SNY president: MLB-RSN partnerships ‘can make a lot of sense’

As MLB continues to eye a nationalized package of local rights come 2028 — when the league’s current national deals with Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery, and others are set to expire — questions continue to surface over whether some of the league’s more popular teams would be willing to join up.

Clubs like the Los Angeles Dodgers or New York Yankees already have long-term local media rights deals that are likely far more lucrative than a share of a nationalized local rights package would be. That makes it a tough sell for MLB to convince these teams to abandon their current setup. But SNY president Steve Raab believes there’s an opening for large market franchises, like the New York Mets, to partner with the league even without fully joining a nationalized offering.

Speaking with Sports Business Journal, Raab explained SNY’s current partnership with MLB, which sees the league handle back-end infrastructure for the network’s streaming service, as a model to get teams into the league’s ecosystem.

“The idea that you have a streaming partner who has significant infrastructure and can bring a lot of service, a lot of quality — but also efficiency — is such a benefit to the fans and RSNs, and so for us, it’s always been about who to partner with,” Raab told SBJ.

He did acknowledge, however, MLB’s challenge of attracting teams where the current local rights model is already working for them.

“MLB probably has a similar idea in some respects to what ESPN is offering,” Raab said alluding to ESPN’s goal of becoming the hub for local MLB telecasts. “If you’re talking about doing something that’s in conflict with the existing RSN, either maintaining some level of exclusivity, or the real value that RSNs are delivering, that becomes somewhat problematic. As a [back-end] streaming partner to an RSN, [an MLB partnership] can make a lot of sense.”

There’s certainly a market for a back-end streaming solution for the numerous RSNs throughout the country. Recently, Washington D.C.-based Monumental Sports Network announced a “suite of services” with the goal of helping franchises tackle the infrastructure challenges of producing and distributing their own broadcasts. And if, hypothetically, ESPN (or another platform) can attract large market teams to partner with them on the back-end, that could open the door for them to join the nationalized platform down the line.

“There will be some teams or their media partners who love the idea of opting into a third-party streaming service, because they’re going to work alongside how the linear deal is structured,” Raab said. “Maybe it works for everybody, and maybe you’re going to have some teams or their media partners who think that the greater value for them is to maintain the streaming rights themselves and either launch their own streaming platforms or partner with some other third party.”

The bottom line is there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for every team. But MLB will attempt to make their future nationalized local rights package a one-size-fits-most. The more clubs the league can attract into the package, the more valuable it becomes for a streamer to purchase. Attracting teams to join will be one of the league’s top priorities these next three years.