FuboTV to Carry Bally Sports Regional Sports Networks
FuboTV has signed an agreement with Diamond Sports to carry its 19 Bally Sports regional sports networks starting next month, Sports Business Journal reported this morning, adding that a formal announcement is expected later today. (FuboTV has issued a statement this morning confirming the report.)
SBJ writes that the Bally Sports deal is part of a larger agreement to carry Sinclair Broadcasting’s local stations. (Diamond Sports is a unit of Sinclair.)
FuboTV will become the second live streaming service to carry the Bally Sports RSNs. DIRECTV Stream also carries them.
To get RSNs on DIRECTV Stream, subscribers must get the streamer’s Choice plan or above. The Choice plan now costs $89.99 a month but will increase to $99.99 a month in January.
It’s unclear which FuboTV programming packages will include the Bally Sports channels. FuboTV’s base plan costs $69.99 a month.
Update: FuboTV confirms to the TV Answer Man that all Bally Sports channels will be available in market in its $69.99 a month Pro plan. That means you can watch your Bally Sports in-market channel with your base package.
The FuboTV deal is good news for Sinclair and Diamond which have struggled in the last year or so to get carriage on both traditional and live streaming platforms. Hulu Live, YouTube TV, Dish and Sling TV all do not carry Bally Sports.
With DIRECTV Stream and FuboTV carrying Bally, it could increase pressure on their live streaming rivals to follow suit. However, YouTube TV may be under less pressure with the news from last night that it might get the next NFL Sunday Ticket contract as early as today.
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So, undoubtedly, when does the price of the base package go up?
FuboTV already charges a separate RSN fee in markets where it carries RSNs so it’s unlikely that the base package price will go up due to adding these channels; they’ll just start charging an RSN fee in the markets that carry these Bally Sports RSNs to cover the cost of them.