Jeremy Laura: Bally Sports, ESPN and an AI “oops”

Huh?

Being someone, in the golden triangle of East-Central Ontario, I'm lucky to get the Sens, Leafs and Habs as regional networks. I'm also a Directv subscriber and get the New York City based teams, as well as Buffalo.

Last year, I purchased the Directv Center Ice package and was dismayed that a lot of the premium games were on ESPN+. ESPN is a pariah when it comes to owning cable rights. They subcontract some of the games to TNT and TBS, but those key games are not available in the CI package or regional sports networks. A lot of subscribers are ticked that they can't get what they paid for. Having the RS Networks triple their price, earlier this year, makes it even more untenable. As someone that remembers the good old days of over-the-air broadcasts, maybe it's time to revisit this idea. Instead of teams selling their rights, purchase a subchannel on an over-the-air transmitter and sell your own advertising, keeping it in house. No more shady RSN's like Bally, no more ESPN head games. The NHL should look at this model and save themselves the nonsense that Bally and ESPN has done to their product.

Being someone, in the golden triangle of East-Central Ontario, I'm lucky to get the Sens, Leafs and Habs as regional networks. I'm also a Directv subscriber and get the New York City based teams, as well as Buffalo.

Last year, I purchased the Directv Center Ice package and was dismayed that a lot of the premium games were on ESPN+. ESPN is a pariah when it comes to owning cable rights. They subcontract some of the games to TNT and TBS, but those key games are not available in the CI package or regional sports networks. A lot of subscribers are ticked that they can't get what they paid for. Having the RS Networks triple their price, earlier this year, makes it even more untenable. As someone that remembers the good old days of over-the-air broadcasts, maybe it's time to revisit this idea. Instead of teams selling their rights, purchase a subchannel on an over-the-air transmitter and sell your own advertising, keeping it in house. No more shady RSN's like Bally, no more ESPN head games. The NHL should look at this model and save themselves the nonsense that Bally and ESPN has done to their product.
- PrinceLH

Last season has been called a “mess” in terms of having to go to too many places to get games. I miss local “flavor”. Canadian broadcasts so different than the local. I’m not really sure where they go from here. It’s one thing to add a different option or technology, but then you find out that infrastructure has been removed that would have to be rebuilt an in accordance with new airwave laws. I’ll give an example. I was working for a media company and the major providers announced the “digital upgrade”. There were 2 parts to it. First, people could still splice physical cable and get the broadcast without a box. Digital made you have a subscription (and now Netflix is trying to kill password sharing, another whole issue). Second, the bandwidth of the broadcast was 1/10th the size whether it was over cable or in air. Just like phone numbers, bandwidth was running out of space. So now to insert back into the marketplace you have to find out what the new requirements are, make hybrid equipment to give the feel of analog broadcast using IPs. It’s all very convoluted and where having not just 2 countries with different requirements, but also state by state, city by city rules for the franchises themselves. Someone needs to step up and simplify getting the games, stop punishing local viewers with restrictions, and allow markets to be themselves. I just don’t know how to even begin that process.

Huh?
- ChrisMS

Ok, there was a ton to digest and I went from legal papers to culture write ups and beyond. Summary:

Bally is in court tomorrow. The last order they had was to pay at least 50% of promised revenue to local sports teams. They missed another payment and the court is going to let them know if they have to sell off assets and what debts have to be paid.

ESPN is going to do another round of layoffs in June. On air talent will be announced along with whoever else is gone. Disney, the parent company, had a really bad earnings call and couldn’t pay cash for a Hulu obligation. If ESPN is truly being looked at separately, they’re looking either at finding a way to save, write off or (in my opinion) sell. 6th round of layoffs in 10 years for ESPN, and they may put much more of the company into streaming.

Artificial Intelligence is being used to write comic books and scripts. A company released a book that literally had graphics pulled from another company’s book (2 cells worth). Where this touches hockey is in the current writer’s strike. Sport broadcasts use writers, producers etc. if the strike goes another 4 weeks, studios can then enact a clause that allows them to use different resources for tv, movies, etc. Artificial Intelligence programs could easily be used in many instances and is a significant part of the strike (limiting use, etc). In the weirdness, actors are selling their voices and likenesses so they can be used to create new content even after the actor is passed. Something similar could easily be done with sports announcers.

These all seem like disconnected issues but are all sort of peaking at the same time. If Bally has to sell off broadcast rights to pay debts, if ESPN goes full streaming and off of the cable model, it gets easier to use evolving tech to replace the current models of production and you could be completely unaware that you’re hearing (or seeing) a generated image that reacts and responds with a familiar face and voice. Crazy stuff

Ok, there was a ton to digest and I went from legal papers to culture write ups and beyond. Summary:

Bally is in court tomorrow. The last order they had was to pay at least 50% of promised revenue to local sports teams. They missed another payment and the court is going to let them know if they have to sell off assets and what debts have to be paid.

ESPN is going to do another round of layoffs in June. On air talent will be announced along with whoever else is gone. Disney, the parent company, had a really bad earnings call and couldn’t pay cash for a Hulu obligation. If ESPN is truly being looked at separately, they’re looking either at finding a way to save, write off or (in my opinion) sell. 6th round of layoffs in 10 years for ESPN, and they may put much more of the company into streaming.

Artificial Intelligence is being used to write comic books and scripts. A company released a book that literally had graphics pulled from another company’s book (2 cells worth). Where this touches hockey is in the current writer’s strike. Sport broadcasts use writers, producers etc. if the strike goes another 4 weeks, studios can then enact a clause that allows them to use different resources for tv, movies, etc. Artificial Intelligence programs could easily be used in many instances and is a significant part of the strike (limiting use, etc). In the weirdness, actors are selling their voices and likenesses so they can be used to create new content even after the actor is passed. Something similar could easily be done with sports announcers.

These all seem like disconnected issues but are all sort of peaking at the same time. If Bally has to sell off broadcast rights to pay debts, if ESPN goes full streaming and off of the cable model, it gets easier to use evolving tech to replace the current models of production and you could be completely unaware that you’re hearing (or seeing) a generated image that reacts and responds with a familiar face and voice. Crazy stuff
- Jeremy Laura

Ok. I either need two less beers in me or two more beers in me to understand all this.

But I do applaud your effort to ratchet up the actual intellectual dialogue of the site. It was a good read.

Ok. I either need two less beers in me or two more beers in me to understand all this.

But I do applaud your effort to ratchet up the actual intellectual dialogue of the site. It was a good read.
- ChrisMS

Oh man, thanks for that! Some of this stuff has taken weeks of listening and comparing etc. i was born in 1976 and most of this feels like it came out of sci fi!

Just a quick caveat. None of this is any sort of fun to sort through. I am broken hearted by businesses and institutions falling apart. We have enough modern history of warning signs where the untouchable can actually topple and dissolve. I want a success story to make its way out of this for hockey fans. Something that gives us access to what we just want to love watching and following. Bad decisions seem to have been made, but good decisions can be made with the proper understanding of the landscape the lies ahead.