Local television broadcasts for the Cleveland Cavs could see change due to uncertainty of FanDuel Sports Network.
Are the Cleveland Cavaliers in danger of going dark on cable systems and the FanDuel Sports Network app?
Fans may consider the possibility — though it may be highly unlikely.
Main Street Sports Group, the owner of the network, has missed television rights payments to an undisclosed number of NBA teams on the heels of having missed a payment to the St. Louis Cardinals in December, according to a report in Sports Business Journal.
Those NBA teams were informed by the league that letters of default have been sent earlier this month to Main Street and a waiting period of 15 days follows with the sports group continuing to handle the team’s producing duties.
The Cavs are one of 13 teams that have local TV rights agreements with the network, which was formed in the aftermath of bankruptcy proceedings of the Diamond Sports Group.
Another wrinkle: Main Street is in the midst of potentially being acquired by DAZN, a global sports streaming subscription service, which has approximately 500,000 U.S. subscribers, according to reports. They have more than 20 million worldwide, but have also had substantial losses.
According to the report, if that deal isn't completed, FanDuel would wind down operations at the end of the current season. There is some debate, however, as to whether they can even continue that long given the network’s financial losses.
The Cavs, who are reportedly owed $34 million for the current season, declined to comment.
The Cavs have less financially lucrative options for local broadcasts
Many of the 13 franchises have contingency plans should the network go dark.
The Cavs could easily find a local broadcast partner. Speculating, the most likely one would be Gray Media owners of WOIO (Channel 19) and WUAB (Channel 43). The latter will simulcast five Cavs games during the course of the current season along with the Rock Entertainment Sports Network, which can be viewed on Spectrum, the prevailing cable system in the area, and over-the-air via an antenna at channel 22.1, but will likely take a hit financially.
RESN offers an intriguing prospect should the Rock Entertainment Group — the umbrella corporation that owns the Cavs, the Cleveland Charge of the NBA G-League, the American Hockey League’s Cleveland Monsters and the upcoming unnamed WNBA franchise — decide to move to those broadcasts on an interim basis until the league is able to get a proposed national regional sports network off the ground for the 2027-28 season. That's when the majority of the league’s teams would then be free from other rights obligations to opt-in.
NBA at a 15-year high with respect to viewership, national RSN has possibilities
There’s no reason to think that such an entity focused on local broadcast would not be successful. The NBA is on a 15-year high with respect to viewership courtesy of its newest media deal, which has segmented rights across ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock, Amazon Prime Video and NBA TV.
Through the first two months of the season, the league has seen 87 million people in the U.S. watch across those platforms. That number is up 89% over last year.
A regional sports network run by the league has the potential to build on that success.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland Cavs local TV broadcasts could be casualty of FanDuel storm
Category: General Sports
