Pirates, Penguins Looking For New TV Homes

PITTSBURGH, PA — The Pirates and Penguins soon will be without a sports network to televise their games.

Warner Bros. Discovery, which operates three AT&T SportsNet channels in Pittsburgh, Denver and Houston, has informed the teams in those cities that it plans to exit the regional sports network business within a few weeks, Sports Business Journal reported. The teams have until March 31 to reach an agreement to take back their broadcasting rights; if an agreement can't be reached, the networks plan a Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation filing.

The move puts the Pirates and Penguins in a potentially precarious financial situation. According to Sports Business Journal, the Pirates take in an average of around $60 million per year from its local media contract.

"It's a real and significant risk," Pirates owner Bob Nutting told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette."Have no idea where it's going to end up. It's actively being reviewed."

The Warner Bros. Discovery announcement comes as another major regional sports network group, Diamond Sports Group, which holds the rights to dozens of MLB, NBA and NHL teams, is preparing to file for bankruptcy in mid-March.

In recently discussing the Diamond Sports Group situation, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred provided a hint as to what might happen with Pirates broadcasts when AT&T SportsNet disappears.

"In the event that MLB stepped in (after the bankruptcy filing) , what we would do is we would produce the games," Manfred told ESPN.

"We would make use of our asset, the MLB Network, to do that. We would go directly to distributors -- meaning Comcast, Charter, the big distributors -- and make an agreement to have
those games distributed on cable networks."

It's unclear what will happen with the Penguins broadcasting situation. The NHL recently issued a vague statement, saying, "The NHL is closely monitoring the RSN situation. We will be prepared to address whatever circumstances dictate to provide our fans with access to our game."