ESPN already has perhaps the most pronounced reach of any major sports network in the United States. But on Wednesday, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro discussed a potential opportunity to expand the network’s reach even further by capitalizing on the continued downfall of regional sports networks (RSNs).
In the wake of the ongoing bankruptcy of Diamond Sports Group along with several other teams across multiple different sports departing from their respective local networks by the day, Pitaro believes that ESPN can benefit from this by positioning itself in anticipation of the seemingly inevitable downfall of the majority of RSNs.
“That is an industry that is changing very, very rapidly,” Pitaro said of RSNs at a media day at ESPN headquarters Wednesday, as transcribed by Eric Fisher of Front Office Sports. “Every day, it seems I’m reading about another team that is changing their approach in terms of local, in-market games. We want to be at least part of the solution. We are very interested in stepping up here.
“We are very interested in continuing to identify partnerships on a team-specific basis,” Pitaro said in response to a Front Office Sports question on the matter. “That said, if Major League Baseball is able to put together a group of teams, we would love to be able to … do a larger deal that, quite honestly, would be simpler than having to do individual team deals.”
Ultimately, it would be a best-case scenario for ESPN to potentially wait for a league like the MLB or the NBA to come to them with a group of teams willing to have their games broadcasted on their programming.
ESPN seems to continuously be increasing its reach within the streaming realm, particularly with their upcoming direct-to-consumer service called “Project Flagship” coming in 2025. This is on top of their planned joint venture with Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox, which is currently in the midst of an active lawsuit blocking the project.
With this in mind, there is certainly room for the network to potentially bring more local coverage onto the network on one, or all of these newly planned platforms.
This is also not the first time that ESPN has been rumored in diving deeper into regional programming, with reports emerging last year that the network is particularly interested in local MLB media rights.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.