The Media Notepad: Bulls, White Sox owner gains control of Stadium
Also: Richard Mline’s wife dies; DirecTV retains NFL Sunday Ticket….for business customers; Standard General-Tegna merger called off
Sports business website Front Office Sports reported Monday evening the owner of the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls acquired a majority stake in Stadium, the multiplatform sports network seen on over-the-air digital channels and streaming. The network is based out of the United Center in Chicago, where the Bulls play.
According to FOS, Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf bought the equity stake through his Silver Chalice sports media company, who previously held a minority stake. Reinsdorf is taking over the financial stake from Sinclair Broadcasting, who is having issues with its Diamond Sports Group as the company is operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Numerous Sinclair and Sinclair-affiliated stations carry Stadium on their digital tiers; it is not known if this would continue going forward. After Nexstar bought 75 percent of The CW leaving Paramount Global with a minority stake along with Warner Bros. Discovery, CBS announced it was dropping the network in eight markets effective September 1 (Paramount is a corporate parent of CBS.)
Stadium was originally part of the American Sports Network, which Sinclair owned. Stadium mostly carries college sports and has agreements from Conference USA, Mountain West, Southern Conference, and a few others.
Reinsdorf had a hand in creating the network and was launched as an over-the-air digital subchannel, and is also available through digital, cable, and streaming. Despite being based in Chicago, Stadium no longer has an over-the-air home here as Tinley Park-based religious independent WJYS (Channel 62) recently dropped the channel from its digital tiers.
It’s too early to tell what this means, but Reinsdorf’s teams contract with NBC Sports Chicago ends on or near October 1, 2024. Owner Comcast has expressed interest in getting out of the troubled regional sports network business as Warner Bros. Discovery is trying to do, but not enough to make a move. Already, NBC sold their Washington, D.C.-area RSN to Monumental Sports, who is run by Capitals and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis. Could Reinsdorf try to convert Stadium to an RSN and/or offer it as a full streaming service? As we say in television land, stay tuned.
It looks like the NFL Sunday Ticket package isn’t leaving DirecTV after all – that is, if you are a business customer.
With the regular Sunday Ticket package now with Google’s YouTubeTV, DirecTV is retaining the rights but only for commercial establishments. They actually bought the rights from a third-party vendor – Everpass Media, a joint venture formed by equity firm RedBird Capital Partners and the NFL as they were sold the business package.
The DirecTV deal gives the rights for business customers to show NFL Sunday Ticket games to viewers in bars, restaurants, hotels, casinos, barber shops, and other commercial establishments. The deal is especially important for sportsbooks operating in casinos (such as Ameristar in East Chicago, Ind.), where people go to get their bets on and to bring in crowds during the football season.
The Sunday Ticket deal however isn’t exclusive; Everpass does reserve the right to sell the business package to cable TV providers. Comcast, RCN, and Spectrum also have business packages.
The reason for this is internet streaming for sporting events isn’t quite practicable for commercial establishments as streaming multiple games at once takes up a lot of bandwidth and puts a strain on services.
This is the latest sports deal DirecTV has made for its business customers as the satellite provider also has Amazon’s Thursday Night Football and Apple’s Major League Soccer Season Pass and MLB Friday Night Baseball packages.
As expected, the $8.6 million deal between Standard General and Tegna collapsed last week as funding for the transaction dried up on May 22. Tegna owns 65 stations in 51 markets, including St. Louis, Indianapolis, Denver, Washington D.C., and Minneapolis.
Tegna officials pleaded with the FCC to have a vote on the deal – which wouldn’t have done anything anyway since it was clear there would be a 2-2 tie (with Republicans voting for and Democrats voting against) and chairwoman Jessica Rosenwarcel referred the transaction to an administrative law judge, with basically meant the death knell.
With the deal off, Tegna collects a $136 million break up fee from Standard General. The company’s shares on Wall Street were up the day the deal went kaput, as Tegna said it would launch a $300 million stock repurchase program and a nearly two cent increase in its quarterly dividend in order to return some of the money tied up in the saga back to shareholders.
“As we look ahead, we are confident that Tegna is well-positioned to continue serving all our stakeholders based on our portfolio of leading broadcast assets and innovative digital brands, our delivery of high-quality, trusted news and content in the markets where we operate, and our continued focus on fostering a culture of diversity and inclusivity,” said Tegna president Dave Lougee, who is staying in the role for now.
The Standard General-Tegna deal was opposed by unions and several progressives on Capitol Hill, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Ironically, the deal was supported by other progressives, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson (and his son, newly-elected Illinois House Rep. Jonathan Jackson), and Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, based on Tegna being owned by Soo Kim, who heads Standard General and is Asian-American and their push for more racial diversity in station ownership. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t enough to save the deal.
With Standard General-Tegna in the rear view mirror, it is going to be more difficult to conduct merger and acquisition activity now that a divided FCC has turned thumbs down on it. Any hopes for regulatory relief for broadcasters is likely to be pinned on a Republican candidate winning the White House in 2024.
We have an update on Richard Mline’s wife as the WXRT radio personality left the station last year to take care of her. Charlene Mline passed away May 18 after a battle with frontotemporal dementia. On his Facebook page, Mline said: “Charlene passed peacefully this morning with Harrison and I both by her side. Always the DJ, the last song I played for her was The Beatles “Good Night”. Rest easy now, my love; you brought nothing but good to this world.”
Richard met his wife 35 years ago while she was working in sales at WXRT when it was still located on Belmont Avenue. A few weeks after his wife was placed in hospice care, Mline announced his exit from the Adult Album Alternative (Triple A) station approximately a year ago to transition to a new caregiving role.
Earlier this year, WXRT morning personality Lin Brehmer passed away at the age of 68 from complications due to prostate cancer.