News

Comcast Sports and News Bundle Adds Flexibility Amid RSN Plight – Sportico

admin January 24, 2025

                        By  <a class="c-link  lrv-a-unstyle-link" href="https://www.sportico.com/author/jason-clinkscales/"             >   Jason Clinkscales</a>                       <br>Reporter/Editor, Breaking News<br>  <a  href="https://www.sportico.com/t/comcast/"  id="auto-tag_comcast_1"  data-tag="comcast"  >Comcast</a> has entered the sports skinny bundle chat.<br>     On Thursday, the largest cable provider in the U.S. announced that it will offer a sports and news TV video package at $70 per month. A skinny bundle of sorts, Sports and News TV will feature several nationally distributed sports channels like ESPN and FS1 along with the three top cable news networks: Fox News, CNN and MSNBC. Local affiliates for the major broadcasters (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, Telemundo and Univision) are also included.<br>    Sports and News aims to hit the market led by YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV, and will also face a challenge from DirecTV&rsquo;s new MySports bundle, which <a  href="https://www.sportico.com/business/media/2025/directv-mysports-rsn-offering-1234823995/"  data-type="link"  data-id="https://www.sportico.com/business/media/2025/directv-mysports-rsn-offering-1234823995/"  target="_blank"  rel="noreferrer noopener"  >launched</a> on Jan. 14. All this movement, of course, comes a week after Venu Sports was shuttered and Disney subsequently announced its investment in Fubo.   <div class="admz" id="adm-inline-article-ad-1">                     <div class="adma boomerang" data-device="Desktop" data-width="300">                  <div style="min-width:300px;min-height:275px;"     class="pmc-adm-boomerang-pub-div ad-text"   data-priority="10" >    <div id="gpt-sprt-dsk-tab-midarticle-uid0"      class="adw-300 adh-250" data-is-adhesion-ad="">         <script type="application/javascript">

        blogherads.adq.push(function () {
                            blogherads
                .defineSlot( 'medrec', 'gpt-sprt-dsk-tab-midarticle-uid0' )
                            .setTargeting( 'pos', ["mid-article","btf","mid","mid-articleX"] )

.setTargeting( ‘viewable’, ‘yes’ )
.setSubAdUnitPath(“ros/mid-article”)
.addSize([[300,250],[620,366]])
.setClsOptimization(“minsize”)
;
});

“We’ve been on a bit of a journey over the last couple of years to make sure we have a great value at multiple price points, depending on what customers’ budget needs are,” John Dixon, Comcast’s SVP of entertainment, said in a video interview. “We started at the more value-oriented segment with Now TV, and now we’re focusing our energy in that middle segment between our premium products and our value products. And this is where we think Sports and News will meet a consumer need.”
That need, according to Comcast, is for the tentpole sports events that air nationally. Sports and News brings national telecasts from the five major male pro leagues, the WNBA and NWSL, and major college conferences. Yet outside of the NFL and select MLS matches on Fox, the lack of the regional sports channels that air games from the other local pro and college teams is a glaring omission, at least on the surface.
Comcast has moved most RSNs into the higher tier Ultimate TV package with two major exceptions: NYC-based MSG Networks, which has been blacked out from customers in New Jersey and Connecticut since September 2021, and CHSN, the over-the-air network in Chicago that picked up Blackhawks, Bulls and White Sox games last fall. (Broadcast channels must have retransmission agreements with cable and satellite operators to be carried in those systems.)
“It’s no question that RSNs are popular, particularly with high-interest sports fans,” Dixon said. “But at the end of the day, they do carry a lot of cost, and the big games typically are carried on the broadcast network, so they’re carried on the cable nets. We’ll always go back and revisit the RSN discussion and look for ways to bring them to these customers as well, perhaps out of the Ultimate plan, but that’s the path for now.”

Although the RSN model was somewhat resuscitated when Main Street Sports Group (formerly Diamond Sports Group) formally emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy this month, pro sports teams are continuing to test new options. This week, the Cleveland Cavaliers, owners of the NBA’s best record at 36-7, moved a few games to the Rock Entertainment Sports Network, the over-the-air channel launched last summer for local teams like the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters and the NBA G League’s Cleveland Charge.
Dixon said this skinny bundle wasn’t intentionally built to buffer the company from the plight of the RSN business, but it was designed for customer flexibility as consumers continue to look to cut the cord.
“At the end of the day, what we want to do with RSNs is give customers the ability and flexibility to get it who want them, but not burden customers who don’t want them,” Dixon said. “We felt like it was too confusing, quite frankly, to say a customer, ‘You can’t have it in (the Popular TV package), but you can have it in Sports and News, but you’ve got to give up Entertainment’.”
While the new bundle does not include RSNs, it does include Peacock Premium, the ad-free version of the Comcast streamer. Peacock was already a prominent player for Comcast in recent years with exclusive NFL playoff games and the Olympics, including a record $1.96 billion in incremental revenue from the Summer Games in Paris. Peacock will have its own NBA regular season and playoff exclusive national telecasts when the NBA and WNBA return to NBC in the fall.
It remains to be seen how much any of these new bundles will stop the bleeding for cable carriers—even one as big as Comcast, which lost 31% of its video subscribers in the last three years.
Get our latest stories in the feed of your favorite networks
We want to hear from you! Send us a tip using our anonymous form.
Sign up for our daily newsletter
Sportico is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2025 Sportico Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Related

Leave a ReplyCancel reply