April 6, 2023 By: Mark Knudson

Colorado Rockies TV situation brings questions and opportunities

The 30^th anniversary of the Colorado Rockies brings with it tons of memories and video clips. The first is perhaps the most famous, with the late Charlie Jones calling Eric Young’s historic Opening Day home run at Mile High Stadium.

“Mile high and outta here,” Charlie bellowed.

That game was broadcast over the air, on regular television on KWGN Channel 2 in Denver. Even though most of us had cable TV back then, it wasn’t necessary to watch the Rockies. You could have old fashioned “rabbit ears” antennas and still watch the games.

It was a great deal for local sports fans.

Things evolved over the years of course. Channel 2 gave way to cable’s Prime Sports (enter Drew Goodman) and the various machinations that became AT&T Sports Net. Always available with your pay-for-your-television cable package.

The term for stations like AT&T Sports Net, and many others around the country, became “Regional Sports Networks,” or “RSNs.”

Times continued to change, as local fans know all to well.

It’s been four years since Colorado’s other local RSN, Altitude Sports and Entertainment, was not renewed by the region’s largest cable company, Comcast, preventing a huge chunk of local sports fans from watching the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche on TV. The same thing happened in New York, with Comcast cutting off the Madison Square Garden network – home of the New York Knicks and Rangers – in the same fashion, and for the same reason. RSN’s were asking for a lot more money (and paying commiserate rights fees to the teams) than cable providers could justify paying them.

It’s become nightmare scenario for corporate owned RSN’s across the country. And now some professional teams, too.

The parent company of AT&T Sports Net, Warner Brothers Discovery, has filed for bankruptcy, and the immediate future of local Rockies telecasts is like a fly ball lost in the sun. Major League Baseball will undoubtedly find a way to rescue RSN’s who are placed in limbo at any point this season, but that’s not likely to be the long term solution.

So what is?

Perhaps the solution is for Rockies ownership to do what the Nuggets and Avs did, and take things in house?

That sounds really bad on the surface, considering the long running battle between Kroenke Sports and Entertainment and Comcast that has left so many so unhappy with everyone involved. But KSE may have seen the light, so to speak. They’ve begun making steady inroads into the streaming market, making deals with streaming service outlets like FuboTV to carry games. They’ll need to do more of that. YouTube TV, Hulu and others are out there.

Having the Nuggets and Avalanche games end up back on Comcast any time soon is a fantasy. The same may be true for the Rockies games pretty soon.

It seems clear that streaming video services are the future of local sports broadcasting. The time to embrace that has arrived, and organizations like Kroenke Sports are figuring out that local control can be beneficial. KSE won’t be declaring bankruptcy any time soon, right?

Assuming that AT&T Sports Net is on its last legs, perhaps the Rockies could consider joining forces with Kroenke – which isn’t in the same situation as other RSN’s because it’s a stand alone network and not part of a parent company like AT&T. Or if Rockies ownership is feeling emboldened and progressive (which would be a new thing) they could start their own small RSN that could be offered on cable (at a smaller rights fee) AND on streaming services that the Rockies themselves controlled and got paid for? With the sports betting industry thriving – but totally dependent on televised sports – they could be asked to pay considerable advertising and promotional fees.

Something to consider.

No doubt the folks at the MLB Network are diligently working on a solution for the handful of franchises – like the World Champion Houston Astros, the Seattle Mariners, the Pittsburgh Pirates and others – whose local broadcasts are in peril. Perhaps they’ve already come up with a long term solution that can be in place for other franchises sooner rather than later? Perhaps – and just spit-balling here – they’ll find a distribution method for local game broadcasts that helps level the financial playing field for all the teams? Discrepancies in local broadcast revenue create the largest financial gap between franchises like the Rockies and the Los Angeles Dodgers, for example. What if local broadcast distribution and revenue was pooled and paid out evenly the same way national broadcast revenue is?

The Rockies would certainly benefit from that.

More importantly, the fans would benefit from any arrangement that assured they could watch all the games at a reasonable price.

Stay tuned.