For those unfamiliar, the title references Regional Sports Networks aka the dumpster fire we’re beholden to in Bally’s Sports. This is a really interesting article from ESPN (non-paywalled), in which they discuss multiple teams offering dual broadcast options of over-the-air (good old broadcast television likw watching the games on channel 4!) and a direct-to-consumer subscription model (like Bally Sports+ but presumably less terrible and expensive) application.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/38696218/nba-rsn-questions-bally-sports-diamond
Hoping this trend takes hold league -wide as Bally Sports owner Diamond Sports goes through bankruptcy. How much do we really think the Pacers are getting for broadcast rights? Not that much, I’d guess. Wouldn’t it be better to have access to more households, families, children growing up watching the Pacers easily instead of just… not. It’s just that time again to pay Comcast $200/mo or bite the bullet and buy the app from Bally’s and deal with that stupidity so it was fresh on my mind when the ESPN notification hit. In conclusion, go Pacers.
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Bally was dropping MLB teams during the season who weren’t pulling in big enough numbers. ESPN took over all those teams and broadcasted them on their ESPN3 networks for free (if you had access to ESPN, I had it through Hulu). I believe we were one of, if not the worst team last year in the NBA for viewership. I’m hoping Bally drops us and ESPN picks us up just like they did for teams during the MLB season.
I had DirecTV Stream it because it was the best option to get Colts and Pacers games under 1 subscription. But the price was outrageous and when I couldn’t get colts games due to the dispute earlier this year I said screw it. I’ve tried sailing the high seas before and couldn’t deal with the quality. Going to give that a try again now that I’ve got better internet. Pacers games are literally the only thing I really care about watching on TV, so if the quality is bad I’ll probably end up paying for Balley. Going to try to hold out as long as I can and hope something happens.