• @jqubedEnglish
    1•1 day ago

    I think the network is on the verge of collapse. I’m not a Reds fan, just saw this browsing All, but they’ve been losing teams nationwide for several years now. I’m a Carolina Hurricanes fan and they’re going to try simulcasting a couple games later this month on local broadcast channels across the Carolinas. My guess is this is a prelude to dumping Diamond Sports Group entirely.

    There’s no way the Reds walked away from this without feeling confident they had some better options available; they just haven’t announced it yet.

    • @curveOPMEnglish
      2•7 hours ago

      I very much hope you’re right. We (Reds fans) were all hoping it would fall through last year and we’d have MLB or whoever come in and just put us on mlb.tv or something. I know of very few people that have a cable subscription that has Bally in it.

      I will say- it’s at least nice I can watch NHL on espn+ but the blackout thing is the biggest hit to that. One of the few things the Apple TV MLS pass did right.

      • @jqubedEnglish
        1•4 hours ago

        Yeah, ESPN+ doesn’t do me much good as a Hurricanes fan since I live in the blackout area for Hurricanes games. It’s not hard to VPN around it on the computer but more of a hassle to get that on the TV. I’d made some comments (on a Facebook post where the team announced a couple upcoming games being simulcast on local broadcast channels) about Bally Fan Duel Network being in trouble and they all got likes from an account that purported to be one of the team’s veteran players, someone who will definitely be in the NHL Hall of Fame when he retires. I’d be suspicious of accounts like that normally, but poking around it some I think it might actually be his personal Facebook account. He’s the kind of veteran who’s been around the game long enough I’m sure he pays attention to the business side and if he was liking my comments I suspect that validates my suspicion that their contract with Diamond Sports Group is on thin ice (no pun intended). If Diamond loses too many more teams there’s no way they pull out of bankruptcy.