SVG's Second-Annual RSN Summit Brings Together Regional Sports Leaders From Coast to Coast The RSN Summit drew a record crowd of more than 275, including execs from every major RSN organization. By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Thursday, June 29, 2017 - 3:33 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
SVG's second-annual RSN Summit brought together more than 275 top executives from regional sports networks and technology vendors at the historic Palmer House Hilton in Chicago on June 27-28 to address the unique production and business challenges facing RSNs today. The event, which featured an expanded program and record-high attendance for the Opening Night Reception, kicked off on Tuesday with a trio of sessions focused on the State of the RSN Market, comprised of a pair of in-depth presentations focused on Ratings and Viewership and Rights and Opportunities, followed by a star-studded panel discussion.
The second-annual RSN Summit drew more than 275 people to Chicago's Palmer House Hilton.
The program for this year's event was spearheaded by RSN veteran Larry Meyers and the SVG RSN Advisory Committee. The RSN Summit was made possible by Title Sponsor Program Productions; Diamond Sponsor TokBox; Gold Sponsors Calrec/DiGiCo, Canon, Comrex, Imagine Communications, Quantum, SMT, Sony, and Vizrt; and Event Sponsors BeckTV, Lawo, LTN Global Communications, Mobile TV Group, The Switch, and Thinklogical.
Nielsen Sports Commercial Managing Director of Americas Stephen Master and Bevilacqua Helfant Ventures (BHV) Co-Founder Chris Bevilacqua presented the latest information and analysis in respect to RSN ratings/viewership and media rights deals, respectively. Both presentations will be available on www.sportsvideo.org in the coming days.
Master and Bevilacqua then joined Fox Sports Regional Networks SVP/EP Michael Connelly and NBC Sports Regional Networks' President/Group Leader and Strategic Production and Programming Ted Griggs for a wide-ranging Executive Roundtable panel that addressed the health of the RSN industry, as well as potential challenges and opportunities ahead for regional sports rightsholders.
The RSN business is very strong right now, said Connelly. RSNs in each market are not just highly rated; they are, in many cases, the No. 1 TV station in their market. And I think that is often overlooked in our business. The value of that is so great and I don't think we talk about that enough.
Griggs echoed Connelly's sentiments, saying in reference to Master and Bevilacqua's preceding presentations: After seeing the presentations today, I'm even more bullish on [the future of] RSNs. We are often the most important programming during the times we put our games on. We are part of the fabric of the community as much as the opera or the ballet. Sports teams are a huge part of a community's culture and often connective tissue in the community. Each and every night, we bring that culture to the audience.
A Changing Business Model and The Potential of OTT
Since the RSN business is heavily dependent upon subscriber feeds, the growing cord-cutting trend represents a major threat to how they operate. However, Griggs argued that the passion that Americans have for their local sports teams represents an integral arrow in the RSN quiver as they navigate a changing media landscape in the coming years.
From left: Chris Bevilacqua, Bevilacqua Helfant Ventures (BHV); Michael Connelly, Fox Sports Regional Networks; Ted Griggs, NBC Sports Regional Networks; and Stephen Master, Nielsen Sports
There is no question the business is changing, said Griggs. It's going make us have to be smarter and tougher. But the one thing we have that other entertainment programs don't have is passion. When people watch sports, they lean in and are emotionally engaged for three and a half hours. You don't get that with Desperate Housewives.
The potential direct-to-consumer OTT regional sports services also entered the discussion, as Washington Wizards and Capitals owner Ted Leonsis launched the DC-based Monumental Sports Network last fall and L.A. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer held back some of the team's digital rights in its most recent deal with Fox in order to build a DTC OTT offering in the near future.
You've got to fish where the fish are. It's still early in the game [in terms of digital rights deals], but as an RSN owner I think you want your programming [to be available] wherever you can get it, said Bevilacqua. The biggest issue [with launching a DTC OTT product] for the RSN business specifically is, if I'm a YES customer and I'm a Yankees fan, I'm going sign up for six months and then I'm going to cut it off for the Nets. How do they get around that?
The Power of Social on the Regional Level
Much of the discussion on the panel revolved around the power of regional sports on social media platforms and how Twitter and Facebook can fuel viewership for live sports.
Bevilacqua (left) and Connelly on stage during the Executive Roundtable panel.
Sports is inherently social, said Master. We measure social media activity as it relates to television by tracking every Tweet or Facebook post that relates to linear TV. Sports only accounts for about 1.5% of the total program titles on television across the 500-channel universe. Yet 50% of all tweets around television are about sports. If something exciting is happening in a game, you want to share that with your friends because you know they are all watching it live. So, social media and sports on TV are very complimentary.
However, the ability to monetize this intense social-media engagement has remained elusive for live-sports sports rightsholders thus far. Bevilacqua sees the power of social in engaging fans but believes new rights deals in the coming years will open
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
SVG's Second-Annual RSN Summit Brings Together Regional Sports Leaders From Coast to Coast The RSN Summit drew a record crowd of more than 275, including execs from every major RSN organization. By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
