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Speaker 1: Fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station. There's no five after four.

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Speaker 1: This is ESPs sixty thirty.

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Speaker 2: Lots more on the Duke Toobin Mega Press Conference in

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Speaker 2: just about fifteen minutes. But I wanted to spend a

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Speaker 2: few time on this because I think folks have questions.

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Speaker 2: So the Reds have opted out of their TV deal

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Speaker 2: with the FanDuel Sports Network, and so I guess they're

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Speaker 2: in limbo, and in limbo in terms of we don't

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Speaker 2: know what the TV coverage is going to look like

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Speaker 2: this year, but also that TV money they need, that

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Speaker 2: TV money, are they gonna get it?

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Speaker 1: How much will they get? Where's it gonna come from?

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Speaker 2: When this sort of thing comes up, and it has

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Speaker 2: often in recent years, we reach out to our guy

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Speaker 2: Maury Brown on X at Bisball. Moury senior contributors to

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Speaker 2: Forbes always kind enough to join us when we have

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Speaker 2: questions about TV contracts in the Red So I feel

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Speaker 2: like we do this every year.

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Speaker 1: Mory, It's good to have you. How are you?

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Speaker 3: I'm great? How about yourself?

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Speaker 1: I'm well. I feel like we did this a year ago.

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Speaker 2: The Reds opt out and then they go back to

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Speaker 2: FanDuel Sports Network the season plays out and they make

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Speaker 2: the playoffs. But this feels different from where we were

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Speaker 2: a year ago, is it?

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Speaker 3: It is in the sense that by opting out, I think.

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Speaker 4: That there's obviously the realization that they're not going to

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Speaker 4: get the revenues that they expected that they were contractually

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Speaker 4: obligated to by. You know, once again, we've we've gone

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Speaker 4: through several iterations of this.

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Speaker 3: Now it's you know, now branded fan Duel, But.

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Speaker 4: The bottom line of it is by these clubs, and

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Speaker 4: the Reds are one of them, right out of nine

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Speaker 4: opting out it doesn't preclude them from coming back to

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Speaker 4: Fan Duel, but it does set it up to where

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Speaker 4: they would go when you know, we're theoretically under with

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Speaker 4: less revenues, and that's obviously a concern.

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Speaker 3: The upside to this, if they do go back, right,

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Speaker 3: would be that that money is then lock in.

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Speaker 4: And that's a key factor with the RSN model and

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Speaker 4: why the clubs like it. No matter how they're performing,

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Speaker 4: no matter how things are going, that money gets locked in. Now,

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Speaker 4: if they don't come back, then that can change, and

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Speaker 4: that could have a couple of different looks. What would

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Speaker 4: those looks be, Well, I think the one that you're

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Speaker 4: most likely to see at this stage now would be

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Speaker 4: for Major League Baseball to take over the rights. And

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Speaker 4: this has happened. It's not like it's anything new. They've

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Speaker 4: picked up other clubs and done this. They would go

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Speaker 4: ahead and produce it. They would go ahead and reach

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Speaker 4: out to the likes of and Exminity and work new

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Speaker 4: carriage deals distributors, and then also the streaming deal that

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Speaker 4: ostensibly in theory, well not in theory, it does remove

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Speaker 4: blackouts right in some areas where they don't have it,

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Speaker 4: fans will be able to reach it that way. But

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Speaker 4: the difference here is is that in twenty twenty four,

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Speaker 4: the league said, oh, you guys were supposed to get

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Speaker 4: this much under your TV deal. You're not going to

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Speaker 4: be able to get that anymore. We're going to backstop

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Speaker 4: that money with revenue sharing money, and we'll go ahead

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Speaker 4: and make sure that you keep those revenues. That model

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Speaker 4: has now changed. So whatever the clubs pull in, and

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Speaker 4: that would include the Reds, right, whatever they pull in,

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Speaker 4: you know, through the TV deals they get reached and

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Speaker 4: whatever streaming is, that's what they're going to get. They

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Speaker 4: would not expect to get the money that they have

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Speaker 4: seen or were expecting under this deal that's currently FanDuel networks.

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Speaker 1: How much of a financial haircut would they be taking.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, this is the question that nobody can really answer

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Speaker 4: because I think that what happens here is it depends

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Speaker 4: on your club. And you know, Okay, so if I'm

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Speaker 4: in Cincinnati, right, it's not like it's a huge market. Okay,

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Speaker 4: but you did mention that the outset, right, they made

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Speaker 4: the playoffs. You know, you're on a bit of an

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Speaker 4: upswing here. You can feel pretty good about it. But

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Speaker 4: you know, I don't know how less it would be.

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Speaker 4: That would be something that really couldn't be answered until

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Speaker 4: the end of the season, right, but you would expect

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Speaker 4: it to be less, and that, you know, is going

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Speaker 4: to be a concern.

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Speaker 3: And I think the biggest concern.

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Speaker 4: For all the clubs, and look this is this, this

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Speaker 4: reaches now to almost the majority of all the regional

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Speaker 4: sports networks, is there's just unpredictability. And what happens when

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Speaker 4: we get into unpredictability, you tend to go ahead and

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Speaker 4: you go, well, we're not going to take as much risk.

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Speaker 3: We're going to have to hold back and see how

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Speaker 3: this thing goes. You know, remember we're in the.

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Speaker 4: Last season before we potentially go into a lockout. The

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Speaker 4: owners and players don't know what's going to come out

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Speaker 4: of the end of that. The expectation is a off

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Speaker 4: season lockout at best. At worst, it starts to eat

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Speaker 4: into the beginning of the season. So there's just an

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Speaker 4: awful lot of unpredictability. And when you get into that,

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Speaker 4: clubs tend to go either risk neutral or they go

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Speaker 4: risk averse and they just like, WHOA, We're not going

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Speaker 4: to do any long term contracts or anything like that.

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Speaker 4: It just sets this whole thing up, and I think

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Speaker 4: that that has played in largely to why we've had

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Speaker 4: such a cold offseason.

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Speaker 3: It's just not been what you might normally expect.

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Speaker 2: Nationally, Major League Baseball has new TV contracts and they've

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Speaker 2: redone their deal with ESPN, and one thing they've done

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Speaker 2: is they've Baseball has sold off MLB dot TV to ESPN.

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Speaker 2: They have the rights ESPN does to a handful of

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Speaker 2: teams local in market games. Eventually down the road is

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Speaker 2: that are they going to own the local rights to

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Speaker 2: all thirty Big League clubs?

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Speaker 1: And what's that going to look like. If the answer

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Speaker 1: is yes.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't think it's gonna be all thirty. I

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Speaker 4: think you're gonna have a hard time convincing the Dodgers,

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Speaker 4: the Yankees, your big brand, big you know, big market teams.

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Speaker 4: I think you're gonna have a hard time with that.

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Speaker 4: Can Manfred wrestle the majority, you know, maybe with a

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Speaker 4: few exceptions. I do, And I think that that's where

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Speaker 4: they're gonna go. And that's the other wild card in

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Speaker 4: the midst of this. It sounds like, for whatever reason,

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Speaker 4: and it may again come up to the fact that

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Speaker 4: we are coming to the end of a you know,

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Speaker 4: of a season and going into a labor a potential

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Speaker 4: labor stoppage that ESPN is not going to pick that

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Speaker 4: up until.

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Speaker 3: Twenty twenty seven.

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Speaker 4: So again, and all of this is to bridge to

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Speaker 4: get Fox and TBS and all the national rights along

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Speaker 4: with whatever package of local rights you can get all

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Speaker 4: lined up together at the end of the three years

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Speaker 4: that we have here that they you know, happened with

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Speaker 4: the ESPN backing out of it, They filled that gap

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Speaker 4: with ESPN, NBC and some streaming deals. Right, that stuff

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Speaker 4: is kind of the bridge for three years. When that

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Speaker 4: all lines up, then you're going to start to look

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Speaker 4: at something entirely different. So there's just again we're in

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Speaker 4: this kind of tweeener state where streaming is starting to

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Speaker 4: take more of a position of power. More people continue

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Speaker 4: to leave traditional televisions, mostly boomers right that are still

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Speaker 4: watching traditional TV, and it just lends us uncertainty to

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Speaker 4: the entire media landscape, and it's all playing out.

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Speaker 3: Of course, for baseball it's worse.

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Speaker 4: Of course, you know, it doesn't affect Cincinnati, but you know,

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Speaker 4: for the NBA and NHL right there in mid season.

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Speaker 4: At least Baseball has a little bit of time here.

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Speaker 4: Although they see this as something that's critical to have

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Speaker 4: happen now. They want to get this out of the

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Speaker 4: way so that fans know where they're going to wind

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Speaker 4: up on the dial come the start of the season.

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Speaker 1: So there's where I was going to go next.

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Speaker 2: If there's a Reds fan listening to this, who's going

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Speaker 2: you know what? Last year was pretty good because I

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Speaker 2: could stream the games on the on the fan dual app.

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Speaker 1: I didn't have to have traditional cable.

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Speaker 2: So kind of wondering where I'm going to watch the

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Speaker 2: games in twenty twenty six, what's the answer.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that you know, again, if it goes

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Speaker 4: some Major League Baseball, your streaming options are still going

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Speaker 4: to be there, and you're going to go ahead and

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Speaker 4: have it on your traditional most of your traditional TV carriers,

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Speaker 4: and that to Baseball's credit, they've been very good at it.

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Speaker 4: They've been able to go ahead and make those things

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Speaker 4: happen pretty rapidly, and it's been pretty good. I would

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Speaker 4: fully expect with the branding right the FanDuel would be gone.

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Speaker 4: I would expect if they hold the model that they've

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Speaker 4: been that your on air personality will remain the same

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Speaker 4: that you would get that now. The question would be

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Speaker 4: how pregame and postgame goes. That may look a little

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Speaker 4: bit different, but for the most part, your game broadcast

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Speaker 4: will feel what the graphics, the exception the same, And

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Speaker 4: they've even gone so far as to contract out the

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Speaker 4: people that have been doing camera work and whatnot. A

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Speaker 4: lot of the production people there. Again, you're in studio.

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Speaker 4: Stuff will likely change. Those people would be impacted if

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Speaker 4: this happens, but again, the actual game broadcast should feel

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Speaker 4: largely the same.

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Speaker 2: Can I just book you now for December first? When

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Speaker 2: the lockout starts?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it doesn't feel very good right now?

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Speaker 3: I mean this is the stuff.

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Speaker 4: Look this, you know and laughing about it all aside.

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Speaker 4: This stuff with television has a huge impact. It's it's

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Speaker 4: money is that the clubs have had guaranteed and it's

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Speaker 4: been a cash cow for them for a long time.

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Speaker 4: And so all of this uncertainty creates this you know

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Speaker 4: thing about, hey, we need to go ahead and talk

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Speaker 4: about a cap. The players, of course, are dead set

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Speaker 4: against it, whether we're going to have a floor, whether

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Speaker 4: we address off like you know, deferred compensation, which has

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Speaker 4: been a huge loophole for the likes of the Dodgers

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Speaker 4: to go out and continue to run ram shot.

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Speaker 3: And I think there's going to.

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Speaker 4: Be an awful lot at stake with this labor deal

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Speaker 4: coming up, and both sides are girded for it. It'll

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Speaker 4: be a fun And I say that in quotes offseason.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, well, I'm sure we'll chat often.

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Speaker 2: You're always kind of enough to join us when I

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Speaker 2: have a dumb guy questions about the Reds TV deal.

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Speaker 1: Mory, thanks so much.

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Speaker 3: All right, man, you take care, Thank you for having me.

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Speaker 3: Have a good weekend.

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Speaker 1: Most definitely you two. That's Maury Brown.

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Speaker 2: Follow him at bisbal Moury's Senior contributor to Forbes. It's

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Speaker 2: quarter after four. I'm oegar. This is ESPN fifteen thirty.

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Speaker 2: Robert Wintrob reacts to Duke Tobin's mega press conference. Next

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Speaker 2: on ESPN fifteen thirty.

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Speaker 4: Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

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Speaker 5: Traffic from the uc Health Traffic Center. U SEE Health's

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Speaker 5: Weight Loss Center offers surgical and medical obesity care and expertise.

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Speaker 5: Call five one three nine nine two two sixty three.

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Speaker 5: That's nine three nine two two sixty three. Eastbound Westwood

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Speaker 5: Northern Boulevard. There's an accident between McFarlane Woods Drive and

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Speaker 5: Montana Avenue. Police are directing traffic around that scene on

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Speaker 5: southbound seventy five. Another accident that's off on the off

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Speaker 5: ramp to Norwood Lateral. Police and fire blocking the right

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Speaker 5: lane on the highway. I'm at ezelic with traffic.

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