Follow me on Twitter
Bally Sport (formerly fox sports) will be in court tomorrow and it just got more interesting somehow. A payment to the Padres was missed (lots of missed payments) but the media company is said to be collecting subscription revenues all the way through this. Now, we know that the revenue aren’t enough to pay existing debts (9 billion) so why a club would be in disbelief about getting shafted seems odd. Their complaint will be added to the docket tomorrow.
As for ESPN, I still have to go off the parent company reports. I recently told you that the company basically has $10 billion in liquidity (cash or cash equivalent) down from 110 in 2021. But, the rest of the report was released and their debt ratio puts them at about 300 million in cash. 10 billion was said to be 6 weeks of operating budget. Another few thousand layoffs were announced, and we’re way far away from the original (7k positions closed, but 4 k are just job postings). Comcast/Universal has outright said they are going to enact the “forced sale” of the last 1/3 of Hulu next January with numbers ranging from 9 billion to 30 billion. The wise among you know that some of that can be paid in stock, but the stock price would currently force the company to give 14% owning interest to its direct competitor, the highest of any single entity. The ESPN layoffs are coming soon and here’s the AI part.
If you saw the original “Matrix” movie, there’s a part where Keanu Reeves character sees a cat walk by a door twice. The same exact sequence. Well, AI did something similar. Comics out of Korea and Japan apparently have taken over the comic book market. They’ve started to use AI on smaller titles to test it out. Well, a release had literally used material from another publisher in part of a new book. Pics, text, everything. The Writer’s strike sees some light from this, but in 4 more weeks is the “force Majeure” clause kick in and studios can take over their own writing (as directors and actors plan to strike too).
So what is the hockey side of all of this? Here you go. I probably told you that James Earl Jones sold the rights to his voice to Disney. After he passes, they can use it to create new material. Other actors have sold their likenesses (some making a lot of money). Basically, you could shoot a movie with green men using people and voices that no longer exist. The AI scripting and announcing is something that every industry will be looking at. What if Dick Clark could do New Year’s forever? If his estate makes the sale, it’s possible again. Deep fake is the term being used.
So, in hockey, we have watched “virtual” ads that float on the glass and boards in an effort to increase revenue. Now imagine that play by play could be done without paying actual people to do it. Baseball fans have wanted (some have) a computerized strike zone for a while. While Bally Sports and ESPN look at the way forward, for both it’s been mentioned that they may just move to streaming. That is not making some of you happy. NBC/Universal is turning Nintendo into a massive franchise (visible from Disney World) and Disney just announced closing a hotel.
Here’s my thought. Some of you have rightly pointed out that money is tight and we haven’t hit the stopping point yet. Companies are already strategizing ways to demonetize competition (very Mr. Potter-sequel). An instance is a “balloon” that once Comcast forces the sale, they will be removing their content from the Hulu platform. That, ironically, is what destroyed a chunk of Disney revenue. Exclusively having content on their own app and not getting monthly checks from Netflix and others.
All I want to see is what the court says as far as which properties Bally can retain and which debts have to be repaid. That is, selfishly, because watching Detroit play hockey is linked to that. Even the Center Ice sub model is linked to that. Center Ice basically would show proprietary broadcasts, not original content. If Detroit is allowed to depart from Bally the brain trust has to try and figure out who will be the most stable broadcast partner. If ESPN goes full stream ahead, VPN subs (if available) will probably continue to grow. I advise against pirated broadcasts, free is there for a reason and it’s not always a good one.
AI is not quite where it needs to be, but it continues to move forward. Amongst all this, the NHL (my opinion) needs to find more traction in viewership and I don’t think the final rating results are going to be pleasant. You will probably have to go to Nielsen because you can discern the data (but it takes almost a month to be put together). I’ve said before, Detroit is a team that has a strong financial backbone and ownership interest. There are markets that benefit greatly when the team gets better. I consider Toronto and Montreal almost untouchable in terms of fan and owner partnership. If Detroit can take steps forward and do the fan service events, it will find the best route forward. I do have a lot of faith in the current office braintrust and that is a huge comfort right now.
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»