John Ourand from Sports Business Daily wrote a piece today about the new AT&T, now that the company has successfully acquired Time Warner’s media assets. With the addition of the Turner Networks, AT&T now how rights to Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NCAA Tournament. Ourand writes that AT&T’s sports footprint is expected to keep growing.
But some believe that AT&T’s deep pockets will make the new company even more of a player in rights negotiations. The size of the new AT&T would give it an advantage over traditional media companies. Imagine a company that could pick up rights covering linear TV, digital, over-the-top, mobile and pay-per-view all in one bid.
“I’d expect them to be more competitive than Time Warner was in pursuing the NFL in prime time and, maybe, a college football package,” said Michael Nathanson, a senior research analyst for MoffettNathanson.
Where might that start? Well, it is no secret that Turner wanted in on the NFL in the last round of rights negotiations, so that is almost certainly something that AT&T still has its eyes on, especially considering that with DirecTV in the fold, the company already owns NFL Sunday Ticket.
But forget the gridiron for a moment. The Chicago Cubs don’t have a media deal in place after 2019. Ourand says he expects AT&T may become involved in those negotiations sooner rather than later.
Another area of sporting interest is in Chicago where NBC Sports’ RSN has been trying to sign the Cubs to a rights deal. The Cubs’ current deal with NBC Sports Chicago ends after the 2019 season, and the two sides have been talking for months about an extension.
Now that AT&T’s Time Warner purchase is official, I would expect the Cubs to reach out to the new company, if it hasn’t already. After all, AT&T already is in the RSN business with three channels: AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain and AT&T SportsNet Southwest.
It’s way too early to handicap where the Cubs’ rights will go. But it seems obvious that the team — at a minimum — will look to use AT&T as leverage in its NBC Sports negotiations.
One assumes that if AT&T does get the Cubs’ broadcast rights, an AT&T SportsNet Chicago would be on the horizon.