Sabres/Bills Sign Long Term Deal with MSG

[AntiMoz]

Now that the Pegulas own both the Sabres and Bills they are moving their locally produced content for both teams to MSG-Western New York rather than creating a new RSN.

With the doubling of rights fees paid to Pegula Sports and Entertainment over the 10 year life of the deal carriage fees paid by the carriers will also have to increase significantly. Smart money has it that we will never see MSG on DISH.....ever.

http://sabres.buffalonews.com/2016/...r-pegula-sports-entertainment-content-on-msg/

 

[chuckster_dude]

Boooooooooooo! As the Sabres get better, it may be time for me to bail Dish if I want to watch them on TV. MSG are greedy bastards but the Pegulas are taking the easy money.

Maybe we'll get some deals when Charter replaces TWC.

 

[Yespage]

But MSG isn't "greedy" in the sense of asking for a lot for nothing. They are needlessly paying a lot knowing that others will foot that bill. Sports have gotten out of hand. Competition has actually helped price out subscribers. Sat and Cable companies would be better off doing deals directly with the league. The Sabres aren't a huge market, and shouldn't be drawing a super premium to show them.

 

[AntiMoz]

Yespage, you are absolutely correct that Buffalo is not a huge market. However, the Buffalo DMA is a very strong market for the NHL and is consistently is in the top 3 nationally with respect to ratings for games on MSG, NBC and NBCSN. (Even with a team that has been absolutely abysmal to watch for the 2-3 years prior to last season.) I'd love it if DISH added MSG back into their programming because I really like their equipment and programming options. (DirecTV is not an option for me because of LOS issues, neither are Cable, FIOS or streaming because were in a rural area.) It's obvious that the Sabres and PSE don't care because I don't see them pushing MSG to sign a deal with DISH. Maybe with the addition of the locally produced Buffalo Bills content being brought into the mix this might create enough demand from DISH subscribers for PSE to encourage MSG to make a deal. (Not holding my breath....one can dream though).

This said, I get that the overall sports programming economics don't work for DISH given that Buffalo is "in market" for all the NY City teams, MLB and NBA in particular. It's not surprising that DISH doesn't carry YES, SNY and MSG given the cumulative cost of having to carry each. A seemingly simple answer is to bundle these networks into a al-a-carte sports tier. This approach is not economically feasible acceptable because the cost of that tier would be astronomical to those that subscribe because the providers cannot spread the programming cost across all of their subscriber base and the potential for low demand. The single channel al-a-carte RSN option is also not acceptable to the providers for pretty much the same reasons.

And so it goes......maybe Hell will freeze over!