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- Midweek report: RSN collapse loads the bases for Rob Manfred, Disney looks to a post-Sora future, and we chat with the always-innovative Dean Devlin about his polyamorous ambitions
Midweek report: RSN collapse loads the bases for Rob Manfred, Disney looks to a post-Sora future, and we chat with the always-innovative Dean Devlin about his polyamorous ambitions
Also in the new Thursday edition of our newsletter covering all things technology, media and telecom, we wonder how only 11% of consumers know 'Heated Rivalry' comes from HBO Max
Daniel Frankel & David Bloom
March 26, 2026
In partnership with
From blockbuster features to breezy, enduring cable hits to the advent of FAST distribution, producer Dean Devlin seems to always be the first one to try something different. The undersung Hollywood innovator sat down with Next TMT Wednesday to discuss his new TikTok-spawned project, The Poly Couple.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred wants to consolidate the local TV rights for all 30 league teams for a ‘super bundle’ that will be sold during MLB’s next national TV bidding cycle in 2028
MANFRED-ESQUE DESTINY: MLB wakes up on Opening Day suddenly in control of local distribution for half its teams
Seven years after Sinclair vastly overpaid for Rupert Murdoch’s aging regional sports networks, the long-suffering channels are finally finished. And Commissioner Rob Manfred’s big ‘Project 2028’ TV rights bundle is coming together as planned
Starting Thursday, Opening Day for Major League Baseball, 11 teams — representing nearly a third of the league — will be moving into new homes for local TV access.
Nine of them are leaving a partnership with the long-struggling Main Street Sports, operator of the FanDuel-branded regional-sports-network (RSN) channels (formerly known as Bally Sports). With Main Street facing imminent liquidation, 13 NBA and seven NHL teams also have big local media decisions to make for their next seasons. The FanDuel channels will all shut down in April, with the completion of the NBA and NHL regular seasons.
Ever since Sinclair Broadcast Group paid $9.6 billion to acquire 21 Fox SportsNet RSNs in 2019, as part of Disney’s $71.3 billion purchase of most of Rupert Murdoch’s entertainment assets, it’s been mostly downhill, with the sports-bereft pandemic conspiring with faster-than-anticipated pay-TV cord-cutting to put the RSN business in its current grave situation.
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