Cavaliers owner launches new sports network

The RSN industry is in a state of flux, and pretty much all of cable with it. So Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert is taking a proactive step, but not with his own team, at least not yet.

Gilbert’s Rock Entertainment Group will be partnering with broadcast company and owner of many local stations Gray Media to launch a new local sports network in Ohio. The Rock Entertainment Sports Network will take to the airwaves this fall in the Buckeye state, mainly focused on high school and minor league teams in the Cleveland area. It will eventually target over-the-air, MVPD, and streaming capabilities.

Via Cleveland.com :

Dan Gilbert’s Rock Entertainment Group is teaming up with Gray Media, one of the nation’s largest owners of local television stations, on a new TV venture that will bring free, live sports programming to audiences in Cleveland and Cincinnati.

Rock Entertainment Sports Network will launch in the fall, broadcasting Cleveland Monsters, Cleveland Charge, Lake Erie Crushers and St. Edward football games over-the-air, accessible via digital antennas on channel 22.1. The partners intend to make the network available on cable, satellite and streaming platforms across the state, too.

“Gray is thrilled to partner with Rock Entertainment Group to bring live sports free over-the-air to viewers across Ohio,” said Matt Moran, Senior Managing Vice President for Gray Media in a press release. The company owns WOIO (CBS) and WUAB (CW) in Cleveland and WXIX (FOX) in Cincinnati.

“This joint venture is a game changer for Ohio sports fans and will usher in a new era of free televised live sports in Ohio,” he said.

Ordinarily, news about a local sports station airing high school and minor league games wouldn’t make much of a splash. However, the who and why here are certainly worth a second look given everything that is happening with Bally Sports and the RSN business.

We have seen several teams ( like the Utah Jazz just to name one example), go it alone with their local television rights in recent years as the linear and streaming worlds collide. The Jazz’s hybrid model of over-the-air broadcasts for reach and streaming for DTC worked fairly well in its first season as teams try to navigate uncharted waters.

With Gilbert’s own company behind this, it’s not hard to envision a scenario where the Cavs owner shifts games to his Rock Entertainment network given Cleveland is one of many teams still sweating out the ongoing Bally Sports bankruptcy saga . At the very least, the infrastructure would be in place to make a move for Gilbert and the Cavs when they feel the time is right to go there.

[ Cleveland.com ]

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