TV Answer Man, I am beyond frustration because I got YouTube TV and they won’t carry the Bally Sports channel (Bally Sports Midwest) that has the St. Louis Cardinals on. This is crazy. I used to have Dish and they don’t have Bally Sports, either. I like YouTube TV better than Dish and DIRECTV but I want the Cardinals!! Is there any chance of YouTube TV or even Hulu carrying it? I know there’s a separate Bally app now but I don’t want to pay all that money!! — Terry, Clayton, Missouri.
Terry, Sinclair, which owns the 19 Bally Sports regional sports networks (RSNs), did launch a standalone app in June that allows consumers to watch their in-market Bally Sports channel without a subscription to cable, satellite or even a streaming service such as YouTube TV or Hulu Live.
However, the app only includes five MLB teams now and the St. Louis Cardinals are not among them. (The five teams are the Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays.) So even if you wanted to subscribe to the standalone app, which costs $19.99 a month, you couldn’t because the Cards are not included and therefore the app is not available in the St. Louis market. (Sinclair says it hopes to add more MLB teams this fall when it adds 12 NHL and 16 NBA teams.)
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So will YouTube TV or Hulu or Dish — or anyone?!! — add Bally Sports anytime soon so you can watch the Cardinals?
Well, for starters, you should know that DIRECTV Stream, DIRECTV and Charter’s Spectrum TV (the biggest cable TV op in the St. Louis market) all carry Bally Sports. But it is true that YouTube TV, FuboTV, Hulu Live and Sling TV do not and they haven’t for a few years.
If you’re looking for an alternative to cable and satellite, and you want Bally Sports, it says here that it’s highly unlikely that those four streamers will add the regional sports networks anytime soon and perhaps ever.
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Whether it’s Hulu Live, YouTube TV, Sling TV or FuboTV, the streamers’ profit margins are so thin that it’s hard for them to justify paying the regional sports channels, which do charge more than most channels. DIRECTV Stream, which does carry Bally Sports, is able to do so by charging a minimum of $90 a month for packages that include them. But YouTube TV, FuboTV and Hulu Live start with base prices under $70 and they want to keep their basic prices as low as possible to attract cord-cutters.
But if they add Bally Sports, or some other RSNs, they will have to raise prices to the point where non-sports fans would balk.
So YouTube TV, FuboTV, Hulu Live and Sling TV would prefer not to carry Bally Sports even though subscribers in the Bally markets who are sports fans are clamoring for them to do so. The subscriber pressure is the only reason why the streamers could relent at some point.
But with Sinclair now offering a standalone app, the pressure on the streamers is easing because they can tell their customers (in five markets at least) that they can subscribe directly to Bally Sports. Consequently, fans would be less likely to drop YouTube TV or Hulu Live if they don’t carry Bally Sports because they will have an alternative. (Yes, in those five markets.)
Bottom line: If you like YouTube TV, that’s great. But don’t expect to watch the Cardinals until Bally Sports adds the team to its standalone app.
If that happens at all.
Terry, hope that makes sense. Happy viewing and stay safe!
Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvanswerman.com Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
— Phillip Swann
@tvanswerman
I’ve been with Youtube TV from the start. I don’t miss Bally.
As avid Atlanta Braves fans, we are held hostage by DirecTV for $150 monthly! Maybe a Bally/Braves standalone streaming service…someday!! We can dream…
It’s now hard to believe that we actually had the regional networks on live streaming services. I used to watch baseball nearly every night from Fox Sports Regional. Then came Bally and my games were no longer available and I got angry with Bally, my team, MLB and the live streaming services. This year, my team is available on Bally’s stand alone app, and though I’m not opposed to it, it’s not worth it based on how my team is playing this season. I’m guessing that MLB teams are going to lose many viewing fans, including the casual baseball viewer and any young viewer who might watch if it was more available. If I’ve learned anything from Bally is that my baseball team isn’t as important to me as it used to be and I’m now fine with that. It gives me more time to do other things in the summer!!
Interestingly similar, I recently was reminded how great baseball on radio is by fantastic play by play announcers. I forgot until I could not get my college team on TV and had to listen to radio…it was waaaaaay better. I was researching Hulu and YouTube today in place of Comcast but noticed Bally Sports missing from both. Does it matter? I thought so until I remembered baseball radio broadcast is incredibly awesome and I can watch the highlights of the game online, someone will post it or on the news the next evening.
Masterful response, Phillip.
Hard to summarize this scenario any better. If there’s one other (insignificant) sidebar to note, it’s that Sinclair has been notoriously difficult, even belligerent at times and have publicly slandered all those streamers (right or wrong). They’ve also been throwing their controversial politics around and have slightly many within the industry.
I would concur with you that it’s far easier for the streamers to simply defer inquiries to Bally rather than ever contract with them again. The streamers are likely hoping for Bally to be bought out again and hope things are different down the road.
Find a friend or family member that has Spectrum. Download the app on smart tv and ask them to sign in with their account. I give them $60 for the year. I get all the games and content now. Only way. FYI, Ballys app is horrible and clunky.
I tried to pay for the Bally App about a month ago, as I’m in one of the cities that can use it. I could not get it to work, and canceled it, wasn’t worth the hastle!! It’s amazing to me that the streaming services could afford the Fox RSNs but now that Sinclair owns them, the price has gone up to the point that the streaming services no longer can afford it without raising prices. I don’t blame the streaming services, I blame Sinclair and Bally, and I think it’s MLB who should do something about it. They are losing fans over it, especially viewers who are streamers, like me.
The only MLB Teams I really want to watch on a consistent basis is the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros. This option was taken away by Bally and DISH, and I don’t want to watch a game on any other program for that matter, on a phone or tablet. That’s what a TV is for.