The $20 option to drilling to the lint in our pockets For how many streaming services are you willing to pony up $20?

Some of us are of an age where we recall watching hockey on small, portable black and white televisions, late at night with the volume low. Sometimes it was a game from the West Coast, sporadically broken up with a Geritol commercial for the late night viewers on the East Coast.

Where did I put my Geritol?

Those meager ads were the forerunners for what are now a blizzard of corporations burrowing into the wallets of fans and viewers of sport.

In the last two weeks, Bally Sports, owned and operated by the Diamond Sports Groups (DSG), has triggered bankruptcy protection by skipping on a US$140M interest payment, due one week ago.

Sinclair Broadcasting, the owner of DSG, is also entangled in the bankruptcy process, and is itself in dire financial straights.

In the last 24 hours, it has been reported that Bally Sports Kansas City is being dropped by YouTubeTV, SlingTV, and DISH Network.

Bally Sports Kansas City is one of the regional sports networks (RSN) impacted by the bankruptcy issues in DSG/Bally Sports chaos. The ripple effect is now spreading to the local RSN, a total of 19 are in place across the US.

Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, National Football League, National Basketball Association, and other sports organizations are now feeling the heat.

The MLB response to the near, or imminent, RSN collapse has been to announce that they will assume broadcasting responsibilities. The MLB season is rapidly approaching as spring training is here, and the regular season is is around the corner. How self-broadcasting will make up for lost revenue is still a question.

The NBA and NFL are reportedly safer than the other major leagues in the US. Both and the NBA and NFL have national broadcasting rights, and do not rely on RSN  to get their games to the eyeballs they need.

Not so the NHL, hockey relies on the RSN to put televised matches in front of eyeballs, precious few as it is. The NHL reportedly had one of it best years for revenue with nearly US$700M generated in the most recent year. In contrast, the NFL (US$4.4B) and NBA (projected US$10B) deal s are extraordinarily more lucrative.

The NHL signed signed a seven-season television deals in 2021, that deal, with  Disney pays the NHL US$400M annually, while Turner Sports agreed to a US$225M annual payment. That total is absent the RSN feeder line. And therein lies the rub, and the potential for catastrophe.

Major League Baseball (US$10.8B) is right there in the mix, but MLB has a reliance on the RSN for coverage of cities and franchises like Kansas City Royals.

The crux of the problem for RSN is the lack of viewership resulting in decreased revenues for the RSN. Complicating the losses in revenue is the unsustainable debt held by companies like Sinclair Broadcasting, which borrowed nearly US$9B to acquire the 19 RSN in the US.

This is not new, in September 2022, there were rumors of Sinclair facing major financial issues with the RSN acquisition, including sale and bankruptcy.

Live televised sport is no longer the attraction it once was. Play-by-play is at best mediocre, and the intermission.halftime commentaries and analyses are inane. The loss of finesse on the playing surface is a driver in that loss of attention and loss of eyeballs for advertisers.

In January, the NHL and SiriusXM radio announced an extension to the broadcast rights through the 2028-2029 season.

It may have seemed boring just a few weeks ago to have posted that presser from the NHL and SiriusXM, but through the longer lens, a radio contract looks to be a way to keep the NHL at least in fans’ ears.

The major leagues are now frantic to find alternatives to the cable television option they have so single mindedly attached themselves. Streaming services are now the darlings of the rescue plan. As Forbes reported, the leagues are scrambling to enure their sport is in the view of eyeballs for their advertisements.

No one likes paying DirecTV their rates for the NHL package. It’s expensive, and still blocks out certain teams,. New Mexico, which does not have an NHL franchise, cannot view either the Colorado Avalanche or the Arizona Coyotes.

So, the alternative fans will be presented with is the streaming options. And $20 per (fill in the option here_ is the mantra to be heard in the not too distant future. DirecTV is sounding good right now, given that by the time a fan is done paying $20 per whatever the cable bill appear reasonable.

We may be reverting to the trusty radio broadcast and the written word to get our sport fix in the near future.

Use CodePHN15

Stay with ProHockeyNews as we drill deeper into this story, and not into your pocket for lint.

Interested in writing about hockey, opining about your team, photographing hockey? Stop by our recruitment page by clicking here.