MLB commissioner Rob Manfred explained the rationale behind the league’s interest in acquiring a package of former Fox-owned regional sports networks in his most expansive comments to date.
While appearing at last week’s SportTechie State of the Industry conference, Manfred explained that Fox had been a good partner with similarly aligned objectives and that MLB likely wouldn’t be making this bid if Fox were to retain control.
A set of 22 RSNs are being spun off as part of Disney’s acquisition of Fox assets. The Yankees are said to be reclaiming ownership of their broadcaster, YES Network, while the other 21 remain available.
“Our approach to media has been to preserve or enhance our ability to control our own destiny,” Manfred said. “I think that the need to control your own destiny becomes even more acute in periods of change.
“Do you want a middleman deciding what’s going to happen to your content in a period of dramatic change or do you want to control your content and manage the change consistent with what your organizational objectives are? We believe in the latter course.”
The 21 RSNs control the local broadcast rights for 14 MLB clubs: Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Indians, Marlins, Padres, Rangers, Rays, Reds, Royals, Tigers, and Twins. Interestingly, those affiliates also hold the rights for 28 non-baseball franchises: 16 NBA teams and 12 NHL clubs.
MLB Advanced Media struck a deal with the NHL in 2015 on a six-year agreement covering digital media rights. As a result, MLBAM operates NHL.com, NHL apps, and the NHL Network. But MLB’s interest in the Fox RSNs, the commissioner said, is more collateral than intentional.
“That’s a business imperative as opposed to a strategic objective,” Manfred said. “An RSN makes most sense economically if you have winter-summer programming.”
MLBAM was a pioneer in media technology and streaming, providing back-end infrastructure to a wide range of non-baseball clients and eventually spinning off BAMTech. Disney acquired a majority, 75-percent stake in BAMTech for $2.58 billion in 2017.
Although MLB and its Advanced Media arm have an established track record and are now considering the Fox RSN properties, Manfred downplayed the idea of MLB angling to make technology more a part of its mission. He said the goal was not to identify the same way as most of his fellow attendees did at a recent conference, in an apparent reference to the exclusive annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference.
“Every conceivable business—and there was a wide range of them represented there at this conference—was claiming to be a technology company,” Manfred said. “We don’t and really don’t aspire to be. We see technology as an important component of the strategy that we try to execute around our core business, which is providing the greatest baseball in the world to our fans. There are certain aspects of technology that we see as absolutely crucial to that effort going forward, but we don’t aspire to have technology swallow that core business. We’re about baseball, and we’re always going to be about baseball.”