"A Sea of Blood"

Sinclair’s CEO Chris Ripley looks at all the streaming services and thinks it is bad news for local media companies.

“We think that’s going to be a sea of blood,” said Ripley. “It’s going to be losses for many years to come for many of those companies who are going to be engaged in a major share battle.”

Talking to NBC News, Ripley said that Sinclair has focused in on news and sports as a long-term sustainable business strategy, and consciously avoided wading into the SVOD market with Amazon and Netflix and soon Disney, Apple, WarnerMedia and NBCUniversal.

Sinclair’s streaming strategy is largely anchored by STIRR, its ad-supported service that features channels with curated live local news, local and regional sports, entertainment and city-focused lifestyle programming provided by the Sinclair TV stations in individual cities. In July, the company said that STIRR had reached one million downloads since launching earlier this year.

In sports, Sinclair has a rapidly growing stable of regional sports networks. The company is launching a new RSN in partnership with the Chicago Cubs, and recently closed a $9.6 billion deal to buy 21 RSNs from Disney. Last month, Sinclair and Amazon were part of a deal to acquire 80% of YES Network, the TV home for the New York Yankees, Brooklyn Nets, New York City FC and New York Liberty.

H/T Fierce Video

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