Unfortunately the problem right now is that in many teams’ markets, especially ones that span large geographic areas, any local TV group doesn’t have the infrastructure to cover the entirety of the market area like Sinclair/Diamond can. One example is the team that’s really in limbo in all of this: the Twins. Their market covers the entirety of Minnesota and the Dakotas, western Wisconsin and northern Iowa. That includes local markets for each of the Twin Cities, Duluth, Rochester, Mankato, Fargo, Bismarck, Sioux Falls, Rapid City, and whatever Wisconsin and Iowa markets are covered in that range. To carry Twins games over those markets, each of them would have to make deals with the team to air the games overriding whatever programming they already had contracted to air with the network they’re affiliated with. This would at the very least limit the number of games fans in each market would be able to watch, as it would be very unlikely the networks would be fine with airing every game. Setting up a team’s own RSN from scratch is a large and time consuming investment, without a guarantee that it would bring any profit or that there would be sufficient programming to air when there’s not live games going on. Not to say it can’t work, it’s what teams like the Yankees and Red Sox do, but those teams have very large and profitable fanbases they can generate a stable viewership from. The Twins tried it for one season back in the mid-2000s and it did not go well. So ultimately unless MLB bails the Twins out for streaming like they did the Padres (which the league has indicated they won’t do for any more teams IIRC unfortunately) they are essentially forced back to Sinclair/Diamond to make a deal for at least one more season because they’re the only ones who can currently guarantee they can provide the coverage needed for every game. This gives Sinclair/Diamond leverage they can use to low-ball teams in that situation on the financial side of the deal for this season while the teams work to find or build some competitor they can deal with. This is, of course, also Diamond’s doing, dating back to when they were owned by Fox, as they took over the TV rights of every one of those types of markets they could and all their teams, pushing any such competition out. Diamond’s failure to adapt to changing preferences (moving to streaming), and dwindling viewership and money in cable, and antagonization of those streaming providers, then forced Sinclair/Diamond into their current situation.
This is not entirely true and a lot to unpack. Focusing on just distribution - The fact of the matter is that a local tv station does have full OTA clearance (in most cases that can afford the rights clearances) along with MVPD and vMVPD distribution. In 100% of rights cases this is better than the RSN or just streaming access to consumers as it touches on all bases and gives free and paid options to view games.
Unfortunately the problem right now is that in many teams’ markets, especially ones that span large geographic areas, any local TV group doesn’t have the infrastructure to cover the entirety of the market area like Sinclair/Diamond can. One example is the team that’s really in limbo in all of this: the Twins. Their market covers the entirety of Minnesota and the Dakotas, western Wisconsin and northern Iowa. That includes local markets for each of the Twin Cities, Duluth, Rochester, Mankato, Fargo, Bismarck, Sioux Falls, Rapid City, and whatever Wisconsin and Iowa markets are covered in that range. To carry Twins games over those markets, each of them would have to make deals with the team to air the games overriding whatever programming they already had contracted to air with the network they’re affiliated with. This would at the very least limit the number of games fans in each market would be able to watch, as it would be very unlikely the networks would be fine with airing every game. Setting up a team’s own RSN from scratch is a large and time consuming investment, without a guarantee that it would bring any profit or that there would be sufficient programming to air when there’s not live games going on. Not to say it can’t work, it’s what teams like the Yankees and Red Sox do, but those teams have very large and profitable fanbases they can generate a stable viewership from. The Twins tried it for one season back in the mid-2000s and it did not go well. So ultimately unless MLB bails the Twins out for streaming like they did the Padres (which the league has indicated they won’t do for any more teams IIRC unfortunately) they are essentially forced back to Sinclair/Diamond to make a deal for at least one more season because they’re the only ones who can currently guarantee they can provide the coverage needed for every game. This gives Sinclair/Diamond leverage they can use to low-ball teams in that situation on the financial side of the deal for this season while the teams work to find or build some competitor they can deal with. This is, of course, also Diamond’s doing, dating back to when they were owned by Fox, as they took over the TV rights of every one of those types of markets they could and all their teams, pushing any such competition out. Diamond’s failure to adapt to changing preferences (moving to streaming), and dwindling viewership and money in cable, and antagonization of those streaming providers, then forced Sinclair/Diamond into their current situation.
This is not entirely true and a lot to unpack. Focusing on just distribution - The fact of the matter is that a local tv station does have full OTA clearance (in most cases that can afford the rights clearances) along with MVPD and vMVPD distribution. In 100% of rights cases this is better than the RSN or just streaming access to consumers as it touches on all bases and gives free and paid options to view games.