The D-Backs' TV rights deal extension with FS Arizona that is worth reportedly more than $1B led to a discussion about teams' local broadcast rights on MLB Network's "MLB Now" on Thursday, with Brian Kenny saying when teams "get to that point where they can redo the deal, these regional sports networks flood the teams with money." SABR President Vince Gennaro said, "It is a fascinating deal partly because of the length. I know that a lot of other deals have been done long-term, but there is so much uncertainty in terms of the digital broadcast landscape. Technology is changing things at such a rate that how can we see out 15-20 years and know what mobile devices we're going to be watching games on? ... So there’s a lot of risk from both sides." Gennaro added that the D-Backs receive a "steady cash" flow and get "certainty around that." Gennaro: "Keep in mind that sports are DVR-proof and the fact that baseball, like no other professional sport, can fill a 162-game schedule with pre- and postgame, and now the Hot Stove offseason. You can literally underwrite an entire sports network with that, so if you use this to absorb all your fixed costs and break-even as a network, you can make all your money on everything else you build around it." Kenny said it is "fascinating that in the history of TV sports broadcasting you always think, ‘My God, that’s too much money. It’ll never be worth that much.’ And it just goes up and up and up and you’re always looking back going, ‘Whoa, what a bargain.'" Gennaro said of the disparity in local TV revenue across MLB, "I don’t think that you can ignore that and say it doesn’t change the landscape, because it does." MLB Network's Ron Darling suggested maybe the D-Backs will increase their payroll from around $95M to $120M with "that extra $20 million to get you over the top." Kenny: "We've seen when teams, including the Dodgers, know, ‘Oh, that deal’s coming in. Spend'" (“MLB Now,” MLB Network, 2/19).
