When word came out that Fenway Sports Group, ownership of the Pittsburgh Penguins, purchased regional Pittsburgh sports channel AT&T SportsNet, three questions went through my mind.

• What does this mean for the average Pittsburgh area sports viewer?

• What does this mean for the Penguins?

• What does this mean for the Pirates since their games are also currently on AT&T SportsNet?

In an effort to find answers to those questions, I asked John Ourand (Sports Business Journal) to join me Tuesday on 105.9 The X as I was filling in for Mark Madden. SBJ is the outlet that broke the story about the FSG purchase of AT&T SportsNet. And Ourand is as plugged in of a reporter as you will find when it comes to matters of sports business and media.

We attacked those first two questions immediately. Ourand said the Penguins and their viewers shouldn’t expect too much of a difference from what they are already used to seeing — at least in terms of how they watch the games.

Not to mention very little impact on the on-ice product as well.

“I think for viewers and for the Penguins, there really isn’t going to be a big change,” Ourand said.

Keep in mind that FSG also owns the Boston Red Sox and constructed the New England Sports Network (NESN) as its own platform to air Sox and Boston Bruins games.

“You can basically take a look at Boston and see how (FSG) is going to treat the Penguins, which means that the Penguins are going to remain on linear television. That means on cable television (and) on satellite television,” Ourand continued.

But, if you are strictly a cord-cutting streamer, based on what has happened in New England, Ourand says expect FSG to give you the option to watch the Penguins that way too.

“In Boston, (FSG/NESN) started a direct-to-consumer service for the Red Sox games so that you don’t have to subscribe to cable in order to get it,” Ourand explained. “They priced it right around $30 a month. … But based on what they’re doing in Boston, you can expect them to do a direct-to-consumer Penguins service in Pittsburgh that would exist alongside the regular TV channel. So, if you’re a fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins, you’re going to be watching pretty much a similar way that you’ve been watching in the past.”

That’s simple enough. Stay with cable if you want. Stream if you want. Do both if you want.

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Regarding what that business model means for the Pens (in a salary-capped league) on the ice, the Bruins seem to be doing fine (until that layoff upset this year). And any problems the Red Sox seem to be having aren’t related to revenue. Therefore, the hockey transition should be relatively seamless.

According to Ourand, though, on the baseball side, it’s going to be much more choppy.

In one sense, for John Q. Yinzer, who wants to watch about 150 Buccos games a year, Ourand says you should be able to get that.

“Almost certainly, they’re going to be able to do the same thing (as Penguins fans) — watch the Pirates on a television channel. And almost certainly, they’ll have the ability to stream games direct-to-consumer,” Ourand said. “The big question is, what channel that’s going to be on, who’s going to be running the direct-to-consumer, and what it all looks like.”

Here’s where it gets sticky for the Pirates from an organizational standpoint, even if their fans do have a way to see a vast majority of the games.

“Right now, what I’ve been told is that the Pirates are entertaining an idea of going with the Fenway RSN. So they would still be paired with the Penguins on that regional sports network,” Ourand said.

Perfect. That’d be as simple as we can get, right?

But it’s the Pirates. So, things are never going to be that easy.

“What they also are considering doing is what the Padres did in San Diego and what the Diamondbacks did in Phoenix,” Ourand said. “Which is to take their (broadcast) rights and give them back to Major League Baseball. Then, Major League Baseball produces the games and makes them available via streaming as well. So there’s a very good possibility that happens. It’s up to the Pirates. I’ve been told that they’re likely to do (a deal) with Major League Baseball. But there’s still a decision to be made there.”

Loosely translated, that means that if the Penguins and Pirates don’t get in bed together on this, MLB creates the Pirates broadcasts and puts them on, say, that recently repackaged KDKA+ or WPNT 22 the Point or something like that.

Oh, while streaming on the side, of course.

It’ll likely turn out fine for the viewer. But the Pirates would be selling back their own broadcast rights to MLB at just an 80% return. So what does that mean for the already budget-conscious and revenue-limited Pirates?

“I have bad news for the people of Pittsburgh,” Ourand warned. “For the people in smaller markets like that, the divide right now between the haves and the have-nots … appears it’s going to be growing over the next couple of years.”

Uhhh, that’s bad. I didn’t think it was possible for that divide to grow anymore.

“You have the biggest teams in the biggest markets — like the Yankees with the YES Network. The Dodgers own their own regional sports network in Los Angeles. The Cubs own their own regional sports network. The Red Sox are on their own regional sports network,” Ourand said. “Baseball is methodically trying to get back as much of the rights as it can, so it can come out with a service where it has the majority of teams’ games. How it’s going to be able to do that without the cooperation of some of these really big teams where the big RSNs are in the really big markets? That’s something that I haven’t gotten a really satisfactory answer to.”

As Ourand outlines, that long-term business plan seems flawed.

“It doesn’t look great,” Ourand predicted. “Right now, the Padres and the Diamondbacks have sold their rights back to Major League Baseball. Major League Baseball has agreed to pay the Padres and the Diamondbacks 80% of what they were getting for rights fees from the Valley Sports Networks that carried them before. That’s something that’s not going to last forever.”

Why? Because eventually, these big market teams won’t want to subsidize the Pirates, D’Backs and Padres and just have that profit go back to Major League Baseball. That’s why.

So, conflict-of-interest matters arise in this conversation for MLB. So do issues of competitive balance. That’s to say nothing of how teams such as the Pirates are supposed to be able to handle that 20% dip in revenue.

“It’s not just baseball,” Ourand added. “If you’re listening to what (NBA commissioner) Adam Silver said, what (MLB commissioner) Rob Manfred has been saying, the teams are going to go through a period of what Adam Silver has called ‘pain’ because they’re not going to make as much from their local media rights as they could have.”

Great. Because the Pirates and their fans haven’t endured enough “pain” since 1979.

You can hear the entire podcast below, as Ourand goes into further detail about the hurdles that will be presented to the Pirates as a result of the new FSG/AT&T SportsNet deal.

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