Where Do Remaining AT&T SportsNet RSNs Stand as Warner Bros. Discovery Wraps Up Involvement With Channels?
We already knew that Warner Bros. Discovery was ready to take its ball and go home, but it still has some details to iron out first. In February, the company told the sports teams it was partnered with that it was planning to exit the regional sports network (RSN) business, and began working with those teams to ensure fans didn’t lose access to their games at any point.
Fast forwarding to late August, much has been done. The Utah Jazz and Vegas Golden Knights have both agreed to deals with local broadcast channels in their respective markets for the upcoming season, leaving the Colorado Rockies as the only team on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain.
John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal has provided an update on where WBD stands in its goal to be completely done with its RSNs by the end of this year. WBD currently owns 29% of Root Sports Northwest, with the rest of that channel belonging to the Seattle Mariners. Little will change with the operation of that channel going forward as things stand now.
The same can’t be said of AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh, which has been the home of Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Penguins games. WBD has agreed to a deal to allow Fenway Sports Group to take over the channel, so Penguins games will stay on the channel. Fenway also owns NESN and its companion in-market streaming service NESN 360, so it has plenty of experience in the RSN game. Ourand reports that the company is likely to set up an in-market streaming service for the Penguins in Pittsburgh, though no one is ready to talk specifics about such a platform yet.
The Pirates may also sign on with Fenway to keep their games on AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh, but Ourand reports the team is leaning toward sending its rights back to Major League Baseball instead. That would mean the league would be responsible for making deals directly with local cable providers to get Pirates games on the air in Pittsburgh, and would also take over production responsibilities for the games themselves. This is what MLB had to do for the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres when those teams left their previous homes on Bally Sports RSNs behind.
WBD is still negotiating with the Houston Astros and Rockets to have those two teams take over AT&T SportsNet Southwest. Sources tell Ourand they expect a deal to be closed in time for the start of the NBA regular season; the Rockets get their season going on Oct. 25.
The Colorado Rockies are still weighing their options for next season. They too could decide to send their rights back to MLB, but they have also been approached by Denver’s other RSN Altitude about sending their games to that network. Altitude wants to acquire Rockies games partially to help it force Comcast back to the negotiating table; a years-long carriage dispute between Comcast and Altitude has kept Denver-area Xfinity TV subscribers from seeing Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets games since 2019.
League sources praised WBD’s transparency throughout the process and said their dealings with the company have essentially been the opposite of proceedings with Bally Sports’ parent company Diamond Sports Group this summer. Diamond is working through bankruptcy court, but has fought as hard as it can to keep all of the teams whose broadcast rights it holds, and has surrendered contracts only grudgingly. But Diamond doesn’t really have any other content to fall back on, whereas WBD is ready to focus solely on its movie studio, cable channels, and the continuing success of its streaming platforms Max and discovery+.
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