The Orioles and Nationals reach a settlement in the MASN dispute

[Frobby]

4 minutes ago, TradeAngelos said:

One can only imagine if they gave them 100m, how much the network made overall during that period.  I mean that was just how much they shorted them. The other number had to dwarf that one.  Just trying to keep the lights on. Oh and have rights fees gone up or down since then? What excuses they got now? 

 

We don’t have to imagine.  We know the numbers.

[EddeeEddee]

2 hours ago, Billy F-Face3 said:

I'm with you guys. Get them off our turf.  I liked when Camden Yards was packed to capacity and rocking in the days long before the Washington Expos. 

One would also think that they would save money by avoiding litigation in courts. Lawyers and court fees aren't cheap.

I don't like the Nats, but it's next to impossible to imagine them leaving DC.  

What's amazing is the combined metro area Baltimore and DC and extended suburbs is now the third largest population center in the country -- behind the NY and LA areas -- recently becoming just a bit bigger than the Chicago and the SF Bay metro areas.  A population area that size should be able to support two teams. 

Coexistence should be achievable (especially with the O's winning again and the Nats terrible so soon after their WS title).  But maybe the MASN partnership should dissolve since these two don't know how to get along.  

[Billy F-Face3]

15 minutes ago, EddeeEddee said:

I don't like the Nats, but it's next to impossible to imagine them leaving DC.  

What's amazing is the combined metro area Baltimore and DC and extended suburbs is now the third largest population center in the country -- behind the NY and LA areas -- recently becoming just a bit bigger than the Chicago and the SF Bay metro areas.  A population area that size should be able to support two teams. 

Coexistence should be achievable (especially with the O's winning again and the Nats terrible so soon after their WS title).  But maybe the MASN partnership should dissolve since these two don't know how to get along.  

That's a nice piece of trivia I wasn't aware of. I always appreciate learning that type of stuff and digging into it.

In response your 2nd paragraph, I heard an anecdote about another Orioles fan who's friends with a Nationals fan from D.C. (He used to cheer for the Baltimore Orioles before the Nationals came to town.) My Orioles fan acquaintance said his Nationals fan/friend is disillusioned with the Nationals, and since he used to be an Orioles fan long before the Nationals ever existed, he was starting to pay attention to the Orioles alot more and has been impressed. He cheers for them on occasion. The Orioles fan was trying to recruit his Nationals friend back into Birdland lol.

[Can_of_corn]

5 hours ago, Billy F-Face3 said:

That's a nice piece of trivia I wasn't aware of. I always appreciate learning that type of stuff and digging into it.

In response your 2nd paragraph, I heard an anecdote about another Orioles fan who's friends with a Nationals fan from D.C. (He used to cheer for the Baltimore Orioles before the Nationals came to town.) My Orioles fan acquaintance said his Nationals fan/friend is disillusioned with the Nationals, and since he used to be an Orioles fan long before the Nationals ever existed, he was starting to pay attention to the Orioles alot more and has been impressed. He cheers for them on occasion. The Orioles fan was trying to recruit his Nationals friend back into Birdland lol.

Sounds like your typical bandwagon fan.

[Going Underground]

This was also in the article and very important  It implies both teams will be getting less from the RSN. The decline of these regional networks could have a big impact going forward. I know  MASN  is not in certain markets like they used to be. North Carolina especially  

 

[waroriole]

5 hours ago, Billy F-Face3 said:

That's a nice piece of trivia I wasn't aware of. I always appreciate learning that type of stuff and digging into it.

In response your 2nd paragraph, I heard an anecdote about another Orioles fan who's friends with a Nationals fan from D.C. (He used to cheer for the Baltimore Orioles before the Nationals came to town.) My Orioles fan acquaintance said his Nationals fan/friend is disillusioned with the Nationals, and since he used to be an Orioles fan long before the Nationals ever existed, he was starting to pay attention to the Orioles alot more and has been impressed. He cheers for them on occasion. The Orioles fan was trying to recruit his Nationals friend back into Birdland lol.

There are no real Nationals fans over 30. They’re just former fair weather Orioles fans. Might as well wear pink Red Sox hats. 

[SemperFi]

10 hours ago, Dale said:

Any chance this brings the all star game to Camden?

As long as the Angelos family owns the Orioles there will not be an all star game in Baltimore, other franchises have a much better relationship with MLB.

[Frobby]

A few tidbits from the Post:

“As part of the deal, MASN also will make a nearly $100 million payment to the Orioles because the terms of the original agreement required the network to pay equal rights fees to both teams.”

* * *

“Another reason to avoid additional litigation is less money may be at stake. Just as the cable boom helped spur massive financial growth for MLB from the 1990s to mid-2010s, recent trends toward cord-cutting have made the rights to broadcast games on cable far less valuable than they used to be — and far less valuable than, say, the rights to stream games directly to consumers.”

* * *

“Both the Nationals and Orioles have reason to believe future payments will be less than those in the past. Indeed, MASN has 3.3 million subscribers this year, down from 5.6 million in 2018, according to research firm S&P Global Market Intelligence.”

There’s a few things in these quotes that I’m not sure are accurate.  First, I think the O’s already received profit payments that have to be recalculated, and they are not receiving any net payments from MASN now.  Second, the MASN agreement isn’t limited to cable, but all TV broadcast rights, so streaming is included.  However, it’s obviously the case that cable subscribers are dramatically down, as the article indicates.

The MASN deal is unique in that the value of the rights are reset every five years, whereas many of the third-party cable deals run for 10-20 years and have caused huge distress for the cable companies which offered generous rights fees over a very long period, only to see their revenues start declining dramatically due to cord-cutting they hadn’t anticipated.  MASN has the flexibility to argue for lower rights fees in the succeeding five year periods due to changed market conditions.  

[Sports Guy]

You would think this is the hardest part and that further negotiations should be much easier.

I do think it’s fair to wonder what will become of MASN long term. The RSNs are in big trouble all over right now. If MLB takes things over and finally goes to streaming while eliminating the blackout rules, that could be it for MASN although you would think they would still leave some kind of a network for people who don’t want to cut the cord.

[Tony-OH]

The one thing I hope this helps is encouraging the Orioles to identify a direct streaming option for fans in market. I know MASN is the only thing that keeps me from cutting the cord for the most part.

[SemperFi]

52 minutes ago, Going Underground said:

This was also in the article and very important  It implies both teams will be getting less from the RSN. The decline of these regional networks could have a big impact going forward. I know  MASN  is not in certain markets like they used to be. North Carolina especially  

 

And as you know other revenue streams make up for the decline, Apple, Disney etc.  Viewership is down and declining which is the major issue, cable was great as MASN was paid on subscribers not viewers.  Although viewership is declining and the WS numbers are alarming MLB is OK short term, the buckets are just changing.  Long term not so much, baseball is gradually dying like the rest of us.  IMO MLB has chased short term money instead of investing back into the brand (ie all night playoff games).

[Moose Milligan]

Also, I think it's absolutely hysterical that some of you guys in here are talking about "our turf" like you're the Sharks and the Nats are the Jets and you're about to recreate a dancing scene from West Side Story.

In regards to RSN's failing and an alternative, the Utah Jazz have a solution which is following what the Suns did:

https://frontofficesports.com/like-the-suns-jazz-are-ditching-their-cable-regional-sports-network/

Also hysterical is the fact that the name of the Jazz's TV station is called KJZZ which makes my 5th grade mind chuckle uncontrollably.

But NBA teams are forward thinking and MLB teams are not.  So, this probably isn't a real alternative for a team like the Orioles.  

[Waker94]

Waiting for the "We can't afford to spend money at the trade deadline/off season because we have to pay the Nationals" quote from Angelos. 

[interloper]

So the MLBTR article says the Orioles also get paid $100 million. Is that right? 

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, interloper said:

So the MLBTR article says the Orioles also get paid $100 million. Is that right? 

Right, which ownership obviously doesn't want to do.