{"id":271013,"date":"2026-08-24T03:50:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T03:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/271013\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T03:50:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T03:50:27","slug":"mlbs-pirates-buck-rsn-trend-extend-sportsnet-pittsburgh-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/271013\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB’s Pirates buck RSN trend, extend SportsNet Pittsburgh deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

While other professional sports teams are moving to streaming- or over-the-air-heavy models, the Pittsburgh Pirates are reportedly extending their contract with SportsNet Pittsburgh amid strong ratings.<\/p>\n

The news comes from a report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<\/a>. The agreement is not a long-term deal and was made through SportsNet Pittsburgh\u2019s operator, NESN. The Pittsburgh Penguins have also committed to SNP for the 2026-27 season, but have not made long-term plans.<\/p>\n

The Pirates and Penguins continue to enjoy strong local ratings on SNP. SNP and NESN president and CEO David Wisnia told the Post-Gazette that the Penguins ranked second among all NHL teams in terms of local broadcast ratings, while the Pirates rank fifth among MLB teams. Seven NHL teams aired their games fully over the air last season.<\/p>\n

The Pirates have been with SNP since 1986, when the network was then known as Pirates Cable Network. The network has undergone several name changes, operating under the Fox Sports brand from 1996 to 2011, Root Sports from 2011 to 2017, and AT&T SportsNet from 2017 to 2023.<\/p>\n

After AT&T SportsNet owner Warner Bros. Discovery announced its intention to leave the regional sports network business following the 2023 MLB season, the network was acquired by Fenway Sports Group<\/a>, which then owned the Pittsburgh Penguins, in August 2023. The Pirates then acquired a stake in the network that December.<\/p>\n

Under Fenway Sports Group ownership, SNP was aligned with Fenway Sports-owned NESN.<\/p>\n

In recent years, the future of the network has again seemed uncertain. Fenway announced it would sell the Penguins in December 2025, which included ownership of SNP, though NESN continues to operate the network.<\/p>\n

Cord-cutting has also resulted in significant financial issues for regional sports networks. In addition to Warner Bros. Discovery leaving the business, FanDuel Sports Network<\/a> has also ended all of its local agreements, though the latter regional sports network group is still technically in operation, at least for the moment.<\/p>\n

As the Pirates\u2019 and Penguins\u2019 strong ratings show, those issues have seemingly not materially affected SNP yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cRatings are up across the board,\u201d Wisnia said. \u201c\u2026 These are some of the top brands in their respective leagues. They have tremendous history. But the rankings represent the strength of their audience, the strength of the storytelling that we do at SNP. You combine all of that, and it represents these compelling rankings for both teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertising revenue is also reportedly up 12% year-over-year.<\/p>\n

Sports occupy a unique space within the cable bundle. Unlike scripted programming, sports is best enjoyed live. As long as it stays on cable, it can continue to drive people into the bundle. As the cable business still relies on retransmission fees, keeping subscribers in the bundle is essential to its model.<\/p>\n

Though some of SNP\u2019s strength is outside of cable. The network launched a direct-to-consumer streaming service in April 2024. According to the Post-Gazette, paid subscribers are up 150% year over year.<\/p>\n

Still, despite these strengths, neither the Pirates nor the Penguins has reached a long-term agreement with the cable network. But as long as cable continues to provide a consistent revenue stream and doesn\u2019t meaningfully hinder accessibility, it still seems like the most lucrative place to be for sports teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While other professional sports teams are moving to streaming- or over-the-air-heavy models, the Pittsburgh Pirates are reportedly extending…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[27405,77601,73,75,74,1067,10997,57302],"class_list":["post-271013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-fenway-sports-group","tag-nesn","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-penguins","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-sportsnet-pittsburgh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}