Sinclair Broadcast Group said Tuesday it expects to generate signficant cash _ up to $50 million annually _ from the Chicago Cubs regional sports network it will launch in 2020.
Chris Ripley, Sinclair's president and chief executive officer, said the Maryland-based broadcaster is looking at the Cubs TV network, announced earlier this month, as a boon to the bottom line and a model to partner with other teams.
"We expect (the Cubs network) to contribute about $40 (million) to $50 million of free cash flow," Ripley said during Sinclair's 2018 earnings call.
The Marquee Sports Network, as it will be called, will become the exclusive TV home of the Cubs, ending 70 years of local over-the-air broadcasts and moving all of the games to cable and satellite. It will air the full regular season schedule, expanded pregame and postgame coverage, classic broadcasts from the archives and other local sports programming.
The current Cubs local TV schedule is split between WGN-Ch.9, WLS-Ch.7 and NBC Sports Chicago, the regional sports network formed in 2004.
Sinclair, the country's largest TV station group, owns 191 TV stations and the Tennis Channel. The Cubs represent Sinclair's first foray in a regional sports network. Sinclair also is looking to buy some or all of the Fox-owned regional sports networks, which must be sold as a requirement of its pending merger with Disney.
"(Marquee) is a model for other partnerships going forward," Ripley said. "We certainly will be looking for other opportunities and there will be some coming up."
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