The launch of BravesVision in Atlanta was a daunting task. Heck, the team’s players had more time at spring training than the staff did in getting a TV network up and running in time for Opening Day.
Normally, executing such a launch would take 12-18 months, but Braves President and CEO Derek Schiller and his team — along with assists from Gray Media on distribution and Raycom on production — did so in around 30 days. “I wouldn’t actually advise anybody to do that [in] record time,” Schiller joked.
Schiller said the direct-to-distributor effort is already showing positive signs from a financial perspective. “For the most part, we can say we’ve preserved — and in some cases even grown — the economics on the linear distribution side," he said.
That includes deals with DirecTV, Charter/Spectrum, Comcast/Xfinity and some other small- and medium-sized carriage agreements around the Braves’ six-state territory. Streaming of BravesVision is also available on Fubo TV and the MLB app.
“One of the things that is actually part of the guiding principle behind why we chose to do BravesVision is if the whole ecosystem is going through this disruption, would you rather at that point in time have your rights managed by a third party, by somebody else, or bring it in house and do it yourself?” Schiller said. “Our view has been we’d rather look at that and see that disruption holding our own cards and being able to make our own decisions.”
Team-first approach
Fans are also enjoying cutting out the middleman in terms of TV production, and the team is leaning into delivering 140 game telecasts and shoulder programming designed for “Braves Country.”
“One of the things that has become apparent by our fans is that the team is running the network, and they can see it in the way that we operate every aspect of the network,” Schiller told SBJ. “We obviously monitor social media and all kinds of other fan feedback, and it’s become clear that our fans really like the fact that their favorite team is running a network without somebody else in between.”
Don’t get Schiller wrong: The team was happy to cash a big check for a long time (whether the RSN was controlled by Fox Sports or eventually Main Street Sports Group). Back in 2019, Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei, whose company owns the Braves, estimated that the team was taking in $83 million annually in TV money — and that figure was could have been closer to $113 million by 2027 had Main Street not imploded.
“We liked that type of relationship, but there was still a third party that stood in between our fans and the games,” Schiller said. “We’re not afraid to lean into having our announcers be a little bit more upfront and apparent about who they want to win that game. And obviously, that’s come across. Even what they wear. No illusions — this is BravesVision run by the Braves.”
Startup-like launch
Schiller compared the launch of BravesVision to a tech startup, but one that had a very hard deadline of Opening Day, with millions of dollars at stake. While they kept a few employees from Main Street — including Brandon Howell for ad sales — the Braves have leaned tremendously on existing staff from other departments to get the effort off the ground.
“I can say this with a great deal of certainty — we are much leaner than anybody else doing this,” Schiller said. “You have to have very clear set goals, and that is how we operated from Day 1.”
The team broke out its goals into five buckets — production, distribution, advertising sales, programming and streaming — and then went about putting strategy and planning against each of them.
“We had to have those first games on the air, and we had to have the maximum number of fans that can watch those games, and importantly — from a business perspective — we had to try to preserve, protect and grow as much of the revenue stream as attributable as possible, because that helps fuel all the things that we do to support a quality product and a quality team,” Schiller said.
Friends and neighbors plan?
Within the first few days of executing the BravesVision plan, Schiller noted the team decided it would only be focused on the Braves and would not seek other regional teams to join at launch.
“That mindset has not changed at this point in time,” he said. “There are going to be a lot of teams, including in our territory, that are looking for solutions. We have talked to a lot of them, but I don’t know right now that we’re able to focus on anything other than ourselves today.”
Among the regional teams that are leaving Main Street and need a new home are the Hawks, Hornets, Hurricanes and Grizzlies.
