First things first: Bally Sports/Diamond and the folks over at Comcast won’t duke it out forever. After the requisite insult swap, they’ll get back to the negotiating table and, more likely than not, hammer out a new agreement for the Major League Baseball broadcast markets they’ve recently hosed.

The bigger question is, how soon can MLB itself grab the wheel of this careening truck?

On some levels, that’s what the league’s brain trust wants. In a perfect world, MLB would bring almost all of its teams’ broadcasts in house and create a monster streaming package that covers everything. All markets, no blackouts – the works. It’d be a baseball watcher’s dream, and its growth and profitability would be MLB’s exclusive province.

It isn’t going to happen soon, for a number of reasons. But let’s not knock it down completely before we’ve had a chance to peek under the hood.

MLB’s franchise owners, or franchise-owning corporations, have pretty much loved the regional sports network system, because RSNs usually delivered a good payday and a long-term contract – two things most franchises need. But RSNs are totally dependent on delivery methods, and that means they’ve constantly had to juggle deals with various providers: Comcast, of course, but also DirecTV, AT&T, Spectrum, NBC Sports – it basically depends upon where you live and who are the dominant systems in your region.

The system worked until it didn’t. RSNs, as we’ve previously noted, have been on the run for years, as customers fled their cable setups for the new world of streaming services and a la carte viewing. With the mass cable providers losing subscribers, the sports networks’ compensation began dwindling. It’s a slow death spiral now.

Until it’s over, though, the RSN model still matters, which is why Comcast/Xfinity and Bally/Diamond will work things out. Among other things, Diamond Sports Group needs the revenue, even at a reduced rate, if it’s going to successfully emerge from bankruptcy next month via an Amazon-backed plan.

The basis of the most recent contract dispute is simple. Comcast wants to put Diamond’s RSNs on a premium subscription tier, which users have to pay more to access. It’s a straight revenue proposition. Diamond, understandably, wants its networks kept as part of the standard cable package, where it can reach more viewers.

The parties let a short-term deadline expire without working anything out, a dunderheaded move but not a fatal one. In the here and now, fans in 11 MLB markets lost access to the Bally/Diamond networks, and if it went on forever, fans of NHL and NBA teams would eventually notice. (That doesn’t matter currently, since both those leagues are in national playoff broadcast mode.)

MLB’s rooting interest here is certainly subject to interpretation. As Evan Drellich pointed out in The Athletic, league commissioner Rob Manfred said in February that he’d like to launch a streaming package with about half of the league’s teams by 2025. For that to happen, Diamond’s bankruptcy restructuring plan would have to fail in court, leaving many markets without a significant delivery method and opening up their rights to an MLB production.

At the same time, the league doesn’t necessarily want to see Diamond fail. A successful emergence from bankruptcy could lead to several more years of relative broadcast stability in a bunch of markets even if yearly payouts decrease, and that could be important for several MLB franchises.

But the long-term industry goal makes more sense with the passing of time. We’re nowhere near being a streaming-only nation – even with cable taking massive hits, for example, Comcast still claims more than 14 million subscribers – but for MLB, being able to offer a streaming package that can be picked up almost anywhere, with no idiotic local blackout, is eventually going to sound like very good business.

America’s major sports industries all handle this situation differently. The NFL is practically exempt, since its deal is entirely national. For the others, this transition from cable-dominant to streaming-oriented is a slow turn of a large ship – but a critical one.

And MLB will get there. It probably won’t be as soon as Rob Manfred daydreamed earlier this year, but the turn is under way. This Comcast-Bally brawl is a little entertaining and a lot irritating, but it’s a sideshow. The real action is still in its early days.

From the moment the preseason begins, Rob Perez watches every second of every game taking place in the NBA. On days that can include as many as 15 contests on the docket, it results in a jam-packed schedule and heavy content cycle. When the games conclude, he is much like a player or coach in that he reviews the tape and searches for nuances or aspects of play that he might have missed. At the same time, he is sharing key moments and providing his thoughts to followers in real time, generating prodigious levels of engagement and captivating intrigue.

Known as “WorldWideWob” on social media, Perez possesses an ability to comprehend what will resonate with an audience, exhibiting a shrewdness towards emerging trends. At the same time, he also knows when to move on and adapt, constructing a brand from scratch that has cemented a coveted place in the basketball ecosystem.

Equipped with a comprehensive outlook cultivated over many years of market research, analysis and application, Perez has arrived at a place where he can appeal to and engage with many different factions of consumers. After all, he does not perceive his preparation to be tedious, nor does he view the content schedule as overwhelming.

“My audience size at this point, being in the millions that it is, some people know me for one specific thing and then they find out at a later time that, ‘Wait, this guy hosts a show? This guy actually talks ball? He does more than police chases?,’” Perez said. “It’s all of these different little things [adding] up, and once I get people through the door, I can introduce them to all the different variations of content creation and distribution that I am producing on a daily basis.”

While Perez does not refer to himself as an influencer, his dais has very much become a venerated and indispensable aspect of the gameday experience. As the leader of a brand that satiates the demand for content, he embraces the early stages within the diffusion of innovation and avoids negligence. Technology plays a role in the evolution of his media career that has been somewhat consolidated and adeptly fused together through his new role broadcasting on SiriusXM NBA Radio.

“You want to have that want; you want to have that drive because there’s always going to be [someone] out there that is willing to do your job for half the price just to get their foot in the door,” Perez said, “so I’m competing against all of those people that also are passionate about the NBA. And if I’m not all in, then I might as well be all out.”

Perez is hosting his Late Night with Wob show following playoff games on SiriusXM NBA Radio, an opportunity that represents the culmination of previous endeavors in several different areas of media. The venture permits him to evince his proficiency in various mediums of content creation and dissemination through the lens of basketball. Versatility, he avows, has become an essential facet of the industry rather than a mere commoditization or bonus per se.

“I’m stating the obvious here, but the entire content world is saturated with not only personalities at this point, but methods of distribution,” Perez explained. “If you want to be a content creator, you are going to have to know five different languages.”

Perez always had a penchant for basketball inculcated through attending New York Knicks games at Madison Square Garden, but discovering and thriving in the niche of content creation took significant time and effort. Many of his early basketball memories include watching athletes such as Xavier McDaniel, John Starks and Patrick Ewing take the floor under the bright lights of New York City.

While an undergrad, Perez remembers a Twitter employee visiting his sports communication class and promoting the service, a proposition that piqued his curiosity and compelled him to sign up as a microblogger. Graduating at the peak of a recession though, he needed to find a day job and tried to implement his proclivity for sports.

“All that was really hiring was sales,” Perez said. “There’s always room for people that are willing to sell something to drive revenue. So, I knew I wanted to work in the NBA because of my passion as a fan, and ultimately, I ended up in a city I had never been to in my life, which was New Orleans working for the NBA franchise down there – the New Orleans Hornets. The gig was pretty much, ‘Here’s a phone book – start calling; start selling stuff,’ so that went well.”

Following a promotion to account executive in 2010 and remaining in the role for a year, Perez decided that he wanted to assume the role that resembled more of a ticket broker. As a result, he relocated to the Northeast and founded HiLo Tickets, serving as the chief executive officer of the firm. Later on, he and Justin Cener co-founded Crowd Seats and eventually sold the business to ScoreBig, Inc. Perez decided to move on after less than six months as an inventory manager following the acquisition. He had started to write for DraftKings and The Big Lead during that time as well, granting him a perspective in the editorial content sector of the business.

Perez put more of his effort into Twitter and worked to expand his brand with the new multimedia functionalities on the app, along with the short-form video application Vine. In addition, he experimented with live video streaming with Meerkat, launching it for the first time when he was sitting by a pool. Shortly thereafter, Periscope debuted and was quickly acquired by Twitter in an $86 million transaction that also included the social media platform Niche.

“I saw this and I just found it as an opportunity to put myself out there because I was not an employee of a major network,” Perez said. “I was just a sole proprietor – a one-man shop – and if I wanted to share my thoughts with the world, I had to rely on this new technology to be able to distribute it.”

The first time Perez used Periscope for a live stream was after returning from a bar at 3 a.m. and making pizza rolls with his roommate Katie Fischer. Much to his surprise, 50 people ended up watching the live stream in the middle of the night. It led to him thinking about taking such an approach to content surrounding basketball and the NBA, and he ultimately began to broadcast live postgame shows on the platform. The audience rapidly proliferated around the globe and reached fans from around the world, demonstrating the global reach of the sport and vacancy the WorldWideWob brand was beginning to fill in the landscape.

As all of this growth was occurring, Perez began to work with COMPLEX as a digital media producer and was later hired to contribute to the FOX Sports website. Through it all, he continued to operate his WorldWideWob account, augmented his following to hundreds of thousands of users and began to implement YouTube Live as well.

“I kind of wanted to do this version of the standard network television – Jimmy Kimmel; Conan O’Brien; Jay Leno-type show, but for basketball, I guess in a way was always my vision for it and just religiously coming back,” Perez said. “Every time there was a big moment in the NBA between the years 2016 and 2018, I would be live on Periscope on Twitter, and everyone knew it, and that’s where they know they could get postgame reactions.”

Balancing his independent content ventures with an additional job presented its challenges, especially because of the wide range of tip-off times that can occupy the schedule during the season. He remembers that there was not much live programming following the conclusion of the later games, a discerning observation that led to further audience expansion and subsequent retention.

“I became just this late-night, North America guy with an international audience that was always there regardless, and because I was able to interpret, comprehend and execute those analytics of seeing where the audience was watching from, it really motivated me to continue doing what I was doing,” Perez said. “Because it may not get the shine that a network show in America would – an ESPN; FOX; Turner; all those programs that run throughout the day – because most people are sleeping when I’m live, but that was the motivation for doing it and sticking with it.”

The program eventually metamorphosed into Buckets with Cycle, a subsidiary of 247 Laundry Service that was later acquired by the Wasserman Group. Following its first season, Cycle and ESPN agreed to an original content and advertising partnership that resulted in the expansion of Buckets and additional programming development. The second season of the show ended up accumulating over 10 million viewers across its 10-episode slate. 

“That was what I would consider to be my creative zenith,” Perez said. “I was sleeping in the office. We were coming out with 10 to 12 episodes a year, and these episodes would take a full week to edit, produce, do the creative for [and] film. We got Cassidy Hubbarth from ESPN, who’s like my big sister to this day, to co-host it with me. I think in that moment was kind of when WorldWideWob became more than just a Twitter personality. It was recognized that, ‘This guy does more than just film his television with his iPhone 7.’”

Perez signed a multi-year deal with The Action Network in which he assumed a multi-faceted role as a senior NBA producer. While there, he wrote articles, hosted podcasts and helped develop new programming with the outlet.

The landscape changed once the pandemic hit in 2020, but fortunately for Perez, he received an invite from Twitter to be part of the beta for Spaces. The live audio streaming functionality built within the social media application got Perez thinking about the next adaptation of his live program.

“As Zoom becomes a big thing and these live audio chat rooms become a big thing, I’m imagining a world where I can almost reinvent sports talk radio with technology,” Perez said, “and what I did was combine the Late Night with Wob streaming concept with live audio, and I would have people call in and I would randomly select them to participate in the show and share their thoughts the same way people call into a radio station.”

The derivative of his original program became known as Radio Roulette and contributed to the sustained growth of his followers on social media. Rather than having a moment of notoriety propelling reach and engagement, such as going viral overnight, Perez utilized a methodical approach to his craft. In essence, he continued to refine what he was doing ahead of the mass adoption of such and stayed at the forefront of innovation.

Since that time, Perez has worked with several companies on a contract basis including SportsGrid, FanDuel, Underdog Fantasy and Amazon’s Amp platform. Ahead of the NBA Playoffs, he signed a deal with SiriusXM to join the talent roster on its SiriusXM NBA Radio channel. Hosting the Late Night with Wob postgame show several nights per week during the playoffs, Perez provides his reactions, interviews personnel and takes calls from listeners across the country. He will remain with SiriusXM NBA Radio during free agency and the NBA Summer League to proffer his insights and analysis.

Part of the reason Perez decided to join a sports radio station within SiriusXM can be attributed to the next-generation streaming app it unveiled last year. While the product has become embedded in most automobiles and other means of transport, the programming has become more accessible through the new multimedia platform. At the same time, the company refreshed its brand identity and reaffirmed its commitment to bring listeners closer to stars across many genres.

“Anyone that is interested in the programming can reach it even when they’re not in transport, so that is a big step for a company this size that has had a business model for, what, [a] decade-plus, that was very tunnel vision if you will,” Perez said. “That sounds derogatory, but it’s not meant to be. If they had something that works – and if it’s not broken, you don’t fix it – but they realized, ‘We need to evolve with technology because people are listening to content more than the ways that we are distributing it,’ and their answer was the app, and the app takes two clicks to find anything you want.”

As a sports radio host, Perez knows that he can both be a professional and provide value for advertising partners while also conveying the essence of WorldWideWob to the listeners. An analogy he draws for his show is a spinning arrow outside of H&R Block during tax season, an eye-catching form of user acquisition that promulgates the service. The content Perez posts on X partially serves that purpose and tries to create steadfast consumers interested in the long-form content.

“Wob can be known to toe the line a little bit, and it’s not more so with takes and such, but it can be with delivery,” Perez said. “It can be at any moment – the vein starts popping out of my neck for no reason – and it’s that type of volatility if you will that I think keeps the audience on its toes and there’s not this consistent voice while still always being true to the authenticity of who I am. There’s just always a way for me to come at you in a unique and different way.”

In his business transactions, Perez considers himself a sole proprietor who owns intellectual property that can be licensed by different companies. The traditional approach to prosperity often centers on the premise of starting a platform and selling it a decade later when it gains enough viewers and subscribers. Operating independently is different – Perez is hired to produce content, promote the brand and gains access to resources – yet it can lead to a litany of challenges and a lack of respite. The lifestyle is not amenable to all, but it is something Perez embraces and accepts.

“If I am a solo entrepreneur brand, me the person and not a separate business, then I cannot just take a week off and hope that other people working at the company can carry us until I get back,” Perez said. “If I go on vacation [and] I leave my phone at home, there is no content whatsoever being produced for a week, and you can fall into irrelevancy if you are not feeding the content hamster wheel that this world has evolved into.”

As Perez continues hosting on SiriusXM, he aspires to continue providing his genuine reactions and opinions to his audience no matter how they tune in. Moreover, he will keep posting his thoughts and highlights on social media in real time, primarily on X where he has over 1.1 million followers.

Only one team can hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy as NBA Champions, and the overall parity within the league and entropy of playoff basketball renders it difficult to prematurely determine a winner. In whatever manner the season ends though, Perez will be there for the legion of basketball fans invested in his content while inviting new audience members to take part as well.

“The moment you ask me not to be Wob, I’m a terrible talent,” Perez divulged. “I’m not skilled enough to be a suit-and-tie professional reading from a teleprompter. There’s people out there who go to school for that kind of stuff. All I know how to do is be Wob, and that’s what’s gotten me to this point, and I think that’s what’s going to continue in the future.”

ESPN is in a bit of a rock and a hard place when it comes to its streaming efforts. The Walt Disney Company has invested heavily in the technology — and rightfully so. But there are going to be competing efforts from The Worldwide Leader, it appears.

As Project Flagship — ESPN’s direct-to-consumer offer — comes to fruition in 2025, it begs the question of what will happen to ESPN+.

According to recent numbers, ESPN+ has just under 25 million subscribers, which is down from the 26 million it featured in November of last year. Now, while you can argued the platform is beefed up due to the Disney+ bundle that includes ad-supported Hulu and the ESPN streaming offering, it’s still an impressive number.

But when ESPN goes direct-to-consumer with it’s linear channels — and their favorite line has always remained “It’s if, not when” — what will that do to the subscriber count of ESPN+.

Conceivably, it can’t go away, right? The number of contracts the company has to air content for colleges, niche sports leagues, and everything else under the sun can’t simply be moved into an all-encompassing platform that jumps from $11 per month to somewhere in the $30-$40 per month range. At least, I can’t think so.

But at the same time, I’m an ESPN+ subscriber. I enjoy being able to scroll through college sporting events on a random Saturday and find myself watching Horizon League or A-10 baseball.

Additionally, I can watch almost anything I want, currently, with a subscription, because the network allows you to do so. But, I assume that ability will go away in 2025. It makes logical sense. ESPN would rather me pay them $30 per month and get the NBA and Monday Night Football, than pay $11 per month and keep watching college sports, MLB, NHL, and F1.

Should they take away ESPN+, however, I don’t think I’d be subscribing to a direct-to-consumer stream. So, they’d be losing my subscription money each month. Now, I realize that’s insanely anecdotal, but I just wonder if there are about to be competing ideologies inside Bristol. On one hand, you’re going to be skewered for dropping ESPN+ subscriber metrics should they begin to drop, even if it leads to increase revenue from Project Flagship. People will look to tear down the network any change they get, fair or unfair.

Simultaneously, investors, analysts, and everyone in the financial, media, and tech worlds will watch like a hawk to see how a direct-to-consumer model works for ESPN. And the second it doesn’t reach projections, it will be deemed a failure — again, fair or unfair.

I just don’t see how both a direct-to-consumer platform works in conjunction with an already established streaming platform. I’d like to think the network has grown past its ultra-confusing ESPN+ and ESPN3 days, but virtually every time I go to watch a live game on the app, it asks if I want to watch via ESPN+ or my (read: my dad’s) DISH Network login.

That’s not even to mention the joint streaming service alongside FOX Sports and Warner Bros. Discovery that will play into whether or not subscribers will remain with the already established offering from The Worldwide Leader.

The company has a lot going on in the streaming world. It’s clear they’re invested into the space for the long haul. I think that’s the right move. But they’ll have an awful lot of balls to juggle, and, right now, I don’t see how they keep them all in the air.