Why RSNs Aren't Dying and How Consolidation Is Saving Local Sports | Nana Kofi Amoh, Creator of Amoh Sports Media

Regional Sports Networks Keep Changing

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 0:45

Regional sports networks aren't dying, they're evolving. So, what does DAZN's takeover of commercial bar and restaurant distribution mean for local fans, co-viewing, and advertisers who are trying to reach those audiences in that environment? On this episode, Nana, creator of Amoh Sports Media, breaks down the rapidly shifting business of local sports broadcast rights. We discuss how app consolidation is reshaping regional sports, why team fandom remains one of the last true co-viewing opportunities for brands, and how advertisers should navigate sports inventory. Make sure you're subscribed to catch all of our sports streaming coverage. Now, onto the episode.

Nana’s Path Into Sports Media

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 1:35

Amazing. Nana, thank you for joining the podcast. I discovered your work recently on LinkedIn. You've been putting your thoughts, your expertise into a newsletter called Amoh Sports Media. And I'd love to break down what that is, but maybe we can maybe we start with a little bit of your origin story. Earlier in your career, maybe tell us about how you got to be where you are and what it is your interests are that are leading us to have this conversation today.

Nana Kofi Amoh 2:07

Yeah. And first off, Tim, again, thank you so much for having me. It's an honor and a privilege to be here with you. I started my career at Horizon Media as an assistant video investor. I graduated with my bachelor's degree at Stonehill College in 2021 and communications with a minor in sports, commerce, and culture. In college, in really high school, I always knew that I wanted to be in sports, but I didn't know how. I think I was just looking at random paths that I knew within my college background I didn't have, but still tried to shoot for the stars regardless. After I graduated, I just applied for a bunch of different positions across different agencies just to get my foot in the door.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 2:48

Do you have interviews lined up? What are you going to be doing after graduation? Yeah, those questions come fast.

Nana Kofi Amoh 2:53

And it's funny too because I remember vividly when after we graduated in 2021, my friends and I had our Cape Week, and I literally had an interview lined up in one of those days during the time. So it was just funny how, you know, even when you were trying to relax and celebrate your accomplishments in college, uh, you still got to find your way through to get yourself to where you need to be. Fortunately, uh, was grateful that Horizon Media was able to offer me an offer as an assistant video investor. And I work with big name accounts such as Great Wolf Lodge, Drive Time, Bath Fitter, Redfin. I was there for about nine months actually, before I got a LinkedIn message from uh Kevin Connolly, who is now at the Karma Brands on the ESPN local side, saying that we needed a programmatic account manager at Sinclair. And I looked at your profile and thought that you would be a great fit. And, you know, any opportunity you get to be from an assistant to a manager, especially when you're coming straight out of college, you definitely say yes. So I did not hesitate. And little did I know that I was going to be in a space where it would be evolving with me, especially in the age of TV consumption and how really we all take in content, whether it's by streaming, whether it's on our laptops, our phones, or even cable. So I was doing programmatic account management work for the Sinclair broadcast group for two years. Shortly after that, I was also at Spectrum Reach doing the same thing for about a year and a half. And then as of October of last year, I went back to the agency side as an AD in activation on the Omnicom Media Group Outcomes team. And really coming out of that, I still felt like I I'm not tapping into my desire and passion to work in sports. So in early July of this year, that was where I decided to, you know, take matters into my own hands, uh, to put it candidly, and start Amoh Sports Media, which is really a newsletter that talks about in full transparency where MLB, NBA, and NHL teams are going to go with their local broadcast rights. Because especially being based in New York, I think we're very spoiled to be in one of the big markets within the NBA, NHL, and NBA atmosphere for us to not worry about where rights are going. Although, you know, like the MSGs, the Yes Network of the world were transitioning from the Gotham Sports app to DAZN starting in the 2026-2027 season.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 5:26

But you know, I was thinking about we've got some big DAZN news that we're going to talk about here uh coming up. DAZN's making some moves.

Nana Kofi Amoh 5:33

Major moves for sure. And so I thought about like the smaller markets, right? You know, like the St. Louis's of the world, maybe like if you're a Cardinals fan, you know, you used to be on Bally Sports and then you were on FanDuel Sports Network, and now you're with MLB or the Tampa Bay area. Like if you're a Rays fan, Miami Marlins fan, whatever it is. It's very interesting to me to see where a lot of these fans are going to start looking to where they're going to watch their games next. Because, you know, fandom is a real thing here in this country. And I consider myself a major baseball fan as well. So if I was in their shoes, I would do anything in my power to try to go wherever the team was, whether streaming, whether on social, what have you. So, in short, that's what really a most sports media is about, leveraging my continued experience in programmatic, because again, I I am still a work in progress and understanding how it all works, but also marrying that passion within sports primarily across NBA, NHL, and MLB properties.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 6:34

Well, I think the good news is we're all still figuring out the programmatic thing. It's funny because I come from kind of the traditional media side of the equation. And when I when I first started hearing the word programmatic, I was still working at a billboard plant. I was selling billboards in a local market, heard the word programmatic and thought, what the heck is that? And I think that we're still early in that conversation. What's interesting about your experience is that you've you've seen it now from a few different angles. You've seen what does it look like from a local workflow to be able to get advertising traffic? And what does it look like on the brand and the measurement side? So you bring a really holistic perspective to the challenge. And we all feel it as fans. It's something that we've talked about here. The FCC has made it a uh a governmental issue. It's it's it's that much of a pain point that we're all trying to solve. So I'm curious your your your perspective.

How Advertisers Should Approach Sports

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 7:29

Maybe let's let's take the angle as an advertiser. How do you advise or coach an advertiser through thinking about sports advertising? It's so fragmented in the headlines and it's scary. Is it bad? How do you just sit someone down and make it make sense?

Nana Kofi Amoh 7:47

Yeah, I think for starters, when you're an advertiser, I think it's important to know what content you're trying to get yourself into to get new viewers and new people to get into your brand. When I think about sports, it's non-biased. It's either you win or lose. It's either if your team is good or if they suck. It's whether if the ref made the right call at the end of the game or versus if the umpire screwed us the night before. There's no chaos when it comes to trying to get yourself in the sports screen. And especially when it comes to the smaller markets, as I mentioned before, there are a lot of brands within these DMAs that definitely need that exposure. And sports definitely brings that. I recently wrote a newsletter about how the Pittsburgh Pirates and their RSN Sports Net Pittsburgh was doing well year over year in terms of ad revenue, although the Pittsburgh Pirates themselves are not really a good team. If you're uh if you follow Major League Baseball, you know that the Pirates are.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 8:49

Fans are upset about they they want the owner to sell the team, right? I've seen that I was watching a video about this the other day. The fans are they're upset. They're upset. The team's printing money hand over fist, but they stink.

Nana Kofi Amoh 9:01

Yeah, and but the one thing you gotta understand about Pittsburgh and their fans in general, they're very passionate, right? You know, they had they rep black and yellow across all major teams with the Steelers, the Penguins, the Pirates, and you know, the Steel City is they're very passionate about who comes into their city, who they play for. I think for again, from an advertiser's perspective, you know, tapping into sports where the fans really are rather than any other form of content is a recipe for success, primarily because the passion is always going to be there. I can fully admit, whenever I'm watching a Yankee game as a Yankee fan, I also have my phone on the right hand side of me, seeing if there's any updates across, you know, other games that are going on or if there's something that I missed while I was on my on my phone. You know, I'm still consuming content, even if the TV is on, versus while I'm on my phone as well.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 9:57

So a few points that you made there that stood out to me, thinking about the audience first. That's something that we've definitely talked about a lot recently. Here is instead of just applying a broad targeting to the campaign, like that's the lazy way, we're not doing that anymore. Let's really sit down and think about the audience and what are they watching and when are they watching it? And are they are they consuming it through maybe like the network of a network, right? Through the influencer relationships that maybe players on the team have, or through social media, or through clips. They may not be sitting down to watch a two and a half, three hour baseball game. It could be lots of different ways that the content's being consumed. So thinking about that audience first, I think is really valuable. I think it's it's become so much. This is the the creator conversation that we're having, whether it's creators or athletes, it's the personality. Maybe, maybe there's a new buzzword in there for us. It's personalities, it's the P over the IP, personalities over uh over traditional intellectual property. That's kind of what we're following

Measuring Impact In A Fragmented World

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 11:03

now. So as I hear you describe that though, what I don't hear is I don't hear viewership, I don't hear millions of viewers, I don't hear measurement frameworks. I'm I'm not hearing like kind of the the usual things, I'm hearing more holistic. I'm hearing about reaching audiences and engagement. How do you answer then the question of did it work?

Nana Kofi Amoh 11:26

Yeah. Um and I think that's really the main issue that a lot of programmatic experts are trying to figure out today. Do you cast your wide net in for a particular game and just see if a person 25 to 54 or a person 18 to 24 saw an ad versus 55 plus? I think when it comes to viewership, you gotta understand that fans come in all age and size and sizes and with different interests as well. It's funny because I when I think about it, if there's going to be a case where a person who's never seen a baseball game in his or her life that has that one opportunity to sit down and, you know, actually see what's going on in a game, that would be where you know you could be able to capitalize on that particular impression and get that outcome with the brand that you're putting on the screen for them. Yeah, viewer viewership is hard simply because it just saw what you are trying to see in terms of the content you're trying to provide, whether through particular teams or through the RSNs that are delivering this particular content. So I think it's an ever-changing conversation. And I think when you look at historical data in terms of what types of people have engaged with this particular content, I think that's definitely a starter in terms of how we look to fragment particular people that we're trying to reach on a particular day of more of an NBA NHL sense that those seasons start in tandem versus MLB. So it's a hard topic that I think everybody's trying to identify, myself included. But I think at the end of the day, when you know the DMA and the audience that lives within it, I think that's where it can make the process more seamless in the sense of at least you know who's in this area and who you're potentially reaching out to or who you're targeting, and then eventually going from there and hoping and praying for the best in terms of that they actually delivered on said business outcome.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 13:31

Like knowing that Pittsburgh puts French fries on everything that's relevant. That's a that's a relevant cultural, regional, uh, you know, sort of thing. What you're making me think of is almost a Venn diagram where sports are one circle and we're we're all we're all individual circles and we've we're made up of lots of different interests, and that the team and the game are really just it's just a place where our circles overlap for a moment in time. And where maybe I would have traditionally thought about that as a sports audience, or that it's this specific type of demographic that watches the game. So let me target these people with this creative thinking about it as wait, no, the this moment is really it's the common thing between all of these different interests and demographics and audiences. It's the thing that we actually all share. It's it's it's that common thread, which is so rare to find today. So, sports, as it is a challenge from an advertising standpoint as a consumer, there is this huge opportunity to leverage what it is, which is this common moment in time, something that we don't have many of.

Nana Kofi Amoh 14:43

I'll probably add on to say from a personal experience, like whenever I'm watching Yankee games, I of course I'm gonna see a lot of auto ads because of the dealerships that are around here, but transparently I'm not in the market for an an automobile. But I mean, of course, I'll have that ad in the back of my mind when I'm thinking about okay, what type of car am I looking for, whatever, when the time is right to move and things like that. So I I don't want advertisers and brands to think that whenever an ad is played and they just see the viewership that it fell on dead eyes or dead ears. Like the ad and the the brand will always be in mind. But the reality is it's always hard to be able to capitalize it on the right time in the sense of sure, do you need the car now or do you need it five years from now? But even if you need it five years from now, at least you know what you saw that is rolling the wheels in your head to ensure that you're making the right decision on what type of car you want to purchase. So it's things like that. Like, like I see Walmart ads. Like I definitely look forward to when the time comes to shop at a Walmart, but transparently we don't have Walmarts around here to be able to get quick groceries. So like Walmart shouldn't be worried that whenever they place their ad on my screen, that it fell on dead eyes. Like I will have them in the back of my mind whenever the opportunity presents itself to be able to go to a Walmart to do my groceries or whatever.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 16:10

So it's when you're traveling, you're in a new city, and you're like, oh, I'm I'm jammed and I need a thing. I don't know what's around me, but I know Walmart. I think that that's that's an interesting point. Absolutely. Remembering from uh the the advertising classic, Ogilvy on advertising, there's a case study in there about Mercedes-Benz and and Mercedes-Benz believing that it took 21 years, 21 years to convince someone that Mercedes is the symbol of luxury. So if you are targeting in-market auto-intenders, you might want to just be a little bit more patient. It could take could take a little bit longer than the next 90-day uh sales cycle.

Nana Kofi Amoh 16:52

Absolutely.

DAZN Buys EverPass And Why It Matters

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 16:53

No, no, I'd like to get your reaction to a couple of headlines here. I mentioned earlier that DAZN is making waves. There's news that just broke. DAZN has just acquired Everpass Media. The reason that that's significant is Everpass distributes live sports to commercial venues such as bars and restaurants. Really, they they have the control over distribution of the NFL too. Public settings to to public viewing, co-viewing, that's a that's a challenge, certainly for advertisers. DAZN getting in the mix there. Last week, the Pacers announced that DAZN would be uh an exclusive broadcast partner for next season and and include 22 free regular season games. How do you how do you keep up with all this? How do you how do you make sense of all right, all this is going on? What does that mean for me?

Nana Kofi Amoh 17:47

As I've said and I will stand on this hill, the RSN model is evolving. It is not dying by any means. And when I think about what DAZN is doing, they are taking this model and evolving it in a way for consumers like myself to be able to tap into the teams that I want to watch, no matter where I am. So, in the case of EverPass Media being acquired by DAZN, all that to say that whether I'm going to a bar or whether I'm at a restaurant, it's good to know that DAZN has taken matters into their own hands, really, above their competitors, such as the Amazons of the world or the YouTubes of the world. Although they they too anyone could have done it. Yes, they they definitely had the budget to be able to take on these local media rights and even the NFL rights, but them taking matters into their own hands is definitely huge because at the end of the day, I think the vision is to have one centralized platform for all of these leagues and teams to be able to tap into their inventory or in their games so that people aren't having to have to download YouTube TV or Peacock or Peacock versus Apple TV or Apple TV versus Prime Video. Like DAZN wants to have the centralized perspective of knowing that, hey, if you want to watch a Pacers game or if you want to watch a Rangers game, like you can watch it here.

Consolidation And New Live Sports Inventory

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 19:19

I think more consolidation is on the way. It costs between $1,200 and $1,500 for a football fan to be able to stream their favorite team last year. Estimates are in the same ballpark, all pun intended, for the MLB. FUBO, this news just uh hitting the wire earlier as well. FUBO adding the ACC network and SEC network just in time for uh for college football. So again, hey, let's take some of that regional fragmentation, let's start to bring it under one umbrella. It's kind of this evolution, this alternative RSN playbook. There's one thing that I want to get your your kind of reaction or your your feedback on is how about uh like some of the the more up-and-coming obscure sports. I saw that uh the team boxing league has signed a multi-year agreement with FUBO. Some of these obscure sports are coming up, creating more inventory, more live sports viewing. Yeah, do you have an opinion?

Nana Kofi Amoh 20:20

Yeah, I think it's great. I think a lot of these leagues coming up are definitely trying to find ways to gain exposure. And I think when you think of the DAZNs of the world and the Fubo's of the world, especially on the DAZN side of things, not only are they known for their sports, but they're also they also have their entertainment product as well. So if you're able to tap into the people that really have DAZN just for the entertainment purposes of of the platform, being able to find a net new impression through a boxing league, for example, it would really be a match made in heaven because you're able to still hone in on that particular subscriber. Because not only are you getting someone that might be interested in boxing, but also someone that's looking for the next movie series of God knows what. So having it all centralized in one spot in DAZN's case is definitely huge.

Where To Find Amo Sports Media

Nana Kofi Amoh 21:09

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 21:10

Nana, this has been a great conversation. Thank you so much for being here. If folks want to learn more about you, if they want to find your newsletter, connect with you on socials, where should they go?

Nana Kofi Amoh 21:20

LinkedIn is definitely a good place to start. And um looking forward to new connections, looking forward to you know growing the amo sports media brand. So if anybody has any questions, thoughts that they want to run through with myself and just have a simple conversation, I'm always open for a chat. I'm based in the New York City DMA. So if you want to grab lunch, dinner, whatever, I'm more than happy to accommodate that as well.

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 21:46

Fantastic. Man's got to eat, so take him up on the offer. We're gonna make sure to link uh close by to your LinkedIn, to the newsletter so folks can find it and stay connected. Thank you so much for being here.

Nana Kofi Amoh 21:58

Much appreciated, Tim. Thank you so much.

Share The Conversation With Others

Tim Rowe, State of Streaming 22:00

Absolutely. And if you found this conversation to be helpful, please share it with a colleague or a client and start a conversation yourself today. We will see you all next time.