ESPN hopes to be some salvation for troubled regional sports networks, said Jimmy Pitaro, the network group’s chairman on Wednesday, during a press event.

“We want to be part of the solution,’ says Pitaro. This could come in particular with adding local-market Major League Baseball and NBA game content. 

Thin-profit margin at regional sports networks (RSNs) business, as well as financial issues of some long-time providers -- like Sinclair’s Diamond Sports Group, which filed for bankruptcy -- have upset operations. Some like Warner Bros. Sports RSN groups have closed down entirely or sold off operations.

This comes in response to financial weakness and instability amidst RSN issues, stemming from persistent subscribers' cord-cutting. 

Some of this comes as ESPN is planning its full-ESPN, cable TV-like streaming service starting next year -- a platform that is looking to add new content.

The irony here is that Walt Disney -- for a short time -- previously owned a regional sports network group: The now Diamond Sports Network, owned by Sinclair Inc. These 21 RSNs were originally owned by Fox Corp. 

After a $71.3 billion-dollar deal to buy about half of 20th Century Fox, Disney made a $9.6 billion deal with Sinclair to sell those RSNs as part of a Department of Justice agreement to divest that business.

Now Disney’s ESPN believes that owning some RSNs in part could help supplement some content for ESPN future streaming service needs.

Pitaro says ESPN could “geo-target” viewers  in specific markets to help monetize advertising revenues.

Interestingly, Pitaro says it would not seek exclusive local rights to any of the sports content, perhaps in avoiding any issues that go against that DOJ agreement.  He said  “We believe that reach is a value asset to the leagues.”

The declining reach of potential linear TV subscribers is the area where RSN has been suffering -- continually losing legacy pay TV subscribers to non-stop cord-cutting consumers.

Sky-high pricing for RSN linear TV packages ranging from mid- to high $25 to $30-a-month is also a deterrent for now cost-conscious sports TV users.

At the same time, pay TV providers -- cable, satellite, telco and virtual services -- have declined to make renewals or to add RSNs because of their razor-thin profit margins in carrying those networks.

One question is how deep ESPN can go in acquiring any of these assets. In addition, Pitaro says ESPN wants to work with professional sports leagues and teams. 

Right now one wonders what other more stable TV/streaming operations might consider adding local sports content.

Amazon has had a small stake in Diamond Sports. It's uncertain where the big e-commerce/diversified media company goes from here. Local over-the-air TV networks have also been taking on some RSN content.

More disruption and massive realignment of local, linear TV sports content will surely come -- but ever so gradually.  It won’t be akin to a fastball -- more of an off-speed pitch.