Media

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers today introduced its Content Provenance and Authenticity (CPA) in Media Study Group (S...

17/07/2025

NBCU Reports Highest Sales Volume in History' for 2025-26 Upfronts

NEW YORK Despite widespread concerns about a soft advertising market, NBCUniversal said it closed its 2025-26 upfront negotiation cycle with a record ad sales v...

17/07/2025

Study: TV Ads Are Top Influencer of Older Adults Buying Retirement Homes

NEW YORK Television advertising remains an effective means to market and influence younger baby boomer and Generation X consumers approaching retirement age, ac...

17/07/2025

Service Electric Cable TV Deploys OpenVault PMN

ALLENTOWN, Pa. & JERSEY CITY, N.J. Service Electric Cable TV and OpenVault have announced that the operator is deploying the OpenVault Proactive Network Manage...

17/07/2025

FCC Chair Outlines Busy Summer Agenda That Includes Major EAS Vote

WASHINGTON Following up on his first major policy speech just two ago, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr is promising to buck the usual summ...

17/07/2025

Berklee Alumni Nominated for 2025 Emmy Awards

Berklee Alumni Nominated for 2025 Emmy Awards Twenty-seven Berklee alumni received nominations across categories in sound mixing, sound editing, and compositi...

17/07/2025

What We Watched the First Half of 2025

Back to All News What We Watched the First Half of 2025 Entertainment 17 July 2025 Global Link copied to clipboard Today, we're sharing our latest Eng...

17/07/2025

Vote for Ivory 3 American Concert D in the MIDI Innovation Awards!

Cast your vote in 2 categories for Ivory 3 American Concert DIvory 3 American Concert D is in the 2025 MIDI Innovation Awards and we are honored to be nominated...

17/07/2025

SVG Sit-Down: OpenDrives' Sean Lee, Michael Wilsker, and Jason Matousek on Evolving Data Management

SVG Sit-Down: OpenDrives' Sean Lee, Michael Wilsker, and Jason Matousek on E...

17/07/2025

Oracle's Geoff Tognetti on Staying Ahead of the AI Curve Through Further Adoption

Oracle's Geoff Tognetti on Staying Ahead of the AI Curve Through Further Ado...

17/07/2025

NBA's Summer League Is a Hot Bed of AI, Immersive Innovation Testing

NBA's Summer League Is a Hot Bed of AI, Immersive Innovation Testing Audio mixing, intelligent camera framing are among AI-driven efforts By Ken Kerschbaum...

17/07/2025

SVG's TranSPORT Conference Returns to NYC on Oct. 21; Register Today!

SVG's TranSPORT Conference Returns to NYC on Oct. 21; Register Today! By SVG Staff Thursday, July 17, 2025 - 8:29 am Print This Story | Subscribe St...

17/07/2025

Gravity Media Chosen as Group Name for Merged OB Business

Gravity Media chosen as group name for merged OB business By George Bevir Wednesday, July 16, 2025 - 11:30 Print This Story Gravity Media executive chairm...

17/07/2025

SES Closes Deal to Acquire Intelsat, Creating New Giant in Satellite Connectivity

SES Closes Deal to Acquire Intelsat, Creating New Giant in Satellite Connectivit...

17/07/2025

How MLB Pulled Off That Unforgettable Hank Aaron Tribute at the All-Star Game

How MLB Pulled Off That Unforgettable Hank Aaron Tribute at the All-Star Game Vintage content, state-of-the-art projection/processing combine in marvelous mile...

17/07/2025

Thai Legendary Bandit Explodes to Life in Netflix's Gold Rush Gang' - Streaming August 21

Back to All News Thai Legendary Bandit Explodes to Life in Netflixs Gold Rush ...

17/07/2025

GeForce NOW Delivers Justice With RoboCop: Rogue City - Unfinished Business'

Listen up citizens, the law is back and patrolling the cloud. Nacon's RoboCop Rogue City - Unfinished Business launches today in the cloud, bringing justice...

16/07/2025

May 2025 Spring with Miniscule drops in viewing figures in Poland

Warsaw - Poland, June 24, 2025 - Nielsen, the global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, has released its latest May All Screens Video Landscape...

16/07/2025

Bluey and Squid Game Top Nielsen's Streaming Charts in First Half of 2025

Bluey Tops Nielsen's Overall Streaming List with More Than 25 Billion Minutes Streamed from January through June 2025 Big June Vaults Squid Game into Top O...

16/07/2025

TV SIM builds for the future with high efficiency transmi...

TV SIM, the SBT affiliate serving Esp rito Santo state in Brazil, has launched a transmitter upgrade initiative with the installation of a Rohde & Schwarz R&S T...

16/07/2025

Pebble looks to the future of playout automation at IBC20...

Pebble, the leading automation, content management and integrated channel specialist, is turning its vision to the future of automation with its demonstrations ...

16/07/2025

Ikegami Announces UHK-X700RF Wireless Television Camera

Ikegami announces a new addition to its UNICAM-XE product range with the introduction of the UHK-X700RF wireless portable camera: The new version has the same f...

16/07/2025

TwelveLabs video understanding models now avail in Amazon...

Today, Amazon Web Services added TwelveLabs as a new model provider to Amazon Bedrock, delivering what could be the most significant breakthrough in enterprise ...