Now a month into the 2023 Major League Baseball season, the Cincinnati Reds are 12-14 and already circling the drain in the National League Central Division, 7 1/2 games back of the surprising Pittsburgh Pirates.
But in terms of pro sports teams challenging the currently embattled regional sports networks model, they are decidedly No. 1.
On Monday, Next TV confirmed an earlier report that the Reds have handshake agreements with pay TV distributors Charter Communications, the dominant cable TV supplier in the Cincinnati DMA, as well as DirecTV to deploy the team local TV rights on a new channel, starting Saturday, when the Reds take on the Chicago White Sox.
This isn't a certainly, but certainly a distinct possibility.
The Reds currently have a local broadcast TV deal with Sinclair's bankrupt Diamond Sports Group, reportedly valued at $50 million - $60 million a season, to show the club's non-nationally televised games on regional sports network channel Bally Sports Ohio.
Diamond entered into Chapter 11 restructuring in mid-March, looking to restructure money-losing deals it has with specific MLB, NBA and NHL teams, and trade equity with its creditors for around $8 billion of debt relief.
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As it did earlier with for other money-losing team deals, Diamond missed the April 17 due date for its initial 2023 season rights payment to the Reds, but has kept up with showing Reds games on Bally Sports Ohio.
On Friday, May 5, Apple TV Plus, through its "Friday Night Baseball" national deal with MLB, is set to present the opener of a three-game series featuring the White Sox visiting Cincinnati.
Friday also marks the end of the grace period Diamond has to pay the Reds.
Should the Sinclair Broadcast Group subsidiary fail to make its payment to the team by that date, an inside source confirmed to Next TV that the team will go forward with a plan to form a new RSN of its own.
And no, apparently the Texas bankruptcy court overseeing Diamond's restructuring can't stop them.
Last month, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez ordered Diamond to pay half of what it currently owes to four MLB teams under the Bally Sports umbrella it had previously stiffed, pending restructuring of the individual club deals -- the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, Texas Rangers and Minnesota Twins.
This stopped these MLB teams from executing on their own plans to show their games independently from Bally Sports.
According to the Sports Business Journal, the Reds weren't included in that order because the team owns a portion of Bally Sports Ohio. The "joint-venture" status of the channel puts it out of the jurisdiction of the judge, SBJ said.
As the pub also noted, the Reds have access to the production crew for their games, since the workers are freelance contractors. And the team employs the on-air talent that works its games for Bally Sports Ohio, which includes play-by-play announcer John Sadak, and analysts Chris Welsh and Barry Larkin.
Again, no official announcement is expected until Friday, pending the conclusion of Diamond's grace period. Expect the Reds and the team's distributors to use Apple's "Friday Night Baseball" live stream as a promotional launch platform, should the new RSN get the green-light.
All of this is not to say it's entirely out of the question that Diamond puts a stop to the whole enterprise by rendering its payment. A source with knowledge of the negotiations told Next TV Diamond might do this simply to keep MLB from gaining a foothold on its baseball TV rights.
We'll know more Friday.
