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
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
21/10/2025
Globecast, the leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, has announced the appointment of G Morgan as Executive Vice President of...
21/10/2025
Visual Data announces the appointment of Maz Al-Jumaili as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Localization, to advance client engagement, strategic partnerships, ...
21/10/2025
As Amazon's Prime Video prepares to launch its coverage of NBA basketball under a major new deal, Grup Mediapro has announced that it is working with the st...
21/10/2025
ATLANTA Good news for consumers using an Atlanta DTH receiver to watch ATSC 3.0: with a new software update, they will be able to blanket their homes with Wi-Fi...
21/10/2025
While recent news has been heavily focused on Hispanic migration into the U.S., The 2025 Hispanic Market Report from Claritas highlights the fact that this gr...
21/10/2025
MAIDENHEAD, UK RWS has hired Michael Wayne as its head of media and entertainment in Los Angeles where he will lead the company's media localization busines...
21/10/2025
Imagine Communications and Rohde & Schwarz today announced a definitive agreement under which Imagine will acquire Pixel Power Limited, a wholly owned subsidiar...
21/10/2025
Atlanta DTH (ADTH) today announced a major update that will expand the functionality of its NEXTGEN TV receiver by enabling gateway capabilities allowing viewer...
21/10/2025
Heartland Video Systems, Inc. (HVS), a premier video systems integration, consulting, and expert ATSC 3.0 implementation firm announces that it has partnered wi...
21/10/2025
QuickLink, the leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest integration solutions, today announced the appointment of Austin Hinton as it...
21/10/2025
nternet connectivity startup Miri Technologies Inc. will use this week's NAB Show New York as the launch pad for its latest ground-breaking innovation, the ...
20/10/2025
Inside TAMS: How Time-Addressable Media Stores could redefine sports workflows By Paul Markham
Friday, October 17, 2025 - 08:57
Print This Story
A penalty...
20/10/2025
Transformational production: Inside TVN's remote production push for the DFL...
20/10/2025
How NBC Sports Transitioned Stamford Facility to One Format: 1080p HDRMulti-year plan harmonizes workflows, simplifies operationsBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial ...
20/10/2025
NBA on NBC' Studio Production Team Is Ready for Tip-Off With Coast-to-Coast...
20/10/2025
Under pressure: TVN CEO Markus Osthaus considers the German sports broadcasting ...
20/10/2025
(L-R) Maria Dizzia, Carmen Emmi, and Russell Tovey attend the Plainclothes pre...
20/10/2025
In March, we launched Concerts Near You to help listeners find concerts from their favorite artists. Since then, more than 3 million people have used it to disc...
20/10/2025
Em diversas cidades do Brasil, um movimento tem se fortalecido para celebrar o poder, a beleza e a profundidade da criatividade negra. O Dia AMPLIFIKA, agora em...
20/10/2025
In cities across Brazil, a movement is growing that celebrates the power, beauty, and depth of Black creativity. AMPLIFIKA Day, now in its fifth edition, return...
20/10/2025
Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft rendering...
20/10/2025
DENVER and MUNICH Imagine Communications today announced its plans to acquire Pixel Power Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Rohde & Schwarz. Financial terms of...
20/10/2025
LOS ANGELES G Morgan has joined Globecast, a provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, as executive vice president of sales, Globecast Am...
20/10/2025
PLYMOUTH, Wisc. Heartland Video Systems and Zixi have partnered to enable broadcast-quality live video delivery over any IP network....
20/10/2025
A. R. Rahman on Facing Fear and Finding the Divine In an interview with Berklee President Jim Lucchese, the Oscar-winning composer reflects on how courage and...
20/10/2025
Monday 20 October 2025
To view this content, please enable our use of cookies. ...
20/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz transfers Pixel Power to Imagine Communications Companies work collaboratively to ensure continuity and ongoing support for existing customers...
20/10/2025
RT 's Prime Time is set to host the final Presidential Election Debate this Tuesday night, October 21, providing an opportunity to hear directly from Irelan...
20/10/2025
NVIDIA and Google Cloud are expanding access to accelerated computing to transform the full spectrum of enterprise workloads, from visual computing to agentic a...
19/10/2025
Back to All News
Sins of Kujo' Comes to Life in New Live-Action Series Set for Spring 2026
Entertainment
19 October 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to cl...
18/10/2025
New England Sports Network (NESN) has chosen Harmonic, working with Astound Business Solutions, as its enterprise technology partner to transform primary distri...
18/10/2025
NEW ORLEANS, La. In the run-up to the start of the NBA season, WVUE-TV and Gray Local Media have announced a deal with DirecTV that will greatly expand access t...
18/10/2025
Berklee Celebrates 40 Years of the Fall Together Concert Faculty composers Bob Pilkington and Greg Hopkins are among the featured artists for this year's ...
17/10/2025
NEP Group Receives New Equity Investment From 26North Partners LP, Co-InvestorsCarlyle remains the largest shareholder as the company prepares for the futureBy ...
17/10/2025
Apple Lands Five-Year Deal for F1 Distribution in the U.S.Besides airing on Apple TV, the sport will be amplified on other Apple servicesBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Ed...
17/10/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Marshall Electronics' Bernie Keach on the Future of PTZ Camera...
17/10/2025
L2 Productions' REMI Facility in Austin Can Produce Content From AnywhereMusic festivals, sports events are produced via flypacks and remote control roomsBy...
17/10/2025
By Lucy Spicer
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival...
17/10/2025
(L-R) Christopher Meyer, Addison Timlin, Cooper Raiff, Lili Reinhart, Alyah Chan...
17/10/2025
M sica e arte se uniram em uma noite especial na semana passada na ZIV Gallery, ...
17/10/2025
Music and art came together for one special night last week at ZIV Gallery, an i...
17/10/2025
Spotify and FC Barcelona are extending our partnership through 2030, continuing a collaboration that's redefining how fans, players, and artists connect. Th...
17/10/2025
MURRIETA, Calif. The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC) has deployed DigitalGlue's creative.space storage platform to streamline video production by centrali...
17/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. Football continued to cement its reputation as a bulwark of TV advertising in Q3 2025 with new data from iSpot that showed both the NFL and coll...
17/10/2025
The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC), the premier competitive saltwater fishing series, has transformed its production workflow by adopting creative.space, the...
17/10/2025
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning multi-camera video productions and remote contribution solutions, announces the release of StudioPro Version 4, ...
17/10/2025
Although the annual Grammy Awards celebration is best known for recognizing achievements in the recording industry, the show often proves a visual spectacle as ...
17/10/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leading provider of software-defined data storage and data services, has promoted Alex Dunfey to Chief Technology Officer (CTO) from his for...
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 
