By ASVG Media
Main Street Sports Group, the former operator of the FanDuel Sports Network regional channels, has sued Comcast and Charter Communications, alleging that the two largest U.S. pay-TV distributors underpaid contracted carriage fees before the network group shut down. Main Street says the unpaid amounts are significant and argues that the dispute affects money still owed to NBA and NHL teams whose games were carried on the networks.
The dispute is another warning sign for the traditional regional sports network business model, which has been weakened by cord-cutting, expensive team rights and declining pay-TV subscriber bases. Main Street emerged from bankruptcy only last year before losing its MLB, NBA and NHL rights and entering wind-down. For African leagues and broadcasters, the lesson is especially relevant: media-rights contracts are only as valuable as the financial health of the distributor paying for them, which makes diversified distribution—free-to-air, pay-TV, streaming and direct-to-consumer—an increasingly important risk-management strategy.
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